Enterprise Financials Overview

Enterprise Financials Overview 

Financial Management

The Financial Management module of Cora PPM is used to manage all aspects of the Financial areas of a project, from initial estimate through to actual spend.

It allows for an estimate of the cost of the project(s) and it also provides a framework for budgeting and forecasting the costs over the project(s) life cycle.  

Actuals and committed values can be populated into this module as well. 

The Financial Management page in Cora PPM is the central placeholder for project costs, when added by your administrator to a project’s project menu bar is available for projects, programmes and even portfolios if applicable. To access “Financial Management” screen

Navigate to the menu bar and click on “Financials” and choose “Financial Management” from the drop down list 

This will open the following panel.

Note:   Depending on configuration one or more of these tabs may be labelled differently and/or hidden. Meaning, this may vary from customer to customer as this can be located / named differently from one instance to another by the administrator.  

Note:  In order to access the controlled pieces of the financial functionality you will need to have the role of Finance Manager. This role is set-up in the user details in Administration. For example, the administrator may set that only “Finance Managers” may enter financial data on projects. 

Account Structure

The Account structure is broken down into accounts, cost centres/cost codes, the account number and an account description.  The view of the account codes can be filtered on project type. These are defined by the administrator. 

Note:  Cora PPM can be configured to mimic the charter of accounts set up for your organisation and is done via configuration.

Settings: Date Range

By default, the standard Cora PPM financial page displays all financial data for all account codes and periods for a project.  For projects that run over multiple years or for systems configured with large numbers of account codes, this can make it difficult to focus in on the relevant detail.   To configure the data displayed:

Firstly, navigate to the “Settings” tab and set your date range.

Click into the “Settings”.  This opens the following pane

Click into the “Date Range” to select a time period, i.e. This Year, Last Year, etc., or you can use the “From Date”/ “To Date” to open the pop-out calendar so you can select the date range required.

Once a date range is selected only the periods within the date range are displayed.

When a date range is applied, it is indicated to the left of the Settings button.  Clicking on the small ‘x’ removes the date range and reverts to the default which is Project Duration.  

The date range is applied across all four tabs that show data by period: Budget; Forecast; Actuals; and Commitments.

Settings are saved ‘per user, per project’ so each user can configure the display of financial data for each project in the way that best suits their needs.  

Note:  The total column always displays the total of all values for all periods, not just those selected.

Hide rows with no data

The new settings options for Financial Management also include an option to ‘Hide rows with no data’.  Checking this option will suppress the display of any account codes that do not contain any values.

Figure  – Financial Management with empty rows suppressed

Depending on configuration one or more of these tabs may be hidden and/or labelled differently

Cost Estimate

The “Cost Estimate” is used as an initial estimate or pre-forecast of a project before it gets approval.

Navigate to the “Cost Estimate” tab.  This allows you to put in a value against cost codes in terms of what you think the project is going to cost.

Click into the Amount column and enter the estimated cost

Click into the Comment column and enter a remark

*The boxes will be annotated with a red flag  in the left top corner or each cell to show the entry/change.

Click SAVE

Note:  As you enter and modify your values, you can 'Save' these entries and you will see the latest date of refreshed data with a 'Saved' status. 

When you wish to advise an Approver of the Cost Estimate data, you can select them from the user list at the bottom of the screen and they will receive an email with a link directly to the submitted Cost Estimate screen.

Click into the “Overall Cost Estimate Comment” box and enter a comment.

Click into the “Users to email on submit”.  Use the “Search” field of find the name of the person from the list to assign the estimate for review and approval.

Click SAVE.

Note:  If the Cost Estimate is incorrect, or an update is required, a Cora PPM user with a 'Finance Manager' role can 'Unlock' the Cost Estimate screen.  This will allow you to edit and resubmit the data.  

Note:  It is important to note there are no iterations of this screen, and only the most recently entered data as you view it on the screen will be saved.

An email will be generated and sent to the Approver with a link directly to the submitted Cost Estimate screen.

