Project Budget: Implementation Checklist
The following sections provide details you can use to ensure that the system is configured properly for managing project budgets, and to understand (and change, if needed) the settings that affect the processing workflow.
Implementation Checklist
We recommend that before you initially manage project budgets, 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 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form | Make sure that the Project Accounting feature is 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, on the General tab (General Settings section), make sure that Summary is selected in the Revenue Budget Update box and Detailed is selected in the Cost Budget Update box. |
If you are going to use inventory items in the revenue budget of your projects, on the General tab, select Detailed in the Revenue Budget Update box. With this option selected, if a transaction has an inventory item specified and the revenue budget has no line with this item, the system creates a new budget line with this item. With the Summary option selected (the default option), the system updates the revenue budget line with the empty item code (N/A) instead of the inventory item of the transaction if such a line exists. If no such line exists, the system creates a new budget line with the empty item code. The system updates the cost budget similarly, based on the option selected in the Cost Budget Update box on the General tab. |
| Account Groups (PM201000) form | Make sure that all needed account groups have been configured. For more information about account groups, see Account Groups: General Information. | |
| Non-Stock Items (IN202000) form | Make sure that all needed labor items, non-stock items, and services have been defined. For more information, see Labor Items: General Information, Creating Non-Stock Items: General Information, and Creating Service Items: General Information, respectively. | |
| Projects (PM301000) form |
Make sure that the project has been created, as described in Project Creation and Processing: General Information. Also, on the Summary tab (Project Properties section), make sure that Task is selected in the Revenue Budget Level box and Task and Item is selected in the Cost Budget Level box. |
If you need to make the revenue budget more detailed by adding the inventory item to the budget structure, on the Summary tab, select Task and Item in the Revenue Budget Level box. With this setting, a user can select an inventory item in a revenue budget line. If you need to make the cost budget less detailed by excluding the inventory item from the budget structure, on the Summary tab, select Task in the Cost Budget Level box. With this setting, a user will not be able to select an inventory item in a cost budget line. |
Other Settings That Affect the Workflow
You can affect the workflow of managing the project budget by specifying additional settings as follows:
- To allow a user to enter subcontract lines and purchase order lines related to a project if the particular project budget key in these lines was not initially specified in the cost budget of the project, select the Allow Adding New Items on the Fly check box on the Projects form.
- To cause the system to control whether an entered document is within the cost budget of a project, select Show a Warning in the Budget Control box on the General (General Settings section) tab of the Projects Preferences.
- To rename the default empty item code (<N/A>), which is selected in a project budget line to indicate that no specific item is associated with the line, specify the needed value in the Empty Item Code box on the General tab (General Settings section) of the Projects Preferences (PM101000) form.
With these settings and entities specified, users in your company can manage the project budget 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 in your system, you manage the project budget by performing instructions similar to those described in Project Budget: To Configure and Update the Budget.