Chapter 4: Dynamic PSR Reports in Costpoint

Chapter 5: Dynamic JSR Reports in GCS Premier

Introduction

In this chapter you will learn how one of the most commonly used reports by government contractors is a dynamic document in B&P. The application’s collection of dynamic pages provides access to project cost information so that you are able to locate resource expenditures up and down the project structure, which exposes raw and burdened cost, and revenue, over time.

Note: This chapter only applies to clients using GCS Premier. If you use Costpoint, continue to Chapter 6.

Objective

Upon successful completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

§  Access Job Summary Reports

What are Job Summary Reports?

Budgeting & Planning’s dynamic Job Summary Reports enable you to access a summary of a project’s financial status and drill down into the details of both expended direct labor and non-labor resources. Details of indirect costs by associated indirect pool expense category are also provided.

In addition to these project costs, the reports also include general contract information, such as the period-of-performance, funding, billed amounts and project manager.

Why are These Reports Important?

These report formats provide a snapshot of cost history for any given project that exposes the specific staff and vendor resources that have been deployed over time to accomplish a project’s associated tasks and deliverables.

If a project budget exists, the report includes an assessment of performance using the budget as the standard. Indirect related costs are summarized by associated indirect expense pool category.

How to Access a Job Summary Report

Accessing Job Summary Reports:

1. Select the Supplemental Reports module.

2. Select Project as the management context.

3. Navigate to the lowest level of the project ID in the project navigation list boxes.

4. In Reports & Actions, select the Active Level S.P.A.1 Job Summary.

5. The report header has the following information:

   §  The labeled areas have several options:

   §  Click Budget or Latest EAC inC to determine what the report shows.

   §  Click Target in A to show the costs as target costs, which is the default.

   §  Click Actual in A to show the costs as actual costs.

   §  Use the drop-down menu in B to select a Period Ending date for the report.

   §  The area labeled D provides the administrative detail of the report that includes:

   §  Customer

   §  Prime Contract #

   §  Subcontract #

   §  Project Number

   §  Project Name

   §  Project Manager

   §  Division            Estimated Total Value

   §  ITD Billed Amount

   §  Open Rec. Amount

   §  Job Type

   §  Rate Type

   §  Status

   §  The green arrows labeled E enable you to move from one task to another, automatically re-submitting the report.

   §  The body of the report shows the project’s direct and indirect costs with the burden elements broken out separately.

   §  Labor hours, posted and unposted are line items, as well as the Contract Revenue, Average Labor Rate, Profit Percentage, Percent of Budgeted Costs, Percent of Funded Value and Percent of Time Elapsed.

6. Click the Direct Labor link to see a Project Labor Summary report.

7. Click any non-labor cost description to open a Project Non-Labor Detail report to audit details of expended resources.

8. Click the Commitment header to drill down and audit commitment details.

§  Select options in the Purchase Commitment Detail header.

§  Click to show PO Commitments.

§  Click Unposted Labor to see a listing of unposted time sheets.

§  Select a Period Ending date from the drop down menu.

§  Notice the other report header information: Project number, Project Name, Project Manager, Status, Project Type and Period of Performance.

Exercise 2

Investigate a Dynamic Job Summary Report:

Summary

You should now be able to:

§  Access Job Summary Reports

Chapter 6: Cost Reporting & Analysis

Introduction

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to audit and analyze the hours, raw and burdened cost, and revenue by cost element and by staff or vendor resource, over the project’s entire period of performance and up and down the entire project structure. You will also learn how the application equips Project Managers to effectively audit and manage T&M contracts.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

§  Create Top Level Cost Reports

§  Create and Access Time & Material Reports

What is Cost Reporting and Analysis?

Dynamic links provide access to additional project cost information using a hunt and drill approach. They also allow users to locate resource expenditures up and down the project structure with many report presentations. The active level cost reports deploy dynamic drill down capabilities to detailed expenditures by resource over the entire period of performance.

Why are These Reports Important?

As a project manager, you have been established as an authority over what must be accomplished on behalf of the customer, who will be participating in the effort, and what funds will be consumed during the process. This information, along with an understanding of the project task hierarchy, allows you to go right to the source of performance problems and provide the details necessary to prescribe any corrective actions.

How to Create Top Level Cost Reports

Creating Top Level Cost Reports:

1. Select the Cost Analysis module.

2. Select Project as the management context.

3. In Reports & Actions, select C.P.T.1 Top Level Direct Projects Cost Cats.

   §  The report opens to show the project’s fully burdened cost broken out by raw cost elements.

   §  There are four columns on the report that are linked and, when clicked, sort the displayed information differently.

4. Click a project number in the first column of the report to see a level down cost history by category.

   §  Click the Active Level red button next to a project number in the top level report to create a report showing the burdened cost at the top level only.

5. Click an Active Level red button next to a Subproject ID number to see an Active Level burdened cost report for that particular subproject at that level.

   §  Click the + icons to drill down even further.

