Examples of Resources

Cobra resources define how costs are calculated, by associating a rate set with a particular cost definition.

For example, assume that you want to define hours as the first result and direct dollars, overhead, and G&A as derived results. You create a rate file containing three different rate sets: LABRATE1, LABRATE2, and LABRATE3. These rate sets define hourly rates for different types of labor, as well as rates for overhead and G&A costs.

Resource Rate Set Field Name Result
SYSAN LABRATE1

OVERHEAD

G&A

HOURS

DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

LAB1HOURS

LAB1DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

PROG LABRATE2

OVERHEAD

G&A

HOURS

DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

LAB2HOURS

LAB2DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

TECH LABRATE3

OVERHEAD

G&A

HOURS

DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

LAB3HOURS

LAB3DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

Although each result name must be unique within a given resource, a resource file may contain multiple instances of the same field name. You can, however, assign result for each field name appearing in a resource. For example, you might want to use results for the three types of labor costs described above:

Resource Rate Set Field Name Result
SYSAN LABRATE1

OVERHEAD

G&A

HOURS

DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

LAB1HOURS

LAB1DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

PROG LABRATE2

OVERHEAD

G&A

HOURS

DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

LAB2HOURS

LAB2DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

TECH LABRATE3

OVERHEAD

G&A

HOURS

DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

LAB3HOURS

LAB3DIRECT

OVERHEAD

G&A

By using results, you can distinguish between eight different categories of cost information using only four field names.

In another example, assume that you set up a number of resources under the result name QTY. The purpose of these resources is to capture quantities of various types of dissimilar materials. Using results, you could then distinguish between tons, cubic feet, and so on for the purposes of data entry, while maintaining a compact file structure for your project detail files.