Siebel Life Sciences Guide > Managing MedEd Events > End-User Procedures >

Tracking Costs of MedEd Activities


In order to compare MedEd costs with the amount of funds budgeted in MedEd plans, event team members must:

Siebel MedEd aggregates the line item activity costs against the MedEd plans specified by team members. For increased efficiency in planning event activities, users can create a MedEd activity template for each type of MedEd event that they commonly host.

An activity template allows common recurring tasks to be associated with a given event without having to enter each task manually. Such tasks might include renting a venue, hiring a caterer, obtaining equipment, printing literature, and arranging for other materials to be available for the event. For more information on creating activity templates, see Creating a MedEd Activity Template.

The following procedure describes how to create an activity plan for an individual MedEd event, where the plan contains a combination of tasks derived from an activity template and tasks that are specific to the given event.

To create an activity plan for a MedEd event

  1. Navigate to the MedEd screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My MedEd Events.
  3. In the MedEd Events list, select an event.
  4. Click the Activity Plans view tab.
  5. In the Activity Plans list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
  6. Some of the fields in an Activity Plans record are described in the following table.

    Field
    Comments
    Description
    Enter a description for this activity plan.
    Lock Assignment
    Determine whether the Assigned To field should be locked. If the activity is locked, Assignment Manager does not access it. If it is unlocked, Assignment Manager can reassign it.
    Planned Start
    Refers to the date that planning and preparation for an event starts, rather than the date that the MedEd event starts.
    Changing the value of Planned Start in an activity plan automatically changes the value of all Due dates for activities that are a part of that plan. In contrast, changing the value of an individual activity's Due date does not affect the values of Due dates for other activities or the Planned Start date for the activity plan.
    Template
    Select an activity template from the drop-down list. Individual activities from the selected template appear in the Activities list. For more information on creating activity templates, see Applications Administration Guide.

  7. If this event involves activities that are not included in the selected activity plan template, click the Activities subview tab.
  8. In the Activities list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.
  9. Many activity fields are not applicable to MedEd events and can be left blank.

    Some of the fields in an Activities record are described in the following table.

    Field
    Comments
    Description
    Enter a description for this activity.
    Employees
    User name of the person who is to perform the activity. Leave this field blank for the activity to be assigned to the active user.

  10. Repeat Step 7 until all activities have been specified.

To record the cost of an activity

  1. Navigate to the MedEd screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My MedEd Events.
  3. In the MedEd Events list, drill down on the Name hyperlink for the event for which you want to record the cost.
  4. Click the Activities view tab.
  5. In the Activities list, select the activity for which you want to supply cost information, and then scroll to the right until the Cost field appears.
  6. Enter the cost of the activity in the Cost field.

To view aggregated activity costs for a MedEd plan

  1. Navigate to the MedEd screen.
  2. From the Show drop-down list, select My MedEd Plans.
  3. Drill down on the Name hyperlink for the plan for which you want to view aggregated costs.
  4. In the Plans form, click Actual Cost in the upper-right corner.
  5. The Actual Cost and Remaining Budget fields are updated in the form.


 Siebel Life Sciences Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003