Understanding the Project Manager Review Process
Project managers (PMs) need the ability to review and adjust project costs before a bill is generated. A history of all adjustments must be maintained in order to reconcile actual and charged amounts. The project manager review functionality provides a flexible tool that enables a PM to search on a number of fields, make necessary adjustments, and mark reviewed transactions.
By using the Project Manager Review component (PC_PM_REVIEW) project managers can review, adjust if necessary, and approve transactions before the transactions are sent through the billing process. If project managers determine that an adjustment is needed, they can modify the amount, quantity, project-related ChartFields (business unit, project, activity, type, category, and subcategory) and billable status. Then the project accountant assigns the general ledger-related ChartField values and determines if the adjustment will generate accounting entries in the Accounting Line for Contracts and Project Costing table (CA_ACCTG_LN_PC) to send to PeopleSoft General Ledger.
You can select the Review Required for Billing option on the Installation Options - Project Costing Integration page to activate a mandatory review process for the entire system. By using this option, a project transaction must be reviewed before it can be billed. With this option enabled, the Process Project Accounting Application Engine process (PSA_ACCTGGL) generates rows only from transactions with a PM_REVIEWED field value of Yes (reviewed), and ignores transactions that have not been reviewed. You can override the Review Required for Billing option at the project type level and for individual projects.
If you select the Review Required for Billing option at the installation level, you can specify the Auto Review for Billing option for a project type. This automatically marks all transactions for projects with that project type as reviewed, and bypasses the requirement for a project manager review. You can also select the Auto Review for Billing option on the Project Costing Definition page for specific projects.
During the process of reviewing project cost transactions, project managers can adjust the transactions prior to billing. The review functions that project managers can perform are:
Specify individual transactions as billable or nonbillable.
Review summarized transaction data at a high level where it is easier to focus.
Adjust the amount, quantity, and project-related ChartField values for cost transactions.
View billing, sharing, and revenue transactions.
Making adjustments by using the Project Manager Review component is a two-step process. First, the project manager accesses the Transaction Adjustment page from the Manager Transaction Review component (PC_PM_REVIEW) to make project-related adjustments, including adjustments to quantities, amounts, and project-related ChartField information. Second, the project accountant accesses the Adjustments page to review the adjustments made by the project manager, assign GL-related ChartField information, and determine whether to generate journal entries.
Adjusting a Single Transaction
To adjust ChartField values for a single transaction:
Select the transaction row that you want to adjust on the Manager Transaction Review page.
Alternatively, select the transaction row on the Transaction Adjustment page in the Transaction Adjustment component.
Choose the adjustment type on the Choose type of adjustment page.
The Transaction Adjustment page appears showing the ChartField values in the New Transaction Lines scroll area from the original transaction.
Enter new values as required in the New Transaction Lines scroll area.
Remove values to leave fields empty in the new transaction.
Click Finish to review the changes and compare the original and new transactions.
Adjusting Multiple Transactions
To adjust multiple transactions:
Select more than one transaction row that you want to adjust on the Manager Transaction Review page.
Alternatively, select more than one transaction row on the Transaction Adjustment page in the Transaction Adjustment component.
Note: By using the Manager Transaction Review page, you can review and adjust multiple transactions from different activities in a project at the same time. By using the Transaction Adjustment page, you can review and adjust multiple transactions from a single project activity.
Choose the adjustment type on the Choose type of adjustment page.
The Transaction Adjustment page appears showing only the project business unit, project, activity, and other default values in the New Transaction Lines scroll area. ChartField values from the original transactions do not appear by default in the New Transaction Lines scroll area when you adjust multiple transactions.
Enter new values as required in the New Transaction Lines scroll area.
Values that you enter in the New Transaction Lines scroll area apply to all transactions that appear in the Selected Project Transactions for Adjustment grid. Fields that you do not change on this page (fields that you leave blank) retain their original values in the adjusted transactions.
Click Finish to review the changes and compare the original and new transactions.
Example of Adjusted Transaction Rows in the Project Transaction Table
Assume that PeopleSoft Project Costing receives a time entry transaction from the PeopleSoft Expenses system for a quantity of 10 hours. The transaction contains a TLX analysis type. Then you run the Pricing process, which uses the original transaction and the employee's cost rate (180 USD) and bill rate (290 USD) to create an actual cost row and billing row. The resulting rows in the Project Transaction table (PROJ_RESOURCE) are:
|
Analysis Type |
Description |
Quantity |
Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
|
TLX |
Original transaction |
10 MHR (work hours) |
|
|
ACT |
Transaction priced for costing |
10 MHR |
1,800 USD |
|
BIL |
Transaction priced for billing |
10 MHR |
2,900 USD |
During the project manager review, you discover that the transaction quantity should have been entered as 8 MHR. The first step is to create an adjustment row by using a transaction adjustment type of Adjust Amounts and enter a new quantity of 8 USD. When you finalize the adjustment, the system creates a transaction with a quantity of −2 MHR and sends the adjustment row through the Pricing process. The resulting rows in the Project Transaction table are:
|
Analysis Type |
Description |
Quantity |
Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
|
TLX |
Original row |
10 MHR (work hours) |
|
|
ACT |
Transaction priced for costing |
10 MHR |
1,800 USD |
|
BIL |
Transaction priced for billing |
10 MHR |
2,900 USD |
|
TLX |
Adjustment |
−2 MHR |
|
|
ACT |
Adjustment priced for costing |
−2 MHR |
−360 USD |
|
BIL |
Adjustment priced for billing |
−2 MHR |
−580 USD |
The second step in this adjustment process is for the project accountant to use the Adjustments page to enter any necessary changes to GL-related ChartFields, and to determine if journal entries should be created and sent to the Accounting Line for Contracts and Project Costing table for processing to GL. If the GL distribution status on the adjusted transaction row is Ignore, no journal entries are sent to the Accounting Line for Contracts and Project Costing table. If the GL distribution status is Not Done, the journal entries are sent to the Accounting Line for Contracts and Project Costing table.