Budget Plan page

You can finalize a budget when all summary budget amounts are distributed to budget items and periods for activities that are in the project charging level.

Budget Details page

You can create budget entries and distribute project estimates only to activities that are in the project charging level. Activities down to and including the specified charging level are available for selection on this page.

When you use the Get Plan feature to create budget details based on activity resources, if resource assignments exist on activities that are in a lower WBS level, a level in the WBS hierarchy that is more indented (deeper) than the current level, than the project charging level, the system rolls the resource costs up to the project charging level for project budgets.

You cannot create budget details for resources that are assigned to activities that are in a higher WBS level than the project charging level.

Budget vs. Actual page

Only activities that are in the project charging level appear on this page for you to evaluate.

Create Project from Microsoft page

You can select the project charging level and time report charging level for new projects that you create from Microsoft Project.

Microsoft Integration Options page

You can select an option to import the entire detailed WBS for a project from Microsoft Project or import the WBS that contains only the project charging level activities.

Microsoft Integration Options page and Project Activities page

The project charging level controls when you can indent or outdent an activity to a different WBS level. You can move activities out of the project charging level to different WBS levels if no transaction rows exist for the activities in these tables:

• Project Transactions Summary (PC_ACTIVITY_SUM)

• Transactions Interface (INTFC_PROJ_RES)

• Project Activity Team Member (PROJ_ACT_TEAM)

• Project Costing Assets (PC_AM_PROJ_DEFN)

• Project Budget Items (PC_BUD_ITEM)

• Contract Line Project Details (CA_DETAIL_PROJ)

• Forecast Time Detail (FC_TIME_DTL)

All Detail Activities

All Detail Activities

Select a project charging level of All Detail Activities to enter transactions on all detail activities (nonsummary), regardless of the WBS level of the activity.

When you select this project charging level, the system selects a time report charging level of All Detail Activities, and time report transactions are recorded in Expenses and sent to Project Costing at the detail activity level.

Activity Costing Level

All Detail Activities

If you capture activity costs at the project charging level, and enter time reports for all detail activities:

• Expenses records time report transactions for any detail activity.

• During the Expenses integration, the system summarizes detail transactions to the project charging level parent activity, and sends the data to the Project Transaction table (PROJ_RESOURCE).

• The Project Transaction table retains the original detail activity ID from the time report as a nonkey attribute.

Note. The system calculates the amount of actual work completed from detail activities that reside in the Project Transactions table, and displays the information on the Resources by Activity page. Even if you capture costs at the project charging level, the Project Transactions table retains the time report activity detail that you enter at the detail level.

Activity Costing Level

Activity Costing Level

Note. You select this time report charging option by clearing the All Detail Activities check box in the Charging Level for Time Report group box.

Select a project charging level of Activity Costing Level to restrict project charging to one specified level of the WBS—level 1, 2, or 3.

Select a time report charging level of Activity Costing Level to charge time only to summary and detail activities that reside in the specified project charging level.

Note. If you charge time reports only at the project charging level, the Project Transactions table will not contain the time report activity detail. Therefore, the actual work calculation for detail activities that are at a lower WBS level than the project charging level are not available on the Resources by Activity page.

Program Management Options

PGM_PROG_MGMT_OPT

Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Business Unit Related, Program Management, Business Unit Options, Program Management Options

Specify program management options, designate the enterprise program tree, and establish various default settings for specific business units.

Health Options

PGM_BU_HLTH_OPT

Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Business Unit Related, Program Management, Business Unit Options, Health Options tab

Specify default project health options.

Tree Name

Select an enterprise tree or enter the name of a new tree, and click the Initialize Enterprise Tree button. This is the enterprise tree that is associated with the selected business unit.

Initialize Enterprise Tree

Click to create a new enterprise program tree for the business unit. You must enter the name of the new tree in the Tree Name field before you can initialize the tree.

Calendar ID

Select the calendar that is used for project requests that are within the selected business unit. This calendar determines the periods and years into which users can enter project request costs and benefits. The calendar that is specified should contain entries for years as far into the future as you anticipate that users will forecast benefits and returns on any given request. For instance, if the organization intends to use project requests to approve capital requests for large-scale assets such as land and buildings, you are likely to need 30 or more future years' worth of entries set up in the calendar that you specify.