6. Click Close to close the reports.

7. In Reports & Actions, select C.P.T.3 Top Level Direct Projects Cost Hist.

   §  The report shows the project’s fully burdened cost by the periods of performance established for the project.

8. Select a cost category from the drop-down menu under the title of the report.

   §  The report regenerates to display the fully burdened cost for the chosen category for all top level projects.

   §  There are four columns on the report that are linked and, when clicked, sort the displayed information differently.

9. Click a project number in the first column of the report to see a level down cost history.

   §  Click the Active Level red button next to a project number in the top level report to create a report showing the burdened cost at the top level only.

10. Click an Active Level red button next to a Subproject ID number to see an active level burdened cost report for that particular subproject.

§  Click the + icons to drill down even further.

Exercise 3

Investigate Summary Level Historical Cost Reports:

Exercise 4

Use Dynamic Links to Drill Down:

Exercise 5

Open Cost Charts, Transaction Analysis and Exporting:

What are T&M Reports?

Project managers of Time and Materials contracts must be able to compare the cost of employing the staff and vendor work force that they have assembled for a client to what has been agreed upon in advance as proper reimbursement.

Budget & Planning provides a detailed report for cost, based on the burdened cost of each resource, and a detailed report of potential reimbursement, based on individually assigned billing rates applied to individual resources.

The application also integrates the cost and revenue in a special report that allows the profit of individual resources to be determined by comparing cost and billable revenue by person.

Why are These Reports Important?

Because the T&M negotiated billing rates apply to categories of the assembled work force, the project manager must be careful to maximize value to the client by delivering the proper talent, while minimizing cost to the project. B&P’s dynamic T&M reports provide the details of such profit analysis by individual so that the necessary adjustments can be made on an ongoing basis to maximize profit.

How to Access Time and Material Reports

Accessing Time and Material Reports

1. Select the Cost Analysis module.

2. Select Project as the management context.

3. Navigate to the lowest level of the project ID in the project navigation fields.

4. In Reports & Actions, select C.P.A.9: T&M Billable Revenue Breakdown.

5. Click to open the report.

   §  This reports shows potential billable revenue (upper section) based on billing rates and hours charged to the project, along with non-labor revenue based on burdened cost plus fee as per your accounting system setup (lower section).

   §  Column headings include: Bill Rate, ITD Billable Amount and billable amounts by the periods of performance.

   §  Click the + icons to see the data sorted by project labor category and then by individual resource.

   Note: Any given individual may appear on separate lines based on assigned project labor category.

   §  Vendors may appear in the employee section if billing rates are used for reimbursement.

6. In Reports & Actions, select C.P.A.10: T&M Labor Analysis.

7. Click to open the report.

§  This report shows potential billable revenue based on hours charged to the project and billing rates. It also shows job cost at target rates.

§  The report also provides the details of profit by individual.

§  The drop-down menu below the title of the report enables you to choose a specific time frame.

§  The Employees and Vendors are categorized by resource type.

§  Click the + icon to see all the data under each category.

§  Vendor costs not subject to billing rates and non-labor costs are excluded.

§  The column headings include:

§  Bill Rate

§  Pd Hours

§  Pd Cost

§  Pd Bill

§  Pd Profit

§  YTD Hours

§  YTD Cost

§  YTD Bill

§  YTD Profit

§  ITD Hours

§  ITD Cost

§  ITD Bill

§  ITD Profit

§  Profit %

Exercise 6

Audit Financial Status of a T&M Project:

Summary

You should now be able to:

§  Create Top Level Cost Reports

§  Create and Access Time & Material Reports

Chapter 7: Project Manager Administrative Options

Introduction

In this chapter you will learn how to change your personal account and how to share your authority as a project manager with other users.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

§  Access Administrative Options

§  Change Your Logon Password

§  Share Access with Other Users on Multiple Projects

§  Share Access with One or More Users on a Specific Project

§  Remove Shared Access for Specific B&P Users

Project Manager Options

What are the Project Manager Administrative Options in B&P?

As a project manager, you have been established as an authority over what must be accomplished on behalf of the customer, who will be participating in the effort, and what funds will be consumed during the process.

It is up to you to make sure that your authority as a B&P user is not compromised. Changing your password on a regular basis can contribute greatly to limiting unauthorized access to the details of your project’s cost and performance.

When it is necessary to share your authority as a project manager with other trusted support staff, B&P provides a method to manage the sharing process. Through this process you are able to assign access to your projects to other users whose user security settings do not already establish authority.

Project Management Administrative Options

Why are the Project Manager Administrative Options Important?

Managing projects requires cooperation and collaboration with other staff. Your accounting system may not reflect these necessary relationships. B&P allows you to establish and manage these relationships so that you can take full advantage of the teamwork that you deem appropriate.

How to Access Administrative Options

Accessing Administrative Options:

1. Select the Cost Analysis module.

2. Select Project as the management context.

3. In Reports & Actions, the items listed in the Actions field are the administrative options.

How to Change Your Logon Password

Changing Your Logon Password:

1. In the Reports & Actions, open C.P.M.1 Change Password.

2. Click to open the dialog box.

3. Click Help to see the minimum requirements for creating a password.

   §  The information displayed here depends on the requirements you have asked DELTEK to configure for your company.

