I would like to be able to create a project plan that will enable me to
manage when my projects happen and how much they cost. What I envision is
being able to move a project from one month to another month and having the
associated cost of the project also move to the next month (on another
spreadsheet) and that will show a total cost at the bottom of the month.
Ultimately, I would like to have one spreadsheet with projects and one
spreadsheet with the associated monthly costs (in the same workbook), which
will automatically update when I move a project to another time period. I
would imagine you would have to link the spreadsheets but how do I link text,
numbers and moving pieces all at once??

You don't want much do you :-) A cross between an Excel pricing model and
MS Project is 'all' you need, albeit it can be done all in Excel if you can
forgo some of the niceties of Project. You're going to have to break this
into parts and do one at a time, and then when they are working you should
try and combine them.

Basically I would expect you will want to first create a pricing model, that
allows you to price by month perhaps? All depends on how you normally
price. My firm tends to price on a monthly basis across multiple years, so
all our pricing centres around a monthly input. To do that you will need a
rate table, that may or may not go out more than a year, and pick up
different rates through time, and then link that to an input table where you
price hours and costs. The table then needs to match up hours and costs by
time-period to your rate table, and generate prices for that months costs.
The pricing table will need to cover all overheads and any other adders you
generally apply.

You don't say whether you are a SOHO user, or a medium/large sized firm.
Larger firms tend to have complicated overhead recovery methods that need to
be fully understood before you even attempt a model that will be used in
anger.

If you want to make a start and ask more specific questions then go ahead
and we will do what we can to help and guide, but I doubt that anyone is
going to dedicate days of effort trying to build you a pricing/project
system for nothing.

--
Regards
Ken....................... Microsoft MVP - Excel
Sys Spec - Win XP Pro / XL 97/00/02/03

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission :-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"SBC16" wrote in message
...
I would like to be able to create a project plan that will enable me to
manage when my projects happen and how much they cost. What I envision is
being able to move a project from one month to another month and having
the
associated cost of the project also move to the next month (on another
spreadsheet) and that will show a total cost at the bottom of the month.
Ultimately, I would like to have one spreadsheet with projects and one
spreadsheet with the associated monthly costs (in the same workbook),
which
will automatically update when I move a project to another time period. I
would imagine you would have to link the spreadsheets but how do I link
text,
numbers and moving pieces all at once??