Patent ID: 7207009

Claim:
A method in a computer implemented project information management system, the method comprising: providing a project having summary tasks and non-summary tasks, each summary task and non-summary task having a cost field with project cost information and each summary task including a plurality of non-summary tasks; for each summary task and non-summary task, receiving from a user a display option indicating whether to display text data or graphical indicators for the cost field; receiving from the user a summary under budget threshold, a summary under budget graphical indicator, a summary over budget threshold, and a summary over budget graphical indicator for summary data contained in the cost field; and receiving from the user a non-summary under budget threshold, a non-summary under budget graphical indicator, a non-summary over budget threshold, and a non-summary over budget graphical indicator for non-summary data contained in the cost field, wherein the received thresholds and indicators can be different for each summary task and non-summary task; validating and storing the received thresholds, indicators, and display option; processing the cost field for each summary task and non-summary task; when processing the cost field for each summary task and non-summary task, determining whether the display option indicates displaying graphical indicators or text data for the field; if the display option indicates to display text data, displaying text data for the cost field; if the display option indicates to display graphical indicators and the cost field contains summary data, retrieving the stored summary under budget and summary over budget thresholds; comparing the project cost information contained in the cost field with the summary under budget threshold; if the project cost information is less than the under budget threshold, displaying the summary under budget graphical indicator; comparing the project cost information contained in the cost field with the summary over budget; if the project cost information threshold is greater than the summary over budget threshold, displaying the summary over budget indicator; if the display option indicates to display graphical indicators and the cost field contains non-summary data, retrieving the stored non-summary under budget and summary over budget thresholds; comparing the project cost information contained in the cost field with the non-summary under budget threshold; if the project cost information is less than the non-summary under budget threshold, displaying the non-summary under budget graphical indicator; comparing the project cost information contained in the cost field with the non-summary over budget threshold; and if the project cost information is greater than the non-summary over budget threshold, displaying the non-summary over budget indicator.