4. Type the new password in the Password field.

5. Verify the new password in the Verify Password field.

6. Click Submit to save the change.

7. Click Close to close the dialog box.

How to Share Access with Other Users on Multiple Projects

Sharing Access with Other Users on Multiple Projects:

1. In Reports & Actions, click C.P.M.2 Add Project Level Reporting for Users to open it.

2. Select the users who are going to be allowed access to your projects by clicking the check box next to their name in the Select column.

   §  The Current Logon Users in your company are listed in the top field.

   §  Hold the Ctrl key down to make multiple selections.

3. Select the projects those users are going to have access to in the bottom field.

   §  The Current Active Projects are listed in the bottom field.

   §  Hold the Ctrl key down to make multiple selections.

4. Click Add and then Close to close the window.

How to Share Access with One or More Users on a Specific Project

Sharing Access with One or More Users on a Specific Project:

1. In project navigation, select the project level in the list boxes that you would like to give another user access to.

2. In Reports & Actions, click C.P.M.3 Add Project Level Reporting for Users (NAV) to open it.

   §  C.P.M.3 and C.P.M.2 are identical actions, but use different approaches.

   §  C.P.M.3 requires you to select the project first.

3. Select the users who are going to be allowed access to a specific project by clicking the check box next to their name in the Select column.

   You can select multiple users without using the Ctrl key.

4. Click Add when finished selecting users, and then Close to close the window.

The users who are added successfully appear at the top.

How to Remove Shared Access for Specific B&P Users

1. In Reports & Actions, click C.P.M.4 Delete Project Level Reporting for Users to open it.

   §  Use this action to take away access rights to projects.

   §  Deleting users will not take effect until the following day—after your data has been updated.

2. Click Delete next to each user you would like to remove from having access to your projects.

   §  When you click Delete, B&P lets you know the action was successful.

   §  You must delete users one at a time.

   Click Cancel to cancel the delete action.

3. Click Close to close the window.

Summary

You should now be able to:

§  Access Administrative Options

§  Change Your Logon Password

§  Share Access with Other Users on Multiple Projects

§  Share Access with One or More Users on a Specific Project

§  Remove Shared Access for Specific B&P Users

Chapter 8: Project Budget Development

Introduction

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to create and modify project budgets using B&P’s budgeting tool that emulates Excel.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

§  Create and Modify a Budget

What is the project budget tool?

The application’s project budget tool provides an iterative automated process with methods a project manager can use to estimate the burdened costs of work to be done for a customer. The tool emulates an Excel workbook with tabs for the various burden cost pool categories of staff and vendor specified resources that are to be consumed during project execution.

Each tab includes automated methods for accessing staff, vendor accounts and other information necessary for developing resource allocations.  Hourly rates, burden factors, project period of performance and available funding are all considered by the tool as per specifications taken from the accounting system. You can load all expected resource allocations and then go through an iterative adjustment process until the burden cost is aligned with funding constraints.

Why is a project budget important?

The project budget tool can help project managers establish expectations of performance that reflect funding constraints and help minimize the possibility of cost overruns. For T&M contracts, it can help establish a mix of staff and/or vendor labor resources that meet profit guidelines. The cause of performance deficiencies can be determined by comparing budget versus actual cost.  Then corrective actions can be properly determined.

How to Create a Budget

Creating a Budget

1. Select the Budget Development module and choose Project as the management context.

2. Select a project in project navigation.

   §  Click project ID segments from left to right in the list boxes.

   §  Budgets should not be created at a rollup level that is higher than the revenue (Funding) level.

   §  If a budget is created at a rollup level, then lower level budgets are not allowed unless the rollup level budget and all related EACs are first deleted.

3. In Reports and Actions, click B.P.I.1 Create/Modify Budget for a Direct Project.

4. Click to open the project budget tool.

   §  To see all of a project’s budgets (Working, Completed, Approved, Versions), click Audit/Modify All Direct Project Budgets B.P.I.2.

   Note: To check the status of all the budgets that have been created at various levels of a project, you can also use a Project Budget Status (A.P.T.1 or A.P.S.1) report located in the AOP/Outlook Analysis module.

   §  If a project has already started, B&P will have pulled the General Ledger details into the budget tool to populate the worksheets with the latest data.

   §  The historical data can be overridden until the budget has been approved.

   §  Once the budget is approved, an EAC (Estimate at Completion) can be created, which will include the historical actuals and the ETC data (Estimate to Completion).

   §  If a budget has already been created and approved for the project selected, you will be prompted to either create another version of the budget or to open a “read only” version of the budget, which opens B.P.A.View BUD.

5. Click the Excel icon to export the data.

6. Click the print button to print the data.

7. Select a tab to open a worksheet and begin inputting data.

   §  When the tool first opens, the default is set to start with StfHrs (Staff Hours).

