P6 Professional User Guide

Notes

Curves are defined by 21 points (5% intervals from 0 to 100).

You can also assign resource curves in the Resources tab of Activity Details.

Curves cannot be assigned to an activity with a duration type of Fixed Units or Fixed Units/Time.

Remove a curve from a resource or role assignment

1)Choose Project, Resource Assignments.

2)Select the resource/role assignment from which you want to remove the resource curve.

3)Click in the Curve column, then click Clear in the Select Curve dialog box.

To display the Curve column, click the Display Options bar, then choose Columns, Customize. Select Curve from the General group and click to add the column to the Selected Options.

Note

You can also remove curves from the Resources tab in the Activity Details.

Budgeting

Defining Budgeting

Budget consists of the total estimation effort (or quantities) necessary, and the cash flow required, to complete a project. Before a project start, the resource/cost manager, along with the operations executive, program manager, and project manager determine scope and budget requirements, and set these estimates. As requirements change, resource and financial support are adjusted to compensate for these changes. The individuals involved in project funding and financial support can log changes to the budget in the project planning stage, or after the project is underway. P6 Professional tracks these changes, while retaining the original amounts.

Establishing budgets

You can create budget estimates for each EPS node, project, or WBS level, and then refine them as needed.

Use the Budget Log tab on the Projects window to enter the original budget—the total amount you require for the EPS node or project.

The Budget Change Log helps you keep track of budget changes as they occur. The Current Budget (original budget plus approved budget changes) and Proposed Budget fields (original budget plus approved and pending budget amounts) incorporate these changes so you have up-to-date and accurate budget information for each project or EPS node.

You can record monthly spending of budgeted funds, track the current and undistributed variance amounts, and roll up the monthly spending plan of each project to any level of the EPS.

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Developing Projects

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 EPPM database: If your projects use funding to support budgets, you can also use P6 to set up a dictionary containing any nonprofit, government-allocated, or other funding sources for easy assignment to projects or EPS nodes.

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 Professional database: If your projects use funding to support budgets, you can also set up a dictionary containing any nonprofit, government-allocated, or other funding sources for easy assignment to projects or EPS nodes.

Tracking and analyzing budgets

The resource spreadsheet enables you to see an overall picture of unit and cost budget distributions, and the variance amounts resulting from current use versus original estimates at the activity level.

For high-level budgeting information, display the Projects Window (choose Enterprise, Projects) and then select Original Budget and Current Variance as columns.

You can also use the preformatted reports to track budget amounts at the project and activity level.

Establish budgets

1)Choose Enterprise, Projects, then select the EPS node/project for which you want to enter budgets.

2)Display Project Details, then click the Budget Log tab.

3)In the Original Budget field, type an estimate of the total amount you require for this project, including all funding contributions.

Enter budget changes

1)Choose Enterprise, Projects, then select the EPS node/project for which you want to enter budget changes.

2)Display Project Details, then click the Budget Log tab.

3)Click Add.

4)In the Budget Change Log section, specify the date, amount, person responsible for the change, status (pending, approved, or not approved), and reason for the change.

The Current Budget field is the sum of the original budget plus approved budget changes; the Proposed Budget contains the original budget plus approved and pending budget amounts.

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P6 Professional User Guide

Define funding sources

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 EPPM database, you use P6 to set up a Funding Sources Dictionary containing any nonprofit, government-allocated, or other funding sources.

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 Professional database, follow these steps to set up a Funding Sources Dictionary containing any nonprofit, government-allocated, or other funding sources. You can assign funding sources to budgets as you develop projects.

1)Choose Enterprise, Funding Sources.

2)Select the funding source immediately above and at the same hierarchy level as the fund you want to add, then click Add.

Use the hierarchical structure of the Funding Sources Dictionary to categorize and group similar funds, such as those affiliated with a particular agency.

3)Click Modify to type any additional information about the fund in an HTML editor.

In the editor, you can format text, insert pictures and tables, copy and paste information from other document files (while retaining formatting), and add hyperlinks.

4)Click Close.

Tips

You can apply unlimited Funding assignments to each EPS and project level.

To see a graphical display of your funding hierarchy, click the Display Options bar in the Funding Sources dialog box and choose Chart View.

Assign funding sources

Once you define funding sources, you can assign them to EPS nodes or projects as follows:

1)Choose Enterprise, Projects, then select the EPS node/project to which you want to assign a funding source.

2)Display Project Details, then click the Funding tab.

3)Click Add.

4)Select a funding source from the Funding Sources Dictionary.

5)Click , then click .

6)Type the amount of funding to be allocated to this project.

7)Type a percentage or share of the total fund to be allocated to the selected element.

You can assign the same funding source multiple times with varying amount and share contributions for different levels of the EPS. Both the amount and share values for the fund are user-defined. Funds do not roll up; you edit them per EPS level to allow for top-down planning.

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Developing Projects

Tip

In the Projects window you can include a column called Total Funding, which contains the sum of the funding for each project and EPS node.

Enter monthly spending amounts

1)Choose Enterprise, Projects, then select the EPS node/project for which you want to enter monthly spending amounts.

2)Display Project Details, then click the Spending Plan tab.

3)Type total expenditures for each month in the Spending Plan column.

The Spending Plan Tally column shows any amounts previously recorded for lower-level project spending plans.

The current variance is the difference between the monthly spending of the EPS node and its projects' tallies.

You can type the benefit amount or profit portion of the monthly amounts; the benefit plan is also tallied.

View budget and spending plan totals

1)Choose Enterprise, Projects, then select the EPS node/project for which you want to view budget information.

2)Display Project Details, then click the Budget Summary tab to view calculated budget data from the Budget Log and Spending Plan tabs.

Compare budgets and variances

1)Choose Enterprise, Projects, then click the Display Options bar and choose Columns, Customize.

2)Select any budget-related columns you want to display in the Projects window.

For example, select the Project ID, Project Name, Original Budget, and Current Variance columns to compare the original budget amounts assigned to the projects, and the current variance resulting from budget spending on those projects to date.

Note

When current spending differs from original budget estimates, a variance results. A variance amount shown in parentheses indicates a negative variance amount for the project.

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