Project Partners Blog

Your firm made a large investment in Oracle Applications because management knows that using Oracle E-Business Suite Projects will help increase profitability and ensure that project objectives are met. But your project managers and administrators already have full time jobs, and they frequently remind IT and Line of Business Managers that they don’t have extra time to learn new software or hours every day to use project management programs. End-user adoption or acceptance of new software is often the biggest hurdle to bringing in new programs, no matter how great the functionality is.

But the fact remains: your firm needs to meet its business goals and has bought or is considering buying Oracle EBS Applications because of the improved business performance that results from a successful implementation.

So how can YOU help your firm maximize the return on its software investment?

Here’s a great start: You can have your project managers and administrators trained on Oracle EBS Projects in 82% less time and spending 40% less time on a daily basis, using a familiar Microsoft® Excel front-end, ensuring rapid end-user adoption, and putting your company on the fast track to the many benefits provided by Oracle.

View this webinar and see how our User Interface Applications free up your firm’s employees to make more strategic contributions and achieve business objectives.

By Ravi Shankar, PgMP, PMP, PMI-RMP and PMI-SP

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Projects Applications Release 12 provides rich functionality to support multi currency processing capabilities in the areas of accruing revenue and generating invoices.  Revenue is always processed in the project functional currency, as distinct from the project currency and project funding currency.  Revenue amounts derived in the billing transaction currency (invoice processing currency) are converted to project functional, funding and project currency during the revenue generation process.  The Release 12 EBS system tracks and posts the revenue, unbilled receivables and unearned revenue in both the functional and billing transaction currency to the general ledger, thereby giving full visibility, both at the project level and in the general ledger, of the details of revenue in the different currency options. Read the rest of this entry »

By John May

In 1992, the American Institute of Architects® formalized a standardized “percentage of completion” contract billing methodology.  The forms developed are known by their numerical assignments:  G702 and G703.  The purpose was to allow contractors, owners, architects and construction managers a familiar way of communicating and authorizing payments during the life of a construction contract. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The first step in working with a project in the Oracle Projects Suite, project initiation, is typically performed centrally by a project administrator using a template, and then routed for approval (to check proper template usage, project manager assignment, and funding).  Eventually the project manager (PM) is notified that the project is ready to be modified for detail workplan and date input, key member and resource assignments, other project attributes, transaction controls, and detail financial planning. Read the rest of this entry »

The need to issue a credit memo is common everyday practice for all companies. When the invoice being credited is recent, or the credit is an easy one-to-one (credit memo to invoice) match, this process should be fairly simple. But what happens when you need to issue a credit to your customer months after your invoice has been paid, accounting periods have been closed and information has been archived? What if you need to issue an on-account credit not associated with any particular invoice but rather just a credit to the customer or a credit to the project? What if you want to issue a credit along with your current draft invoices rather than for the original paid invoice? Using standard functionality in Oracle Projects, all credit memos created, whether for canceling an invoice or for correcting an item on a previous invoice, are handled by creating a credit memo that can only be applied against the original invoice. This happens even if the original invoice has already been paid. There is little flexibility in issuing credits not directly associated with the original invoice. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no cookie-cutter definition of an engineering-construction (E&C) company other than they are all project-oriented businesses who perform construction-related work for a client (often referred to as the owner – the entity paying for the work and for whom the work is performed). There are those who perform design-only work (engineering), construction-only work, or design-build work (a combination of both).

Engineering companies are essentially professional services organizations who specialize in providing engineering-design solutions to clients – often in specialized fields.

Construction companies can generally be classified as either (a) contractors who perform all or most of the work themselves, or (b) subcontractors, who perform specialized work such as electrical, mechanical, or masonry tasks. General contractors (GCs) are contractors who perform many different types of work (even engineering services), often manage overall aspects of large (sometimes global) projects – referred to as construction-management (CM), and usually have access to large bonding resources.

Special cases are owner-CM, or owner-performed work. In the former, an owner (such as a large natural resources company, a government entity, or a specialty retailer) may act as a GC who subcontracts most or all of the work on a project to others, but manages the overall work themselves (CM). In the latter case, owners may have the people and equipment resources to actually perform some of the work rather than contracting it to others.

