Project / Activity DefinitionsThe Project system provides a means of defining and controlling projects that are linked to customer contracts or for internal work that needs to be done. It provides a means for segregating material and labor charges into a specific area through the definition of a project. Labor and material charges can then be made to specific account number/department/project combinations, providing detailed accounting of the charges accumulated by the project over time.

Project ‘PERT’ Scheduling‘PERT’ (Project Evaluation and Review Technique) is a scheduling algorithm used to schedule networked systems such as the project activities.

Based on a project’s user defined preceeding/succeeding activity assignments and the activity lead times, the user can schedule a project forward from a user specified start date.

This type of scheduling will compute a critical path through the project network and will then assign the early and late start and completion dates to each of project’s activities.

The slack days assigned to each project reflect the number of days that are available between the early and late schedule dates. The activities on the critical path will have zero slack days.

Project ‘Earned Value’ ControlEarned value control merges schedule and budget control in an all-exclusive method of managing a project. It does this by focusing on ‘Earned Value’ – value earned by the actual completion of work. The control is measured by the following concepts:

· ACWP – Actual Cost of Work Performed. The actual costs incurred within the project. Standard material and labor costs will be used in calculating this entry but the purchase price variance (PPV) and labor rate variance inclusion in the calculation will bring this calculation close to an actual cost.

· BCWP – Budgeted Cost of Work Performed. The budgeted value of the work (measured by completed activities) as of a user specified date.

· BCWS – Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled. The budgeted value of the work to be performed as of a user specified date.

Define Project Labor, Material, Overhead and Misc. BudgetsAs a part of every project activity, budget entries for labor, material, overhead charges and miscellaneous charges can be manually entered. The project system will then track and report back the actual charges, and variances against budget, incurred as a result of normal system charges against the project activity.

Although the material and labor systems accept direct charges against project activities, the purchase order system also expects, and will report, project references. Overhead charges will be extrapolated from the labor resource definitions and labor transactions, and miscellaneous charges will be picked up from project charges due to manual general ledger charges.

Project Labor Resource Definitions and PlanningA project activity’s labor and overhead budget values are defined in terms of hours budgeted for user defined resource classes, and the labor and overhead budgets can only be edited by revising specific resource class hours. Editing, adding or deleting, a resource class entry under an activity will automatically create a change in the labor and / or overhead budget. (Resource classes have both labor and overhead cost definitions.)

Isolation Warehouse DefinitionProjects that require that material purchased for the control be held isolated from other inventory material can be assigned an isolation warehouse. Once assigned, only material purchased for the contract can be received and brought into the isolation warehouse.

The primary rational for the isolation warehouse is to ensure that the material issued from the warehouse will only be used on the project designated on the warehouse, except for the possibility of issues to accounts (as would be required for scrap).

Report All Material and Labor Costs Charged To ProjectThe INFO.NET project control system permits the definition of specific activities and a complete activity structure within a project. For simpler project environments, projects without an activity structure can also be created. Projects of this type can still be used to collect both material and labor charges and be measured against a user defined budget.

The project charges will be made against account numbers but will also reference the project code in their charges, permitting the ability to analyze a project’s cost at any point in its progress.

If activities are defined within a project, the material and labor charges will be made against a specific activity within the project and budgeting will also be made at the activity level.

Report All Pending Purchase Order Receipts For ProjectA report is available that will list all open purchase order items that reference a user specified project code. The report includes the eelivered and undelivered item values and schedule data.

Contract Definition For Project LinkageContract definitions are available for reference purposes on projects and to enable the user to link multiple projects together under a single contract.

Proactive Email Notification of Project Activity StatusIf required, up to four email/text addresses can be notified by email/phone text when a project activity in which the employee is involved is started (based on the completion of a preceding activity).

Individualized Proactive Project Status ReportingThe alert feature is a proactive tool that allows individual users to set predefined limits and/or goals to proactively manage all facets of your business operations. It operates by notifying specific users when a predefined limit has been reached, such as over budget or past due.
Any user, given valid security, can establish any number of alerts to be checked against values extracted from the various system tables.

The INFO.NET system includes a series of predefined alerts, which may be assigned to individual users for their own specified limits. In addition to the basic deliverable defined limits, custom alert calculation routines may be created through an arrangement with the user’s INFO.NET representative.