   §  The worksheets are defined as follows:

   §  StfHrs (Staff Hours): On this worksheet input labor hour resources to be expended that account for the entire period-of-performance for the project or task ID.

   §  Mtls (Materials): Record the raw cost of vendor materials on this worksheet.

   §  Sbks (Subcontractors): Record the raw cost of subcontractor work on this worksheet.

   §  MHOth (Material Handling and Other Costs): Specify miscellaneous material handling related costs on this worksheet.

   §  Trvl (Travel): Record the raw cost of staff and vendor travel here.

   §  Cnslt (Consultants): Record the raw cost of consultant effort on this worksheet.

   §  ODCOth (Other Direct Costs): Specify miscellaneous other direct costs that will be burdened with G&A on this worksheet.

   §  SbksHrs (Subcontractor Hours): This worksheet is like the subcontractors (Sbks) worksheet, but hours and raw hourly rates are specified.

   §  ConsltHrs (Consultant Hours): This worksheet is like the consultant (Conslt) worksheet, but hours and raw hourly rates are specified.

   §  Stfescl (Staff Escalations): This worksheet is where you can change the percent of escalation of staff salaries.

   §  BrdnCst (Burdened Cost): This worksheet has project information regarding revenue, cost, and profit.

   §  During the application installation and data validation process, the general ledger accounts associated with the various categories of direct labor, along with those accounts that keep track of travel and vendor related project resources, are assigned to these tabs so that the overhead, G&A, and material handling burdens can be properly related to each individual staff and vendor resource.

8. Use the options available on each worksheet to Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and replicate cell entries within the matrix of resources.

§  Cut: Removes data to the clipboard.

§  Copy: Copies data from the clipboard.

§  Paste: Pastes data from the clipboard.

§  Delete: Allows one row at a time to be deleted.

§  Refresh: Click to save any changes.

§  Moving from tab to tab causes an automatic refresh and data is saved.

§  When Refresh is grayed out, no changes have been detected by the system.

Notes: Record assumptions or other information here that relates to that particular worksheet.

§  Cell Fill: Use this feature to copy information from one cell to multiple cells.

§  Col Fill: Use this feature to copy information from one column to multiple columns.

§  Excel: Click this icon to export the data from the worksheet into Excel.

§  Once in Excel, highlight the data rows you want to manipulate and change the format from Custom to General to successfully import the data back into B&P.

§  The dark column headers on each worksheet in the project budget tool designate unique data that B&P does not allow you to change.

§  Click Complete to move the budget to the next step in the process.

§  When Complete is checked, it lets project budget approvers know the creator of the budget has completed the budget development process.

§  It can then be approved by project managers in B.P.I.2 Audit/Modify All Direct Project Budgets.

§  Click Delete to clear the worksheet, delete the working copy of the budget from the Audit/Modify (B.P.I.2) grid, and close the budget tool.

§  Clicking this will not delete any previously saved data, but will simply clear the working storage area that holds the changes you are in the process of developing.

§  Click Commit to save the latest data input.

§  Clicking this saves the contents of the working storage area to the budget data stores that are used for reporting purposes. It will then clear out the working storage for the project/task you are working on, and close the project budget tool.

§  Once committed, budget data appears in reports.

§  Once committed and approved, an EAC can be created.

Note: To see a flow chart of how the Delete/Commit/Close process works for Project Budgets and EACs, check the Appendix.

§  Click Close to close the project budget tool and leave the contents for the project/task you are working on undisturbed for further fine tuning.

§  Click Clipboard Disabled to toggle between enabling or disabling the use of the clipboard where you can collect and paste multiple items.

§  It must be enabled to copy into and out of MS Excel and B&P.

How to Input Data on the StfHrs Tab

Inputting Data on the StfHrs Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists on the StfHrs worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

2. Click the Add Generic Staff drop-down list and highlight an option to add to the worksheet.

   §  Global generic staff is provided by the B&P administrator based upon management specifications.

   §  User specific generic staff that are shared appear in the drop-down list by default.

   §  The rate displayed is the raw cost rate for generic staff.

   §  Check Display All and then Refresh to see a list of global generic staff.

3. Open B.P.M.5 Maintain Generic Staff Table in Reports & Actions to create new generic staff. 

   Any project manager who has been granted the rights can create generic staff.

   Note: You cannot delete a generic staff if it has been assigned to a budget.

4. Enter the information for new Generic Staff in the text boxes on the right.

5. Create a Job Code, a Description and an Hourly Rate.

   The raw hourly rate is used to calculate cost.

6. Enter the PTO hours per year for the PTO Accrual Rate.

7. Enter a Default PLC.

   The PLC rate is used to calculate revenue.

8. Select a Default Labor Account from the drop-down list or select None.

9. Input a Y or N if you want to share the new entry with others.

   If you select No, then anyone who wants to change the information about the staff will see a message that says: You are not the Owner – View Only.

10. Select a Security Org from the drop-down list to determine what other project managers will be able to use this generic staff in their budget.

