Field descriptions: Project information

Project ID

If Projects is configured to auto-number new projects, New-appears.
You can enter the same name for the project ID and the project name.

Project name

Give the project a name. You can enter the project ID again, or enter a more descriptive project name. It can also be helpful to include the customer name in parentheses next for easy identification during time and expense entry, such as 1001: Audit (North Lakes Dental).

Project category

Project categories are used mainly for reporting purposes. For example, use dimension groups to filter for Internal Non-Billable projects and then use that dimension group to filter financial reports.

Project categories include:

• Contract
• Capitalized
• Internal Non-Billable
• Internal Billable

Project type

Project types are user-created tags that you can use to categorize and report on your projects. To learn more, go to project types.

Description

Enter a brief description of your project.

Customer

Select the customer for whom the project is being completed.

Begin date

The date on which the project is scheduled to begin. Enter in MM/DD/YYYY format.

The Begin date represents when to begin posting General Ledger entries to the project, including budget entries. Date transactions on or after the project's Begin date.

If you change a date with assigned tasks and resources, you are asked whether to Shift all task and resource assignment dates to the same amount of time that you're shifting the project Begin date. For example, if you push back your project by 2 weeks, you can also change the start date of the tasks and resource assignments by 2 weeks.

On the pop-up, you can also automatically Shift project end date back the same amount of time to keep the project duration the same.

End date

The date on which the project is scheduled to end. Enter in MM/DD/YYYY format.

Parent project

If this project is the child of another project, select the parent project, and (optionally) select whether to invoice with its parent project. For example, in a home remodeling project, the kitchen remodel would be a child project of the home remodel. Learn more about organizing related projects.

If you subscribe to Construction and you use WIP management, changing the project hierarchy can cause projects to be handled incorrectly in WIP schedules. After changing the parent project, check WIP project settings to ensure that the changed projects are handled correctly in WIP schedules.

Invoice with parent

Check this checkbox if you want to generate invoices that include the parent project and this project together. For example, if you want to create one invoice for a home remodel that includes the kitchen remodel, you would select this option for the kitchen remodel project.

Project status

Select a project status from the dropdown menu. If you have created a project status (Projects > Setup > Projects > Status > Add) to prevent transactions, you can assign that here. For example, you can assign a project status of "Prevent Expense Entry" if you want to block expense entries for your project. To learn more, go to Create a project status.

Status

If a project is old or outdated, you can set the Status to Inactive so that it no longer appears in the Projects list. For all other Projects, select Active.

Include data in WIP schedules

This checkbox indicates if the project is set to be included in WIP schedules. If it is, information is displayed about how it's included: on its own line, as part of its root project, or as part of another project.

If the project is included on its own line, you can view a list of subprojects that are included as part of it by selecting View subprojects.

Department, Location, Class, Contract

Select the department, location, and class associated with this project. The project location and department overrides any location or department associated with an employee on a timesheet. If you leave the project location and department blank, the employee location and department is used.

If you subscribe to Construction and you use WIP management, changing a project's location can cause the project to be handled incorrectly in WIP schedules. After changing a project's location, check WIP project settings to ensure that the project is handled correctly in WIP schedules.

The Contract field is only applicable if your company is subscribed to Contracts. If the project is associated with a contract, the Contract field displays the associated contract ID as a link. The contract ID only displays if you view the project at the same entity level in which the contract was created.. You create the project-contract association on the contract. Learn more about contracts with projects.

Primary contact

Designate a primary contact for the project. This contact is the person others can turn to with questions and information about the project.

Ship-to contact

Designate the person or organization to whom project invoices are sent. Leave this blank if, upon generating an invoice by project, you want to ship to the customer contact.

Bill-to contact

Designate the person or organization responsible for paying project invoices. Leave this blank if, upon generating an invoice by project, you want to bill to the customer contact.

Project manager

Assign a project manager user type to this project. Project managers usually approve timesheets and expense reports. Project managers can also run and view project reports.

External user (customer)

Sales contact

Indicate the sales contact, if any, for this project.

Scope

Describe the scope of the project.

Inclusions

Enter the inclusions for the project.

Exclusions

Enter the exclusions for the project.

Terms

Describe the terms of the project.

Scheduled start date

Select or enter the scheduled start date of the project.

Actual start date

Select or enter the actual start date of the project.

Scheduled completion date

Select or enter the scheduled completion date of the project.

Revised completion date

Select or enter the revised completion date of the project.

Substantial completion date

Select or enter the substantial completion date of the project.

