Contents of the Plan Settings Form

Use fields and options on the Plan Settings form to specify a variety of settings related to project plans.

Contents: Global Plan Settings

If you set up multiple companies in Vantagepoint, the settings under this heading apply to all companies. If you did not set up multiple companies, the Global Plan Settings heading does not display.

Field	Description
When No Organization Selected, Plan Settings Default from This Company	If you set up multiple companies in Vantagepoint, select the company whose default plan settings you want to use when a new project has no organization specified. If you set up Vantagepoint initially with multiple companies, this field defaults to the company that you use in the Vantagepoint setup process. If you first set up Vantagepoint with a single company and then switch to multiple companies, this field defaults to your lowest numbered company. When you add a new project, Vantagepoint automatically creates an empty plan for it using the default plan settings for the company it is associated with through its organization. However, you are not required to assign an in pursuit project to an organization, and you are not required to assign a project to an organization if Accounting Users is not selected in Available To on the Overview tab of the Projects form in the Projects hub. If you do not specify an organization for a new project, Vantagepoint uses the default plan settings for the company you select in this field to create the project plan. While most of the default plan settings inherited from this company can be overridden for individual plans, the following settings are only set at the company level: Enable Expense Planning Enable Consultant Planning Starting Day of Week To change these settings for a project, you must assign it to an organization that is associated with the company with the correct settings. In addition, plan currencies for projects without organizations are set to the functional currency for the default company you select in this field if the currencies are not specified in the project record. You can override this default currency by assigning different currencies in the project record. (If a project plan has no planning assignments, you can also override the default currency by assigning the project to an organization that is associated with a company with a different functional currency.)
Hour Decimal Places	Select the number of decimal places you want in planned hours: none, one, or two.
Amount Decimal Places	Select an option for decimal places in plan amounts: No Decimal: Enter and display amounts with no decimal places. Currency: Enter and display amounts with the number of decimal places set for the type of currency used.
Job-to-Date (JTD) Through	If you have not activated either the Time & Expense module or the Accounting module, select the cutoff date for calculating job-to-date (JTD) hours and amounts, which in turn are used to calculate estimate-to complete (ETC) and estimate-at-completion (EAC) hours and amounts. If you have activated either the Time & Expense module or the Accounting module, this field is not available, and the current date is used to calculate JTD hours and amounts. Under normal circumstances, you do not need to set this date. Initially, it defaults to the current date. From that point on, when you use the API or the Historical Labor import process to load actual hours and amounts that employees have charged to projects, Vantagepoint automatically sets the JTD date to the date of the latest historical labor record in the database. If you need to set the date yourself temporarily, you can do that, but the next time that you load historical labor, your entry will be replaced with the latest labor record date.
WBS Level Delimiter	If the Resource Planning module is activated but the Accounting module is not activated, select the character (a period, for example) that you want to use as the delimiter between WBS levels in project numbers. When you import projects from a .CSV file or using the API, include this delimiter to separate the levels in the project numbers so Vantagepoint can create the plan structures correctly. Also include it in project numbers when you import plan assignments and actual labor, expenses, consultants, and overhead for plans so that those records can be assigned to the correct WBS elements. If you have activated the Accounting module, this field is not available
In Pursuit Projects in Scheduled and Utilization	Indicate how Vantagepoint should determine whether or not projects that are assigned to an In Pursuit stage should be included in the calculation of scheduled and utilization hours and percentages. (Projects assigned to a Won stage are always included in those calculations. Projects assigned to a Lost or Do Not Pursue stage are always excluded.) Do one of the following: To never include In Pursuit projects, select Never. To always include In Pursuit projects, select Always. To include or exclude based on the Capacity Calculation option selected for individual projects in the Projects hub, select Set by Project. If you select this setting, the default for all new In Pursuit projects is to exclude them from the calculations, even if they are created by copying an existing project that is included. To include In Pursuit projects, you must change the Capacity Calculation option for each one individually. To include projects that are assigned to specific In Pursuit stages, select Automatically Set Based on Selected In Pursuit Stages. When you select this option, the In Pursuit Stages field displays. Select the In Pursuit stages that qualify projects to be included in the calculations. (This option is only available if either the CRM module or CRM Plus module is activated.) To include projects that have a probability of being won that is equal to or greater than a specific probability, select Automatically Set Based on Probability. When you select this option the Probability Greater Than or Equal field displays. Select the probability to use to determine if a project should be included in the calculations. You can change this setting at any time. When you do, all In Pursuit projects are included or excluded from the calculations based on the new setting.

Contents: Active company settings

If you set up multiple companies in Vantagepoint, the name of the active company displays, and the settings under it apply to that company only. To specify settings for another company, select that company from the drop-down list on the Vantagepoint toolbar. If you did not set up multiple companies, the heading containing the company name does not display.

Field	Description
Enable Expense Planning	Select Yes if you want to be able to enter plan data for expenses. You can enter plan data for direct, indirect, and reimbursable expenses.
Enable Consultant Planning	Select Yes if you want to be able to enter plan data for consultants. You can enter plan data for direct and reimbursable consultants.
Starting Day of Week	Select the first day in your work week. If you set up multiple companies in Vantagepoint, a resource manager working in Resource View or Project View or using a resource management report can display plans for projects from more than one company. Each of those companies could have different starting days for their work weeks. Because of that, the Resource Management applications always use the starting day of the week specified for the user's currently active company.
Target Multiplier	Enter the default target labor cost multiplier. The target multiplier represents how much revenue is anticipated for each labor cost dollar spent on a project. It is commonly used as the basis for evaluating the EAC labor cost multipliers as projects move forward. This target multiplier is assigned automatically to all new plans, but if you do not use the same target multiplier for all projects, it can be changed for individual plans on the Plan Settings dialog box.
Overhead %	Enter the default overhead percentage for plans, as a whole number. For example, enter 10 for 10 percent. With the necessary security rights, you can enter different percentages for individual projects. The overhead percentage is used to calculate the ETC portion of overhead, which is in turn used to calculate EAC profit for a plan.
Expense Planning Level	If you selected Yes for Enable Expenses Planning, select the default level of the work breakdown structure (WBS) at which to plan expenses: Plan Level 1, Plan Level 2,...: Plan expenses at the specific level you select. Lower numbers are higher in the plan structure. For example, for a project plan, level 1 corresponds to the project level of the work breakdown structure. Lowest Level: Plan expenses at the lowest level of each branch of the plan structure. For example, if the lowest level is level 2 for one branch and level 3 for another, you enter expense plan data for the first branch at level 2 and for the second branch at level 3. With the necessary security rights, you can select different levels for individual projects.
Consultant Planning Level	If you selected Yes for Enable Consultant Planning, select the default level of the work breakdown structure at which to plan consultants: Plan Level 1, Plan Level 2,...: Plan consultants at the specific level you select. Lower numbers are higher in the plan structure. For example, for a project plan, level 1 corresponds to the project level of the WBS. Lowest Level: Plan consultants at the lowest level of each branch of the plan structure. For example, if the lowest level is level 2 for one branch and level 3 for another, you enter consultant plan data for the first branch at level 2 and for the second branch at level 3. With the necessary security rights, you can select different levels for individual projects.