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define a new time budget |
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A time baseline is the basis for a budget. A baseline can be very simple - this project must be completed within 100 hours. Or very complex - this project has three tasks and each task cannot cost the client more than $3,000 every week. This help document guides you through the baseline creation process. |
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The Topic of the Day: Budgets webinar is a great resource to learn about best practices around creating, tracking and monitoring budgets in Projector. |
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(go to 19:20) |
This form is reached from multiple Management Portal locations:
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Once the parameters of a baseline have been specified, they cannot be edited. You can only make the baseline inactive or delete it. Both of these actions are performed using the Baseline Browser. If you need to update your plan then you should create a new baseline and recreate it using the copy Current Active Baseline setting on the info tab.
Info Tab
The most important thing to take away from the info tab is that you are specifying whether determines whether you want your budget numbers should be prepopulatedto be pre-populated with data. You can choose where you want that prepopulated data to come from. For example, I want to create a new budget and prepopulate it based on the scheduled hours. Or, I don't want Projector to populate my budgeted amounts for me. I will do it myself.
prepopulate my budget based on the old budget. Afterwards I will make some tweaks.
Checkbox | Description |
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Create task plan baseline | Check this box to create a new task baseline. This box will default as checked if you are creating a Task Baseline, and the remaining tabs of the wizard will be grayed-out. See Project Task Planning Tab if you are not familiar with task plan baselines. |
Create budget baseline based onThe budgeted money | or hours can be prepopulated Prepopulate your budget based on one of the choices below. For many of the data points described below:options you can preview the data that will be used by going to your resource scheduling tab and choosing the corresponding value from the View dropdown.
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Make the new baseline(s) the active baseline(s) | Check this box to make this baseline the active baseline after it is created. Useful when you are replacing the current plan with a new one. Untick this checkbox if you are adding additional budgets for informational or planning purposes only. |
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A dimension breaks down a metric into more granular detail. For example, if you had a budget of 90 hours, you could break this down between three resources. If the options on this tab are grayed out, then you have chosen to copy the Current Active Baseline on the Info tab. As Projector cannot reliably translate between say departments and resources, you are locked into the current dimension type. To make this tab editable again, choose a different option on the info tab. See the table below to learn about the different ways you can break down a budget.
Dimension | Description |
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| Rate Type | Populated based on each rate type defined on the Project Rates Tab. Using Rate Type as a dimension has one unique aspect. While Projector does track historical time at the task type level, it doesn't currently allow for resources to be scheduled to a task type. As such, Projector has to lump all of the Estimate To Complete hours together under the line item none. |
Task Type | Populated based on each Task Type defined on the Project Task Types Tab. Using Task Type as a dimension has one unique aspect. While Projector does track historical time at the task type level, it doesn't currently allow for resources to be scheduled to a task type. As such, Projector has to lump all of the Estimate To Complete hours together under the line item none. |
Resource Department | Populated by each department defined in the Department and Title Editor |
Resource Title | Populated by each title defined in the Department and Title Editor. If you are using a title based override for a role then the resource's original title is still used. This is because Projector views an override as a billing title or a customer facing title - as opposed to an internal title. |
Role | Populated by each role defined on the Project Roles Tab |
Resource | Populated based on each assigned resource on the Project Editor Roles Tab |
None | Don't break down the budget any further |
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Tick the checkbox next to each metric you want to track. See the grid below for an explanation of each. Choose a radio button for the primary metric. This will be shown in reports and dashboards. If an active metric option is grayed out, it is because the primary metric radio button is ticked for it. Choose a different radio button as appropriate.
Active Metrics
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Choose a radio button for the primary metric. The primary metric is used for display in the Project Dashboard and in ReportsReporting. It should represent the metric that you most often want to see or be used for checking project performance.
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This optional setting allows you to time phase your budgets. For example, you might want to budget 400 hours for each month of a project. Leave this checkbox unticked if you don't care about time phasing.
Control | Description |
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Starting On | Enter a start date for the budget. Starting with the Winter 2016 release of Projector, you will no longer be able to enter budget amounts previous to the start date or after the end date. This limitation was added to accommodate a planned change in the user interface around budgeting. If you need budget data outside your time period, simply expand the time period. Existing budgets will remain unaffected and usable. |
Time Phased By | Choose the period by which the baseline will be phased:
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For | Enter the quantity of units for which the budget will extend. For example, if you chose Week from the Time-phased by section, enter the number of weeks. |
Ending On | Based on the information entered above, Projector will automatically calculate the end date |
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