How does our cost and resource planning Excel template work
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 6:43 am
The key word here is capacity. Capacity is the availability of a resource including the available volume. For example, if an employee is scheduled for more than 100% of his or her capacity, this is referred to as overload. If this overload occurs because the person is scheduled for two competing or parallel processes, this is a resource conflict.
Resource conflicts can also arise across project boundaries. Is the employee still needed for tasks in the line or do other projects in the company want to access the same resource at the same time? Another frequently used term in this context of project resource planning is the bottleneck resource. This is a resource that is only available to a limited extent at the desired time due to limited capacity or multiple workloads. Furthermore, its capacity cannot be easily expanded, especially considering the return on the project.
The use of tools for cost and resource planning
In practice, the project manager uses a tool for cost and resource planning. Project management software or Excel templates offer the possibility of carrying out work packages including resource management electronically.
The cost and resource planning Excel template can be used for small projects. However, as soon as the project grows or it is a complicated project with many work packages, it is recommended to switch to a complete project management or project planning software .
The great advantage of software programs is that they automatically detect resource conflicts and help resolve them using analytical data. The software also automatically generates a Gantt chart including all dependencies.
The cost and resource planning Excel template is a simple form to give you a quick overview of the costs incurred in your project. The template contains three tabs, the first tab Basic Data is used to record your project-specific framework data. Enter your general project data and the cost types here (from internal and external personnel costs to material and license costs). Then, in the Resources section, assign the appropriate types, units and costs to your people, services and materials. Under Types, you can differentiate between internal turkey telegram data and external costs, and for the units, whether they are hourly rates (for people) or flat rates. While the hourly rates are fixed over the duration of the project, for the flat rates, a distinction is made between planned costs or change costs.
In the second tab, Overview Plan, you can now enter all the work packages in your work breakdown structure. To do this, name the relevant work package, provide it with the associated WBS element and assign the relevant resource. You can only select resources that you have stored in the basic data. Now enter the forecast quantity in the green "planned costs" area and the corresponding price will be calculated automatically. If you have change costs due to changes, note their quantity in the red "unplanned costs" area. The "Release on" field only affects the unplanned costs. Only when a release date for the expenditure is noted here do the costs automatically go into the total cost calculation.
The third tab is the evaluations area. Here you will find an overview of costs according to project phases or milestones and cost types. You will also receive a diagram showing the percentage distribution of the cost types. Last but not least, there is also an evaluation of the change requests. Using a bar chart, you can see the ratio of planned costs to all submitted change costs and the actual total costs. You can see the actual costs incurred due to changes in the "Approved Change Requests" table.
The Importance of Resource Planning
In many companies, resource planning is not given enough attention. Project managers focus mainly on scheduling. This means that the project may be completed on time, but costs are often exceeded. The trend is leading to projects being more and more tightly calculated and margins being ever smaller. It is therefore becoming more and more important to carry out stable resource planning.
Resource conflicts can also arise across project boundaries. Is the employee still needed for tasks in the line or do other projects in the company want to access the same resource at the same time? Another frequently used term in this context of project resource planning is the bottleneck resource. This is a resource that is only available to a limited extent at the desired time due to limited capacity or multiple workloads. Furthermore, its capacity cannot be easily expanded, especially considering the return on the project.
The use of tools for cost and resource planning
In practice, the project manager uses a tool for cost and resource planning. Project management software or Excel templates offer the possibility of carrying out work packages including resource management electronically.
The cost and resource planning Excel template can be used for small projects. However, as soon as the project grows or it is a complicated project with many work packages, it is recommended to switch to a complete project management or project planning software .
The great advantage of software programs is that they automatically detect resource conflicts and help resolve them using analytical data. The software also automatically generates a Gantt chart including all dependencies.
The cost and resource planning Excel template is a simple form to give you a quick overview of the costs incurred in your project. The template contains three tabs, the first tab Basic Data is used to record your project-specific framework data. Enter your general project data and the cost types here (from internal and external personnel costs to material and license costs). Then, in the Resources section, assign the appropriate types, units and costs to your people, services and materials. Under Types, you can differentiate between internal turkey telegram data and external costs, and for the units, whether they are hourly rates (for people) or flat rates. While the hourly rates are fixed over the duration of the project, for the flat rates, a distinction is made between planned costs or change costs.
In the second tab, Overview Plan, you can now enter all the work packages in your work breakdown structure. To do this, name the relevant work package, provide it with the associated WBS element and assign the relevant resource. You can only select resources that you have stored in the basic data. Now enter the forecast quantity in the green "planned costs" area and the corresponding price will be calculated automatically. If you have change costs due to changes, note their quantity in the red "unplanned costs" area. The "Release on" field only affects the unplanned costs. Only when a release date for the expenditure is noted here do the costs automatically go into the total cost calculation.
The third tab is the evaluations area. Here you will find an overview of costs according to project phases or milestones and cost types. You will also receive a diagram showing the percentage distribution of the cost types. Last but not least, there is also an evaluation of the change requests. Using a bar chart, you can see the ratio of planned costs to all submitted change costs and the actual total costs. You can see the actual costs incurred due to changes in the "Approved Change Requests" table.
The Importance of Resource Planning
In many companies, resource planning is not given enough attention. Project managers focus mainly on scheduling. This means that the project may be completed on time, but costs are often exceeded. The trend is leading to projects being more and more tightly calculated and margins being ever smaller. It is therefore becoming more and more important to carry out stable resource planning.