Planning Overview

Use Vision Planning to construct and manage resource plans for opportunities and projects. In Planning, you provide performance and utilization data at project levels and Vision consolidates this information so that project managers can run their jobs effectively and department leaders can allocate their resources properly.

When you use Planning, you can assign, budget, and forecast all resource hours, expense costs, and consultant costs across the life cycle of a project. You can also specify actual employees or generic labor category placeholders to represent the resource assignments that power the plan. The ability to integrate these processes into your business allows you to manage both projects and resources.

When you create a plan, you can answer the following key questions for developing new business opportunities:

  • How long will it take to deliver this project? How much will it cost? Project Planning makes it possible for you to build the project's structure, schedule the plan's work, and develop realistic estimates of labor, expense, and consultant costs.

    To make the process of creating plans easier, you can use historical plans or project records as starting points for constructing new plans, or import a plan from MS Project. You can also export Vision plans to MS Project.

    If you use Vision Accounting and Vision Info Center, you can create links between the structures in your plans and the Project Info Center work breakdown structure (WBS) by referencing the correct identifiers for all the records involved — records, phases, tasks, employees, and accounts. "Mapping" your plans in this way will make it possible for you to include actual hours and amounts in your plan and have Vision update them automatically, based on your posted and unposted transactions elsewhere in Vision.

  • Who will work on the project? What kind of resources are available to deliver this project? Resource Management gives you the ability to select the resources needed to perform the tasks to complete current assignments.
  • How can I see a quick "what-if" calculation to help estimate the number of hours needed to complete a project? Use the Budget Calculator to run planning scenarios to estimate the number of hours needed based on anticipated compensation, consultant fees, contingency amounts, and average rates.
  • How can I see the variance between a project's total planned value and the estimate at completion? Use the Spread Variance feature to select the plans; Labor, Expenses, or Consultants grids; and date basis for which to spread the variances.
  • Where can I view a summary of plan data? Use the planning reports for multiple views of data contained primarily within the project plans or employee assignments. Project managers, team leaders, and other managers in your firm may want to review historical, forecast, and performance data by project plan and/or by resource.

Related Topics:

  • Checklist: Planning Quick Start
    If you are new to Planning, review the process that you use to create a new project plan.
  • Planning Tips
    If you are new to Vision, you may find it helpful to review tips for the Planning application.
  • Planning Configuration Settings and Planning
    You can configure Vision Planning's system-wide and plan-specific functions to match your business requirements. The system-wide functions impact all Planning users, while the plan-specific functions are tailored to each user.
  • Project Planning Overview
    Project Planning allows you to develop full plans for opportunities or projects, create new plans, copy and modify existing plans, and run hypothetical project scenarios.
  • Resource Management Overview
    Vision's Resource Management application gives you control over resource utilization, budgeting, and planning in a dynamic business environment. Designed to work directly with Project Planning, Resource Management provides immediate feedback as changes and updates are made to plans. Use this information to evaluate impacted resources, and their affected utilization and budgets.
  • Budget Calculator Overview
    When you are in the planning stage, you may find it helpful to run "what-if" scenarios to determine the number of hours required to complete a project. You can do this with the Budget Calculator.
  • Spread Variance Overview
    Variance is the difference between a project's total planned value and its actual work hours. Use this information to keep track of project and resource progress. The Spread Variance feature spreads a plan's unused numbers forward across an assignment row.
  • Planning Reports Overview
    Use the Vision Planning reports to see different views of employee assignments and the data in project plans. Project managers, team leaders, and other managers in your firm can review historical, forecast, and performance data by project plan or by resource.
  • iAccess for Vision Integration Overview
    Vision Planning integrates with iAccess for Vision to make it possible for you to manage complex projects through an alternative, streamlined application.
  • Planning Troubleshooting
    If you encounter a problem using the Planning application, you may find it helpful to review frequently asked questions.
Parent Topic: Welcome to the Deltek Vision Help System