This article is a discussion of solutions for general contractors who use Oracle Project Management and Project Partners User Interface Applications in the execution of design-build projects. Future papers will focus on the other members of the E&C family. Read the rest of this entry »

The information below provides an overview of the reporting and metrics available in Project Analytics for Project Executives. The pages have been configured to use Quarters; however, Period could have been configured as the ‘time grain’ instead. The information on each tab in the Project Executive area has been taken from the Dashboard Index. Additional information below each of the screenshots describe details of the metrics and functionality within each of the interactive dashboard pages.

Project Executive

Screenshots of the default dashboard for each tab within the Project Management reporting area are shown below. Results in the dashboards can be filtered using the parameters at the top of each dashboard (Fiscal Year, Fiscal Quarter, Fiscal Period, PA Period, Business Unit, Organization, Project Manager Name, Project Class, Project Type, Program Name, Project Name, and Service Type). Additional query modifications are available using the ‘Modify’ link.

2.1 – Overview

Provides the default aggregated view of information for all the organizations satisfying the dashboard filter criteria, with the ability to drill down to project details that each organization responsible for. This dashboard page provides quick overview of Inception-to-date performance, variances, and the number of projects that each organization is currently executing and their profitability and cost performance.

ITD Performance (Forecast, Budget and Actual) by Quarter and Organization uses Views (Chart, ITD Data, and ITD Variance) to display the information. You can drill thru to Project Invoice Aging as well as to Project Commitments. The graphs include ITD Margin %, Cost, Revenue Margin, Forecast Cost, Forecast Revenue, Forecast Margin and Forecast Variance.

Projects in Progress uses Dimensions (Organization and Project Type) to Display (Chart or Table) the number of ongoing projects. Changing the Dimension changes the display for the charts adjacent and those listed immediately below. Project Health by Margin Performance Displays (Chart or Table) the health of the projects with accumulated revenue (On Track, At Risk, Critical).

Profitability Summary by Organization Displays (Chart or Table) the margin percentages of the projects. Revenue Amounts and Margin Amounts represent the axes of the graph. Cost Performance by Organization Displays (Chart or Table) Percentage Cost Variance by the Dimension selected. You can drill thru to Cost Budget Details by Organization.

2.2 – Profitability Management

Provides the detailed profitability information for the organizations and the projects under the organizations with the ability to drill down to projects, tasks and resources. It provides the comparisons of the profitability to the budgets and forecasts, and period over period changes in the margin, including trending with the ability to drill down to the project, task and resource details.

Actual Profitability by Organization, Project Class, Project Type allows you to report by Project Organization (show above), Project Class, Project Type or Program. You can View the information by Margin Percentage, Margin, Revenue, Cost and Data. Above, Actual Margin Percentage is compared to QAGO (one quarter prior) and Actual Margin. You can drill thru to Actual Profitability Year Over Year by Organization.

Forecast Profitability by Organization, Project Class, Project Type allows you to report by Project Organization (above), Project Type, Project Class, and Program Name. Forecast Margin Percentage by Project Organization is displayed above. You can drill thru to YTD Profitability by Organization.

Profitability by Top Job Codes Displays (Chart or Table) Margin Percentages for all the Top Job Codes. You can click on the link to view Profitability for all Job Codes.

Profitability by Top Customers Displays (Chart or Table) Margin Percentages for the top customers. You can display Profitability for all Customers as well.

Actual Profitability Trend by Fiscal Period uses Views (Trend, Revenue Distribution, Cost Distribution, Margin Distribution and Data to report Actual Margin Percentage, Actual Revenue and Actual Cost. Margin Change Quarter Over Quarter Trend by Organization uses Views (Margin Percentage Change, Margin Change, and Data) to report quarterly margin changes.

Profitability Details by Project Organization Summarizes (Project Organization, Project Class, Project Type, or Program) Revenue Budget, Cost Budget, Actual Revenue, Actual Cost, Actual Margin, Actual Margin Percentage, Forecast Revenue, Forecast Cost, Forecast Margin, Actual/Cost Budget Variance, and Forecast/Budget Cost Variance.

