Entering Amounts in Unit Contract Columns

Use the unit contract columns in the Contract planning grid to indicate which portion of a compensation amount is used for units.

On the Contract tab of the Plan form, you can display unit contract columns and enter unit contract amounts if all of the following are true:

• In Settings > Resource Planning > Plan Settings, unit planning is enabled for the project's company.
• In Settings > Resource Planning > Grids, your system administrator set the unit contract columns to be available for selection when you click in the upper-right corner of the Contract planning grid to display the Grid Settings dialog box. If some companies in the database have unit planning enabled, but others do not, (Unit Planning) displays next to the column labels on the Grid Settings dialog box to indicate that these columns will apply only to projects in a company that can plan units.
• The project has a regular or promotional charge type.

Entering Amounts in the Work Breakdown Structure

The selected Project Entering Method in Settings > Project > Contract Management determines whether you can enter unit contract amounts at all levels of the work breakdown structure or only at the lowest level.

• At All Levels of the Work Breakdown Structure: If you can enter amounts at all levels, Vantagepoint stores the amounts for all levels and does not sum up the lower level amounts to the higher levels.
• At Lowest Level Only: If you can only enter amounts at the lowest level, Vantagepoint stores the amount on the lowest level and sums up the value to the higher levels.

If at some point you change the Project Entering Method setting after specifying unit contract amounts, Vantagepoint does the following:

• When you switch from At Lowest Level Only to At All Levels, Vantagepoint retains the unit contract amounts you saw before at each level. The higher level amounts will initially display as the sum of the lower levels, but you can now modify the unit contract amount for each level since it will no longer sum up automatically.
• When you switch from At All Levels to At Lowest Level Only, Vantagepoint only retains the amounts entered at the lowest level and sums up the value to the higher levels. You can no longer modify the unit contract amounts on the higher levels.

Compensation Amounts in the Contract Planning Grid and on the Contract Management Form

In the Contract planning grid, each unit contract column has a corresponding standard compensation column that contains values from the Compensation tab on the Contract Management form (Hubs > Projects > Contract Management). For example, Reimbursable Expenses and Units Reimbursable Expenses are related columns. The unit contract amount that you enter in Units Reimbursable Expenses is subtracted from the reimbursable expenses compensation amount in Reimbursable Expenses. To help you plan the correct contract amount, Vantagepoint ensures that the Total Contract amount in the Contract planning grid matches the Total Compensation amount on the Contract Management form.

If you enter unit contract amounts and then the corresponding compensation amount is reduced on the Compensation tab, Vantagepoint tries to preserve the specified unit contract amounts up to the compensation amount. If the compensation amount is increased on the Compensation tab, the corresponding standard compensation column receives the increase, while the unit contract amount maintains the specified value.

If Your Firm Uses Multiple Currencies

If your firm uses multiple currencies, the currency in use is indicated next to the Billing or Cost option in the Show field. Whether both options are available depends on the budget type selected for the project plan. The Use Billing (Not Project) Currency for Reporting option in Settings > Accounting > Labor Options determines which currency applies when you enter the unit contract amounts on a project with different project (cost) and billing currencies. For more information, see Plan Data and Multiple Currencies.

Hidden Columns in the Contract Planning Grid

If the project plan contains unit contract amounts and you choose to hide any or all of the unit contract columns from the Contract planning grid, orange arrow indicators () display in the standard compensation columns or in the Total Contract column to alert you when amounts are shared among hidden columns. You select to display or hide columns on the Grid Settings dialog box, which you open by clicking in the upper-right corner of the grid.

When You Publish or Revert Changes

When you modify amounts in the unit contract columns, your changes are published when the plan is published. If you modified any of the columns on a published plan, it will update to be unpublished.

When you select the Revert action, Vantagepoint returns to the most recently published version of the plan and does not publish your changes. The amounts in the unit contract columns are not included in the baseline plan.