The Costpoint to Cobra Integration tool is designed to automate the loading of actual costs from Costpoint to Cobra. This tool is flexible and can be used to accommodate the highly configurable nature of both the Costpoint and Cobra systems. Once you have successfully configured the integration, you can run the Cobra Extraction process from the Compute Cobra Burden Costs screen in Costpoint. Only those familiar with both the structure of the Costpoint and Cobra systems should complete the initialization and processing of the Cobra Integration. Use the following steps for loading actual costs from Costpoint to Cobra.
The purpose of these templates is to map the Costpoint structures to the Cobra structures. The structure of each Cobra program is highly configurable by a user. You can use a key data field such as work package or WBS in one Cobra program in a different way (or not at all) in another Cobra program. In order to load actual costs from Costpoint to Cobra, the information must be defined or linked to the Cobra data. These templates make it easy to replicate linking across projects.
Charge Templates — These templates are initialized and maintained in the Manage Cobra Charge Templates screen. They identify how the Costpoint project/organization information is linked to the Cobra cost account or work package. You can link the Project ID, Project ID less Level 1, Project Abbreviation, Project/Organization ID combination, Project User-defined fields, or Project less Level 1/Organization ID combination in Costpoint to a work package or work package code (if you are collecting costs at the work package level in Cobra) or to the WBS, WBS and OBS combination, or a code on the cost account in Cobra. Create as many charge templates as you need to establish the linkages for all Costpoint projects and Cobra programs.
Budget Element Templates — These templates are initialized and maintained in the Manage Cobra Budget Element Templates screen. They are used to establish the relationship between Costpoint labor and non-labor information and Cobra budget elements. Using this template, you create a labor rule for mapping Costpoint labor charge information to Cobra budget elements using PLCs, GLCs, Employee ID, Project Labor Category User-Defined fields, or an Advanced SQL definition. Skill-based bid codes used to determine average labor rates for estimating in Cobra are examples of Cobra budget elements that can be linked to Costpoint GLCs or PLCs.
You should consider using GLCs to link budget elements if you are a first time user. Under most circumstances you must avoid using employee ID to link budget elements as you must adjust the budget or explain variances each time there is a staff change. For non-labor accounts, Cobra does not generally require the same level of detail for non-labor accounts as is required in Costpoint. You can link most Costpoint non-labor accounts to one Cobra budget element. However, you must address the needs of each Cobra program and Costpoint project individually.
You can use wildcard characters to link Costpoint non-labor accounts to Cobra budget elements.
Cost Templates — These templates are initialized and maintained on the Manage Cobra Cost Templates screen. They are used to map Costpoint hours, direct costs, indirect cost pools, and Cost of Money (COM) to Cobra results. The Hours and Direct cost elements in Costpoint cannot be edited but can be mapped to the same Cobra result, if available, or another Cobra result that serves the same function. Most companies have multiple fringe, overhead, and general and administrative pools in Costpoint. Generally this level of detail is not necessary in Cobra and many fringe and overhead pools can be mapped to one Cobra result.
On the Configure Cobra Interface Settings screen, you need to specify the location of your Cobra Software Location and your output file folders. The location of your Cobra program and output folders must be already be set up in Manage Alternate File Location screen. You can also select default charge, budget element, and cost templates on the Configure Cobra Interface Settings screen after you create them in their respective screens (see Step 1: Create the Default Charge, Budget Element, and Cost Templates).
This optional step links the Costpoint projects to the Cobra programs. You can perform this step on the Manage Cobra Program Mapping screen. It is only required if the Cobra program is different from the Costpoint top-level project number and/or you want to send the project data at a level above the level where the data is recorded in Costpoint. See the online help on Manage Cobra Program Mapping screen for more information.
You can create extractions on the Manage Cobra Extraction Parameters screen in Costpoint. The parameter IDs that you enter when you create the extractions are used in the Compute Cobra Burden Cost screen. Use the extraction parameter tool to associate the templates and other options to Costpoint projects and Cobra run-time options. You can create as many parameters as you need for all Costpoint projects and Cobra programs.
In addition to the templates, there are several other features that you can use to load data into Cobra:
Rates — Use this feature to choose whether to use target or actual rates for the burden costs to be loaded into Cobra.
Values — Use this feature to establish the values to be used in the extraction: Hours Only, Hours and Labor Dollars, Hours and Direct Dollars, and Hours and Total Dollars.
Timeframe — Use this feature to choose the timeframe for which you want to collect actual costs in Costpoint. The options are sub-period, period, and inception-to-date. Use the sub-period feature to extract actual costs for the sub-period to analyze the progress of the project.
Calendar — Use this feature to specify whether or not to automatically advance the Cobra calendar.
Post Valid Transactions — Use this feature to specify whether or not to load data for valid records only. Records containing errors are automatically written to the error log and can be reprocessed at a later time.
If you have set up your Costpoint and Cobra systems to use the Cobra Web Service for integrations, you can enable/disable the Cobra Web Service for each extraction. The following check boxes will be available when you select the Post Valid Transactions check box.
Use Cobra Web Service — Select this check box if you want to use Cobra Web services to transfer data when your run the Compute Cobra Burden Cost process. If this check box is not selected, the Compute Cobra Burden Cost process uses the locally installed Costpoint to Cobra application (CostpointCobra.exe) to transfer data.
Use Asynchronous Call — This check box is only available when the Use Cobra Web Service check box is selected. Select this check box if you want the invocation of the Cobra Web service to be asynchronous. In this case, the Compute Cobra Burden Cost process will not wait for the Cobra Web service to finish the transaction. When the request is sent, the Compute Cobra Burden Cost process continues to run and not wait for responses from Cobra Web services.
If this check box is not selected and the Use Cobra Web Service check box is selected, the invocation of the Cobra Web service will be synchronous. This means the Compute Cobra Burden Cost process waits for the Cobra Web Services to be done with transactions. The Cobra Burden Cost process receives responses from the Web service before continuing to run.
Replace Cost Classes — Use this feature to generate forecasts based on booked actual costs. You can replace a single class or all classes to run special extractions.
Create a CSV File — Use this feature to save the extractions in CSV format.
You must initialize the Manage Prior Year Cobra Costs screen before you run the extraction process to extract inception-to-date actual costs from Costpoint. This allows you to archive prior year costs.
This step is only necessary when you are implementing the interface in the middle of a project’s performance. It is not needed for new projects.
Costpoint calculates burden at the project/account/organization level but Cobra requires burden at the resource level (employee/PLC/GLC). The Compute Cobra Burden Cost screen process uses the Manage Project labor History (LAB_HS table for labor and PROJ_SUM for non-labor) to calculate burden at the resource level for projects that have been identified as Cobra projects.
You can establish a project as a Cobra project on the Manage Project User Flow screen by selecting the Cobra Program check box. Please refer to the Manage Project User Flow online help for more information.
The Compute Cobra Burden Cost process performs following functions:
Computes burden at the resource level using the data on the Manage Project Labor History screen
Updates the Cobra Direct and Indirect tables in Costpoint with the sub-period, period, fiscal year, year-to-date labor, non-labor, and indirect costs and updates prior year information if the copy prior flag is checked.
Updates the fiscal year, period, and sub-period in the Configure Cobra Interface Settings screen.
You can run the Cobra extraction on the Compute Cobra Burden Costs screen by selecting the Compute Cobra Burden and Run Cobra Extraction option in the Extraction group box. You will need to enter a Cobra Extraction Parameter ID that you create on Manage Cobra Extraction Parameter screen. The Cobra extraction process runs after computing burden costs.