Hi,

In my previous Post I wrote:

“Dear Nenad,

I have a doubt in MS Project updation and tracking of material resources. For example, i have budgeted quantity of cement as 100bags but in actual site construction the quantity consumed is 150bags. Where should i update the material resources and how can i find the variances of material resources.”

Well, it is easy. I’ll show you how to do that in MS PROJECT 2013!

First I’m going to create a simple Task:

and two Resources:

Notice, that Cement is Material Resource with $10 per Bag. Now I’m going to assign John to Task, and 100 bags as well:

and I’ll get:

This is my Project Plan, and I’m going to save Baseline:

No, suppose that John has finished his work on time, but he spent 150 bags of Cement instead of 100, as planned:

I will now look at Task Usage View, and put 150 bags for the Cement:

No let’s look at the Cost Table:

Baseline Cost is $5000 (5 days * 8hous per John * $100 per hour + 100 bags * $10 per bag = $4000+$1000 = $5000)

Actual Cost is $5500 (5 days * 8hous per John * $100 per hour + 150 bags * $10 per bag = $4000+$1500 = $55000)

Variance is $5500-$5000 = $500

But I want to see difference in Bags! I should apply Tracking Table in Task Usage View:

I still don’t see Variance so I will add two more Columns:

So now I can see Baseline work (e.g. 100 Bags), Actual work (e.g.150 Bags), and work Variance (150 – 50 bags) = 50 bags

BUT! Let’s look at the Resource Usage View:

Project now has 7,5 days Duration. an that doesn’t make a sense! Why? Because John John has done his Task in 5 days, so he could not spent the Cement in next 2,5 days, nor the Cement could be use by itself. To avoid this kind of behavior, we need to spend Cement equally from Monday thru Friday, 30 bags per day. TO get that I will:

and then I will put the real Finish date here:

and I will get:

Everything is in order now!

Regards!