You can track the progress on your projects by watching the actual time/expense spent. The Project Line information is rolled up to Project Phase and Project - and you can use the standard reporting (dashboard) facilities to create your reports.


In addition to just accumulating time/expenses, you can add more information to get also Earned Value Management (based on EIA-748) information.


Add Plan Information

In Project Line add

  • Planned Effort
  • Planned Start / End

This information is then rolled up to the Phase/Project.


For your resources, add cost/h information in the Resource tab.


Prevent Project Overage

If you defined Planned Effort on Project Line, you can see the status of how many hours were entered for the project or line directly in the Timesheet, Timer, etc.:

 

You can also prevent, that users charge more time for a particular Project Line with a Planned Effort. If enabled, the user gets an error message, that they can only charge up to the Planned Effort (e.g. 3 hours 'left' and the user entered 5) - or when the Planned Effort is reached for that Project Line, the user cannot select the the line any longer.


To enable: in > Setup > Custom Settings -- Manage Accorto Settings

- set T&E Entry: Project Overage to all

You can restrict the overage also for only certain Project Line Line Types (user definable Picklist) - enter the name(s), separated by comma.


You can query the Overage restricted Project Lines via the field Overage (accorto__Project_Line__c.accorto__IsOverage__c).



Add Status Information

Maintain Progress on Project and Project Line independently:

  • Ahead of Plan
  • As Planned
  • Behind Plan
  • Critical

It is a general indicator and is manually maintained. The information is also used in the Gantt chart.


In Project Line, enter the Percent Complete. 

Alternatively (actually better), you can enter the Remaining Effort and the Percent Complete Estimate is calculated based on the Actual Effort entered so far. The Percent Complete Estimate is calculated based on Plan and Actual and optionally the remaining effort.


Example: Planned Effort = 100h, Actual Effort = 80h - resulting in Percent Complete Estimate = 80%.


If you enter Remaining Effort = 20, it remains at 80% - if the Remaining Effort = 80, the Percent Complete Estimate = 50%.

In Gantt, we use the Percent Complete if entered (>0) - otherwise the Percent Complete Estimate.

Entering/maintaining the Remaining Effort significantly increases the project status accuracy.


Instead of entering the Remaining Effort manually in the Project Line, you can capture the Remaining Effort in the Timesheet directly (Note that the last T&E Item (date) referencing the Project Line "wins"):

  • Setup > Custom Settings - Manage: Accorto Settings
  • Click Edit (or New in Default Organization Level Value section)
  • Locate T&E Timesheet: Show Remaining and enter: yes
  • Click Save

For Earned Value to be calculated correctly you need

  • Planned Effort
  • Actual Effort
  • Resource Costs
  • Percent Complete (entered directly or via Remaining Effort)

The information from the T&E Items is included in the Project info, once the T&E Item/Report is approved.



Project Budget

On Project Line you can enter the Planned Cost Budget. This is total of the resource hours multiplied by the resource cost per hour (based on resource pricing). If you need to budget also for expense amounts, create a custom field to track the expense part.  The Planned Cost Budget is also summarized on Project Level.


After updating the current project information (see below), the Estimated Budget Amount is available and the calculations Current Budget Remaining (the amount) and Current Budget Used (percent).  The Estimated Budget Amount is similar to the Estimated Cost Amount, but excludes Activity Types marked with Exclude from Project Budget.  This allows to maintain a project budget without, e.g. travel time/expenses.  The Estimated Budget Amount is the sum of hours for the project line multiplied by the resource costs per hour using resource pricing.


The Estimated Budget Amount, Current Budget Remaining and Current Budget Used are also available on Project Level.



Actual Project Information

The Project Line actual information is derived from approved Time+Expense Items.  T+E Items need to be approved to be used in billing.


After the T+E Items are approved, the following information is automatically updated:

  • Actual Effort, Actual Effort Billable, Actual Effort Non Billable
  • Percent Complete
  • Actual Expenses
The information in rolled up to the Project Level.



Current Project Information

The Project Line current information is derived from all Time+Expense Items. It provides a snapshot of all T+E Items entered, even if not (yet) approved. You update the the current/actual information via the "Recalculate Actuals" buttons on Project, Project list, Project Line and Project Line list views.
Actual + Current Project Information


After executing the Recalculate Actuals process, the following Project Line information is updated:

  • Current Effort, Current Effort Billable
  • Estimated Cost Amount (hours * estimated cost rate)
  • Estimated Billing Amount (fixed price or billable hours * estimated billing rate)
The information is rolled up to the Project.