11. Input a Y or N to indicate if the staff is going to be Active.

    If you no longer want a particular generic staff to be used or appear in the drop-down list, input an N.

12. Click Add New, and then Close to return to B.P.I.1.

    §  The new generic staff will appear at the bottom of the Add Generic Staff list.

    §  There are two types of generic staff:

    §  Global generic staff can only be created by your company B&P administrator, but are available to all B&P users based on user security settings.

    §  User specific generic staff can be shared based on other user’s security settings or reserved as private to the creator.

    §  Once created, if a generic staff is assigned to a project budget, EAC, proposal or non-backlog budget, it cannot be deleted.

    §  The average rate displayed is the hourly rate of the individual.

13. Click the Add Employee drop-down list and highlight a name to add to the worksheet.

    §  This list is taken from the employee master data of your company’s accounting system and includes default settings that are applied in the Organization and GL Account columns.

    §  It is limited to currently active employees.

    §  For contracts with a work force established in your accounting system, only members of the work force appear.

14. Click View Employee Schedule when adding an employee to a project or task.

    Checking an employee’s schedule confirms their availability during the time frame needed.

15. Click the Add/Change ORG drop-down list and highlight an option to change an employee’s organization.

    §  This choice should reflect the organization that owns the employee at the time of the charge.

    §  For non-labor resources, the default is the organization that owns the project.

16. Click the Add/Change G/L Account drop-down list and highlight an option to change an employee’s account information.

    This is generally used to override the default G/L Account assignment at the time the resource is added to the worksheet.

17. Click the Add PLC drop-down list and highlight an option to make a project labor category change for any employee.

    §  For T&M contracts, this will contain codes that have already been set up in the accounting system.

    §  PLC rates are used to calculate revenue.

18. Input the hours needed for the period of performance for the added employee.

    §  Use Cell Fill or Col Fill to make input easy.

    §  Use a separate line for each unique combination of Emp ID, Name, Org ID, Acct ID, PLC, and Hour Rate.

19. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the new data.

How to Input Data on the Matls Tab

Inputting Data on the Matls Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the Matls worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

   §  The vendor list from your accounting system is replicated in the B&P database and is available for selection in this drop-down list.

   §  Selecting a vendor from the list will facilitate the match-up of historical cost and future cost in the EAC process.

   §  Highlight a name to add it to the matrix.

2. Click the Add/Change GL Account drop-down list and highlight an option to change an account.

3. Input the expenses for the period of performance for the added vendor.

   §  Use Cell Fill or Col Fill to make input easy.

   §  Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

4. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Input Data on the Sbks Tab

Inputting Data on the Sbks Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the Sbks worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

   §  Add Vendor: The vendor list from your accounting system is replicated in the B&P database and is available for selection in this drop-down list.

   §  Selecting a vendor from the list will facilitate the match-up of historical cost and future cost in the EAC process.

   Note: To understand how B&P handles historical subcontractor and/or consulting hours and fees, check the Appendix.

   §  Highlight a name to add it to the matrix.

2. Click the Add/Change GL Account drop-down list and highlight an option to change an account.

   §  Input the expenses for the period of performance for the added vendor.

   §  Use Cell Fill or Col Fill to make input easy.

   §  Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

3. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Input Data on the MHOth Tab

Inputting Data on the MHoth Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the MHOth worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

2. Click the Add Vendor drop-down list and highlight an option to add a vendor.

3. Click the Add/Change GL Account drop-down list and highlight an option to change an account.

4. Input the expenses for the period of performance for the added vendor.

   §  Use Cell Fill or Col Fill to make input easy.

   §  Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

5. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Input Data on the Trvl Tab

Inputting Data on the Trvl Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the Trvl worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

2. Click the Add Generic Staff Travel drop-down list and highlight an option to add staff.

   §  Generic Staff Travel is provided by the B&P administrator based upon management specifications.

   §  Check Display All and then Refresh to see the list of global generic staff.

   §   Only user specific generic staff that are shared appear in the drop-down list by default.

3. Click the Add Emp Travel drop-down list and highlight an option to add a name to the worksheet.

4. Click the Add/Change GL Account drop-down list and highlight an option to change an account.

5. Input the expenses for the period of performance for the added name.

   Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

6. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Input Data on the Cnslt Tab

Inputting Data on the Cnslt Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the Cnslt worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

   Note: To understand how B&P handles historical subcontractor and/or consulting hours and fees, check the Appendix

2. Click the Add Vendor drop-down list and highlight an option to add a vendor.

3. Click the Add/Change GL Account drop-down list and highlight an option to change or add an account.

4. Input the expenses/fees for the period of performance for the new entry.

   Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

5. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Input Data on the SbksHrs Tab

Inputting Data on the SbksHrs Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the SbksHrs worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

2. Click the Add Subcontractor drop-down list and highlight an option to add a subcontractor.

3. Click the Add Contract Employee drop-down list and highlight an option to add a contract employee.

4. Click the Add PLC drop-down list and highlight an option to add a project labor category.

   If a PLC is not assigned, the subcontractor’s billable rate and associated revenue will be zero.

