Budgeting & Planning provides the capability to import time-phased budgets or EACs for a project based on a detailed WBS of task resource assignments. It offers an import function that interfaces with two of the most popular project scheduling tools in the market, MS Project and Primavera P6.
The import into Budgeting & Planning of a time phased proposal budget or EAC for a project is a simple five step process similar to importing structured proposals.
The budget process itself, although commonly managed by an organization’s contracts department, usually requires direct input from the technical staff that will be performing the work. This is the best way to make sure that a budget/EAC is an accurate reflection of the scope of work and associated costs. When a project involves many related tasks with dependencies that require the completion of some before others can begin, and when the resources performing the work are only partially available because of commitments to other projects or tasks within the proposal’s projects that have overlapping periods-of-performance, the scheduling tool is the best way to determine the budget/EAC for all resource usage over time throughout the project’s duration.
When it comes to fulfilling earned value management cost/schedule integration requirements, the scheduling tool will likely be a requirement. In these cases, directly importing the details determined by the scheduling tool can help limit the time and effort required to establish budgets/EACs that should reflect the formal proposal that is awarded.