Costing Logic

In Project Management you can enter planned times as either work for tasks or demand for roles or assigned effort for resources. In order to represent both of these options in costing, you can carry out task-based or role-based costing. This is governed by which controlling method you choose in Customizing. Projects with a task-based controlling method can only show costing results for Project Management tasks. Projects with a role-based controlling method only show costing results for roles. In the case of a task-based controlling method, the roles can only have any influence by means of the assignments to the individual tasks.

Role-Based Controlling

Once you staff a role with a resource, the system transfers the demand of the role and the cost/revenue rate of the resource to calculate the costs for the time frame of the staffing. The cost/revenue rate is specified in the attributes for the business partner role resource. The system uses the cost/revenue rate you assigned (see Assignment of Cost/Revenue Rates) for the demand of the role not covered by the staffing.

Example Example

You planned a demand of 30 person days for a role. However, you staffed this role with a resource for 20 person days. The system calculates 20 person days using the cost/revenue rate of the resource and the 10 unstaffed days with the cost/revenue rate of the role.

End of the example.

If the role type of the role permits distribution (if you selected the Distribution checkbox in Customizing for Project Management, by choosing Start of the navigation path Resource Management Next navigation step Basic Settings for Roles Define Role Types End of the navigation path ) and the demands have been entered in periods, only the total demand is used for costing as described above. If, however, you want to include the demands in periods in costing, the Distr. of Costs checkbox must be selected additionally in Customizing. If this checkbox is selected, the system transfers the demand for each period and the cost/revenue rate for performing costing for the relevant period. If the role permits distribution, a distribution can also be specified when staffing this role with a resource. The demand of the role is added to the assigned effort of the resource as described above according to the distribution over periods.

Example Example

You distribute the demand for a role according to the period type month and have planned a demand for 10 person days for the month of February, 5 for March, and 10 for May. You have staffed this role with a single resource. The resource plans to work 3 days in February, 1 day in March, and 2 days in May.

If the Distr. of Costs checkbox is not selected, the system uses only the total demand: it calculates 6 person days using the cost/revenue rate of the resource and calculates the 19 unstaffed days with the cost/revenue rate of the role.

If the Distr. of Costs checkbox is selected additionally, the system calculates 3 person days for February using the cost/revenue rate of the resource and the 7 unstaffed days with the cost/revenue rate of the role. The calculation is the same for the other periods.

End of the example.

If you want to use a different value for the costs and revenues in a particular project, you can overwrite the cost/revenue rate of the resource by entering a cost rate in the Cost Difference field or a revenue rate in the Revenue Difference field. Reports in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence allow you to compare these rates with those that come from the rates specified in Customizing.

The following table shows in detail how costs and revenues for roles and resources are calculated. The system first checks whether the first strategy can be used. The system only checks the second strategy and so on if the first strategy cannot be used.

Costs/ Revenues	Calculation Strategy per Activity Unit	Evaluation Date	Other Information
Costs for role	Different costs which you entered for the role Costs per activity unit for the role in Customizing Plan price from cost center accounting	Fixed or calculated start of role
Revenues for role	Different revenue which you entered for the role Costs per activity unit for the role in Customizing	Fixed or calculated start of role
Costs for internal resources	Costs per activity unit for the resource in Customizing Plan price for the resource in cost center accounting Different costs which you entered for the role Costs per activity unit for the role in Customizing Plan price for the role in cost center accounting	Start of staffing of role with resource or fixed or calculated start of role	Internal resources are resources assigned to the SAP business partner role employee. Strategies three to five are only used if the resource does not have its own cost/revenue rate assigned to it.
Costs for external resources	Costs per activity unit for the resource in Customizing Costs per activity unit for the role in Customizing	Start of staffing of role with resource or fixed or calculated start of role	External resources are resources not assigned to the business partner role employee. Strategy two is only used if the resource does not have its own cost/revenue rate assigned to it.
Revenues for internal or external resources	Different revenue which you entered for the role Revenue per activity unit for the resource in Customizing Revenue per activity unit for the role in Customizing	Start of staffing of role with resource or fixed or calculated start of role	Strategy three is only used if the resource does not have its own cost/revenue rate assigned to it.

The cost/revenue rate can also depend on the responsible organizational unit: If you entered a responsible organizational unit for your project (see Creating Additional Data for a Project Definition) and if a special cost/revenue rate exists for it in Customizing for Project Management, costing uses this rate. If you have not defined a special rate, the general rate is used.

Task-Based Controlling

If you specified a cost/revenue rate in Customizing for the task type, this cost/revenue rate is included in costing too. If a role is assigned to the task, the cost/revenue rate of this role is used. Staffing a role with a resource does not influence costing in task-based controlling.

Example Example

You planned a work of 30 person days for a task. So far, you have assigned a role to this task for 20 person days. The system calculates 20 person days using the cost/revenue rate of the role and the 10 unstaffed days with the cost/revenue rate of the task.

End of the example.

The following table shows in detail how costs and revenues for tasks and roles are calculated. The system first checks whether the first strategy can be used. The system only checks the second strategy and so on if the first strategy cannot be used.

Costs/ Revenues	Calculation Strategy per Activity Unit	Evaluation Date	Other Information
Costs for task	Different costs which you entered for the task Costs per activity unit for the task in Customizing	Fixed or calculated start of task
Revenues for task	Different revenue which you entered for the task Costs per activity unit for the task in Customizing	Fixed or calculated start of task
Costs for roles	Different costs which you entered for the role Costs per activity unit for the role in Customizing Plan price for the role in cost center accounting Different costs which you entered for the task Costs per activity unit for the task in Customizing	Start of assignment of task to role	Strategies four and five are used if the role does not have its own cost/revenue rate assigned to it.
Revenues for Roles	Different revenue which you entered for the role Costs per activity unit for the role in Customizing Different revenue which you entered for the task Costs per activity unit for the task in Customizing	Start of assignment of task to role	Strategies three and four are used if the role does not have its own cost/revenue rate assigned to it.