Goal: Define cost budget information

After you have entered cost rates, you can save them as your budget before you start tracking and managing the plan. Also, you can attach important notes about budget decisions, share the budget information with others, or transfer information to other file formats.

Tip: This article is part of a series of articles within the Project Map that describe a broad set of project management activities. We call these activities "goals" because they are organized around the project management life cycle: Build a plan, track and manage a project, and close a project.

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Save baseline cost information     When your cost estimates are in line with your goal for costs, you can establish them as your baseline plan. In this way, you can compare actual costs with your original plan as the project progresses. You can also create a budget and compare costs this way. Click all of the following that apply: Save cost information with a baseline plan Review a budget for the resource in your project if you already set a budget for project costs and want to review it for possible adjustments.  Print or publish cost totals     After you create a budget, you can share your budget information with team members or other stakeholders. Click all of the following that apply: Print cost information to display the resource, task, or project cost totals (summarized or distributed over a task's duration) in a view, chart, or report. Create a visual report if you want to use Microsoft Office Visio 2007 or Microsoft Office Excel 2007 to create reports that help you to analyze and report on costs at any phase of your project planning. Publish project information on Project Server if your team uses Microsoft Office Project Web Access to communicate. You can post the most current information, including costs, on Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 for others to see. Because project managers aren't necessarily administrators, you might need to ask your server administrator to do this for you.  Export cost information to other programs     If your company uses programs other than Project 2007 to keep track of costs, you can transfer budget information from Project 2007 to them. Export cost information  Add notes about cost information      Before you save your cost estimates as your budget with a baseline plan, you can attach cost-related information to tasks, resources, or the entire project. Add a note to a task, resource, or project to include a small amount of information directly in your project. Also, you can add a file from another program to a project note. View and upload documents if you want to link supporting documents by using Project Server 2007.

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