Imported Primavera P6 Projects Calculating Incorrect Costs

When a resource is assigned to an activity and the default setting have not been changed then:

• The resource Unit Price assigned to a resource in the Resource Window is copied to the activity and is not linked to the resource Unit Rate in the Resource Window.
• The activity Remaining Cost is calculated from the resource Unit Price multiplied by the Units assigned to the activity.
• If the resource Unit Price in the Resource Window is changed then the resource Unit Price assigned to the activity is not changed unless it is recalculated by either:
  • Selecting Tools, Recalculate Assignment costs…., or
  • When scheduling the user selects the Advanced Schedule Option of Recalculate assignment costs after scheduling.
• Thus, under normal circumstances when a resource Unit Rate in the Resource Window is changed the assigned to an activity does not change.

I carried out the following test with both XER and XML files:

• Created a project with 2 material resources in P6 PPM Version 20;
• Change one resource Unit Rate to zero;
• Exported the project;
• Deleted the resources and project in my database thus imitating importing the project into a different database;
• Imported the project and I found that the costs were different;
• On inspection I found the costs of the imported project had been recalculated from the Unit Rate imported resources thus changing the costs in the imported project.

Note: This is not what I would expect to happen!

A lot of companies exchange resourced projects and if a project that is exported to another data base after the resource unit rate is changed then the project will calculate different costs of the original project which may cause some contractual issues.

The obvious solution is to not change resource Unit Rates when exporting project but this is not always feasible.

Another option is before exporting a project is to copy the resource Unit Rate assigned to activities using a Resource Assignments Global Change into in a Resource UDF which may be Global Changed back into the Resource Assignment after importing the project.