Note:  This function is not mandatory and you do not have to have this approval process set up.

When the estimates are finalised, you can 'Submit' the data.

Click SUBMIT

This opens the following pane where you can confirm or cancel submitting the Cost Estimate.

Submitting the data locks the 'Cost Estimate' in and the screen becomes ' Read Only'.  The “Status” shows 'Submitted' along with a date stamp.  

This action passes the values into the Budget Management screen.

Budget

When the “Cost Estimate” is submitted and approved, the values are transferred to the Budget screen.

As you view your Budget page, you will see the Cost Estimates values are dropped into this screen as a baseline for building your Budget. These values can then be profiled out over the duration of the project, or the Budget can be amended to reflect more accurate projections as appropriate.

To update your Budget profile

Enter your financial data in the appropriate cells, profiled over the duration of the project.

*The boxes will be annotated with a red flag  in the left top corner or each cell to show the entry/change.

Select SAVE at the bottom of the screen

This gives you a page status of 'Saved' and the iteration is time/date stamped.  As you amend and save data, further iterations will be created.

When you are satisfied with your entries and that this is your approved budget; 

Select APPROVE

This opens the following pane confirmation pane.

Confirm your approval

The status at the bottom of the page is now 'Approved', with the latest iteration

A Finance Manager will 'Approve' the budget.  This action opens the “Forecast” screen.

Note:  To approve a budget, the user must have a role of Finance Manager.   This role is set-up in the user details in Administration.

Note:  During the course of the project, you may wish to amend the budget data using previous iterations as a basis for the update.  You can only Edit the latest iteration.

Follow the approval process as above.

Once the Budget has been approved for the project this can then be referenced on the Financial Analysis widget.

Edit Account “Description

The Account Description list is configured centrally, but you can change the description of the account on each project, if the Project Administration allows it.  This is used for localising the language and will be on a per project basis.  This in turn comes through on the reports.  

Choose which account codes are available by project type and then change, if required.

Click “Edit Account Desc.”  This will open the following pane:

Click into the Account Description and make to the changes.

Click on the Tick to confirm your change or the cross  to cancel.

You will get a message to show that the change has been successful and the new description will show in the pane.

Note:  Once a budget figure has been approved for the project, this figure is then used by the Financial Analysis Widget on the Project, Programme and Portfolio Dashboards.

Forecast

Once the Budget has been approved for the project, the “Approved Budget” values are transferred to the Forecast screen.

In the Forecast screen, you have the option to:

Manually enter Forecast values in the blank profile.  

or select

Load from Budget

This opens the following confirmation prompt

Click LOAD.  The budget values will be displayed with the most recent approved budget figure used.

Select SAVE. This creates iterations as you make modifications.

Note:  Your latest iteration information is displayed at the bottom of the screen, including any Linked Budget Iteration data.

You can amend your budgets and forecasts during the duration of the project by repeating the process above.

Load from Schedule

When a Project Manager is working in the Gantt schedule and adds additional resources to a task, an account code will be associated with that assignment.  This planned cost which is part the project will have an impact on the Forecast.  

These changes can be loaded directly into the “Forecast” using the “Load from Schedule” option.

When resourcing tasks in the Gantt screen, Project Managers can automatically generate an updated forecast referencing resource costs with no re-keying required.

Click “Load From Schedule”.  

This opens the following panel where you can choose to “Apply Changes” for “All Values” or “Current month onwards”.

Click LOAD

You will get a message to show that the change has been successful and the Forecast values have been successfully uploaded for the schedule.

Click SAVE

Note:  The “Load From Schedule” does not automatically save the new forecast or estimate.  The user can modify the values as required, but must then click SAVE to commit the new forecast.

Actuals

The Actual tab shows the actual expenditure broken down by the actual costs.  The actual costs represent the paid invoice amounts relating to this project.

Cora PPM allows for these values to be entered manually on to the “Actuals” screen or alternatively imported into the system using a variety of options.

In the following example, we will show how to manually input data into the Actual Finance screen.

