Project overviews

 

The following actions, available from the Menu bar in the Action panel of a project, enable the project to utilize the standard functionality in the functions listed:

Project overview - Opens the Projects > Overview > Project overview function (PJMOVE) where all data associated with a project is presented from a hierarchical overview (tree view) of the project structure.

Financial overview - Opens the Projects > Overview > Financial overview function (PJMFINOV0) to track the actual financial status of a project as a whole relative to its budgets, or a specific budget code.

Snapshots / Financial snapshots - Opens the Projects > Snapshots > Financial snapshots function (GESPJMSNP) to obtain a real-time top-level overview of the financial status of a project at a specific point in time.

Snapshots / Project snapshots - Opens the Projects > Snapshots > Project snapshots function (GESPJMOPSNP) to obtain a real-time top-level overview of data associated with a project at a specific point in time.

Financial overviews

Open: Projects > Projects > Project management

Open: Projects > Projects > Overview > Financial overview

Open: Projects > Projects > Snapshots > Financial snapshots

Open: Projects > Projects > Utilities> Financial snapshot extraction

The financial overview provides the financial status of a project, in real time. It is absolutely key to evaluating and tracking the actual financial status of a project relative to its budgets.

Financial key performance indicators (KPIs) are displayed in the Financial status and Revenues sections of the project and the cost structure. The project Financial status section displays amounts and quantities for the project budget, commitments and actuals, the provisonal cost price and budget margins; the cost structure displays the same figures but for a specific budget code. The Revenues section displays the default KPIs, the sales revenue and the sales margin.

You can use the Financial overview action or the Financial overview function (PJMFINOV0) to track, in real time, the actual financial status of a project relative to its budgets. The resulting Financial overview reflects the default report specification supplied with your solution, or your customized report specification and applied structured query language (SQL) queries. To include all associated projects in the results, select the Associated projects check box.

The financial overview offers twin views:

• One view based on the cost structure.
• A second view based on the cost types.

Reminder: Project cost typesProject cost types define types of cost that can affect a project such as raw materials, labor costs and expense notes.

The following information is included:

1. The complete cost structure associated with the project.
2. The complete cost structure associated with each associated project.
3. The cost groups and cost types associated with the project.
   1. To view all cost groups and cost types associated with the project, click the project level in the cost structure.
   2. To view the cost groups and individual cost types associated with a particular budget code, click the budget code in the cost structure. The cost groups and cost types are refreshed dynamically to reflect the selected budget code.
4. The cost groups and cost types associated with each associated project.

The budget amounts in the financial overview are derived from the budget tables; the cost amounts (actual and committed) are derived from the defined SQL queries (which can be customized).

You can change the overview to display only time columns, amount columns or both time and amount columns, as required. To change the default financial overview (Financial view field), the time unit or the currency, click the Apply action to confirm.

To view the details of particular expenses or revenue related to a cost type, click Detail from the Actions menu for a cost type line at the lowest level of the Cost type structure.

Project management (GESPJM): Financial overview

Depending on the type of expense or revenue it is then possible to display the tasks associated with the project (the operational structure). You can also view the source document, such as the purchase order, purchase receipt and work order. Simply click the appropriate action from the Actions menu in the Detail block in the Detail screen.

Project management (GESPJM): Financial overview, expense detail

You can run a consolidated overview for the current project to include data for all projects associated with the current project. Simply select the Associated projects check box to do this.

Budget overviews

Open: Projects > Projects > Project management

Open: Projects > Projects > Overview > Financial overview

To track, in real time, the actual financial status of the project as a whole or a specific budget code, click the Financial overview action from the Cost structure. The Financial overview action is available from both the Action panel and the Actions menu for the highlighted level.
The resulting Financial overview reflects the default report specification supplied with your solution, or your customized report specification and applied structured query language (SQL) queries.

Project management (GESPJM): Cost structure

The Financial overview is displayed. The functionality available matches that as described in the section Financial overviews above.

Project overviews

Open: Projects > Projects > Project management

Open: Projects > Projects > Overview > Project overview

Open: Projects > Projects > Snapshots > Project snapshots

Open: Projects > Projects > Utilities > Project snapshot extraction

The Project overview action or Project overview function (PJMOVE) provides a comprehensive solution for project managers to plan, execute and keep track of simple or complex projects.

A project overview provides visibility of all data associated with a project. Using a hierarchical overview (tree view) of the project structure as its basis, you can view dynamic, real time quantity and financial overview data associated with every element of the project structure. The Project overview function (PJMOVE) provides integrated tools to control and manage the project, saving you time and ensuring efficient use of resources. To draw your attention to relevant fields, visual alerts and warnings use colored text if specific criteria are met.

