How Microsoft Project Works with Project Financial Management

Microsoft Project integration enables project managers to create projects, complete in-depth scheduling using dependencies and constraints, and perform what-if analysis offline before synchronizing project plan and progress information with Project Financial Management applications.

Project executives, project accountants, and billing specialists can use the information exported to Project Financial Management applications for financial planning, project costing, billing and revenue accrual, and performance reporting.

The integration of Microsoft Project versions 2010, 2013, 2016, or 2019 for desktop with Project Financial Management applications provides scheduling along with support of manual tasks, inactive tasks, and free text. You can do the following:

• Import templates or existing projects from Project Financial Management applications to create projects in Microsoft Project.

• Export projects from Microsoft Project to create projects in Project Financial Management applications.

• Synchronize existing projects with Project Financial Management applications.

  Note: If Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management offering is implemented, the synchronization option isn't available.

• Import resources from the primary planning resource breakdown structure to use for creating task assignments in Microsoft Project.

• Plan and schedule projects, assign resources, and track progress.

• Import planned quantities and costs into Microsoft Project for progress collection.

• Export project plan and progress information to Project Financial Management applications.

Installing the Microsoft Project Integration Client

A project manager or project administrator can download and install the integration clients available for different versions of Microsoft Project to integrate with Project Management or Project Financial Management applications.

Before downloading the client, ensure that you have .NET Framework 4.5.2 or later versions installed on your computer. Contact your Help Desk to find the existing .NET Framework version and steps to upgrade it, if needed.

Note: You can only have one integration client, for either Project Management or Project Financial Management applications, on your desktop. To switch between different clients, you must uninstall the existing client and install the other client.

To install the Microsoft Project Integration client for Project Financial Management applications:

1. Navigate to Project Financial Management.

2. From the My Projects page, open the Actions panel tab and select Install Microsoft Project Integration to download the required client.

3. Save the client, extract the installation files to a local folder, and run the installation file from that folder.

4. Open the Microsoft Project application.

5. From the Oracle Fusion Projects menu, select Change Environment and enter the URL for Oracle Fusion Applications.

   You can change the environment URL at any time to support subsequent server changes.

Importing Projects

You can import a template or an existing project from Project Financial Management applications to create a new project file in Microsoft Project. During import, select to import all project information or only planning resources. If you want to subsequently export new task assignments for the project to Project Financial Management applications, you must import resources from the primary planning resource breakdown structure.

While importing templates from Project Financial Management applications, you can't select a template that allows changes to the primary planning resource breakdown structure at the project level. This restriction doesn't apply when importing projects.

When importing an existing project, retain the link if you intend to synchronize the project. If you only want to view project details, or intend to export the project to Project Financial Management applications as a different project later, then don't retain the project link. The retain link isn't available if Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management is implemented and you can't retain the project link if third-party scheduling is disabled for the project.

Importing Resources and Rates

You can import all planning resources from the primary planning resource breakdown structure associated with the project in Project Financial Management applications or import selected resources only.

Import rates from Project Financial Management applications to calculate planned costs in Microsoft Project. The Cost Type synchronization option determines whether raw cost rates or burdened cost rates are imported.

Before import, rates are derived for each resource based on the actual or planning rate schedules specified on the associated project plan type. Any override rates you specify on the project plan in Project Financial Management applications aren't imported.

Importing Actual Costs and Exporting Progress

You can import actual quantity and costs either from the latest summarized data or from draft progress. The source of actual amounts determines how progress is exported, as described in the following table.

Source of Actual Amounts	Impact on Exporting Progress
Latest summarized data	Actual amounts on the draft progress are refreshed from the latest summarized data when you export progress. You can specify the progress as-of date in the synchronization options.
Draft progress	Actual amounts on the draft progress aren't refreshed and hence, they match the actual amounts previously imported into Microsoft Project.

When you export progress from Microsoft Project, the estimate-to-complete (ETC) method and physical percent complete calculation method are set to Manual. Values for planned, actual, and estimated finish dates and physical percent complete are exported at each level in the task hierarchy and don't roll up in Project Financial Management applications. Values for all other attributes are transferred at the task assignment level and roll up in Project Financial Management applications.

After export, draft progress is published. A forecast version is generated depending on progress settings defined for the associated project plan type. You can export progress with raw cost if burdening isn't enabled on the project type. If burdening is enabled, then you must use burdened cost to export progress. To achieve this, set the Cost Type synchronization option to Burdened cost.

Exporting Projects from Microsoft Project

You can export a project from Microsoft Project to create a new project in Project Financial Management applications. Exporting links the projects in the two applications. Optionally, set a baseline for the project plan, and simultaneously generate a budget version and create a baseline.

Note: When creating a new project, the financial plan type field shows the budgetary control enabled financial plan types only if the source project or template is enabled for budgetary control.

When exporting a project, you must select a source project or template unless you had originally imported a project or template from Project Financial Management applications. The source project or template must allow for third-party scheduling and the associated primary planning resource breakdown structure must not allow changes at the project level.

When exporting projects to Project Financial Management applications, Microsoft Project 2010 or later versions export the tasks based on various conditions as given in the following table.

Tasks	Condition
Inactive tasks	Doesn't export.
Manual tasks	Exports only if the manual tasks have valid dates and duration.
Manual summary tasks	Exports only if the schedule mode of all summary tasks is automatic. This is because the roll up doesn't happen in Project Financial Management applications.

Synchronizing Project Information

Use synchronization rules to transfer information from and to Microsoft Project. Select the required synchronization rule to synchronize all information, or import or export selected information only. For example, you can select to synchronize only schedule updates for the project. Depending on the synchronization rule, select synchronization options to determine how you transfer information. Also, ensure that you save the changes in Microsoft Project after synchronizing projects to avoid losing your data.

The following table describes the default direction in which attributes are transferred.

Attributes	Imported into Microsoft Project	Exported from Microsoft Project
Task structure	Yes	Yes
Resources and resource rates	Yes	No
Task attributes	Yes	Yes
Actual quantities and costs	Yes	No
Scheduling and progress	No	Yes

Note: While importing or exporting projects, if you use a screen reader application, ensure that the focus is on the Transfer Report to read the details after your project transfer.

Import Options while Synchronizing Projects

Microsoft Project schedules tasks differently from Project Financial Management applications. For example, Microsoft Project considers resource availability and tasks dependencies while Project Financial Management applications don't.

Microsoft Project uses three key attributes to schedule tasks: work, dates, and units. A change to one attribute must be offset by a change to one of the other two attributes. Because Microsoft Projects schedules tasks differently, you can't import work and dates for new task assignments and still have the assignment units as 100%. When you import, you must select which of the three values you want Microsoft Project to calculate and the remaining two values are imported.

For example, assume you import a new task assignment with the following attributes:

• Work: 16 hours

• Start date: 03-AUG-15

• Finish date: 03-AUG-15

You can import the new task assignments as explained in the following table based on the option selected during synchronization.

Option	Example Calculation
Calculate Dates	With the start date as 03-Aug-15, the work as 16 hours, and the units as 100%, Microsoft Project calculates the finish date as 04-Aug-15.
Calculate Work	With the start date as 03-Aug-15, the finish date as 03-Aug-15, and the units as 100%, Microsoft Project calculates the work as 8 hours.
Calculate Units in Microsoft Project 2007 or Peak in Microsoft Project 2010 and later versions	With the start date as 03-Aug-15, the finish date as 03-Aug-15, and the work as 16 hours, Microsoft Project calculates the units or Peak as 200%.