Navigate to the “Actuals” tab and enter the actual costs into the table

*The boxes will be annotated with a red flag  in the left top corner or each cell to show the entry/change.

Click SAVE

You will get a message to show that data input has been successfully saved and you can see that the values have been updated.

Commitments

The Committed costs page on a project or programme in Cora PPM is there to manage costs that have been committed in some form with the expectation of a future payment. Therefore, the committed cost is an Actual cost to a project that has not realised yet. When it does, at some point that cost will be credited from Committed and debited to Actuals. 

The Commitments costs page in Cora PPM operate the exact same way as Actuals.  

Financial Management Widget

This Widget graphically presents the management of project funds reflecting the current financial status and cumulative and comparative data and trends.

Display options can be modified by accessing the Settings button.  Here you can refine your selection criteria to capture the financial elements you wish to view across a specific date range to present summary interpretations of the data.

Expand the widget by clicking on the icon.

This opens the values for the project.  It groups the cost information by the account codes.

To export the table to an excel file click “Export” on the right-hand side of the function bar.

Changing the Settings

To change the information being displayed, go into the settings on the top right of the widget and click on the settings icon.  This opens the Financial Management Settings pane.

Click the icon to expand the pane.

Detail Display gives you the option to display “By Project” or “By Account Code”.  

By Project:  

If you select by project, the widget will display a summary view of the financial data for the project you are on.

If you are looking at multiple projects at programme level, then this is powerful because it lists the costs for each project.   (*This is covered in detail in the Programme Dashboard document.)

By Account Code: 

When you check this box, it gives you the option view “All Account Codes” or Specific Account Codes”.

Show “Specific Account Codes” gives you the ability to pick and choose the codes that are available.

Date Range:  

You can click into the Date Range box and choose one of the pre-set options, e.g. Last Year, This Year, Next Year, etc.

Or use the “From Date:” and “To Date” fields to choose the dates you wish to view.

Click SAVE to keep your selected options.

Abbreviated Chart Axes and Abbreviated Values

Depending on the volume of records and the monetary values associated with them, numbers in the tens of thousands or millions may need to be displayed in widgets.  These numbers can be difficult to read and interpret so there is an option to abbreviate large numbers. 

The default is set for all users in their user profile: 

Option for Abbreviated Numbers 

For example, here is the Financial Widget with number abbreviations off.  Note the full 300,000 on the Y axis:

No Number Abbreviations 

Below is the same widget with abbreviations on.

Click SAVE 

Financial Management Reporting 

In addition to the various reports that show cost information, there are 4 dedicated reports developed for Financial Management in Cora PPM.  Click on REPORTS to navigate to the Cora PPM reports page.

Financial – Projects:

Use this report to show the totals of all project costs by project, with the option to show the same value totals into Year or Year by Period buckets. 

Financial - Project Accounts:

Use this report to show the totals of all project costs by cost account, with the option to show the same value totals into Year or Year by Period buckets. 

Financial - Project Comparison:

Use this report to show the totals of either Budget or Forecast (either or) by project, showing comparisons between submitted iterations of either Budget or Forecast (either or).

Financial - Project Accounts Comparison

Use this report to show the totals of either Budget or Forecast (either or) by cost account, showing comparisons between 1 or 2 (limit) submitted iterations of either Budget or Forecast (either or).

Using Financial Reports

The control screen on all 4 report operate in the same manner, providing a selection of controls to define the data that will appear in the export of the report. The page provides the user with a set of options that can be defined as follows: 

Report Selection: All 4 reports have the option that allows one to save a report and reuse it at another time. Simply give the report a name, then at the bottom of the screen click “Save”. This report will be available in the “Report Name” field in future. 

Project Scope: The 4 reports will have similar options each to include / exclude projects, for example including sub-projects from programmes included in the “Programme / Project” selection. 

Reporting Elements: All 4 reports will provide options to include elements into the report or not, for example including profiled total data, or selecting the applicable date ranges. 

Excel

Note:   Once the report has been run, all users have the option on exporting the data in their preferred format.