Hi,

I received a question from one of my Blog reader:

“After calculating the costing for work and overtime work, I baselined the task and then did tried to do the actuals in the task usage sheet. I did this to check the actual cost and actual overtime cost. I was able to enter the actual work (hrs) for each day and was not able to do actual overtime work (hrs). Would you be able to assist as how to feed the actual overtime work in the task usage sheet.”

There is the way to put actual overtime work, but it is not an easy one.

First let me setup an example. I will add two Tasks in ma Project:

Now I will add two Resources to My Project:

and I will assign those Resources to my Tasks:

Now I am going to put some overtime hours:

I will click on the lower part of the screen and then I will get a new buttons in the Format Tag of the Ribbon:

and I will get:

For Task 1 I will put 16 hours in the Work Field, and 8 hours in the Overtime Work field. It means that it will have 1 day Duration, and 16 hours of total work:

For Task 2 I will put 32 hours in the Work Field, and 16 hours in the Overtime Work field. It means that it will have 2 days Duration, and 32 hours of total work:

I will apply the Cost Table and I will get:

Task 1 will have 8 hours regular work, and 8 hours overtime work. 8 hours * $100 (regular rate) + 8 hours * $150 (overtime rate) = $800 + $1.200 = $2.000.

Task 2 will have 16hours regular work, and 16 hours overtime work. 16 hours * $200 (regular rate) + 16 hours * $300 (overtime rate) = $3.200 + $4.800 = $8.000.

Now I will save the Baseline:

and I will get:

Now I will apply the Task usage View:

and I will get:

OK! Now, suppose that Actual work for Task 1 was 20 hours instead 16 hours, and for Task 2 was 18 hours per day instead 16 hours:

For Resource 1 (assigned to Task 1) you can see that Actual work is 20 hours instead of 16, but overtime work remains the same:

For Resource 2 (assigned to Task 2) you can see that Actual work is 36 hours instead of 32, but overtime work remains the same:

I will apply the Cost Table again:

Task 1  have 12 hours regular work, and 8 hours overtime work. 12 hours * $100 (regular rate) + 8 hours * $150 (overtime rate) = $1.200 + $1.200 = $2.400.

Task 2 will have 20 hours regular work, and 16 hours overtime work. 20 hours * $200 (regular rate) + 16 hours * $300 (overtime rate) = $4.000 + $4.800 = $8.800.

As you can see when you put Actual work it is considered as regular work.

But what if, for example, 20 hours spent at Task 1 was 8 hours of regular time, and overtime was not 8, but 12 hours?

Now, Task 1 have 8 hours regular work, and 12 hours overtime work. 8 hours * $100 (regular rate) + 12 hours * $150 (overtime rate) = $800 + $1.800 = $2.600.

An what is, for example. 36 hours spent at Task 2 was 16 hours of regular time, and overtime was not 20, but 16 hours?

Now, Task 2 have 16 hours regular work, and 20 hours overtime work. 16 hours * $200 (regular rate) + 20 hours * $300 (overtime rate) = $3.200 + $6.000 = $9.200.

Finally, let’s look at Work Table:

You can see, that I have added two more fields Overtime Work, and Actual Overtime Work.

OK! The conclusion! In the Task Usage View, you can’t put actual overtime work. You can do it in Task Form, as I mentioned before.

Regards,