Oracle's PeopleSoft Project Costing Preface

This preface discusses:

Note. This PeopleBook documents only page elements that require additional explanation. If a page element is not documented with the process or task in which it is used, then it either requires no additional explanation or is documented with the common elements for the section, chapter, or PeopleBook.

Click to jump to parent topicPeopleSoft Products

This PeopleBook refers to these PeopleSoft products:

Click to jump to parent topicPeopleSoft Application Fundamentals

The PeopleSoft Project Costing PeopleBook provides you with implementation and processing information for your Project Costing system. However, additional, essential information describing the setup and design of your system resides in companion documentation. The companion documentation consists of important topics that apply to many or all PeopleSoft applications across Oracle's PeopleSoft Financial Management Solutions, Enterprise Service Automation, Asset Lifecycle Management, and Supply Chain Management product lines. You should be familiar with the contents of these PeopleBooks.

These companion PeopleBooks refer specifically to Project Costing:

Click to jump to parent topicPages with Deferred Processing

Several pages in Project Costing operate in deferred processing mode. Most fields on these pages are not updated or validated until you save the page or refresh it by clicking a button, link, or tab. Delayed processing has various implications for the field values on the page. For example, if a field contains a default value, any value that you enter before the system updates the page overrides the default. Another implication of deferred processing is that the system updates quantity balances or totals only when you save or otherwise refresh the page.

See the guidelines for designing pages in the PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Application Designer Developers Guide.

Click to jump to parent topicPeopleBooks and the PeopleSoft Online Library

A companion PeopleBook called PeopleBooks and the PeopleSoft Online Library contains general information, including:

You can find PeopleBooks and the PeopleSoft Online Library in the online PeopleBooks Library for your PeopleTools release.

Click to jump to parent topicCommon Elements Used in This PeopleBook

Activity ID

Unique identification code for an activity.

Actual Work

Tracks the actual number of hours spent by a labor resource on an activity. Actual work is captured in the Project Activity Team table (PROJ_ACT_TEAM) from hours recorded on PeopleSoft Expenses time reports. The Expenses to Project Costing Application Engine process (PC_EX_TO_PC) updates actual work in Project Costing.

As of Date

Last date for which a report or process includes data.

Budget

Cost or revenue estimates that are distributed to project activities across time periods for budgetary or project performance measurement.

Business Unit

Identification code that represents a high-level organization of business information. For example, business units can define regional or departmental units within a larger organization.

Duration

The length of time needed to complete an activity. More precisely, it is the number of business days between an activity's start and end dates.

Effective Date

Date on which a table row becomes effective, or the date that an action begins. For example, if you want to close a ledger on June 30, the effective date for the ledger closing is July 1. The effective date also determines when you can view and change the information. Pages and batch processes that use information with an effective date use the current row.

EmplID (employee identification)

Unique identification code for an individual associated with your organization.

Estimate

An approximation of the costs of the resources needed to complete project activities. Estimates do not involve allocating or distributing costs across time periods for budgetary or project performance measurement.

Milestone

An activity, the completion of which marks an important event in a project. Milestones are usually one day in duration.

Process Frequency group box

Designates the appropriate frequency in the Process Frequency group box on an Application Engine run control page. Available options are:

Once: Executes the request the next time the batch process runs. After the batch process runs, the system automatically changes the process frequency to Don't Run.

Always: Executes the request every time the batch process runs.

Don't Run: Ignores the request when the batch process runs.

Program

A vehicle for grouping detail projects for the purpose of reporting and management. A program cannot have activities or resources that are directly associated to it.

Project ID

Unique identification code for a project.

Project Costing-Managed Project

A project that is created to address any of the following business needs:

  • Monitoring and managing activity dates, dependencies, resources, percent complete, budgets, and costs.

  • Managing, budgeting, and reporting on initiatives at a project or program level.

  • Pooling and analyzing a variety of costs, including work order costs, related to a particular initiative.

  • Capitalizing disparate development and construction-related costs.

  • Retiring assets that require a significant amount of cost and effort.

Use a Project Costing-managed project when there is an individual in a project manager role, who is engaged in planning the project by creating the project and its activities before actually executing work and incurring costs.

Report Manager

A link that accesses the Report List page, where you can view report content, check the status of a report, and view content detail messages that show you a description of the report and the distribution list.

Process Monitor

A link that accesses the Process List page, where you can view the status of submitted process requests.

Run

A button that accesses the Process Scheduler request page, where you can specify the location where a process or job runs and the process output format.

Run Control ID

Identification code that identifies the run parameters for a report or process.

SetID

Identification code that represents a set of control table information or tablesets. A tableset is a group of tables (records) that are necessary to define your company's structure and processing options.

Short Description

Any text up to 15 characters.

User ID

System identifier for the individual who generates a transaction.

Work

Total number of hours spent or to be spent by a resource on an activity. Work does not equal duration. For example, the expected duration of an activity can be 5 days, but the work assigned to the activity may be 80 hours with two resources working on the activity. You define work in hours at the activity level.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Organizes and defines the total scope of the project. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of a project component.

Work Order

The standard industry vehicle for authorizing the creation and management of assets. PeopleSoft Maintenance Management uses work orders to authorize work to be performed and costs to be incurred.

Work Order-Managed Project

A project that is used behind the scenes to enable Project Costing processes to collect, report, track, and account for costs incurred for work orders and work order tasks in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management. You do not proactively plan and manage work order managed projects—the planning is done on the work order. For example, a maintenance planner typically plans the work to be performed on a maintenance work order.