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Posting actual costs from cProjects to Internal Orders

Former Member
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Hi,

I am using cProjects 4.0 with integration using Internal Orders. When doing financial planning the planned costs are getting updated in the internal order, however, once a task is completed and confirmed... I would like the actual cost (based on the number of hrs/days confirmed) to post to the internal order. However, this is not happening and only the planned costs are updated.

Lets say for example, Project Manager (cost of $100/hour) role is assigned to Task A (work of 5 hours). This planned cost of $500 is updated in the internal order. When I complete the task and lets say enter confirmation of 5 hours work and change status to complete, I expect the internal order to be updated with $500 actual cost. However this is not happening. Is my understanding of the way the system should work correct?

Appreciate any help on this...

Thanks,

Lashan

Edited by: Lashan Wanigatunga on Sep 18, 2008 4:07 AM

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Answers (2)

Answers (2)

former_member225645
Active Participant
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Lashan,

-Planning is done in cProjects and the planned values flow into account assigned object (in your case- IO)

-Actuals time/cost are supposed to be booked for the internal order and actual values flow into cProjects dashboard (during evaluation- As Anantharam explained)

It becomes interesting, when you want actual time (onto respective tasks) as well as actual cost (onto the dashboard) flow into cProjects. Then you will go via HR record, CATS time entry & transfer to IO, and transfer to cProjects.

cheers, Mathavan

Former Member
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Hi Mathavan,

Thanks for the response. This is kind of what I suspected/feared. Is there any logical reason why actual costs cannot be captured in cProjects? As a project manager, when somebody completes a task and confirms the hours/days of work... I would consider that to be actual and the IO should be updated. Any idea if this works in this way in v4.5? Or am I off base in thinking this is a sensible way of capturing actuals where CATS is not used?

I'll keep this question open for awhile longer in case somebody has implemented this scenario possibly using custom developments and can share some info.

Cheers,

Lashan

Former Member
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Hi

Just to clear your doubt,

The planned cost is calculated based on cProject task hours and Cost Revenue rates maintained in cProjects (provided you use cost revenue rates configuration) and Actuals are calculated based on CA-TS data transferred to SAP CO or against settlement of Internal order in SAP CO.

Ask your CO person to settle the internal order, you ll get actuals...

Niranjan

Let me know if it helps !!!

Former Member
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Hi Niranjan,

It is clear that the costs come from CATS to the internal order and from there to the Actual Costs in cprojects.

But if i have incurred some other costs apart from my resource cost while carrying the Project in cProjects (e.g. any model preparation for customer demo).

Now how shud i collect this cost in Plan/Actual cost in the cProjects.

Can the cost for the model be added to the same internal order and then settled...

Regards

Pavan

Former Member
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Use Easy Cost Planning...

Former Member
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Yes we can use Easy Cost Planning for the same, but here I want to transfer that cost to the Project in cProject so as to get the total cost of the project.

How shud I do this...

Regards

Pavan

Former Member
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Hi

Yes the option is you go with easy cost planning

Else other cost can also be linked to internal order by entering the costs from ECC side and not cProjects..

Settle the order there after.

You can also link PO to this Internal order and for revenues link SO to internal order...

Niranjan

Let me know if it helps !!!

Award if useful

Former Member
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Hi

Easy cost planning is a part of config...

You define controlling scenario and after that you have to specify setting for Easy cost planning. Maintain PC02 for internal order or check with your CO guy...

Niranjan

Let me know if it helps !!!!

Former Member
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Hi Mathavan,

How would I book the actual costs into an IO, so that I can see actuals in cProjects? Appreciate if you could mention a tcode and brief steps. I am not a CO guy, and at this stage what I want to do is have some actuals in cProjects.

As for my original post, it seems like actuals cannot be captured or cannot originate from cProjects (unless using CATS). Just curious, is this not a common requirement?

Cheers,

Lashan

dpitp
Participant
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Hi Lashan,

this is a post long time ago - but still valid for me.

I am in the same situation where I like to see the actual costs in cProjects.

I am using IO.

Values are displayed in the project dashboard with values I find in CO.

However, if I get some new time records, transfer them via report to PPM and via CAT7 to CO, the values are not updated.

What do I miss?

I try to run the evaluations - but hinestly I don't know which of them.

Maybe I need to activate something in the config ".... - Evaluations - Define Extract Layouts - selecting 0_DASHBOARD - set attributes" ?

kindly

Darijo

Former Member
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Sorry Darijo, it's been a very long time since I setup financial integration. Hopefully somebody else in this forum can help.

Former Member
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Hi,

I tried it in my system. In my case I used a WBS element instead of internal order. I did task related costing in cProjects and found out the planned cost gets updated in the WBS element. I entered the actual time under additional data for the task and after running evaluations, I found the actual costs column did not get updated. Basically actual costs come from the ERP system. So I accumulated costs on the WBS element in the ERP system. I ran the evaluation again and found out the actual cost column in the dashboard getting updated. So please get some costs accumulated on the internal order you have and check for the results.

I hope the answer is useful.

regards

Anantharam

Former Member
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Hi...

Thanks for the answer... when you say "ran the evaluation" what exactly do you mean. The way I understand it, evaluations in cProject will give me some information similar to a report and not necessarily update anything.

What I was hoping for is some kind of configuration somewhere, where I can tell the system that actual costs are captured in cProjects. It doesn't make sense for our requirements to capture actuals in R/3 since the users only access cProjects for managing projects and tasks.

Anyway thanks for you reply, which at least tells me that this is not as straightforward as it should be. Please do update this thread if you find a solution..

Cheers,

Lashan

Former Member
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Hi,

I agree with you that this is not straightforward, but that is the way it has been designed. Evaluations can be run on a project either through a standard report program or as soon as the project is saved. By doing this you update some parameters in the dashboard. This includes threshold values, responsible person for the project, actual costs, planned costs, priority etc. Evaluations are based on the extract layouts you define in the backend. The extract layouts would include attributes that we discussed just now.(actual costs, planned costs, priority etc.). We can assign the extract layouts to various project types based on our requirement. I hope you are clear now. In case you find this answer useful please consider closing the thread or let me know in case you have any more questions.

best regards

anantharam

Former Member
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Hi Anantharam,

I tried defining an extract layout which assigned to the project type I am using and then creating an evaluation layout using the extract layout.

However, it didn't really work as expected. In my scenario actual costs originate in cProjects (when the task is completed and the actual number of hours are entered in the confirmation field). Actual costs are not captured in the internal order. In this case if I define an evaluation will it update the actual cost if I define threshold value formula as follows (for testing I made it actual = planned just to see if I get a value).

actual cost = confirmation * unit cost for task/role

If the above is possible;

1. How do I define the attribute and object types for unit cost for task/role which is based on the cost/revenue rates setup for the role? For example how do I find out the values for attribute and type name fields?

2. I was under the impression that evaluations can only generate a report based on the existing values and update the criticality level field a threshold condition is defined. Is my understanding of this function incorrect?

Apologies for all the questions, but I am still unclear how to update the actual cost which originates as result of cProject task confirmation to the internal order.

Thanks for your help so far and appreciate if you provide some guidance on how I can get this working.

Cheers,

Lashan