Actual completion date

Select or enter the actual completion date of the project.

Notice to proceed

Select or enter the date of when the project received the notice to proceed.

Response due

Select or enter the date of when the response is due for the project.

Executed on

Select or enter the date of when the project was executed on.

Schedule impact

Describe the schedule impact of the project.

Project ID

This field displays the project ID.

Project name

This field displays the project name.

Parent project ID

For a child project, this field displays the ID of its parent project.

For a root project, this field is blank (root projects cannot have a parent project).

Root project ID

For a child project, this field displays the ID of its root project.

For a root project, this field displays the project's own ID.

Revenue restriction

Grant field to indicate how to restrict the received grant revenue:

• Purpose
• Time
• N/A (not applicable)

Restriction expiration years

Grant field to indicate when to spend the received funds in accordance with federal law.

First restriction expiration date

Grant field to indicate when (date) the received funds expire.
For example, funds, or appropriations, expire at the end of the fiscal year in which they’re appropriated.

Time satisfaction scheduled

Check to indicate that a recurring time entry exists to release the restriction associated with the funding.

ALN

ALN (Assistance Listing Number) found on the Federal award letter was formerly known as CFDA (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance). The ALN tracks federal awards and cooperative agreements. Reporting and auditing use the ALN.

Funded name

Name of the project that gets funding.

Agency

Agency responsible for funding.

Payer

Identify the funding source:

• Federal
• Third-party

Other ID

Another ID for the funding.

Assistance provided

Identify the type of funding:

• Cash
• Non-cash

Calculated percent completed

This field provides an up-to-date calculation of how complete the project is, compared to the estimated duration for all project tasks. The Calculated percent completed is computed by dividing actual hours for project tasks by the Estimated Duration for project tasks.

Estimated duration

An estimation of how long you think your project will take to complete.

Actual duration

The sum of the hours currently submitted for a task in this project. Actual duration hours consist of both approved and unapproved hours.

Approved duration

The total number of hours approved for tasks in this project.

Remaining duration

When you subtract the actual duration from the estimated duration, you have the remaining duration of time allotted for this project.

Observed percent completed

• For revenue recognition, Observed percent completed is used for the Survey Method of Percent complete revenue recognition.
• For invoicing, the Observed percent completed can be used for fixed fee invoicing based on percent completed.
• For custom reports and Gantt charts, the most recent As of date is used when data is displayed.

You can also use this table as a way to set a project manually to a completed state for purposes of revenue recognition or invoicing, from ANY method. To mark a project as complete, enter an As of date and set the Percent complete value to 100. This process triggers the remaining revenue to be recognized on the date specified, and any remaining amounts to be invoiced.

You can only make changes to the As of date column in the Observed percent complete table on a project or task if the new As of date is in an open period. If you try to save an As of date in a closed period, an error message appears. In this scenario, you can either open the period and make the date change or select a different As of date.

Best practice: When you need to update the project or task percentage of completion, add a new percentage with a new As of date to the table instead of overriding an existing entry with the new percentage and date. This keeps a history of the completion percentages and causes less confusion when generating percentage of completion-based revenue or billing.

Term

Specify the payment term for your project. When you generate an invoice by project, the payment term will default onto the invoice header. Leave this field blank if, upon generating an invoice by project, you want to use the customer's terms.

Billing type

Select how the project will be invoiced. After you have generated an invoice for this project, you can no longer change the billing type.

• Time and material: Invoices the customer for any time entry, expense, or AP/PO purchase that's marked as billable and assigned to this project.
• Fixed Fee: Invoices the customer for fixed fees, based on line items in an Order Entry transaction definition.
• Fixed fee and expenses: Invoices the customer for fixed fees, based on line items in an Order Entry transaction definition, plus any billable expenses.

Learn more about setting up time and materials projects and fixed fee projects.

The label for this field might differ for nonprofit organizations based on settings in Configure Projects. Learn more.

Contract amount

Enter the contracted amount for the project for reporting purposes.

Project currency

Enter a currency for your Project. This is the currency in which you will enter and display project projection information on the Project Summary tab. The Project currency defaults to the currency used in the location of where the project is taking place.

Default employee expenses to billable (for users subscribed to Project Costing & Billing)

Make expenses entered for the project billable by default. When a user creates a line item on an expense report and selects the project, the Billable checkbox will be automatically selected or blank depending on what you choose here. This can save your employees' time and reduce data entry errors.

The label for this field might differ for nonprofit organizations based on settings in Configure Projects. Learn more.

