Spread Variance Overview
Variance is the difference between a project's total planned value and its actual work hours. Use this information to keep track of project and resource progress. The Spread Variance feature spreads a plan's unused numbers forward across an assignment row.
The variance row must be associated with a specific generic resource, named resource, expense, or other entity on the Labor, Expense, or Consultant tabs. You cannot spread variance across a project row.
If there are no "unused" numbers for a row, then no change occurs. Vision computes "unused" as of the job-to-date date specified on the Spread Variance dialog box. For example, assume a plan has 100 budgeted hours and is invoiced hourly for those 100 hours. The client expects that the firm will bill them for 100 hours, but the resources only charged 80 hours to the project. So, the firm still wants to spend the remaining 20 hours and bill those hours to a client.
For variances that are negative numbers, the spread is always zero.
- Plans containing dependent tasks (from the Schedule tab of Project Planning)
- iAccess for Vision plans
Warning
Because Spread Variance may update multiple plans, it is important to use caution when using this feature. For optimal performance and minimal impact on Planning users, Deltek strongly recommends that you schedule and run variances during non-business hours.