The Project overview function (PJMOVE) can access integrated functional areas for sales, purchases, manufacturing, inventory and finance.

Snapshots

Open: Projects > Projects > Snapshots > Financial snapshots

Open: Projects > Projects > Utilities> Financial snapshot extraction

Open: Projects > Projects > Snapshots > Financial snapshot comparison

Open: Projects > Projects > Snapshots > Project snapshots

Open: Projects > Projects > Utilities > Project snapshot extraction

A snapshot is a real-time top-level overview of a project at a specific point in time. A snapshot essentially captures an overview of a project on a given date for use later when reviewing progress of the project against other time-captured snapshots.

A financial snapshot is based on the actual financial status of a project relative to its budgets. It provides similar figures to those provided for a project financial overview.

A project snapshot provides similar figures to those provided for a project overview.

A "snapshot header" sets the parameters for an extraction and is a prerequisite to running a snapshot extraction. A financial snapshot header comprises the project code, the financial view to be extracted, and the unit and currency to be used each time the data extraction is requested. A project snapshot header comprises the project code and the snapshot code to be used each time the data extraction is requested. Once a snapshot header has been created you can extract project data as, and when required using the appropriate "snapshots" action in a project, "snapshots" function (GESPJMSNP/GESPJMOPSNP) or the appropriate "snapshots extraction" function (PJMSNPEXT/PJMPSNPEXT).

For a financial snapshot to recognize project revenue, the following must be defined:

1. The method your project will use to calculate the values that should be recognized and then posted to the revenue and cost accounts. This can be defined as Manual percent entry or a Percentage of costs and is defined in the Revenue recognition rule field (RRCC) on your project (General section, Financials block).
2. The Revenue recognition check box (REVRECFLG) must be selected. You can find this check box in the Financial snapshots function (GESPJMSNP) and in the Financial snapshot extraction function (PJMSNPEXT).

A financial snapshot can calculate and refresh the following each time it is run:

• The Financial status section of a project, and the cost structure, if the Revenue recognition check box is selected and the FINOVERSYN - Updated fin. status/snapshot parameter (TC chapter, PJM group) is set to Yes.
• The estimated progress of a project, the cost structure, and the operational task, if the ESTPRGSYNC - Updated est. progress/snapshot parameter (TC chapter, PJM group) is set to Yes.
• The estimated total revenue upon completion of a project, if the ESTREVSYNC - Updated est. revenue/snapshot parameter (TC chapter, PJM group) is set to Yes.

The Financial snapshot comparison function (PJMSNPCMP) provides a comprehensive solution for project managers to review progress for a specific project using financial snapshot data. It can compare one time-captured financial snapshot against the current financial status of the project or against a different time-captured financial snapshot. The resulting financial overview comparison offers twin views, one view based on the cost structure and a second view based on the cost types. It reflects the default report specification supplied with your solution, or your customized report specification and applied structured query language (SQL) queries, with additional columns displaying the difference between the selected values as Variance columns. That is, the difference between the snapshot and the current financial status, or the difference between the two sets of snapshot data. Project managers can use it to keep track of the financial status and progress of a project relative to its budgets, for example, for providing monthly, quarterly or half-yearly progress figures to the stakeholders.

Project costs

The following diagram illustrates which costs can be tracked for a project:

(1) The document lines must be linked to the project. Products must be managed By order or they must be added to the material tasks (Task products table). Product records added to a project material task are treated as managed By order, irrespective of their management mode, By order or Available stock.

(2) The work orders must be linked to the project. Products to be released must be managed By order or they must be added to the material task. Product records added to a project material task are treated as managed By order, irrespective of their management mode, By order or Available stock. Components are valued for products managed as Available stock based on the provisional costs of the work order (committed) and the work order consumption (actuals). Components managed By order are valued using purchase documents, as described in (1).

Project management includes standard or master structured query language (SQL) queries for tracking the costs of a project.

Additional reporting

A global variable - GPJMCURKEY - is provided with Project management for use by Sage Business partners and consultants.

GPJMCURKEY contains the project link code. It can therefore be used to link additional reports such as graphical or statistical queries to the Project management function (GESPJM).

GPJMCURKEY is managed for the following Project management (GESPJM) screens:

1. Project management (link at project level)
2. Cost structure (link at budget level)
3. Task planning (link at task level)

GPJMCURKEY stores the project code, the budget code or the task code in the project link format (that is, as stored in the Project link table (PIMPL)), according to the screen and the data selected.