Default AP and PO entries to billable (for users subscribed to Project Costing & Billing)

Makes project purchases entered through Accounts Payable or Purchasing billable by default. When a user creates a line item on an expense report and selects the project, the Billable checkbox will be automatically selected or blank depending on what you choose here. This can save your employees' time and reduce data entry errors.

The label for this field might differ for nonprofit organizations based on settings in Configure Projects. Learn more.

Sales order number

Optionally, enter the sales order number for this project.

Purchase order number

Optionally, enter the purchase order number for this project.

Purchase order amount

Optionally, enter the amount of the purchase order.

Purchase quote number

Optionally, enter the purchase quote number.

Reference number

Enter a Reference Number that you can use to report on your project in custom reports.

Attachments

Upload attachments for permanent and safe storage. For example, you can upload statements of work, specifications, or agreements. Learn more about who can add attachments.

To reference an attached document, first load the scanned image, spreadsheet, or word-processor document.

Timesheet and expense user restrictions

Optionally, set timesheet and expense user restrictions for this project. You can limit time entries to only assigned resources, or let anyone enter time, which can be useful when setting up overhead projects.

Transaction rules

Select any transaction rules that you want to associate with this project.

Transaction rules can be used to post secondary transactions automatically to projects in the form of journal entries. For instance, you might want to calculate and post indirect labor costs.

You can assign any number of transaction rules to a project. If a transaction rule is assigned to a project, all transactions posted to the project are examined against the lines in the rule and, if the Item GL Group matches the transaction, the associated line will be executed.

Project ID

The identification of the project.

Project name

The name of the project.

Parent project ID

The identification of the parent project,

Resource search (For users subscribed to Project & Resource Management)

Find project resources based on their expertise, availability, and other factors, and add them to the project.

You can enable Project and resource management on the Configure Projects page. Get an overview on resource scheduling and learn more about finding and scheduling project resources.

Resource schedules (For users subscribed to Project & Resource Management)

View who has availability to work on this project.

You can enable Project and resource management on the Configure Projects page. Get an overview on resource scheduling and learn more about finding and scheduling project resources.

Billing rate currency

For reference only. This field clarifies the currency used in the table below for labor pricing.

If actual billings exceed projected billing amount

Automate billing control to prevent or warn of billings that exceed the project's projected billing amount. Options apply when you generate invoices by project.

• Do nothing: Take no action if billings exceed the projected billing amount.
• Issue a warning message: On the Generate Sales Invoices page in Preview mode, you'll receive a warning message that the invoice will exceed the projected billing amount. You can still create an invoice. However, if Generate Sales Invoices is running offline and an invoice exceeds the projected billing amount, the invoice will not be created.
• Prevent billing: If the invoice amount exceeds your projected billing amount, you cannot generate an invoice. If Generate Sales Invoices is running offline, all invoices except those invoices that put your project over projected amounts are created.

If you've chosen to Issue a warning message or Prevent billing, you can exclude employee, AP, and PO expenses from consideration in the over-projected calculation by selecting the Exclude expenses checkbox.

Invoice message

Create a custom invoice message for your project. This message will default to the invoice header when you generate invoices by project. You can override the invoice message field on a specific invoice by entering in your message in the Preview mode of Generate Sales Invoices.

Invoice currency override

The invoice currency is determined by the customer or project. By default, invoices will be generated in the customer's currency. To generate invoices in a project currency, enter an invoice currency override here. For example, if you sell projects through resellers, you might sell a project to Reseller A in the UK in GBP, and a project to Reseller B in France in EUR. You would bill Reseller A for their project in GBP, and Reseller B for their project in EUR.

Learn more about Generating invoices.

Employee

• Optional pricing information for this employee can be entered in other columns.
• If pricing is entered for the employee, but no item is specified, the pricing applies to the employee regardless of the item. For example, if an employee's billing rate is always R100.00, you can omit the item and enter R100.00 in the Labor column.
• If you restricted time entry to only assigned employees, be sure to select the employees who will be working on the project.

Item

• If pricing is entered for an item, but no employee is specified, the pricing applies to the item regardless of the employee. For example, if Project Management services are always billed at R120.00 regardless of the employee who performs the work, you would select Project Management as the item and enter R120.00 in the Labor column.
• If an employee and item are specified together with a Labor or Expense price, the pricing applies to timesheet entries or expenses entered by this employee.

Description

Optionally, enter a description about this employee's role in the project in the Description box.

