The advantage of controlling the time spent on tasks is that it becomes possible to analyze the cost generated. This is important to determine the efficiency of the delivery of a task.
When accessing a task, it is possible to analyze the cost incurred up to that moment based on the time and expense records entered in it in contrast to the predicted cost.
The estimated cost is calculated by taking into account which users could perform the task. This will depend on the allocation of people to the task, project or even the workspace in which the task is present. This calculation is made by respecting the priority hierarchy and calculating a simple average in relation to the cost of the users:
- Task: If the task has responsible users, these will be used to calculate the estimated cost.
- Project: If the task does not have responsible users, the users linked to the project will be used to calculate the estimated cost. If the project is configured for everyone to access, then all users in the account will be used in the calculation.
- Workspace: If a task is not linked to a project, then the users linked to the task’s workspace will be used to calculate the estimated cost. If the workspace is configured for everyone to access, then all users in the account will be used for the calculation.
Example:
Task ABC was estimated to take 10 hours of work. The users responsible for the task: Hugo and John. Hugo has already worked 3 hours and John 6 hours.
The hourly cost of Hugo and John is 20.00 and 25.00 respectively.
So the estimated cost for this task will be the average hourly rate of those responsible, that is (20 + 25)/2 = 22.50, times the estimated time of the task (10 hours). Estimated cost = 225.00.
The actual cost takes into account the notes taken and the hourly rate of the person who took the note. In this example, Hugo’s labor cost for this task was 3 x 20.00 = 60.00 and John’s was 6 x 25.00 = 150.00. Therefore, the total labor cost for the task was 210.00.