How Burden Schedule Components Work Together
Burden schedules establish the multipliers used to calculate the burdened cost, revenue, or bill amount of each expenditure item charged to a project. The burden schedule determines which transactions the application burdens, based on burden cost bases defined in the burden structure.
The project type determines which projects are burdened and contains the default burden schedule. A burden schedule type can be firm or provisional. You can override rates by using a schedule of multipliers negotiated for a specific project or task.
Burden Schedule Types
Use a firm burden schedule if you don't expect the multipliers to change. Firm burden schedules can have multiple versions, but never more than one version for a date range.
Use a provisional burden schedule if you based the multipliers on estimates, such as a yearly forecast budget. Provisional schedules can have provisional and actual versions active for the same date range. When the actual multipliers are available, replace the provisional version with the actual version. When you build the actual burden schedule, the application automatically reprocesses the impacted expenditure items to adjust the burden cost amounts.
Multipliers
The multiplier specifies the rate by which to multiply the raw cost amount to obtain the burden cost amount. If you don't use organization hierarchies, you can assign a multiplier to a combination of burden cost code and either a unique organization or all organizations. If you use organization hierarchies, you can assign a multiplier to a combination of burden cost code and either a unique organization or a parent organization.
You can use the organization hierarchy to cascade rates down to lower-level organizations without explicitly defined multipliers. If the Project Financial Management applications find a level in the hierarchy without a multiplier, they use the multipliers of the parent organization. Therefore, an organization multiplier schedule hierarchy is used to identify the exceptions. You only define the multipliers for an organization if you're overriding the multipliers of the parent organization.
The following diagram shows an example of organizations using multipliers. The parent organization, Headquarters, has two defined multipliers: Overhead with a multiplier of 2.0, and Administrative with a multiplier of 3.0.
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The application doesn't find any multipliers when it processes transactions for the East organization. Therefore, the application uses the multipliers from the parent organization, Headquarters.
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The Boston and New York City organizations are assigned an Administrative multiplier of 3.1, and no Overhead multiplier. Therefore, the application uses the Administrative multiplier of 3.1, and the Overhead multiplier from the Headquarters organization, when processing transactions for the Boston and New York City organizations.
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The West organization is assigned an Overhead multiplier of 2.3, and no Administrative multiplier. Therefore, the application uses the Overhead multiplier of 2.3, and the Administrative multiplier from the Headquarters organization, when processing transactions for the West organization.
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No multipliers are assigned to the San Francisco and Los Angeles organizations. Therefore, the application uses the Overhead multiplier from the West organization, and the Administrative multiplier from the Headquarters organization, when processing transactions for the San Francisco and Los Angeles organizations.
Burden Schedule Versions
Burden schedule versions define the date range within which multipliers are effective. You build the burden schedule to make the burden schedule versions active and available for use.