How do I set up Project in order to track actual expenditures on a devlopment project compared to the baseline planned budget? In orther words, I don't need project tocalculate any costs--I will tell it how much is disbursed on each task at the end of each month, and I want to report on variance and use the reporting functions...

Hi Martin - thank you for your question.

Go to tools > options and choose the calculation tab.

From here deselect the option:
Actual costs are always calculated by Microsoft Office Project

Now you will find you can enter actual costs rather than have Project calculate them for you based on resource rates etc.

By default automatic calculation is turned on.

Do let us know if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

Andrew