CHAPTER 9
Setting Up Projects
Before users begin entering time or expenses you must set up projects that people are currently working on. You can do this yourself, or you can provide project managers the permissions to add/edit projects.
This chapter provides information on how to set up projects.
The following items must be configured before adding projects.
Items to Configure
• Billing Rates - To define what rates are available for use in your system• Project Roles - To define specific job functions or types of work
• Project Settings - To capture additional, custom information for projects
• Client Settings - To capture additional, custom information for clients
• Skills - To define skills that project leaders, supervisors, or resources can later assign to resources
• Cost Normalization Rules - To calculate the normalization factor
• Sharing Access - To allow managers to appoint others as project, client, or program Co-Managers
Billing Rates
• An employee's time is billed based on the number of hours the employee enters in their timesheet and the employee’s billing rate.• Rates can be based on:
• Project Rate - The system's project rate is available in all new projects by default. You can modify the value of this rate.
• User Rate - A user's default rate is defined in their user profile.
• Custom Rates - Custom rates are rates you wish to apply to project work beyond project-specific and client-specific rates.
They could, for example, be associated with specific job func-tions carried out within your organization, or they could be based on levels of seniority or skill. You can add custom rates at the system level and these can be assigned to any type of project team member (a specific user, department, or a place-holder).
Configure at:
Administration > Projects > Billing Rates
To modify the project rate, click Project Rate from the Billing Rate Name column and update the Billing Rate Amount value.
1. Click Add Billing Rates.
2. Enter a name, description and enter a value in the Billing Rate Amount field.
3. To make the billing rate available in the system, select Enabled from the Billing Rate Status drop-down field.
4. Click Add Billing Rates.
Project Roles
• Project roles represent specific job functions that project leaders can assign and allocate to their projects.• Each role can be associated with a cost, for use in cost tracking.
• A role is assigned to a project, as a placeholder resource. Once a role is assigned to a project, the placeholder resource can be associated with billing rates available within that project.
Configure at:
Administration > Projects > Project Roles 1. Click Add Project Role.
2. Enter a name, description and associate a cost with that role, if desired.
3. Click Add Project Role.
4. Select a project role.
1. To add costs to a role, select a project role and click Add Cost.
2. Enter an effective date, select a currency and enter a value in the Cost field.
Project Settings
• Custom fields help you track information beyond the basic fields already provided.• For example, you may want to identify which phase each project is in.
Configure at:
Administration > Projects > Project Settings
1. Select the Automatically Assign Project Codes check box if you want project codes to be automatically generated on an incremental basis.
In the Next Project Code field, enter a numerical value to be used for the project you create after enabling this option.
2. In the Project Custom Fields section, click the field labeled <Unused - Click to Add>.
The Custom Field Settings for... page displays.
a. Type: Select the field type, which determines the field's data format. When you select a field type, the page will refresh to display options specific to that type.
b. Required: Enable to require users to complete the field before they can save the page on which the field appears.
c. Enabled: Enable to make the field available to users d. Hidden: Enable to make the field unavailable to users
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Client Settings
• Clients are customers of your organization to whom you bill time or costs for projects. They can be external customers or departments within your organization.• Custom fields help you track information beyond the basic fields already provided. For example, you may want to capture a billing address for each client.
Configure at:
Administration > Projects > Client Settings
1. In the Custom Fields section, click the field labeled <Unused - Click to Add>.
The Custom Field Settings for... page displays.
a. Type: Select the field type, which determines the field's data format. When you select a field type, the page will refresh to display options specific to that type.
b. Required: Enable to require users to complete the field before they can save the page on which the field appears.
c. Enabled: Enable to make the field available to users d. Hidden: Enable to make the field unavailable to users 2. Click Save.
Skills
Skill Category
• Assigning skills allows project leaders to easily view and understand resource capabilities, which can help them assign the best resource for each task.
• Your skills library is a collection of skills you can use to define the capa-bilities of your resources. The skills library also allows you to quickly view how many users are assigned each skill, and the average level attained for each skill within your organization.
• To help you organize and work with skills, you can create each skill within a category. You can decide what categories work for your orga-nization.
• For example, you might want to create a category for each type of resource in your organization, such as Developers, QA Analysts, and Technical Writers. Or, you could categorize by types of skills – such as Language Skills, Programming Languages, Tool Skills, Communication Skills, etc.
Configure at:
Administration > Projects > Skills
To add a category to your skills library:
1. Click Add Category.
2. Name the category. For example, call it Language Skills.
3. Click Ok.
To add a skill:
Administration > Projects > Skills
1. Hover your cursor over the category you want to add the skill to and click the + Add New Skill icon.
2. Enter the skill's name. For example, call it French.
3. Enter a description of the skill, if desired.
4. Click Ok.
Setting Up Projects 47