This topic provides a step-by-step discussion of the project budget process within Costpoint. Specifically, it provides the steps to make your project budgets appear in various reports and inquiry screens. The discussion centers on the series of steps required rather than detailing how each screen is completed. For a complete discussion of each screen noted in the topic, please see the appropriate documentation.
If you plan to enter hourly budgets by GLC or PLC, you may find it helpful to enter the average cost rates for the categories on the Manage Average Cost GLC Rates screen or the Manage Average Cost PLC Rates screen. If you enter the budgeted hours on the Manage GLC Total Budget screen or the Manage PLC Total Budget screen, these rates default in and are multiplied by the hours to arrive at the budgeted cost for a given labor category.
If you want to enter subperiod, period, or year-to-date budgets, and total project budgets, go to Step 8. If you want to enter only total project budgets, enter these on the Manage Project Total Budget screen (the PROJ_TOT_BUD_DIR, PROJ_TOT_BUD_IND, and PROJ_TOT_BUD_FEE tables). Note that you cannot obtain a contract-to-date budget, which is a total project budget at a specific point in time. You can get only a total contract budget that provides a budget for the entire project, regardless of the point in time.
You can enter a total project budget for each organization. The sum of these budgets forms the total budget for the project. If you do not want this level of tracking, enter one budget for the entire company and use the owning organization of the project as the organization.
Use the main screen to enter direct costs and their fees. Use the Indirect subtask of the Manage Project Total Budget screen to enter the burdens, cost of money, and the fees on the burdens. Note that when you enter the Budget %, you must manually enter the burden and cost of money amounts also. Because virtually an endless number of pool configurations is possible, you cannot enter an indirect rate percentage and have Costpoint automatically calculate the indirect costs for a given direct cost amount. For this reason, we recommend that you use the Apply Indirect Costs to Budgets screen. This utility, which is available only with Project Budgets By Period, reviews your pool configuration to determine the proper amount of burden from each pool regardless of the configuration. It then enters the burden amounts and cost of money amounts on the Indirect subtask. This utility ensures that your burden configuration for budgets matches the burden configuration that you are using for your incurred costs.
You can view the entire Project/Organization Budget in summary on the Total Budget subtask of the Manage Project Total Budget screen. Use the Manual Fee Override group box in this subtask to override, either by percentage or amount, each row on the Manage Project Total Budget screen. In addition, you can increase the row of the main screen or the Manual Fee Override group box by using the Other or Additional Fee group box.
To enter hourly budgets by PLC or GLC for the total project, use the Manage GLC Total Budget screen or the Manage PLC Total Budget screen (PROJ_TOT_BUD_PLC, PROJ_TOT_BUD_GLC). Hourly budgets do not appear on the Project Status Report, but you can view them on the View Project Activity, View Project Activity by Level, and View Project Ledger Activity screens.
When your Project Total Budgets are complete, execute the Update Budget Report Tables screen. This populates the Project Status Report tables (PSR_BUD_PDXX, where "XX" is the period number updated). You must repeat this process for each period for which you want to print the Project Total Budget on your Project Status Reports (PSRs).
Execute the Update Project Status Report Table screen to update the Project Status Report tables (PSR_HDR and PSR_FINAL_DATA). You must execute this process for each period for which you want information on the PSR. You must do this step even if you plan to use the Inquiry screens (Project Inquiry, Project Inquiry by Level, and Project Ledger Inquiry) and do not want to print the PSR.
To use the Inquiry screens, go to Step 7. To print the budget information on the PSR, use the Print Project Status Report screen and select the Total Contract Budget option in the list of column information in the Include group box. Note that you can print only the Total Contract Budget information; Current Subperiod Budget, Current Period Budget, and Year To Date Budget information is not available unless you use the Manage Project Budgets by Period screen.
To view your budget inquiry information on the View Project Activity, View Project Activity by Level, and View Project Ledger Activity screens, you must execute the Create Project Report Tables screen. You can select any option (for example, Revenue Summary, T&M Analysis) on the screen; the inquiry tables are updated regardless of the report selected. Note that, unlike the PSRs, the Inquiry screens do not provide summary (or "rollup") capability; you can view budgets only at the specific level where the data resides.