5. Input the T&M hours for the period of performance for the added entry.

   §  The hourly rate supplied is the raw cost of the subcontractor’s work.

   §  Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

6. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Input Data on the ConsltHrs Tab

Inputting Data on the ConsltHrs Tab

1. Use the drop-down lists at the top of the ConsltHrs worksheet to control what is added to a selected row.

2. Click the Add Consultant drop-down list and highlight an option to add a consultant.

3. Click the Add Contract Employee drop-down list and highlight an option to add a contract employee.

4. Click the Add PLC drop-down list and highlight an option to add a category to the worksheet.

   If a PLC is not assigned, the consultant’s billable rate and associated revenue will be zero.

5. Input the T&M hours for the period of performance for the added entry.

   §  The hourly rate supplied is the raw cost of the consultant’s work.

   §  Uncheck the box in the Revenue column for any individual resource where you don’t want revenue calculated.

6. Click Refresh to save the new data, or click to move to another tab, which also saves the data.

How to Apply Escalations to Resources

Applying Escalations to Resources

1. Click the Stfescl tab to open the worksheet where you can apply escalations to raw hourly rates for individual resources.

   §  Highlight the specific period where the escalation will occur and input the new amount.

   §  Use the Cell Fill option to copy the percentage to appropriate future periods.

2. To specify an escalation rate and apply it to all resources based on annual review dates, input an escalation percentage in the text box at the top and click Go.

   §  How escalations are applied is determined upon the initial installation of B&P.

   §  If you are creating a budget for a project that has already started, B&P first looks at the resource salaries at the beginning of the project, as well as the specified escalation factors for each resource.

   §  Based on the adjustments and periods already specified, it then takes the new escalation factor you input, and applies it to all resources from the beginning of the project, regardless of how much time has passed.

   §  The escalation percentage must be greater than .5% and less than 15%.

   §  An escalation factor of 1.00 is telling B&P to use the employee’s current salary for all calculations.

   §  You can input discreet escalation adjustments for any individual employee, after the global application of escalation.

3. Click OK when the confirmation message appears to verify the escalation amount or click Cancel to cancel it.

Note: To read a more detailed explanation about how escalation works in B&P, check the Appendix.

How to View Fully Burdened Costs

Viewing Fully Burdened Costs

1. Click the BrdnCst tab to open the Burdened Costs worksheet.

   §  The worksheet shows fully burdened costs by resource sorted by overhead pool.

   §  If any resources resolve to an overhead pool labeled 0, then the account/org. combination is absent from the pool/base setup in the accounting system.

   §  Once the resources have resolved to the correct overhead pools, the burdened costs tab will resolve every staff or vendor resource specified in each of the other tabs in the budget tool to its appropriate pool showing its fully burdened cost.

   §  All labor pools include G&A in their resource cost figures.

   §  If funding has been distributed to the project/task ID, then it is compared to the total cost of the project budget.

   §  The worksheet has information clearly labeled at the top.

   §  Revenue: Funded, Budget, Unspecified

   §  Cost: Funded, Budget, Unspecified

   §  Profit: Funded, Percent, Budget, Percent, T&M

2. Click the + icons on the left to expand the information in the worksheet.

3. Click  to see how the project revenue is calculated.

   §  This information is brought into B&P from the accounting system’s billing/revenue setup details, but can be changed here by selecting the Override Settings checkbox.

   §  When that box is unchecked, the information becomes read only.

   §  There is a warning message at the top of the setup window saying that all versions of this project will share the same Revenue Setup and PLC Setup information.

4. Click Save so that revenue is included in the Commit process.

   You will see a Save Complete message.

5. Click the print button to print the Revenue Setup.

6. Click Close to close the dialog box or click PLCs to open the Project Labor Category Setup dialog box.

7. To add a new category, fill in the Labor Category, Lab Cat Description and Billing Rate fields.

8. Click Add to add the new category.

9. Click Edit to edit a category, and then click Update to save the change.

10. Click Clone to add PLCs from other projects to the list.

11. Select a project from the drop-down list and click Go.

    B&P adds PLCs that are not currently listed.

12. Click Delete to delete a category.

13. Click the Excel icon to export the information.

14. Click Close to close the Project Labor Category Setup dialog box.

15. Click Close to close the Revenue Setup dialog box.

16. Click  to see an analysis of the budget revenue.

    §  The Hours section of the report provides relevant details from the lower section associated with T&M/PLC rates/categories.

    §  The columns include Burdened Cost, Revenue and Profit.

17. Click the Excel icon to export the data.

18. Click the print button to print the Revenue Analysis.

19. Click Close to close the report.

20. When finished with the BrdnCst worksheet, click Commit to save the latest data input or click Complete and Commit to move the budget to the next step in the process---Budget Approval.

§  When you open a committed budget (complete or incomplete), B&P makes a copy of the committed budget in the working tables, keeping the previously committed version in the permanent or reporting tables.

§  If you click Close to close the project budget tool, the working copy of the budget will not be deleted from the working tables and it remains listed in the audit/modify grid as a working copy. 

