Resources & Cost
Expense Categories Label Expenses, Not Cost Accounts
COSTTYPE labels expenses; not ACCOUNT; no parent
What a planner means
An expense category is a flat enterprise list used to organize expense types (travel, training, facilities). Oracle: create a Category name under Enterprise Data / Activities / Expense Categories. Renaming a category applies to all projects that use it.
It sits on the expense (PROJCOST.cost_type_id), not on a resource assignment. It is not a cost account (ACCOUNT), not a currency, and not the expense item itself.
Professional: expenses are non-resource, project-specific costs. You can categorize them, give them a unit of measure, and set accrual. Categories do not make an expense a resource. Leveling ignores expenses.
COSTTYPE has no parent column. Do not draw it as a hierarchy.
XER
COSTTYPE (Expense Categories):
| Column | Oracle label |
|---|---|
cost_type_id | Unique ID |
cost_type | Expense Category |
seq_num | Sort Order |
PROJCOST.cost_type_id is Expense Category. PROJCOST.acct_id is the cost account. Those are different FKs.
Microsoft Project
MSP Fixed Cost is one number on the task. There is no expense-category dictionary. Do not map COSTTYPE to Fixed Cost Accrual or to a Cost Rate Table.
Don't
- Treat an expense category as a cost account, a resource, or the expense item.
- Put
cost_type_idon TASK or TASKRSRC. - Invent a parent on COSTTYPE.
- Map COSTTYPE to MSP Fixed Cost.