If planning is enabled for consultants, use the Consultants tab on the Plan Settings dialog box to specify the planning level for consultants and the billing rate methods, tables, and multipliers for consultants.
If you create a plan for a promotional or overhead project (charge type is Promotional or Overhead), this tab does not display. You cannot enter planning information for consultants for those types of projects.
Contents: General
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Planning Level
|
Use this drop-down list to select the default work breakdown structure (WBS) level that will be used to plan consultants for the project:
- Project: Plan consultants at the project level.
- Phase: Plan consultants at the phase level, if the project has phases. Otherwise, plan consultants at the project level.
- Lowest Level: Plan consultants at the lowest level of each branch of the WBS. For example, if the lowest level is phase (the second level) for one branch and task (the third level) for another, you enter consultant plan data for the first branch at the phase level and for the second branch at the task level.
You cannot change the planning level if the project has a baseline plan and planned consultant amounts, or if your security access does not allow you to change the baseline.
Changing the planning level has multiple implications if the existing plan includes resource rows that are planned under a level that is different than the new level:
- Any planned resource rows under a WBS level that do not match the new planning level are removed.
- If any of the planned resource rows to be removed are included in the baseline and you have access rights to change the baseline, the rows will be removed from the baseline. Note that removing rows from the baseline may impact the estimate to complete (ETC) amounts. If your access rights don't allow you to change the baseline, you cannot change the planning level.
- Any planned resource rows already at the new planning level remain.
- Resource rows with job-to-date (JTD) amounts will be shown at the new planning level once the change is finished.
- If the plan is not balanced (where some phases have tasks and some do not) and you select
Lowest Level,
Deltek will remove the resource rows that are lower than the selected level.
- If you change the level to a lower one and the project has the lower level and there are resource rows under a higher level, all the resource rows are removed.
|
Contents: Reimb. Consultant Billing Markup
Use these fields to define the settings for reimbursable consultant planned amounts on Regular projects.
If you select
Cost in
Budget Type on the General tab of this dialog box, or the
Use Billing Currency not Project Currency option is selected on the Accounting System Settings form in the
Deltek desktop application and the project currency is not the same as the billing currency,
Billing Rate Method automatically defaults to
None
and
Expense Rate Method,
Rate Table, Recalculate Planned Billing, and
Billing Multiplier fields are display-only.
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Recalculate Planned Billing
|
Select this option to apply the current settings and recalculate the existing planned bill amounts for reimbursable consultants. The recalculation occurs when you click
Save.
If you make changes to the rate information but do not select this check box, existing amounts remain the same, and the updated rate information is only used for planned consultant expenses that you add to the plan later.
|
| Consultants Rate Method
|
Select one of the following as the consultant billing rate method for the plan:
- Multiplier Only: Use a multiplier without a rate table: Planned cost x Billing multiplier.
-
From Account Rate Table: Use the rate for the consultant expense account from an expense account rate table. If no rate is found, use Planned cost x Billing multiplier.
-
From Category Rate Table: Use the rate for the consultant expense category from an expense category rate table. If no rate is found, use Planned cost x Billing multiplier.
-
None: The planned billing amount is set to the planned cost.
|
| Rate Table
|
If you selected a consultant billing rate method other than
Multiplier Only or
None, select a consultant billing rate table for the plan.
The only rate tables displayed for selection are those that match the rate method you selected (expense account tables or expense category tables) and that are marked as available for planning.
|
| Billing Multiplier
|
If you selected
Multiplier Only in
Consultants Rate Method, enter a multiplier for calculating billing amounts for reimbursable consultants (1.2500, for example). If you selected
From Account Rate Table or
From Category Rate Table in
Expenses Rate Method, enter a multiplier to use for calculating billing amounts if the specified rate table does not include a rate for the expense account or expense category.
|
Contents: Direct Consultants
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Direct Expenses: Billing Multiplier
|
The multiplier is displayed for informational purposes only on Regular projects. The value is always
1.0000 and cannot be changed. The planned cost and planned bill amounts for direct consultants are always the same.
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