§  If you click Delete instead of Close, the project budget tool will close, delete the working table copy and the working copy will not appear in the audit/modify grid.

§  If you make changes to a working copy of a budget and recommit it, (it can be complete or incomplete) the project budget tool will close, delete the working table copy and the working copy will not appear in the audit/modify grid.

§  If you approve a committed, complete budget, and try to create a new one for that same project, you have to do one of the following:  delete the approved version, unapprove the approved version, or create a new version of the approved budget.

Note: To see a flow chart of how the Delete/Commit/Close process works for Project Budgets and EACs, check the Appendix.

Exercise 7

Modify a Budget

Chapter 9: Approving a Budget

Introduction

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to approve project budgets using B&P’s budget tool.

Objective

Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:

§  Approve Project Budgets

What is managing and approving project budgets?

In order for Budgeting & Planning’s project budgeting process to work efficiently, the program needs to know who in your company can originate and modify project budgets and who has responsibility for approving these budgets. The database includes all project manager assignments that have been recorded in your accounting system, up and down the entire project structure, wherever assignments have been made. The application also assigns the highest level project manager as the approver of all budgets, whether the budgets are created at the lowest or some rollup level. For multi-level projects, all managers assigned to roll-up levels are budget originators, but not approvers.

Approval authority has to be created in the database because it does not exist in the accounting system.  When you determine the appropriate management authority structure, it will underlie the budget creation and workflow process.

Why is this important?

Approval is necessary to establish a frozen budget, (a requirement of the Estimate-at-Complete process), and critical to fulfilling Earned Value Management (EVM) requirements, if they exist.

B&P encourages the alignment of project management authority structures with the budgeting and performance reporting processes so that an accountability process can be established.  Then, when performance issues arise, corrective action can be taken.

How to Approve a Budget

Approving a Budget

1. Select Admin for the management context.

   Creating a budget approval authority has to be done first.

2. In Reports & Actions, select M.A.P.8 Add Additional Project Budget Approvers.

3. Click to open the dialog box.

4. In the drop-down list for Rollup Project, select the top level project ID associated with the project budget you want to approve.

   §  The project IDs that appear in this drop-down list are determined by the following:

   §  The project’s org ID is equal to the user’s security org ID.

   §  The active flag is set to yes.

   §  The project end date has not expired.

   §  It is a rollup project.

5. In the Approver drop-down list, select your logon user ID.

6. Select a project or task to charge to in the Charge Project drop-down list.

7. Click Add New.

   A successful confirmation message appears to confirm.

8. Click Close to close the dialog box.

9. Select Project as the management context and Budget Development as the module.

10. In Reports & Actions, select B.P.I.2 Audit/Modify All Direct Project Budgets and open it.

11. Click Select next to the budget you want to approve and then click Edit.

12. Click the Approved check box.

13. Select the Approved Date from the calendar .

14. Click Update to save your changes.

15. Click Refresh to refresh the matrix.

Exercise 8

Approve a Budget

Chapter 10: Budget Reports

Introduction

By the end of this lesson, you will become familiar with and understand the value of some of B&P’s budget reports.

Objective

Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:

§  Access Budget Reports

What are Budget Reports?

The Budget Development module uses dynamic pages, just as the Cost Analysis module does. The same hunt and drill approach to finding and analyzing project costs can be used to drill down to originated budget details by contributing resource up and down the entire project structure.  The available reports are also referenced by IDs similar to their Cost Analysis Module counterparts.  If you are familiar with reporting in the Cost Analysis Module, and if budget details have been developed, they can be found and reported quickly and easily.

Why are these reports important?

These reports are essential audit tools to assist you in establishing performance metrics for the larger, higher profile programs, and others as appropriate. Participation is likely with a project budgeting and approval workflow process in place.  Auditing performance against these metrics is a vital part of establishing accountability and ensuring that corrective actions, when necessary, are successful.

How to Access Budget Reports

Accessing Budget Reports

1. Select the Budget Development module and choose Project as the management context.

2. Select a project at the lowest level in project navigation.

   Click project ID segments from left to right in the list boxes.

3. Select a report in Reports & Actions.

   §  A brief description appears as your cursor hovers over a report name.

   §  Each report is labeled with a code, as in all the modules in B&P.

   §  The first letter refers to the Module you are in.

   §  The second letter refers to the Management context you selected.

   §  The third letter refers to the level or type of report/action.

   §  The number refers to the sequence ID of the report.

4. Click a title to open a report.

§  The report code, level, and title are printed at the top of the report when it opens.

§  To export the report to Excel, click the Excel icon.

§  To print the report, click the print button.

§  To close the report, click the Close button.

