Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure (WBS) divides each of your projects into distinct, manageable work elements in a way that balances management needs with the need to collect an appropriate and effective level of project data.

A simple three-level WBS may be organized as follows:

• Level 1 - Project
• Level 2 - Phase
• Level 3 - Task

A WBS is used by various groups in a company, such as marketing, business development, project management, and accounting. A well-planned WBS is integral to successful project proposals, planning, scheduling, budgeting, and reporting.

Your Vision work breakdown structure impacts the:

• Value you get from the data you store.
• Ability to leverage past work to generate new business.
• Ability to improve job performance based on past experience.
• Ease and quality of knowledge sharing among groups in your company.
• Quality of service and level of reporting and billing customization that you can provide to your clients.

There are four key components to the Vision WBS, which work together to provide a comprehensive tracking and reporting system for cost and revenue information. Before you begin to set up your firm's work breakdown structure in Vision, your firm must understand how each of the four components work together to provide a structure that gathers and reports information to meet your firm’s internal and external reporting needs.

The four components are:

• Organizational (or profit center) structure
• WBS or project structure
• Labor code structure for labor cost
• Chart of accounts structure for expenses

See the discussion of the WBS in the Concepts section of the help to learn more about the work breakdown structure, including guidelines that you can use to plan your own WBS.