Once the labor-hour estimates have been made for a work package, the cost for the work package can be estimated. Often, there is not just a single type of work conducted on a work package. For instance, there may be "direct labor" and "indirect labor" or possibly ''subcontract labor."
Each of these types of labor is usually billed at a different rate. Also, there may be large differences in compensation among workers on a given work package. Often, there may be a supervisory-level person conducting the work, with a number of less senior persons working for the supervisor. These different types of workers account for different labor rates. Also, there are costs for a work package other than just labor costs. There may be materials costs, equipment costs, supply costs, maintenance costs, and so on. To make matters a little more complicated, the cost information for a project is often put to a different use than the labor-hour data. The project manager uses the labor-hour budgets to manage the work of the project, but the cost information is used to communicate with the client, for general accounting purposes, for tax determination, and for a host of other uses. For whatever uses are made of this information, it is customary to classify cost data by cost accounts. Often a company has multiple sets of cost accounts. One of these is the General Ledger (GL) chart of accounts.
There may be a different chart of accounts for cost accounting, sometimes refered to as the cost codes. In the Modern Project toolset supplied with this book, there is only one database for cost accounts, and it is assumed to be the GL chart of accounts for the example project. There is nothing to prevent you from using this capability for some other set of cost codes, since you will be the one defining the account identifiers, and you can assign GL account numbers to them or some other cost code account identifiers. There are actually two different entry/edit tools needed for entering cost information. One is used infrequently. It is the Cost Code Entry/Edit Tool .
Each of these types of labor is usually billed at a different rate. Also, there may be large differences in compensation among workers on a given work package. Often, there may be a supervisory-level person conducting the work, with a number of less senior persons working for the supervisor. These different types of workers account for different labor rates. Also, there are costs for a work package other than just labor costs. There may be materials costs, equipment costs, supply costs, maintenance costs, and so on. To make matters a little more complicated, the cost information for a project is often put to a different use than the labor-hour data. The project manager uses the labor-hour budgets to manage the work of the project, but the cost information is used to communicate with the client, for general accounting purposes, for tax determination, and for a host of other uses. For whatever uses are made of this information, it is customary to classify cost data by cost accounts. Often a company has multiple sets of cost accounts. One of these is the General Ledger (GL) chart of accounts.
There may be a different chart of accounts for cost accounting, sometimes refered to as the cost codes. In the Modern Project toolset supplied with this book, there is only one database for cost accounts, and it is assumed to be the GL chart of accounts for the example project. There is nothing to prevent you from using this capability for some other set of cost codes, since you will be the one defining the account identifiers, and you can assign GL account numbers to them or some other cost code account identifiers. There are actually two different entry/edit tools needed for entering cost information. One is used infrequently. It is the Cost Code Entry/Edit Tool .