Note. Avoid using daily detail calendars for project requests because such calendars result in many rows of data. Instead, use monthly calendars (preferred), or if you need more details for budgeting purposes, use weekly calendars.

Template

Select a template that defines the default change control settings for projects and activities that are created within the selected business unit.

Add or Modify Templates

Click this link to access the Change Control Template page, on which you can specify change control attributes for projects, activities, transactions, budget plans, resources, and estimates to complete.

See Controlling Project Changes.

Manual

Select to manually enter the start date, end date, and duration for projects on the Project General page and for activities on the Project Activities page. The system does not perform any date calculation.

Delay Calculations Until Save

Select to have the system roll up activity start and end dates to summary activities at save time.

This is the default option in Program Management.

Realtime Calculations

Select to have the system roll up activity start and end dates to summary activities as soon as you change the detail activity dates.

Note. For optimal performance, do not select this option if you have large work breakdown structures, such as those with greater than 100 activities and 4 levels.

Hours per Day

Enter the number of hours that define a work day for this business unit. The system uses this field to calculate the duration in days.

Schedule Method

Select the default method for calculating schedules in the business unit. The scheduling method determines what element of a project schedule remains constant when one of the three scheduling variables (work, duration, or units) changes.

Select one of these scheduling methods:

• Fixed Duration: When a schedule is calculated or recalculated, the variable that remains constant is the total amount of time in which assigned labor resources must complete an activity.

  You should not select this option if you select Duration in the Project Calculation Method or Activity Calculation Method fields.

• Fixed Units: When a schedule is calculated or recalculated, the variable that remains constant is the number of labor resource units that are assigned to an activity.

• Fixed Work: When a schedule is calculated or recalculated, the variable that remains constant is the total amount of work, measured in hours or days, that assigned labor resources require to complete an activity.

Project Calculation Method and Activity Calculation Method

Select the default method for calculating schedules at the project and activity levels. Select one of these methods:

• Duration: The duration is determined from the start date and end date that is entered for the project or activity. You should not select this option if you select Fixed Duration in the Schedule Method field.

• End Date: The end date of the schedule is determined based upon the start date and the duration entered for the project or activity.

• Start Date: The start date of the schedule is calculated based on the duration and end date that is entered for the project or activity.

Project Calendar

Select a default calendar that is used for calculating schedules at the project and activity levels. The system uses this calendar to determine business holidays and nonwork days and factor them into the calculation of start dates, end dates, and durations.

Automatic Forecast Approval

Select this option to indicate that project managers do not have to approve forecasts to make them accessible to Program Management for the purposes of time, cost, and revenue forecasts. Clear the option to indicate that approval is required on the forecast review page before forecasts can be used.

Note. Forecast data is available for utilization calculations, with or without approval.

Forecast Level

Select Project or Project/Activity to indicate the default level at which forecasting occurs in this business unit for each project.

Warning! If forecasting occurs at the project level, the activity is not required when entering a forecast. This affects the ability to report forecasts at the activity level. Choose Project only if you do not need activity level time, cost, and revenue forecasts.

Standard Rate

Select to determine where the system obtains standard cost rates and bill rates when generating estimates. Project estimates are based on the cost and bill rates that are associated with a job code, resource, or role.

All Detail Activities

Select to enable users to charge transactions on all detail activities regardless of an activity's WBS level. This is the default project charging level.

Activity Costing Level

Select a costing level of 1, 2, or 3, to restrict charging to a single costing level of the WBS. Users can charge to both summary and detail activities that reside in the specified costing level.

Charging Level for Time Reports

Select All Detail Activities to enable time reporting in Expenses at the detail level, even though all transactions are entered at the costing level.

Clear this option to require time reporting at the same costing level as specified for the project.

Note. This group box appears if you use Expenses and select an Activity Costing Level for the Project Charging Level. If you select All Detail Activities as the project charging level, the system automatically selects All Detail Activities as the time report charging level.

