Project Status Reporting via Microsoft® Excel
By Peter Budelov
Project Managers (PMs) lead a hectic life because they not only need to manage the day-to-day operations of a project (i.e. work deliverables, schedules, cost and revenue), but they also must spend time with the appropriate IT tools to do this. The keystone in making good project management decisions is having accurate, timely and easy to access project reporting data.
Typically when using enterprise project management applications, this data is available, but not necessarily easy to get to, may not be easily displayed in a user friendly manner, does not necessarily have all the data needed, is not configurable, and certainly unavailable in a disconnected mode.
Project Partners User Interface Applications™ utilize Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets as the interface with Oracle E-Business Suite applications, showing just what Project Managers want to see, the way they prefer to see it. Project Partners Reporting™ leverages the technology of our User Interface Applications (UI-Apps) to provide Project Status Reporting for Project Managers.
In Project Partners Reporting, a proprietary summarization process makes key project reporting data available to Project Managers with added dimensions of configurability. The result is not only reporting of dry factual data, e.g. cost, revenue, margin or margin percent, but additionally, the UI-Apps workbook has built-in logic to display configurable indicators that dynamically present different indicators based upon thresholds for each reported metric in every worksheet. These indicators can be color coded (e.g. red, yellow, or green) to indicate if a metric in trouble, at risk, or OK based upon the defined threshold.
To use the UI-Apps Reporting Workbook, users first search for projects (using various selection criteria) and select the projects they want to review; up to 20 projects may be selected at one time – summarized reporting data for all will be downloaded into the workbook. At this point, the user may work offline if desired – something essential to PMs for whom travel is part of the job. The projects will be displayed in a list and based upon a few high-level project-health indicators that are shown for each, the user may drill down to the specifics for a single project.
The Project Metrics Worksheet displays a graphical representation of the project’s status (Earned Value, Cost, Revenue, and Schedule overview).
Project Metrics: Project Cost Graph
Project Metrics: Revenue Margin Graph
A hyperlink takes the user to the next worksheet in the workbook, Project Summary, which displays overall project setup values and dates, key performance indicators with metrics and KPI indicators, plus aged bill and payment amounts and a summary of cost and revenue by period broken down by type of cost, revenue and margin.
Project Summary Worksheet
The Project Schedule worksheet displays each task of the WBS with task date information and an optionally displayed Gantt chart showing task start/end date, duration and percent complete.
Projecct Schedule Worksheet
The Task Details Sheet has a sophisticated real-time configurable display to show desired details by-task of budget, forecast, actual (cost and revenue, committed and earned value amounts broken down by type of cost, period incurred as appropriate.
These metrics allow project managers to easily and quickly see (a) the overall health of their projects, (b) the WBS and schedule details, (c) the financial and schedule metrics by task, and finally drilldown to the transaction detail to research cost, revenue and committed amounts.
The Net/Net
For Project Managers who want to use the familiarity of Microsoft® Excel to manage their projects, UI-Apps gives them just what they need, and nothing more. For Project Managers who need to be able to work in a disconnected fashion while on the road, UI-Apps also enables them to be more productive by utilizing downtime that previously was relegated to travel.
You’ll find more information here: http://www.projectp.com/products/reporting.php