The Recalculate Actuals process also updates The Billing/Cost Rate of the Item, if the Project Lines are not Completed.


The following information is maintained on Project Line level (only):
  • Estimated Billing Effort (billable hours * estimated billing rate) - also for fixed price projects
  • Estimated Margin [amount] (estimated billing amount - estimated cost amount)
  • Estimated Margin Effort [amount] (estimated billing effort - estimated cost amount)
If required you can easily via formulas create Margin Percent and roll up that information to Project level.
For details on how the estimated billing and costs rates are calculated, see Billing and Resource Pricing.


Updating Current Information


Ad hoc

  • Pre-Billing - click button: Query or Start Batch
  • Project - click link: Recalculate Actuals
  • Project - Project Line Related List - select lines and click Recalculate Line Actuals
  • Project Line - click link: Recalculate Line Actuals

If you do not see the links, add them to your Page Layout.


Scheduled

> Setup > Apex Classes - Schedule Apex

-- select Apex Class TEPreBillingUpdate

-- specify frequency and start/end

This updates Time+Expense Lines which are not invoiced and created within the last 90 days



Scenarios (Examples)

Usually only a subset of information is used, depending on the scenarios. Examples:

  • Time & Material
  • Time & Material, including travel, but the budget plan excludes travel time
  • Fixed Price and you want to know how it would look like as Time & Material 

You can hide the remaining fields.

In the examples below field with "=" indicate formulas "==" indicate calculations, e.g. via Recalculate Actuals - the 


Fixed Unit Price

Planned Effort20h
Unit Price (Billing)$100(overwrites Resource Prices)!
Planned Amount Total= $2.00020h * $100 (Priority: Fixed Charge - Unit Price - Planned Rate) * Planned Effort Billable


Fixed Price

Planned Effort20h
Unit Price (Billing)$100(ignored)
Fixed Charge Amount$2.200(overwrites!)
Planned Amount Total= $2.200(Priority: Fixed Charge - Unit Price - Planned Rate)


Resource Price

Planned Effort20h
Unit Price (Billing)emptywould otherwise be Fixed Unit Price scenario
Fixed Charge Amountemptywould otherwise be Fixed Price scenario
Planned Average Rate$110enter (if empty derived from Fixed Charge amount or Resource Price)
Planned Amount Total= $2.200 (Priority: Fixed Charge - Unit Price - Planned Rate) * Planned Effort Billable


Budgeting (Cost)

Planned Budget Services$1000
Estimated Budget Services Amount== $750Sum of all not excluded T+E Item Hours[17-2] * Estimated Cost Rate[50] (Recalculate Actual)
Current Budget Services Remaining= $250(Planned Cost Budget - Estimated Budget Amount) 
Current Budget Services Used= 75%  


Planned/Actual Effort

Planned Effort Billable18henter (defaults to Planned Effort if Billable) (used to calculate Planned Amount Total)
Planned Effort Non Billable= 2h(Planned Effort Billable - Planned Effort)
Actual Effort == 10Sum of  approved T+E Item hours (Recalculate Actual)
Actual Effort Billable== 9Sum of approved T+E Item Billable Hours 
Actual Effort Non Billable= 1(Sum of  approved T+E Item hours - Billable Hours)


Current 

Current Effort== 17hSum of all T+E Hours (in this example 10 of the 17 are approved)
Current Effort Billable== 15hSum of all T+E Item Billable Hours (Recalculate Actual)
Current Effort Not Billable = 2h(Sum of all T+E Hours - Billable Hours)
Estimated Cost Amount== $850Sum of all T+E Hours[17h] * Estimated Resource Cost Rate [$50]
Estimated Billing Effort== $1650(if not fixed price, Sum of all T+E Billable Hours[15h] * T+E Item Estimated Billing Rate [$110])
Estimated Billing Amount= $1650(Fixed Charge Amount or Estimated Billing Effort)
Estimated Margin = $800(Fixed Charge Amount or  Estimated Billing Effort) - Estimated Cost Amount
Estimated Margin Effort = $800 Estimated Billing Effort - Estimated Cost Amount


Expenses

Planned Budget Expenses1000
Current Expenses== 800Sum of Entered expenses (Recalculare Actual)
Actual Expenses== 600Sum of Approved expenses (Recalculare Actual)
Current Budget Expenses Remaining= 200Planned Budget Expenses - Current Expenses