Start date

Specifies the effective date for pricing. If your pricing later changes, you can enter additional pricing with a new start date.

Labor (For users subscribed to Project Costing & Billing)

Select in the column header to establish default pricing for labor, based on either billing rates or a percentage markup on the cost of the employee's time. In the rows below the header, you can enter billing rates or markups for specific employees or employee/item combinations. 

The billing rate is used to determine the project's billing amount when you generate invoices and for transaction rules. If no billing rate is specified, both processes find a standard billing rate in an Order Entry price list.

You can enter a maximum of 2 digits after the decimal, for example, 100.00.

Expense (For users subscribed to Project Costing & Billing)

Select in the column header to establish a default pricing for expenses, based on either billing rates or a percentage markup on your cost. In the rows below the header, you can enter billing rates or markups for specific employees or employee/item combinations.

You can enter a maximum of 2 digits after the decimal, for example, 100.00.

AP and PO (For users subscribed to Project Costing & Billing)

Select in the column header to enter a default percentage markup for AP/PO purchases. In the rows below the header, you can override the default markup for specific items.

You can enter a maximum of 2 digits after the decimal, for example, 100.00.

Financial Summary

In this section, you'll find up-to-date information about key financial metrics such as your gross profit, net income, deferred revenue, cost of goods sold, and wage expenses.

Where do the Financial Summary figures come from?

The amounts in the Financial Summary section are based on the account groups that you chose when you configured the Projects application. To verify or edit the account groups, go to the Projects configuration page (Projects > Setup > Configuration), and then find the Project summary section. For example, the amount for Total Wages is calculated using the accounts in the account group that you selected for Wages.

If you want, you can choose which labels appear by selecting Use account group "display as" names instead of above labels on the Configure Projects page. This enables you to use the "Payments" field to a different financial metric, for example, Indirect Costs.

Project Projections

Enter projected figures for the billing amount, cost, and duration (in hours) for this project. You can include these values in standard financial reports.

If you're using revenue recognition by cost, you can obtain the project projections from the General Ledger by Entering a GL projected ID. This is used by Rev Rec to calculate the projected cost amount for the project.

When you save your projected entries and return to the Project summary tab, we'll compare your projected figures to actual amounts and hours, including:

• Actual billings based on the line items tagged to the project and posted to accounts receivable.
• Cost based on the cost of goods account group selected during Projects configuration.
• Actual duration based on all hours entered minus declined hours.
• Differences based on the projected amount minus the actual amount.
• Variances based on the differences divided by the projected amount.

Hours

Hours calculate as follows:

• Billable Hours are all hours flagged as billable minus any declined hours.
• Billed Hours are all hours flagged as billable AND invoiced.
• Non-Billable Hours are all hours flagged as non-billable minus declined hours.
• Total Unbillable Hours are total billable hours minus total billed hours.

You can include these values in standard financial reports.

Employee, Accounts Payable, and purchase order expenses

View a breakdown of billable and non-billable expenses, find out how much you've invoiced the customer so far, and keep track of goods and services that are on order (your PO commitments).

• Total Billable Expenses includes all billable expenses from Accounts Payable, Expenses, and Purchasing, minus any declined expenses and modified by any adjustments. To calculate this total, we include billable expenses from AP supplier invoices, employee expense reports, and purchase orders that have been converted to PO purchase invoices and posted to AP.
• Total Un-Billed Expenses and Total Billed Expenses break down your billable expenses to show how much the customer has been invoiced for so far.
• Total Non-Billable Expenses include all expenses from Accounts Payable, Purchasing, and Expenses not marked as billable, minus any declined expenses and modified by any adjustments. To calculate this total, we include non-billable expenses from AP supplier invoices, employee expense reports, and purchase orders that have been converted to PO purchase invoices and posted to AP.
• PO Commitments are orders placed through Purchasing not yet received or invoiced, and not posted to AP.

Project change order ID

The identification of the project change order assigned to the project.

Select this link to display the project change order.

Project ID

The identification of the project associated to the project change order.

Select this link to display the project.

Project name

The name of the project that is associated to the project ID.

Customer ID

The identification of the customer associated to the project.

Select this link to display the customer record.

Customer name

The name of the customer associated to the customer ID.

Project change order date

The date that the project change order was created.

Change request status

The status of the change request.

Total cost

The total cost of the project change order.

Total price

The total price of the project.

Description

The description of the project change order.

Project contract ID

The identification of the project contract associated to the project change order.

Select this link to display the project contract.