2.3 – Cost Management

Provides the detailed cost information for the organizations and the projects under the organizations with the ability to drill down to projects, tasks and resources. It provides the cost comparisons of organizations, programs, expenditure categories, and cost variances by top projects, top resources, including trending with the ability to drill down to details.

Actual Cost by Organization by Financial Resource uses Dimensions (Expenditure Category, Project Organinzation, Project Type, Program, and Supplier Name to Display (Chart or Table) Total Cost, Raw Cost, Burden Cost, People Cost, Equipment Cost, Billable Cost, Non-Billable Cost, Capitalizable Costs and Expenses. You can also drill thru to Actual Efforts by Organization by Financial Resource.

Cumulative Cost Variance by Top Projects Displays (Chart or Table) ITD cost variances for your top projects. You can view this information for all projects via Cumulative Cost Variance by Project. Cumulative Cost Variance by Top Resource displays variances for top resources. All resources may be viewed via Cumulative Cost Variance by Resource.

Actual Total Cost, Billable Cost Trend by Fiscal Quarter displays Cost, Billable Cost, Non-Billable Cost, and Billable Cost Percentage by quarter. You can click on the Fiscal Quarter to view Cost Trends. This information is displayed in tabular and graphical format.

You can drill thru to Cumulative Cost Billability by Project, Cumulative Cost Variance by Project, People Effort Trend by GL Period, Cumulative Cost Trend by Fiscal Period, and Cost Transactions.

Cost Trend by Fiscal Period has two Views (Summary by Fiscal Period, Details by Project) of Current Cost Budget, Forecast Cost, Billable Cost, Non-Billable Cost, Actual Cost, Cost Percentage Spent, Cost Variance and Cost Variance Percentage. The information is display both in tabular and graphical format.

2.4 – Revenue Management

Provides the detailed Revenue, Billing and Funding information for the organizations and the projects under the organizations with the ability to drill down to projects, tasks and resources. It provides revenue, billing and funding comparisons of organizations, customers, and programs, and revenue performance by top projects, top customers including trending with the ability to drill down to details.

Revenue by Organization by Customer uses Dimensions (Customer, Revenue Category, Project Organization, and Program) to Display (Charts or Tables) to compare Revenue to Bill Amounts. In the table format, you can click on Project Organization to drill to Project or Project Manager details. Unearned Revenue vs Unbilled Receivables shows these amounts by the dimension selected.

Revenue by Project Location initially displays the information by Country. You can click on the country to view revenue details by Project State and Project City. You can drill thru to Revenue Trend by Project Location by Fiscal Quarter.

Revenue by Top Customers by Top Projects allows you to select Dimensions (Customer or Project Name) to Display (Chart or Table) Margin and Margin Percentage by the dimension selected.

Revenue Trend by Fiscal Period allows you to choose a View (Summary by Fiscal Period or Details by Project) Current Budget Revenue, Forecast Revenue, Revenue Amount, Bill Amount, Unbilled Receivables, and Unearned Revenue. The information is displayed in table and graphical format. You can drill thru to Cumulative Revenue Trend by Fiscal Period, ITD Actual Revenue Details by Organization, and Revenue Transactions.

Funding Details by Organization displays Initial Funding Amount, Additional Funding Amount, Adjustment Funding Amount, Cancelled Funding Amount, and Net Funding amount by Project Organization. Remaining Funding Amount by Organization for Active Projects displays Project Organization, Customer, Funding Amount, Revenue Amount, Remaining Funding Amount, and Remaining Funding Amount Percentage in a table.

Lost Funding Amount for Closed Projects shows Project Organization, Customer, Funding Amount, Revenue Amount and Lost Funding Amounts. You can also drill thru to Remaining Funding Not Started by Organization or to Agreement Summary by Organization.

Summary

The Project Executive area of Project Analytics provides those users whose organizations are responsible for running projects the appropriate level of visibility into the type of information they need to effectively manage and forecast results for the enterprise. And since the pages are interactive, managers can focus on the metrics that are meaningful to the organization and download that information as needed.

