Materials vs. Expenses

How do you treat material costs? Given the distinction between expenses and material costs is depreciation, and there is either a Resource tab or an Expense tab (bottom Layout)

layout.jpg

. how do you list your material costs-say bulks? There is a Budgeted Material Costs column in the Activity listing, but not on either the Resource or Expense tabs in the Bottom Layout. This is a Level 1 schedule that has two S/Cs (expenses - transportation) and three procurement activities - topsides, jacket, and bulks. I would not normaly list any non-time related item on a schedule, but this is an interesting case - pre-FEED planning/bugeting. Thanks.

D
David Kelly 👤 Member for 21 years 7 months

Excellent conversation, and one I have thought about a lot.

 

I always try and use expenses for material costs:

 

1) Expenses are "lump sum" independent of the duration type of the activity. So I can code $100k per day for the drilling rig as my Duration Type freezes the cost per day, and $200k for materials which are not duration dependent

 

2) I really,really do not want the materials catalogue in the resource dictionary. Expenses allow ad-hoc descriptions, not a pick-list

D
David Kelly 👤 Member for 21 years 7 months

Excellent conversation, and one I have thought about a lot.

 

I always try and use expenses for material costs:

 

1) Expenses are "lump sum" independent of the duration type of the activity. So I can code $100k per day for the drilling rig as my Duration Type freezes the cost per day, and $200k for materials which are not duration dependent

 

2) I really,really do not want the materials catalogue in the resource dictionary. Expenses allow ad-hoc descriptions, not a pick-list

D
Dennis Hanks 👤 Member for 19 years 1 month

Zoltan;

Not that it makes any difference, but I've decided any non-labor cost is an expense. I like the characteriization better using the Project Expense tab. Apparently any item over $5000 is depreciable. Conceptually, I resist the inclusion of any non-time sensitive item in the schedule. If it doesn't have a time component like labor, equipt. rental, scaffolding, it shouldn't be on the schedule. This Level I schedule is an exception. No need to respond.

D
Dennis Hanks 👤 Member for 19 years 1 month

It does. Material is a resource. Interesting. Makes sense, from an accounting stand point. Thanks again, I hope my education is not becoming too tedious.

Z
Zoltan Palffy 👤 Member for 16 years 10 months

not sure I exactly understand the question I will try to answer it anyway

you can create a resource that TYPE that is Material and you can make the unit of measure anything that you want such as lump sum or you can go to admin then admin categories and create a NEW unit of measure such as bulk whatever

then on the resource tab you can enter the number of Budgeted Units if it is bulk maybe the unit is only 1 and you can put in the Budgeted cost for this resource also

its the same as any labor activity but the resource is material 

hope this answers your question

Z
Zoltan Palffy 👤 Member for 16 years 10 months

not sure I exactly understand the question I will try to answer it anyway

you can create a resource that TYPE that is Material and you can make the unit of measure anything that you want such as lump sum or you can go to admin then admin categories and create a NEW unit of measure such as bulk whatever

then on the resource tab you can enter the number of Budgeted Units if it is bulk maybe the unit is only 1 and you can put in the Budgeted cost for this resource also

its the same as any labor activity but the resource is material 

hope this answers your question

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