Restrict Rate Types

Select to restrict rate types for named and generic resources. Doing so limits the rate types that you can select for cost and bill rates on the Resources and Resources by Activity pages. Additionally, the rate options that are available on the Rate Sets - Target page are based on the rate types that you specify for the project business unit.

If you do not restrict rate types, select the default bill and cost rate types that appear on the Resources and Resources by Activity pages for named resources and generic resources.

Bill and Cost (Named Resource)

Select the specific bill and cost rate types that you want to be available when you add a named resource to the project or activity team. From the rate types that you select, you must specify one of them as the default rate type. You can override the default rate type on the Resources and Resources by Activity pages with another rate type that you select on this page.

Available options are:

Custom: Users enter the resource's rate type when they add a resource.

Employee: The system assigns the rate that is set up for the employee on the Rates by Employee page in Project Costing.

Job Code: The system assigns the rate that is set up for the employee's job code on the Rates by Job Code page in Project Costing.

Project Role: The system assigns the rate that is set up for the employee's project role on the Rates by Role page in Project Costing.

Bill and Cost (Generic Resource)

Select the specific bill and cost rate types that you want to be available when you add a generic resource to the project or activity team. You must select a default rate type from the rate types you select. You can override the default rate type on the Resources and Resources by Activity pages with another rate type that you select on this page.

Available options are Custom and Project Role.

Project Health Indicator

Select one or more default health indicators that the system uses to measure how well a project or activity is doing in this business unit. The health indicators that you select appear on the Manager Workbench and Activity pages.

The indicator options are:

• Blank (none selected): The health indicator that is on the Manager Workbench page does not appear for any project or activity belonging to the specified business unit.

• % Risks Without Action Plan: Percentage of project risks that have no action plan for the selected activity on the Manager Workbench page, calculated as (Number of project risks without an action plan ÷ Total number of project risks) × 100.

• Cost to Budget Variance: The percentage difference between the project's actual and budgeted costs. The system calculates budget health based on the Budget Alert setup. Use the Budget Alerts page to set up the Cost to Budget Variance health indicator.

  See Defining Budget Alert Thresholds.

• High Issues: The percentage of issues that are of high priority status for the selected project or activity on the Manager Workbench page, calculated as (Number of high issues ÷ Total of all issues) × 100.

• Overdue Deliverables: The percentage of the activity deliverables that do not meet their deadlines for the selected activity on the Manager Workbench, calculated as (Number of overdue deliverables ÷ Total number of deliverables) × 100.

  Note. This value only applies to activities, you cannot enter a project weight percent.

• Overloaded Resources: The percentage of resources that are overloaded or need to be rescheduled calculated as (Number of overloaded resources) ÷ (Total number of resources) × 100

• Schedule: The completion percentage for activities that do not meet their deadlines, calculated as (Number of overdue activities ÷ Total number of activities) × 100.

• User Defined Indicator: You manually enter the value into this field; the system does not calculate the value.

  Note. You can enter a user defined indicator only for projects, so there is no weight to calculate overall activity health.

Alert Percent

Enter a numerical value that triggers an alert status (displayed as a red symbol) for the corresponding Project Health Indicator. All project health indicators with calculated percent values that are equal to or higher than the alert percent trigger a red alert status on the Manager Workbench page.

Warning Percent

Enter a numerical value that triggers a warning status (displayed as a yellow symbol) for the corresponding Project Health Indicator. All project health indicators with calculated percent values that are equal to or higher than the warning percent but less than the alert percent trigger a yellow warning status on the Manager Workbench page.

Project Weight Percent

Enter the percent to weigh the health indicator for the project as compared to other health indicators. The system calculates overall project health as the weighted average of the health indicators.

Note. The sum of the project weight percents for all of the project health indicators must total 100 percent.

Activity Weight Percent

Enter the percent to weigh the health indicator for the activity as compared to other health indicators. The system calculates overall activity health as the weighted average of the health indicators.

Note. The sum of activity weight percents for all of the project health indicators must total 100 percent.

Distribute Project Weight

Click to evenly spread 100 percent to the project weight of each health indicator.

Distribute Activity Weight

Click to evenly spread 100 percent to the activity weight of each health indicator.