The information below provides an overview of the reporting and metrics available in Project Analytics for Project Management. The synopses can be found on the Dashboard Index and describe each tab within the Project Management Application. Additional details on each of the screenshots describe details of the metrics and functionality within each of the interactive dashboard pages.

Project Management

Screenshots of the default dashboard for each tab within the Project Management application area are shown below. Results in the dashboards can be filtered using the parameters at the top of each dashboard. Additional query modifications are available using the ‘Modify’ link.

1.1 – Project Performance

Provides the default-aggregated view of information for all the projects satisfying the dashboard filter criteria, with the ability to drill down to a specific project details. This dashboard page provides quick overview of key performance indicators such as ITD margin %, ITD cost and revenue variances for the group of projects or a specific project. It also provides a quick snapshot of covering cost, efforts, revenue, billability and billing for the group of projects or for a specific project.

Gauges show margins, variance for costs, revenue and forecasts. My Projects displays in chart or table format Budget, Actual and ETC costs for the user’s projects. Financial Performance aggregates the data in My Projects. Clicking on a specific project filters all Project Performance data for that specific project    .

Margin Percentage Trend displays ITD Forecast, Budget, and Cost Margins over time and allows drill thru to Profitability Details. Cumulative Cost Trend shows ITD Forecast, Budget, and Cost Totals over time and allows drill thru to Cost Details.

Effort, Cost, Revenue, Billability and Billing compare Original Budget, Current Budget, Actuals, Percent Spent, ETC, EAC, and calculate Variances using those factors.

1.2 – Financial Management

Provides the default-aggregated view of information covering the financial aspects for a group of projects or a specific project satisfying the dashboard filter criteria. This dashboard page provides quick overview of Inception-to-date performance, variances, cumulative revenue, cost, margin, billing and period over period changes and the funding summary with the ability to drill down to takes or resources, including trending.

Actuals, Budget, Variance (Budget vs. Actuals), Forecast display Cost and Revenue Actuals, Budget and Forecast Amounts, Margins, Variance all by Fiscal Quarter. If Financials Analytics is enabled, you can drill thru to Procurement and Spend Analytics.

Trend views show Revenue and Cost Trends by Quarter. Further, Revenue and Costs display Quarter over Quarter Trends. Drill thru to Cost and Revenue Details and Cost and Revenue Transactions is possible from these charts (more trends follow below).

Trends: Invoice Amount, Unearned Revenue and Unbilled Receivables are displayed by Quarter by Project. Funding Summary by Project shows Original Funding, Additional Funding, Total Funding, Baselined, and Remaining Funding.

1.3 – Budget Details

Provides the detailed budget information for the projects and the tasks under the projects with the ability to drill down to child tasks and resources. It provides the budget accuracies for cost and revenue, budget changes in comparison with original budgets, including trending and other details.

Budget Accuracy by Project displays EAC, ETC, Current Budget, Actual Costs, and Actual Revenue amounts. Clicking on Project allows task drilldown. Amounts are charted by Cost Budget and Revenue Budget Accuracy. You can also drill thru to Budget Accuracy by Financial Resource.

Budget Trend by GL Period displays Current Cost and Revenue Budgets, Forecasts, Budget Margin and Forecast Margins. Amounts are charted below the table. You can drill thru to Cumulative Budget Trend by GL Period and to Budget Transactions.

1.4 – Cost Details

Provides the detailed cost information for the projects and the tasks under the projects with the ability to drill down to child tasks and resources. It provides the cost comparisons of employees, job codes, tasks and other resources, including trending and other details.

Actual Cost by Project, Financial Resource shows total Costs and Billable Costs by project. These amounts are charted as well. You can drill thru to Actual Efforts by Project, Financial Resource.

Dimensions include Project Name (shown), Expenditure Category, Resource Type, Top Level Task Name and Supplier Name. Metric includes Billable Cost, Non-billable Cost, Capitalizable Cost.

Actual Cost Distribution by Job Code can be displayed in a Chart of a Table. This is also true for Actual Cost Distribution by Employee (named Person).

