Planned Work
The Planned Work feature enables project plans to be fixed regardless of actual time tracked against a project. By keeping a project plan fixed, you can improve your future project planning by comparing the difference between planned time and actual time. Planned Work also enables you to select to plan your projects with a forward or backward scheduling method. For more information, see Project Scheduling Methods.
To enable the Planned Work feature, go to Setup > Company > Enable Features. Under Projects, check the Planned Work box, and click Save.
When enabling Planned Work, NetSuite recalculates all projects and their project plans that do not have a Closed status. Please ensure any projects you have finished are set as Closed prior to enabling this feature. Projects that are finished but have not been set as Closed may have adjustments made to the percent complete, billing, or revenue recognition.
Enabling the Planned Work feature renames the Estimated Work field to Calculated Work on project records. A Planned Work field is added to project and project task records. When planning a project, planned work is entered on project or project task records. If you enter planned work on project tasks, the sum of the hours entered rolls up to be displayed in the Planned Work field on the project record.
If time is entered outside of the planned work for the project, the Planned Work field does not change. The Planned Work field is only updated if additional hours are manually entered on the project or project task records. Calculated Work is the sum of planned work and any actual time tracked outside of planned work. As time is tracked for the project, the Calculated Work field is updated when time is tracked outside the planned time.
When using Planned Work, planned time entries are not converted to actual time entries, they remain in NetSuite as planned time. If you also use Advanced Project Profitability, this can result in a duplicate calculation of your committed costs. It is recommended that you ensure your custom profitability calculations do not have Planned Time enabled on the Settings page. For more information, see Advanced Project Profitability.
If you create Forecast Charges for Actual Time Entries without enabling the Planned Work feature, you won't be able to perform this functionality once the feature is enabled.
There is a 250 entry limit for any single assignment on a project. Because planned time entries are not converted when using Planned Work, it is possible in very large projects to reach this limit. If the limit is reached, the project plan is no longer recalculated and cannot be edited. As a work around, you may clear the Create Planned Time Entries box on the Preference subtab of the project record or increase the duration of individual time entries for the assignment to prevent multiple small planned time entries.
If you previously had saved searches and reports using the Estimated Work field, you must manually update your searches and reports to include the Calculated Work field. Calculated Work and Planned Work are both available to add to searches and reports so that you may easily track your project planning accuracy.
After enabling Planned Work, go to Setup > Accounting > Accounting Preferences. On the Projects tab, under Project Management, in the Percent Complete Denominator field, select how you want your denominator determined for percent complete calculations.
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Planned Time – the total number of hours for planned for the project
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Planned Time + Actual Time – the total number of hours planned for the project plus any time tracked over the planned hours
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Allocated Time – if you use resource allocations, the total number of hours allocated for the project
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Allocated Time + Actual Time – if you use resource allocations, the total number of hours allocated for the project plus any time tracked over the allocated hours
After you have initially set this preference, any changes made will require recalculation of your open project plans. This could affect your calculated percent complete, progress, revenue recognition, or charge-based billing. If allocated time is selected, NetSuite uses all allocated time (both project and project task) for percent complete calculations.