Dimensions on Project and Project Contract

Dimensions on the Project:

Department - 001

Cost Center - 002

Dimensions on the Project contract:

Department - 001
Cost Center - 003

Dimensions on the Hours, Expense, Fee, On-account transaction posted (from Project):

Department - 001
Cost Center - 002


Dimensions on the Project Purchase order (from Project):

Department - 001
Cost Center - 002

When the invoice is raised:

Dimensions on the Account Receivable / Trade Receivable are from Project contract

Department - 001
Cost Center - 003

Dimensions on the Revenue and VAT are from the Project

Department - 001
Cost Center - 002

If the dimensions are not mentioned on the project contract, then the dimensions on the 'Trade receivable' / 'Account receivable' will be blank.

Thanks
Sarang

Budget and Billing rule Contract value changes and its impacts

Edits in the Billing Rule contract value

Contract value in the Billing rule can only be changed till the time a project transaction is posted to the project. Once the project transaction is posted, the contract value on the billing rule gets non-editable.

Contract value is read-only

Edits in the Cost Budget 

In the example below:

Cost Budget = 10,000
Contract value = 100,000
Hours transaction posted = 4,000

Hence the percent complete is 40%. Therefore when the project invoice proposal was raised, the appropriate revenue amount of 40,000 was suggested by the system to be billed to the customer.

40% percent complete - Invoice value 40,000

However if the cost budget is changed / revised, after the first project invoice is posted, then the % complete calculation takes into account the new cost budget and compares the cost posted against the new budget amount.

Budget revision = 90,000
Hence total cost budget = 100,000
Hours transaction posted = 10,000

When the invoice proposal is created now, the % complete is calculated as follows:

Cost initially posted + Cost posted now = 4000 + 10,000 = 14,000
Total cost budget, after revision = 100,000
Hence the % complete = 14%
There revenue posted from the contract value of 100,000, as per the %complete should be = 14,000
But the revenue already posted on the project = 40,000.
Hence the system will suggest a credit note of 26,000, so that revenue posted on the project is in-line with the % complete.

Please refer the screenshot below:

Credit note created to match the revenue to the %complete

After knowing this i did one more test to confirm this behavior and hence created a new project exactly similar to the one above and did all the steps till the budget revision. However after the budget revision of 100,000 was done, did not post any transaction. Just directly created an invoice proposal, so as to see whether the system will match the revenue with the new %complete. The system did a credit note so as to match the revenue with the new %complete because of the revised budget.

Cost initially posted = 4000
Total cost budget, after revision = 100,000
Hence the % complete = 4%
There revenue posted from the contract value of 100,000, as per the %complete should be = 4,000
But the revenue already posted on the project = 40,000.
Hence the system will suggest a credit note of 36,000, so that revenue posted on the project is in-line with the % complete.

Please refer the screenshot below:

Credit note created to match the revenue to the %complete

Thanks

Sarang

Fee Billing Rule - Strange Behaviour

Fee billing rule also has some strange behavior. Will update this post once i find the right reasons for this behavior. But for now just wanted to note this behavior for future reference.

Fee billing rule can only be defined if there is an existing billing rule in place, which is other than fee or else you get this error message. This is a standard behavior, which is ok and accepted.

Error message when trying to create a Fee billing rule, without having any other billing rule created up-front.

Now that i have created a progress billing rule, i can then create a fee billing rule and can add the progress billing rule into it.

Progress billing rule added to the Fee billing rule, with fee percentage specified

 Now if a new project is created for the same project contract and if a new progress billing rule is created for the new project and if the user wishes to add the newly created billing rule into the already created Fee billing rule, then the system throws this error. This is what i found strange and also could not understand the error message and the logic behind it.

Error message highlighted, which states that Fee line can only reference a Fee line with a lower contact line number

There are two ways in which this can be handled.

First way is to add the project in the already created billing rule.

Adding a project to the already created billing rule

Second is to create a new fee billing rule and then add the new project into it.

New fee billing rule and adding a project to it

Also one last thing is, if the user tries to add a fee billing rule to the 'Selected items' in the fee billing rule, then the system complains and throws this error message. This is a correct behavior.

Error message when trying to add a fee billing rule to a fee billing rule

Thanks
Sarang

Progress Billing Rule - Strange Behaviour

This is just a post for me to remember the strange behavior about the billing rule functionality.

Whenever a progress billing rule is configured, for it to make it automatically calculate the % complete, all the projects till date should be selected in the 'Selected projects' section, with 'Chargeable categories' selected for the project configured in the 'Billing rules' section.

If all the projects till date are not configured then the system does not calculate the % complete automatically and that particular billing rule line is treated as manual progress billing rule line, with user having to define the % complete manually.

Not sure why the system behaves this way, but this is how it behaves as of now. More information to be added, if i get to know the 'WHY' for this behavior.

Please refer to the screenshots below.

Billing rule 76 with project selected in the 'Project' field in the 'Billing rules' section

Billing rules 76 with all the projects till date, selected in the 'Selected projects' in the 'Project' section

Billing rule 75 where all the projects till date, NOT selected in the 'Selected projects' in the 'Project section', hence system treated it as a candidate for 'Manual progress billing rule'

Billing rule 76 where all the projects till date, selected in the 'Selected projects' in the 'Project section', hence system treated it as a candidate for 'Automatic progress billing rule'

Thanks
Sarang