Cost Trend by Fiscal Period displays Current, Forecast, Billable, Non-billable, Actual Costs, along with Cost Variance and Cost Variance Percentage. Amounts are charted as well.

Drill thru is possible to Cumulative Cost by Fiscal Period, Cumulative Cost Billability by Project, Cumulative Cost Variance by Project, People Effort by GL Period, and Cost Transactions.    

Actual Total Cost, Equipment Cost, and People Cost by Project breaks these cost amounts out by project. Amounts are charted as well.

1.5 – Revenue Details

Provides the detailed revenue information for the projects and the tasks under the projects with the ability to drill down to child tasks and resources. It provides the revenue comparisons of employees, job codes, tasks and other resources, including trending and other details.

Revenue by Project, Financial Resource displays Revenue and Bill amounts by project. Amounts are also charted.

Dimensions include Project Name, Resource Type, Top Task Level Name, Revenue Category and Customer.

Revenue Distribution by Employee charts each Employee’s percentage of revenue. Revenue Distribution by Job Code charts revenue contribution by Job Code.

Revenue Trend by Fiscal Period displays Current Budget Revenue, Forecast Revenue, Revenue Amounts, Bill Amounts, Unbilled Receivables, and Unearned Revenue by Project. Some of these are charted as well.

You can drill thru to Cumulative Revenue Trend by Fiscal Period, Revenue Transactions and Event Revenue Details by Project.

ITD Actual Revenue Details by Project shows Revenue and Bill Amounts by Project, Project Manager, Revenue Category, Primary Customer, and Agreement Number

1.6- Profitability Details

Provides the detailed profitability information for the projects and tasks under the projects with the ability to drill down to child tasks and resources. It provides the comparisons of the profitability to the budgets and forecasts, and period over period changes in the margin, including trending and other details.

Actual Profitability by Project, Revenue Category displays Actual Margin compared to QAGO Actual Margin by project. Forecast Margin displays Forecast by project.

Dimension includes Project Name, Expenditure Category, Revenue Category, Job Name. View includes Margin Percentage, Margin, Revenue Cost and Data.

Actual Profitability Trend and Distribution by Fiscal Period shows Actual Margin Percentage, Actual Revenue and Actual Costs. View includes Trend, Revenue Distribution, Cost Distribution, Margin Distribution and Data.

Profitability Details by Project displays Revenue and Cost Budget, Actual Cost, Actual Revenue, Actual Margin, Actual Margin Percentage, Forecast Revenue, Forecast Cost, Forecast Margin, Forecast Margin Percentage, Actual/Budget Cost Variance, and Forecast/Budget Cost Variance by Project.

1.7- Funding & Billing

Provides the funding and billing details for a project or a group of projects and the tasks under the projects. It provides the overview of agreement amount, funding amount that is assigned to a project, revenue amount that is accrued, invoice amount that is billed, funding changes and the remaining funding that alerts the organizations the potential capacity or efficiency problem.

Funding Summary by Customer by Project by Top Task shows Funding Amounts by the following Dimensions: Project Name, Top Task, and Customer Name. Amounts can be graphically displayed as well.

Remaining Funding Amount for Active Projects displays Funding Amount, Revenue Amount, Remaining Funding Amount, and Remaining Funding Amount Percentage.

Funding Details by Customer by Project by Top Task shows Initial Funding, Additional Funding, Adjustment Funding, Cancelled Funding and Net Funding by the following Dimensions: Project Name, Top Task, and Customer Name.

Lost Funding for Closed Projects shows Funding Amount, Revenue Amount and Lost Funding for closed projects. Includes Project Organization.    

Billing Summary by Project by Customer shows Agreement Amount, Invoice Amount, Approved Invoice Amount, Number of Approved Invoices, Unapproved Invoices Amount, Number of Unapproved Invoices, Unearned Revenue and Unbilled Receivables by Project and Customer.

Hidden Dashboard Pages

By default, the hidden Dashboard Pages do not display within their application area. They can be added to the application area. The hidden pages below contain Transaction Details

1.8- Cost Transactions

Provides detailed cost transactions at expenditure date and item level for a given project, and resource. This dashboard is designed to provide weekly or daily cost transactions report.

