Billing Records are produced from the repository timesheet or charge slips by a Repository Center agent. They are the input to the Costing Center application. Costing Center agents produce Cost Records. They are the output of the Costing Center application and are tabulated in a variety of views. Cost records are designed so that they can be processed using standard query tools such as Notes Reporter.
Control Documents
Account Definition documents define a cost account and specify which participant labor rate is used when calculating costs for that account. Participant Cost Rate Definition documents identify an individual and specify one or more hourly cost rates for that individual. Costing Category Profile documents identify either a project or overhead (non-project) category and define how charges made to that entity are distributed to as many as 10 accounts on a percentage allocation basis. Within the cost category, "Special Billing" sub codes can be defined. Charges made to these sub-classifications can be specially allocated and tabulated. For example, hardware, software, T&E charges can be subtotaled against a project
Costing Dashboard and Cost Views
Cost Records are the final result of the system and are tabulated in a variety of convenient views. An agent updates the actual cost totals in the dashboard tables and sends email alerts when costs exceed targets.
Each project, participant or account may have up to 5 named targets set for specific time periods. Additional targets can exist for project sub-classifications.
Costing Workflow
Repository Center provides two sources of original data used to feed the Costing Center. These sources are posted Timesheets and Charge Slips. The PGCostingLink agent in the Repository Center periodically processes both of these. This agent creates all new Billing Records in Costing Center. New billing records are processed by an agent to create Cost Records. If control documents are not available when the billing records are processed, the agent will create them and mark them for manual review. The billing record will be processed automatically when the control information (account distribution and hourly rates) has been provided.
Example
User Pat enters into her timesheet document in Repository Center 5 hours on November 15 on assignment "Write Spec" in "Project-17".
The PGCostingLink agent will read the posted timesheet in Repository Center database and create a billing record in the Costing Center database.
The ProcessCosts agent in the Costing Center will make sure that an approved Participant Cost record exists for "Pat" and that an approved Costing Category Profile exists for "Project-17".
Assume that the Participant Cost Rate Definition record for "Pat" contains the standard rate is $84/hour.
Assume that the Costing Category Profile record for "Project-17" Standard Cost Allocation Table allocates 60% of the cost to Account "CC1257" and 40% to Account "CC84".
Using this information, the ProcessCosts agent will create two new cost records from the billing record. In this example, one cost record would be 3 hours, $252 for CC1257 and the second cost record would be 2 hours, $168 for CC84.
Thus, the totals for both Pat and for Project-17 would be increased by $420 and 5 hours. The totals for the individual accounts would be increased by $252 and $168 respectively.
If you would like to know more, read the user's manual chapter entitled "Using the Costing Center" which you can find on the support page.
Visit a Costing Center right now by following the Try Project Gateway link from our home page.
