One of the biggest challenges that Project Managers (PMs) face in managing a project is weeding out mischarges to their projects. This issue is particularly aggravated in the following industries:
- Construction industry: Due to very thin margins on project work, any mischarges, if not controlled and quickly reversed, can wipe out the margins for the project
- Any Cost Reimbursable type of contract, particularly with the Government: because these charges don’t get caught and when they appear on invoices, the client starts disputing the invoices based on these mischarges, causing delays in payments and cash flow issues for the project.
The advent of Project Partners User Interface Applications (a new product that allows you to provide Microsoft(R) Excel-based user interfaces for one or more related project functions) has provided the ability to provide this critical function for project managers via an easy-to-use Excel interface for users of Oracle E-Business Suite Projects applications. The following section provides an overview of this solution.
An Excel worksheet will be set up that will allow Project Managers to pick their projects and specify expenditure types and the period for which they would like to review detailed charges.
All charges of the type specified (or all types) and in the current period will then be displayed to the PM with appropriate information for each cost transaction charged. The PM can then specify “Approved” or “Questionable” for each charge. In addition, mass functions for both of these states will be provided to make life easier for the PM.
The screen will also filter out any transactions the PM had previously approved.
This new Status field will be stored as a DFF against the Expenditure Items in Oracle Projects. A periodic (nightly) alert will be sent to the HelpDesk/IT/Project Accountant group if “questionable” transactions are found on any project. This group will review the transactions in Oracle’s standard Expenditure Inquiry screen and take appropriate action to research and either clear or transfer out the questionable charges. If the Transactions are cleared as being correctly charged, they are updated in the status field with a “Cleared” status, and the PM can subsequently review and approve them.
An additional benefit of this approach is that when invoices are generated and presented for review to the PMs, they can have a brief report (or another Project Partners User Interface Applications worksheet) wherein they can pull up any “Questionable” charges on the invoice and ensure that they are eliminated or cleared before the invoice goes out to the client.
This is an example of how Project Partners User Interface Applications, combined with the expertise from Project Partners resources, can help you simplify life for your Project Managers.
That’s it for now, and remember:
There is no better way to manage a business than to Manage by Project.
PS: I welcome all comments/trackbacks/pingbacks/queries to my nascent venture here. I will try and respond to your comments, etc., in future entries.