Financial data overviews

To track Project management costs using analytical accounting data, follow the setup described below:

1. Define an analytical ledger as a Project management ledger - select the Project management field in the Ledgers function (GESLED) (Setup > Organizational structure > Ledgers).



Ledgers (GESLED): Project management link field

2. Define whether the dimension type is to track the project code or the cost type - select the Project management or the Cost type field in the Dimension types function (GESDIE) (Setup > Organizational structure > Dimension types), as appropriate.
A dimension type can track Project management costs or project cost types. It cannot track both.



Dimension types (GESDIE): Project management link fields

3. Ensure an Account core model (Setup > Organizational structure > Account core models (GESGCM)) has a ledger type of Legal with a maximum of one Project management ledger.



Account core model (GESGCM): Legal Project management ledger

4. Ensure that a Project management ledger (Setup > Organizational structure > Ledgers (GESLED)) includes a maximum of either one Project management dimension type and one cost type dimension type, or one Project management dimension type or one cost type dimension type.
A Project management ledger can only contain a single dimension type which is set to track Project management costs.



Ledgers (GESLED): Single Project management dimension type

5. Create the required analytical dimension codes (Common data > G/L accounting tables > Analytical > Dimensions (GESCCE)).
   Analytical dimension codes can be created automatically for new projects or cost types, if the following conditions are met:
   1. The PJTAUTCRE - Create Projects dimension (for projects)/PCCAUTCRE - Create cost type dimension (for cost types) parameter (TC chapter, PJM group) is set to Always.
   2. The project/cost type is managed from a defined site (Sales site field in the project header information/Site field in the cost type header information).
   3. The site meets the following conditions:
      1. The site is associated with a legal company.
      2. The legal company is linked with an account core model.
      3. The account core model meets the following conditions:
         • The account core model contains a Project management ledger.
         • The Project management ledger contains a cost type dimension type or a single dimension type which is set to track Project management costs, as appropriate.

If the PJTAUTCRE/PCCAUTCRE parameter is set to Confirmation, the option to create or cancel the new dimension code is offered.

Financial reporting

Open: Projects > Projects > Utilities > Financial status extraction

You use the Financial status extraction function (PJMRPTEXT) to extract financial overviews to database tables for further analysis and reporting.

To extract a single or multiple Project management financial overviews to a database table:

1. Complete the financial report extraction selection criteria, as required:
   1. One or all companies
   2. One or all financial views
   3. One or all projects
   4. A specific currency or all project currencies
   5. Closed projects
2. Choose whether to extract financial reports in order to refresh the financial reporting tables, and whether to update the Financial status sections for the project and the cost structure.



Financial status extraction (PJMRPTEXT): Selection criteria

3. To extract the selected financial overviews to the following database tables, click OK:
   1. PJMFINOVRRPT - Cost structure reporting

   This table includes all the budget levels, already consolidated by budget code and the consolidation for the project level.

   To query data in this table, you can, in most cases, simply define filters to reflect the expected report.

   Should a consolidation report for multiple projects be required, for example, you can apply sums to the query. For most reports, however, this will not be necessary.

   2. PJMFINCTORPT - Cost type reporting

   This table includes all the cost types levels and the cost type groups levels, consolidated for every level of the budget code and also for the project level itself. This table is more complex to read because the cost type axis is included in the analysis.

   To query data in this table, you can, in most cases, simply define filters to reflect the expected report.

   Should a consolidation report for multiple projects be required, for example, or an analysis based only on a cost type without the project or budget axis, you can apply sums to the query.

4. Locate the Project management financial overviews on your Landing page.

You can tailor your personal landing page to display specific Project management financial overviews. The following gadgets are provided for you to add to your landing page as Queries (Modules = Projects, Categories = No category):

1. Budget exceeded: This gadget shows for all extracted projects, all budget codes where actual costs have exceeded the budget.
2. Budget milestone: This gadget shows all extracted projects that contain milestone tasks.
3. Budget progress: This gadget shows the progress of all extracted projects.
4. Time summary: This gadget shows the start and end date of all extracted project tasks and the amount of time currently spent on the task.

Each gadget displays a spot view of the selected (filtered) data at the point you run it. You can use the standard Sage X3 query functionality to manipulate the results in the gadget to display the results you require.

You can select and view a project directly from the gadget using the standard Sage X3 query functionality available on every row.

The Project management financial overviews on your landing page are updated by the Financial status extraction function (PJMRPTEXT).
You must rerun the Financial status extraction to update the data in your landing page gadgets.