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Lesson 3: Analyze your project's success to date

You will take a quick look at some key reports that can help you monitor and track your project's success. With Ajera, several reports that help you quickly monitor your project are located right in the Project Command Center.

Here's a quick list of what you may want to see and where you'll get to it in Ajera. The remainder of this lesson describes each report in more detail.

To do this	Use this report	Find it here
Determine if your project is on time and on budget	Progress report unavailable in ajeraCore	Project Command Center (Setup > Projects > Progress tab)
Get a quick look at your project's budget and schedule	Plan report unavailable in ajeraCore	Project Command Center (Setup > Projects > Plan tab)
Review the detail on a project's billing, cost, and profit	Project Earnings report	> Reports > Project > Project Earnings
Review budget to actual cost on your project	Project Profit report	> Reports > Project > Project Profit
Review billing on the project	Billing report	> Reports > Project > Billing Report
Review client invoices	Invoices	Project Command Center ( (Setup > Projects > Invoices tab)
Review other information or investigate data not reported elsewhere	Reports Inquiry	Reports menu Inquiry menu

Determine if your project is on time and on budget

Use the Progress report to help you determine if a project is on time and on budget. You can compare the amount you spent on your project against the budgeted amount and the reported percent complete amount on a project-to-date basis.

With this report, you can perform Earned Value Analysis (EVA), an industry-standard method of determining the progress of a phase or project at any point in time. EVA compares forecasted completion dates and estimated costs to work that was completed (earned). The report illustrates the comparison in a three-line graph, which shows the variance among schedule, budget, and earned.

How to get the most out of it

To get the most benefit from this report, be sure to maintain this information for the project in the Project Command Center (Setup > Projects > Manage tab):

Estimated start and complete dates
RPC (Reported Percent Complete)
Contract amount

In this way, you give Ajera good data for your report, as long as you enter and update the budget and its dates to the phase level.

Where to see it

Open the project (click Setup > Projects. In the project list at the top of the window, click the project.)
Click the Progress tab.

What it looks like

Get a quick look at your project's budget and schedule

Use the Plan report to review a project's budgeting and scheduling information.

How to get the most out of it

To build the report, Ajera uses the information you enter and maintain in the Project Command Center (Setup > Projects > Manage tab).

The more detail you add to your project on the Manage tab, the more detailed your Plan report will be.

Where to see it

Open the project (click Setup > Projects. In the project list at the top of the window, click the project.)
Click the Plan tab.

What it looks like

Review the detail on a project's billing, cost, and profit

Use the Project Earnings report to obtain a complete picture of your projects including billing, cost, and profit.

You can do the following with this report:

Review work-in-progress (WIP) and Receivables balances.
See a write-off amount when the WIP amount has been manually changed or the WIP status has been changed to Write-off.
Optionally include overhead expenses in your project labor cost.
Print it with labor only, or include expenses and or consultants.

You can summarize information by project manager, principal in charge, project type, or department. You can drill down to project, phase, and full detail information.

Where to see it

From the Reports menu, click Project > Project Earnings.

What it looks like

Review budget to actual cost on your project

Use the Project Profit report to review what was spent in a selected period and project-to-date. It provides you with a quick look at budget-to-actual values including your hours and amounts for labor, expenses, and consultants. It shows percent spent and percent of profit for each project, along with budget amounts.

You can summarize information by project manager, principal in charge, project type, or department. You can drill down to project, phase, and full detail information.

How to get the most out of it

Enter a budget for your projects (in the Project Command Center: Setup > Projects > Manage tab).

Where to see it

From the Reports menu, click Project > Project Profit.

What it looks like

Review billing on the project

Use the Billing report to make informed billing decisions. Improving the turnaround on invoices helps improve cash flow.

Preview potential billings by looking at the project summary or reviewing every billable item on each project. Use the report as a worksheet to adjust billable items and to note percent and amounts to bill for fee- type invoices.

The report shows a summary of contract amounts, prior billed, and current WIP amounts by project and phase along with detail of all unbilled WIP. It shows contact information such as client, phone number, and email address. It also shows reported percent complete to assist in the billing decision.

You can summarize by billing manager, principal in charge, project type, or department. You can drill down to project, phase, and full unbilled detail information.

Where to see it

From the Reports menu, click Project > Billing Report.

Note that the report also prints automatically when you view a client invoice (if the invoice format for the client invoice has the Print check box selected in Setup > Invoice Formats > Supporting Detail tab > Support Options). When it prints with a draft client invoice, it has a title of Pre-Billing Worksheet; for final invoices, it has a title of Invoice Supporting Detail.

You can view the Pre-Billing Worksheet and the invoice from the Project Command Center by following the instructions in the next section, Review client invoices.

What it looks like

Review client invoices

To see a list of invoices and review an invoice:

Open the project (click Setup > Projects. In the project list at the top of the window, click the project).
Click the Invoices tab.
Click Preview Invoice for the invoice you want to review.
If your firm is using billing review, you can approve the invoice in the Billing Review History area above the invoice. On the next available row, complete the fields as needed, and click Save.

Review other information or investigate data not reported elsewhere

Be sure to explore the other reports and inquiries. They provide additional information that is often reviewed in architectural and engineering firms.

Use inquiries if you want to customize information (such as adding or moving columns), or if you want to research a specific issue.