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a project change order.

Export to CSV

Select this button to export project change orders assigned to the project.

Project change order ID

The identification of the project change order assigned to the change request.

Select this link to display the project change order.

Change request ID

The identification of the change request assigned to the project.

Description

The description of the change request.

Change request date

The date that the change request was created.

Project ID

The identification of the project that is associated to the change request.

Select this link to display the project.

Project name

The name of the project that is associated to the project ID.

Change request type

The type of change request.

Change request status

The status of the change request.

State

The state of the change request. Displays one of the following options:

• Posted

• Draft

Total cost

The total cost of the change request.

Total price

The total price of the project.

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a change request.

Export to CSV

Select this button to export change requests assigned to the project.

Project contract ID

The identification of the project contract assigned to the project.

Select to display the project contract.

Project ID

The identification of the project associated to the project contract.

Select to display the project.

Project name

The name of the project associated to the project contract.

Customer ID

The identification of the customer associated to the project contract.

Select to display the customer.

Customer name

The name of the customer associated to the project contract.

Original price

The original price of the project contract.

Revision price

The revision price of the project contract.

Approved change price

The approved change price of the project contract.

Total revised contract price

The total revised contract price of the project contract.

Total billed

The total billed for the project.

Total retainage held

The total retainage held for the project.

Total retainage released

The total retainage released for the project.

Retainage balance

The retainage balance for the project.

Total payments received

The total payments received for the project.

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a project contract.

Export to CSV

Select to export project contracts assigned to the project.

Project contract ID

The identification of the project contract assigned to the project.

Select to display the project contract.

Project contract name

The name of the project contract assigned to the project.

Project contract line ID

The identification of the project contract line assigned to the project.

Select to display the project contract line.

Line name

The name of the project contract line.

Project ID

The identification of the project associated to the project contract line.

Select to display the project.

Project name

The name of the project associated to the project contract line.

Task ID

The identification of the task associated to the project.

Select to display the task.

Task name

The name of the task associated to the project contract line.

Original price

The original price of the project contract line.

Revision price

The revision price of the project contract line.

Approved change price

The approved change price of the project contract line.

Total revised contract price

The total revised contract price of the project contract line.

Total billed

The total billed for the project contract line.

Retainage held

The retainage held for the project contract line.

Retainage released

The retainage released for the project contract line.

Retainage balance

The retainage balance for the project contract line.

Payments received

The payments received for the project contract line.

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a project contract line.

Export to CSV

Select to export project contract lines assigned to the project.

Customer name

The name of the customer associated to the project AR sales invoice.

AR AR sales invoice ID

The identification of the AR sales invoice assigned to the project.

The following are project AR sales invoices:

• Accounts Receivable AR sales invoices

• Order Entry AR sales invoices

• Project generate AR sales invoices

Select to display the project AR sales invoice.

Date

The date that the project AR sales invoice was created.

GL posting date

The General Ledger posting date for the project AR sales invoice.

Doc state

The document state of the project AR sales invoice.

Document ID

The identification of the document assigned to the project.

Select to display the project contract AR sales invoice.

Project contract ID

The identification of the project contract assigned to the project.

Currency

The currency of the project.

Amount

The amount of the project.

Retainage held

The retainage held for the project.

Retainage released

The retainage released for the project.

Retainage billed

The retainage billed for the project.

Amount due

The amount due for the project.

Amount paid

The amount paid for the project.

Overdue days

The number of days overdue to pay for the project.

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a project AR sales invoice.

Export to CSV

Select to export project AR sales invoices assigned to the project.

Retainage release AR sales invoice ID

The identification of the retainage release AR sales invoice assigned to the project.

Transaction date

The date of the transaction for the retainage release AR sales invoice.

GL posting date

The General Ledger posting date of the retainage release AR sales invoice.

Doc state

The document state of the retainage release AR sales invoice.

Transaction currency

The transaction currency for the project.

Amount

The amount for the project.

Payments received

The payments received for the project.

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a retainage release AR sales invoice.

Export to CSV

Select to export retainage release AR sales invoices assigned to the project.

Payments

The payment used to pay for the project.

Payment type

The type of payment for the project.

Bank account

The bank account associated to the payment.

Payment reference

The payment reference for the project,

Payment date

The payment date for the project.

Transaction currency

The transaction currency for the project.

Payment amount

The payment amount for the project

Show all

If this is the root project, you can select this checkbox to display children of the project that also have a payment.

Export to CSV

Select to export payments assigned to the project.