Financial Assignments

This article shows how to create and modify non-labor financial assignment forecasts and actuals and how to see the cost of labor forecasts on Financial pages.

Overview

A financial assignment is an association of a project, a non-labor financial item, and the responsible OBS node. Financial assignments have most of the same fields as labor assignments with a few exceptions.

Labor Assignments have Resource and Required Skill fields.

Financial Assignments have Cost Item and Financial Category fields.

Financial assignments are available on the Assignment>Financial page and the Project> Detail> Financial pages of individual projects.

The capabilities described in this article apply to both the Assignment>Financial page and Project>Detail> Financial pages with one exception: Post Labor Cost is available only on the Detail>Financial page.

Assignment>Financial Page

Project>Detail>Financial Page

The financial date range is independent of the labor date range used in Labor Assignments.
You can be working with Week or Month granularity on skill or resource assignments and with Quarter or Year granularity on financial pages.

Rights: Access to financial assignment data is determined by the user’s financial right level.
(For more on Rights, refer to: Administering Rights and Privileges)

Labor Cost values on Labor assignment pages are derived from labor assignments by multiplying forecast times labor rate table values or by assignment-specific rate values.

Labor cost assignments on Financial pages are then summarized from labor assignments based on fields configured by the administrator such as financial OBS  (Refer to the section Financial Labor Algorithm in the article Administration Settings)

Features on Financial Assignment Pages

Features on ResourceFirst pages are invoked from the icons and controls on the page toolbar

From left to right along the page function toolbars above the grid column titles:

Toolbar  Row 1 – left side

“+” – create a new financial assignment.

Trash icon – select the row(s) to delete.

Copy icon – copy the selected financial assignment row(s) to the same or a different project.

Add to Scenario icon – copy the selected financial assignment row(s) to a scenario.

[Detail>Financial page only: Post Labor Cost icon – create calculated labor cost financial assignments using labor forecast and the labor rates defined in the environment.
Not present if automatic labor cost calculation is configured in administration.]

Reload – reload the page data from the database.

Export – create an export Excel (.xlsx) file.

Import – import from an .xlsx file.

Toolbar Row 1 – right side

Options – Show Project Schedule – show a GANTT bar above the period data columns for the project on the selected assignment row.

Calculate Financial Labor Cost – recalculate labor cost summaries of labor assignment forecast demand.

Data Value Type – change the values displayed on the page.

Forecast – forecast non-labor financials are displayed and calculated, summarized cost of labor demand (read-only).

Actual and Actual/Forecast – financials can be entered, exported, imported and saved.

Actuals are in all past periods up to the period before the period containing the current date. Forecasts are in the period containing the current date and all future periods.

[NOTE: The larger the period granularity the less accurate the Actual-Forecast. If in Year granularity and the current date is in period 12, period 12 will display no actuals.]

[NOTE: In current versions of ResourceFirst there is no formatting distinction between actual and forecast values in the grid.]

Baseline – the most recent Official Baseline is displayed. (Read-Only)

See the Data Value Type section below for more information.

Save – save changes.

Toolbar  Row 2

Filter selection drop down – use this to select a custom filter you would like to use. (See the Filtering Views section in Using Views and Filters.)

Edit Filter (pencil) – define a custom filter for the page.

Filters –

Hide rows with no period data (Total = 0 or empty)
Filter On Change checkbox – show only rows that have changed since the last Save.

Clear All Filters – remove all filters on the page.

Select View – select a page view .

Edit Views – add, remove, or re-order the columns in the view and create new views.

Rollup of Financial Data

Non-labor financials are summarized on the Analysis>Financial Pivot page, in project Dashboard pages, and in custom reports developed in the ResourceFirst-QlikView environment.

Displaying Labor Cost on Financial Pages

ResourceFirst provides options to display the cost of labor assignments as assignments on financial pages. This can be done automatically or via manual posting of the labor cost assignments for each project.

For more on labor cost calculations, see Displaying Labor Cost on Financial Pages.

For more on labor rates and cost calculations, see Understanding Labor Rates.

Financial Interface to a Corporate System

ResourceFirst can import or export financial data from/to most corporate financial systems. Contact your PDWare representative about creating an automated interface that loads financial forecasts and actuals from the external financial system.

How To

Access the financial assignment page

Step 1: Click the Assignment icon in the Area icon group at the left of the window.

Step 2: Click the Financial page menu.

Users who do not have financial rights, will not see the Financial page menu item.
(See your ResourceFirst administrator.)

Access the individual Project>Detail>Financial page

Step 1: Hover over a project name on any page with the project name field and click the chevron icon that appears to the left of the project name.

This drills down to the Detail space of the selected project.
Drill-down activates the Detail page related to the active page:
on Assignments>Labor, drill-down to Detail>Labor page,
on Assignment>Financial, drill-down to Detail>Financial page.

Step 3: Click the Detail>Financial icon $ (if not already on the Financial page).

Create a financial assignment

Step 1: Click the “+” icon at left of toolbar.

Step 2: Make selections in the Add Financial Assignment dialog.

Select the project.
Select the organization (OBS) node responsible for the financial item.
Select 1 or more financial items to assign.

Note: The dialog on the Project>Detail>Financial page does not have the project name drop-down.

Step 3: Click the Add or Add & Close button.

Add creates the assignment row(s) on the financial page, but leaves the dialog open for creating more assignments.
Add & Close executes the add and closes the dialog.

Step 4: Enter the period financial forecasts.

Be sure that the value type at the far right of the page toolbar is set to Forecast.

Step 5: Click the Save icon.

Copy financial assignments

Step 1: Check the selection checkbox at the far left of the assignment rows to be copied.

Step 2: Click the Copy Assignment icon.

Step 3: Select the destination project from the Copy to Project drop-down and click the Copy button.

The Copy operation creates new assignment rows from the source copy rows; it does NOT add period data values to an identical existing assignment.

Delete a financial assignment

Step 1: Check the selection checkbox at the far left of the assignment rows to be deleted.

Step 2: Click the trash can icon toward the left of the page toolbar.

Step 3. Click OK on the delete warning message dialog.

Step 4. Click the Save icon to save the delete to the database.

Post Labor Cost

For instructions on posting labor costs, see Displaying Labor Cost on Financial Pages.

Add to Scenario

Step 1: Select any assignment rows you want to add to a scenario.

Step 2: Click the Add to Scenario icon in the left icon group of the page toolbar.

Step 3: Select the destination scenario in the Scenario dialog.

Step 4: Click the Add button at the bottom right of the dialog.

Show Project GANTT Bar

Step 1: Select any assignment row.

Step 2: Click the Options icon at the right of the left group of icons on the page toolbar.

Step 3: Click the Header Rows menu and check the Show Project Schedule checkbox.

Display/Modify Financial Forecast and Actuals

Step 1: Click the Value Type drop-down control.

Step 2: Select the value type you want to display and/or modify.

Entering Values in Actual-Forecast Mode

Data changes entered in past periods are saved to the actuals database table; data changes in the current period and future periods are saved in the forecast table.

[NOTE: There is no distinction between actual and forecast values in the grid when displaying Actual-Forecast. You can distinguish actual values only by looking at periods before the period containing the current date.]

[NOTE: ResourceFirst does NOT prevent entering actuals in future periods nor forecasts in past periods.]