Project Creation and Processing: Project Lifecycle

In MYOB Advanced, a project is a one-time or recurring endeavor with a specific scope, time frame, and budget. The following sections describe the common stages of a project lifecycle.

Project Stages

The following diagram shows the stages a project goes through and the statuses it is assigned from the project’s initiation to its completion.

Project Estimation

During the project estimation stage, you specify project settings on the Projects (PM301000) form, define activities, estimate the time required for the completion of each project task, and populate the project with employees, resources, and equipment. Each project is assigned the In Planning status once it has been created and saved in the system.

Projects and project tasks with the In Planning status cannot be selected in any documents, except for the following types of documents that are available for planning:

• Employee activities. For instance, you can add an employee activity for planning budgets for project tasks. However, the transactions generated for any of these activities cannot be released until the corresponding project and project task are assigned the Active status.
• Project commitments (purchase orders and subcontracts). Planned project commitments could be processed after the corresponding project and project task are assigned the Active status.

Project Acceptance

The acceptance stage includes reaching an agreement with all the stakeholders, including customers and employees, as well as estimating the budget for the project and the expenditures it will entail.

If the approval of projects is required in your system, the project is submitted for approval and is assigned the Pending Approval status once it is taken off hold. The project has this status until it is approved or rejected on the Approvals (EP503010) form by an assigned employee. If approved, the project is assigned the Active status. If rejected, the project is assigned the In Planning status and requires additional changes before it can be submitted for approval again. For more information on approvals, see Approval of Projects and Project-Related Activities.

Project Execution

During the execution stage, the project is in progress and project transactions can be posted to it. In this stage, the project retains the Active status. Active projects and their project tasks are available for selection on the forms of the functional areas in which the projects are visible. When you create a project-related transaction or document, you need to specify the particular project and project task to indicate that this transaction or document must be tracked within the project; also, you can specify whether the transaction or document is billable. Transactions in which the non-project code is specified are not tracked in any project.

If any budget changes occur during the course of the project, the system preserves the initial budget amounts, and tracks the revised figures for the project budget.

Project Completion

Project tasks are completed individually; the completion of a project task does not affect the completion of the project to which the task belongs. Once the project is finished, the project accountant completes it by manually assigning it the Completed status, and analyzes the project profitability. Project transactions can no longer be posted to a project with the Completed status.