Committed Costs: Implementation Checklist
The following sections provide details you can use to ensure that the system is configured properly for processing cost commitments on projects, and to understand (and change, if needed) the settings that affect the processing workflow.
Implementation Checklist
We recommend that before you initially process cost commitments, you make sure the needed features have been enabled, settings have been specified, and entities have been created, as summarized in the following checklist.
| Form | Tasks to Perform |
|---|---|
| Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form |
Make sure the following features are enabled:
|
| Projects Preferences (PM101000) form |
Make sure that all necessary settings related to project accounting have been specified. For more information about configuration steps that you have to perform before you can start accounting for projects, see Basic Project Configuration: General Information. Also, make sure that the Internal Cost Commitment Tracking check box is selected on the General tab (General Settings section). |
| Account Groups (PM201000) form |
Make sure that all needed account groups have been configured and that for all the needed account groups of the Expense type, the Create Commitment check box is selected on the Change Request Settings tab. |
| Projects (PM301000) form | Make sure that the project has been created, as described in Project Creation and Processing: General Information. |
| Vendors (AP303000) form | Make sure that all needed vendors have been defined in the
system, as described in Vendors: General Information. Also, make sure that the expense account of the vendor specified in the Expense Account box on the GL Accounts tab is mapped to an account group. |
| Non-Stock Items (IN202000) form | Make sure that all needed labor items, non-stock items, and
services have been defined. For more information about labor items,
non-stock items, and services, see Labor Items: General Information, Non-Stock Items: General Information, and Service Items: General Information,
respectively. Attention: Make sure that Purchases is selected in
the Post Cost to Expenses box on the
Price/Cost tab; otherwise the
expenses related to the non-stock item will not be recorded to
the cost budget of a project. Also, make sure that the following accounts are mapped to account groups of the Expense type:
|
| Stock Items (IN202500) form | Make sure that all stock items have been defined. For more
information about stock items, see Stock Items: General Information. Also, make sure that the following accounts are mapped to account groups of the Expense type:
|
Other Settings That Affect the Workflow
You can affect the workflow of processing commitments by specifying additional settings as follows:
- To change the format of purchase order identifiers, adjust the POORDER
numbering sequence on the Numbering Sequences (CS201010) form or
create a new numbering sequence and select this sequence in the
Regular Order Numbering Sequence box on the
General tab of the Purchase Orders Preferences
(PO101000) form. For more information on numbering sequences, see Use of Numbering Sequences.Note: If the Require Single Project per Document check box is selected on the Accounts Payable Preferences (AP101000) form, a user can create purchase orders by using the Create Purchase Orders button on the Commitments tab of the Projects (PM301000) form only if the numbering sequence that is used for numbering purchase orders is auto-numbered.
- To cause the system to automatically select a project task when a particular project is selected during the creation of a purchase order, select the Default check box on the Tasks tab of the Projects (PM301000) form for one of the tasks of the project.
- To avoid obligatory printing of created purchase orders, clear the Print Orders check box on the Purchase Settings tab (Default Location Settings section) of the Vendors (AP303000) form for all applicable vendors. (A user can still print any purchase order of the vendor, if needed.)
- To avoid obligatory emailing of created purchase orders, clear the Send Orders by Email check box on the Purchase Settings tab (Default Location Settings section) of the Vendors form for all applicable vendors. (A user can still email any purchase order of the vendor, if needed.)
- To cause the system to automatically release inventory receipts created on release of purchase receipts, select the Release IN Documents Automatically check box on the General Settings tab (Other section) of the Purchase Orders Preferences PO101000 form.
- To cause the system to create purchase receipts with the Balanced status, clear the Hold Receipts On Entry check box on the General tab (Other section) of the Purchase Orders Preferences form.
- To cause the system to not copy non-stock lines of the Service type in purchase orders of the Normal type to purchase receipts and bill such lines directly from purchase orders, clear the Process Service Lines from Normal Purchase Orders via Purchase Receipt check box on the General tab (Other section) of the Purchase Orders Preferences form.
- To cause the system to not copy non-stock lines of the Service type in purchase orders of the Drop-Ship type to purchase receipts and bill such lines directly from purchase orders, clear the Process Service Lines from Drop-Ship Purchase Orders via Purchase Receipt check box on the General tab (Other section) of the Purchase Orders Preferences form.
With these settings specified, users in your company can process commitments quickly and accurately with a minimum of manual actions.
Validation of Configuration
To make sure that all configuration has been performed correctly, we recommend that you perform instructions similar to those described in Committed Costs: Process Activity.