Project Cost Transaction Details displays cost data by Fiscal Date, Project Name, Expenditure Organization, Incurred by Person, Supplier Name, Quantity, UOM, Raw Cost, Burden Cost, Total Cost, Currency, Resource Type, Expenditure Category, Billable Flag, and Capitalizable Flag. All Data may be displayed or can be sorted. Filters can be used to refine the data displayed. Data can be downloaded to Excel.

1.9- Revenue Transactions

Provides detailed revenue transactions at expenditure date and item level for a given project, and resource. This dashboard is designed to provide weekly or daily revenue transactions report.

Project Revenue Transaction Details displays data by Fiscal Date, Project Name, Project Organization, Incurred by Person, Job Name, Revenue Amount, Currency, Work Type, Resource Type, Revenue Category and Revenue Transfer Status. All Data may be displayed or can be sorted. Filters can be used to refine the data displayed. Data may be downloaded to Excel, or saved off to a ‘Briefing Book’, which either statically or in updatable format.

1.9a – Budget Transactions

Provides detailed budget transactions at budget type, version and budget period level .

Budget Transactions by Project display data by Project Name, Budget Type, Budget Status, Budget Name, Budget Version, Currency, UOM, Budget Line, Original Budget Cost, Original Budget Revenue, Current Budget Cost, and Current Budget Revenue. All Data may be displayed or can be sorted. Filters can be used to refine the data displayed. Data may be downloaded to Excel.

Summary

The information above should provide the reader with sufficient information on the Project Management application area within Project Analytics to know about the breadth of the reporting capabilities for that part of Project Analytics.

Next Up: Please return soon for the next Project Analytics summary blog, this time for Project Executives.

Executing multiple projects for one customer is common practice for many project-based organizations. But what happens when the time comes to invoice your customer for work performed? Native Oracle Projects allows you to generate only one invoice per project. So, multiple projects lead to multiple invoices. For many organizations, this involves hundreds, maybe thousands of invoices being processed each month. Invoicing for such complex situations is extremely daunting, expensive and time consuming. Each invoice needs to be generated, approved, issued, mailed, processed, reconciled and audited. Not only is this a time and money waster for you but your customer is on the receiving end of this accounting nightmare.

Native Oracle Project Billing does a good job of calculating and generating your draft invoices but many companies need the power to consolidate invoices at a higher level than a project. Seeing this requirement over and over, Project Partners developed a solution to streamline the often complex project invoicing process. It is called Project Partners Consolidated Invoicing. Consolidated Invoicing is included in the Project Partners Invoicing product offering designed to simplify the various customer billing mandates facing project organizations today.

Consolidated Invoicing is a simple solution that does not involve changes to your current Oracle Projects setup or configurations. This solution simply extends the standard invoicing functionality of Oracle Project Billing and Oracle Receivables, therefore requiring no additional training for your users. By utilizing the same invoice processes and review screens currently in use by your project managers and accountants today, such as Invoice Review, Generate Draft Invoices, Interface to Receivables, Autoinvoice import etc., Consolidated Invoicing allows you to consolidate multiple project invoices into one single invoice. You can issue one monthly invoice to a customer at a summary level, with back-up details that break the charges down by project. Your options for consolidation include invoicing across multiple projects, programs, agreements, contracts, or customer “bill to” levels.

With Consolidated Invoicing, project invoicing can be simplified and your project managers and accountants can refocus on activities that add real value to your organization. In addition, your customers receive one invoice from which to pay and the reconciliation of your customer accounts becomes almost seamless. Customers that have implemented this solution have seen time savings of up to 100 hours per invoicing cycle which translates to a cost savings of up to 80%. A solution any project based organization with many projects should consider. Make your project invoicing easier using Project Partners Consolidated Invoicing.

Stay tuned for future blogs on Credit Memo Consolidation and Invoice Formatting and Printing – two additional offerings included in Project Partners Invoicing designed to make project billing easy!

Invoice Consolidation Overview: