In my previous blog Creating a Simple Cost Curve in MS Excel Mar 2020, I explained how to create a Primavera P6 Baseline Cost Curve in Microsoft Excel. This article will explain how to easily update the cost for Actual Cost for the Progress Updates.
This is how I typically keep my Primavera P6 baseline cost curve current.
First, copy the Primavera P6 Baseline Cost Curve created using the process described in the previous post.
Figure 1 – P6 Baseline Cost Curve Created in Previous Blog
Figure 2 – Baseline Cost Curve with Planned Cost Shown (Note there is no Cum Actual Cost)
Then copy it to your progress update folder and rename it for use as the update cost curve. For example, UD01 Cost Curve. This goes in your “Drive Letter\project name\update 01” folder.
Figure 3 – New UD01 Cost Curve with Cost Data Copied from The BL Cost Curve
At this point, you can either manually enter the new Actual Total Cost value for this update in the cell for 31-Aug-19 Cum Actual. (The 1-Aug19 Cum Actual value for this project in $0.00 but could be different depending on how you format your worksheet).
The Actual Total Cost value for this update, Data Date 31Aug19, is $78,882.00. To be sure this value shows up on the Curve I copy this value across the project duration.
Figure 4 – UD01 with Cost Data for Cost Curve Entry
Figure 5 – UD01 Cost Curve
The other way to get this actual cost data into the cost curve is to repeat the process from the previous post, Creating a Simple Cost Curve in Microsoft Excel Mar 2020 and copy the Cum Actual cost data from the worksheet created from the report created to this update Cost Curve worksheet. (This works great if using “day” instead of “month” as the time period for the update data.
I do this when I doubt the updates will be done in a regular interval such as end of month or specific day of the month…). The idea is to only show actual cost from each update against the baseline cost distribution. This allows us to see where the cost performance is at each update.
For clarity, I have created an UD02 Cost Curve to show how the curve works after the first update.
Figure 6 – UD02 Cost Curve Data
We can see from this update that the schedule is slipping.
Figure 7 – UD02 Cost Curve. Note Cost slippage to below Late Curve
Using the cost data we already have, we can also run some simple cost performance metrics. And could actually project the actual curve based on historical performance, once we get a few more updates completed.
Remember, we also have the cost data by resource. We could run curves for each to show general slippage by resource, which is at times, very useful.
I find running my Primavera P6 baseline cost curve in Microsoft Excel allows me to better report the cost performance of projects.
Plan your schedule…
Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP
Paul has extensive experience as a Construction Manager. Over time, he became convinced that there is a critical shortage of skilled planning and scheduling professionals in our industry. In 2009, he backed away from his work as a Construction Manager and began focusing on planning and scheduling. He now serves our industry as a subject matter expert in this area.
You can visit Paul’s LinkedIn account to learn more about him and his website is http://www.conschmanservices.com