All people, companies and projects shown are synthetic Rillsoft sample data – from the shipped industry packages or, where stated, from a test project.
The prompt
Draw the costs from Rillsoft Project as a bar chart: one pair of bars per project with the baseline and the current plan. First ask me for project or portfolio; in a single project show the subprojects of the top level. To do so, open the project files one after another and read the cost variance without a time filter. Baseline light, current plan strong, one axis from 0, the variance as amount and percent beside each pair. Save nothing and reopen the portfolio at the end.Changes the project (one undo step)
Show the detailed prompt
Create a clear bar chart of baseline and current plan costs from Rillsoft Project.
First ask me for:
- Scope: project or portfolio (name the open one and let me confirm),
- Level: in a portfolio the projects; in a single project the top level or all tasks with a variance.
If the open portfolio has unsaved changes, ask whether I want to save or discard them.
Baseline means the costs in the baseline, current plan the costs of today's plan – Rillsoft Project calls them planned and actual in its comparison; there are no booked actual costs. The program does not return costs per month; do not calculate any.
Data:
- A portfolio has no baseline: open the project files one after another, apply the cost variance view without a time filter and read the variance report. Name the baseline.
- For the top level of a project, take the elements directly below the project from the project tree and match them by UUID; the WBS field in the report restarts on each level.
- Check that baseline and current plan of the elements add up to the project row; if not, report that instead of the chart.
Presentation:
- Horizontal pairs of bars, per element the baseline on top in light grey-blue, the current plan below in strong blue, one axis from 0, values at the end of the bars.
- To the right of each pair the variance: extra costs with a red ▲ as amount and percent of the baseline, otherwise "no variance".
- Order as in the portfolio or the project tree.
- Title "Costs baseline and current plan per project", below it scope and baseline, note "amounts without a currency"; legend above the chart.
- Footer: total baseline, total current plan, variance with percent, largest variance, source with date.
- No traffic light, no second axis.
Save nothing, reopen the portfolio at the end and reset the view.In your words
- Monthly report: Make me a bar chart of baseline against current costs for all projects in the portfolio for management.
- Single project: Show me baseline and current costs per subproject for the Press R-12 retrofit as bars.
- Tasks: Which tasks in MX-200 cost more than in the baseline? Please as pairs of bars.
What you need
- A portfolio or project in which every project has a baseline.
- Answers to the AI’s questions: scope and level.
- An AI client that can draw charts (as an image, HTML or a file). Rillsoft Project supplies the figures, not the chart.
- Read-only mode is not enough: opening files and applying a view count as writing in the interface. The AI changes nothing in the plan; save unsaved changes to the portfolio beforehand or answer the question.
What you get
A bar chart with one pair per project, the values at the end of the bars, the variance beside them and the totals in the footer. In the test portfolio Machinery and plant engineering (five projects, one baseline each and extra effort in three projects set for the check), 2,045,800 in the baseline stand against 2,090,352 in the current plan, +44,552 or 2.2 %. Assembly line MX-200 has the largest variance with +24,392 (5.5 %); relative to its baseline the Press R-12 retrofit is furthest above (+14,400, 12.4 %).
In the single project R-12 the chart shows where the extra costs sit: entirely in the subproject “Conversion of mechanics and control system” (83,720 baseline, 98,120 current, +17.2 %); the other two subprojects are on the baseline. The AI checks that the subprojects add up to the project row.
Why it is useful
The cost variance in Rillsoft Project is a table per project file, and a portfolio has no baseline. The chart puts baseline and current plan of all projects side by side – at a glance where costs rise and by how much, without anyone copying amounts from several files.How the answer is produced
The AI opens the project files of the portfolio one after another, applies the cost variance view without a time filter and reads baseline and current plan per element. For the top level of a project it takes the elements from the project tree, checks the totals and draws the chart. At the end it reopens the portfolio. The ranking with traffic lights and the tasks behind the extra costs comes from Which projects exceed their planned costs?.rillsoft_portfolio_file_open rillsoft_project_file_open rillsoft_view_state_get rillsoft_view_state_apply rillsoft_variance_report_get rillsoft_project_tree_get
Limits
“Current plan” means the costs of today’s plan, not booked actual costs; a budget is not available through the interface. Rillsoft Project does not return costs per month or week through the interface – a time filter does not shorten the amounts – so the chart shows elements, not a time axis. Amounts appear without a currency. Projects of very different size share one axis; the percentage makes small variances readable. The question belongs to the catalogue of management questions, topic costs. The product page of Rillsoft Project describes planned/actual comparison. Related prompts:Try it
Get started- Industry package
Machinery and plant engineering.rpp- Product version
- Rillsoft Project 10 (Build 10.0.625)
- Last verified
- 2026-10-16
- Verification
- Figures and statements verified on the named sample package against the named product build – MCP session, view and report; German and English package with identical figures.