Exercise 9

Review Summary Level Budgeted Costs

Exercise 10

Review Active Level Budgeted Cost Analysis Report Formats

Appendix

§  Project Budget/EAC Process Flow Chart

§  How Hourly Rates Work in the Project Budget Tool

§  How B&P Handles Historical Subcontract and/or Consulting Hours

Project Budget/EAC Process Flow Chart

How Hourly Rates Work in the Project Budget Tool

If you are creating a budget for a proposal, backlog project or non-backlog project, B&P will use, for each staff resource, the hourly rate associated with the compensation change date closest to, but on or before, the project start date, which may not necessarily be the staff current rates. It is up to you to make sure the escalation factors are properly set in the project budget tool to reflect what increases would be expected for each staff resource after the project’s start date.

For an EAC the rule is the same except the compensation change date is related to the date the EAC is created rather than the project’s start date. When calculating burden, B&P will use PSR/JSR final rates if available, or the target rates from past fiscal year periods, while the current fiscal year target rates will be used for the current fiscal year periods and beyond. If you have set up rates for future fiscal year periods in B&P, they will be applied instead of just extrapolating the current fiscal year rates.

Some things to remember:

§  If you don’t want a project’s budgeted costs to change every time you open it, approve the budget to freeze it. Once approved, its details can be viewed without opening the project budget tool.

§  Resources that have an escalation factor of 1 means that B&P is using 100% of a resource’s determined rate.

§  If you find a resource that hasn’t had a rate increase in 2 years, enter the company default escalation rate squared, where appropriate; i.e. 1.03².

§  If you clone a proposal budget from a project budget, but with future start and end dates, you’ll get different numbers for resource costs each time you open the proposal budget because hourly rates change over time.

§  Assigned escalation factors persist; only hourly rates change.

§  When you’re awarded the contract and want to make a proposal budget real, B&P will pick the most recent rates for the resources based on the date you create the new backlog project budget. However, it will inherit the escalation factors from the proposal being copied. Therefore, you will need to adjust the escalations to reflect the rate increases.

§  When you create an EAC from a budget, the EAC will use staff hourly rates with effective dates less than or equal to the last closed period when the EAC is created—not the date the project started.

§  For an EAC, when the escalation month is set to 0 in B&P, then the escalation factor is increased when the employee’s hire/adjusted hire date falls into that period.

§  When the escalation month equals 1 through 12, then the escalation factor is increased when the first of the selected month falls in that period.

§  If the escalation date is the same as the creation date of the EAC, then the value is 1. It is assumed that the employee has had their pay raise in that same period, and that is the hourly rate that will be used for calculating labor.

How B&P Deals with Historical Subcontract and/or Consulting Hours

What follows is a description of how B&P deals with historical subcontract and/or consulting hours in its project budgeting/EAC tools, and what you need to do to make sure that potential double counting of revenue and/or cost does not get reflected in project budgeting results.

What B&P Does

Within B&P’s project budgeting tool, for both budget and EAC, there are two tabs for the allocation of subcontractor; one for raw cost only where there is no requirement to record individual hours, and one for hours-based effort. The same holds true for the allocation of consultant effort. When B&P’s project budgeting tool computes burden and revenue, it takes the results you input from both tabs and adds them together. In this way it is able to deal with the requirement to parse out vendor costs and revenues so that the impact of billing rates and associated profit can be properly determined. In the budgeting effort, this is also important for making sure that T&M labor category hours stay within any negotiated constraints or ceilings. There is, however, a slight difference in this budget process depending upon whether it is a budget or an EAC that is being developed.

NOTE: In GCS, unless a vendor has been entered as a consultant employee, the vendor invoice entry process will not accommodate the recording of hours by labor category.

Project Budget

Upon creating a budget for a project with a period-of-performance that has already begun, and with historical expended subcontractor or consultant effort, all historical cost gets loaded into the associated cost tab of the project budget tool. All historical hours get loaded into the hours tab. In the hours tab, you must enter an hourly cost factor to properly estimate cost and a project labor category for determination of revenue. Additionally, you must make the proper selections in the revenue setup function accessed via the burden cost tab in the project budget tool. The historical cost and revenue will be estimated by the hours tab, and the results of both tabs will be combined. However, any historical vendor costs recorded in the cost tab that has hours that have also been recorded in the hours tab, will result in a double count of cost and revenue.

Future non-hours related costs must be included in future periods of the cost tab. Future hours related costs must be included in future periods of the associated hours tab. You are allowed to modify any costs or hours that have been automatically entered in any of the historical periods of the period-of-performance in either the cost or hours tabs.

NOTE: In cases where there are historical hours recorded and these details are necessary for determining future T&M revenues, the associated vendor costs must be removed from the cost tab to avoid double counting.

Project EAC

The project budget and EAC tools function the same except the EAC will not calculate any cost for historical hours, so you do not have to eliminate any corresponding cost in the cost tab. However, the EAC will estimate any revenue associated with historical hours in the hours tab.

To avoid a double count of revenue in the cost tab, you can simply turn the revenue calculation off for the tab in the revenue setup. If the cost tab includes a mix of non-hours and hours related costs, then the revenue box for these items can be unchecked and the revenue setup for the tab can be active. Unchecked rows will be skipped during revenue calculation. For both the cost and hours tabs, you will not be able to modify any figures in historical periods.