To enter budget information by subperiod, period, year-to-date, and total project, enter a budget revision on the Manage Budget Revisions screen (PROJ_BUD_RVSN). You can enter an unlimited amount of revisions, or scenarios, for a project/organization combination in a given fiscal year. Mark the revision that is used to update the Project Total Budget with a Y (Yes) in the Current column. This identifies the specific budget revision that is summarized in the period budgets and then used to update Project Total Budget.
On the Manage Project Budgets by Period screen (PROJ_BUD_DIR, PROJ_BUD_IND, PROJ_BUD_FEE), you can enter budget information at the level (subperiod, period, year-to-date) that you want. Use the Spread, Fill, Move, and Escalate subtasks to facilitate the completion of this screen.
As with the Manage Project Total Budget screen, use the main screen to enter direct costs and their fees. Use the Indirect subtask to enter the burdens, cost of money, and the fees on the burdens. Note that when you enter the Budget %, you must manually enter the amount. Because virtually an endless number of pool configurations is possible, you cannot enter an indirect rate percentage and have Costpoint automatically calculate the indirect costs for a given direct cost amount. For this reason, we recommend that you use the Apply Indirect Costs to Budgets screen. This utility, which is available only with the Manage Project Budgets by Period screen, reviews your pool configuration to determine the proper amount of burden from each pool regardless of the configuration. The utility not only updates the Indirect subtask with the proper burden, including cost of money, but also applies the same fee percentage to the indirect costs that was applied to the direct costs on the main screen. This utility ensures that your burden configuration for budgets matches the burden configuration that you are using for your incurred costs.
You can view the entire Project/Organization Budget in summary on the Total Budget subtask of the Manage Project Total Budget screen. Use the Manual Fee Override group box in this subtask to override, either by percentage or amount, each row on the Manage Project Total Budget screen. In addition, you can increase the row of the main screen or the Manual Fee Override group box by using the Other or Additional Fee group box.
As discussed in Step 9, you can use the Apply Indirect Costs to Budgets screen to burden your direct costs. You can use either actual or target rates, but you must enter these rates on the Pool Rates subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen. The burdening process is completed on a current-period basis only (period rate percent times period direct costs). You must execute this process for each period for which you want to apply indirect rates.
Enter budgeted hourly information on the PLC Budgets By Period screen or the Manage GLC Budgets by Period screen (PROJ_BUD_PLC, PROJ_BUD_GLC). Hourly budgets do not appear on the Project Status Report, but you can view them on the View Project Activity, View Project Activity by Level, and View Project Ledger Activity screens. You can also print them on the Project Labor Summary Report.
If you want to track unit budgets, enter this information on the Manage Project Unit Budgets By Period screen (PROJ_BUD_UNITS). In a future Costpoint version, this information will appear in the Project Unit Analysis Report.
If you want to create the information for a total project budget, execute the Update Project Total Budget screen. This process sums the budgets on the Manage Project Budgets by Period screen for the revision marked as Current and inserts the total dollars into Manage Project Total Budget. If you update hours, the Manage PLC Total Budget screen and Manage GLC Total Budget screen are updated. This process allows you to continually add your yearly budgets to the total budget to form a revised total project budget.
To print your subperiod, period, or year-to-date budgets on the PSRs, execute Step 4 (Update Budget Report Tables screen), Step 5 (Update Project Status Report Table screen), and Step 6 (Print Project Status Reports). To view these budgets in the Inquiry screens, complete Step 7 (Create Project Report Tables screen).
To print hourly budgets on the Project Labor Summary Report, you need not complete all the processes noted in Step 14. After completing the Manage PLC Budgets By Period screen or the Manage GLC Budgets by Period screen, execute the Create Project Report Tables screen and select the Labor Summary check box. This updates the Project Labor Summary Report table (RPT_PROJ_LAB_SUM). As noted in Step 6, you can print Total Contract Budget data on the PSR only if you completed the Manage Project Total Budget screen; subperiod, period, and year-to-date budgets are derived from the Manage Project Budgets by Period screen. The hourly budget information on the Project Labor Summary Report works differently. To print the hourly budgets on this report, you must complete the Manage GLC Budgets by Period or Manage PLC Budgets By Period screen. When you execute the Create Project Report Tables screen, these tables are the source for subperiod, period, and year-to-date hourly budgets, and the total project hourly budgets on the Project Labor Summary Report.