Frequently asked questions

This appendix contains frequently asked questions for Project Ledger.

Which user field can be added for labor distribution?

Use these guidelines to define a business class group for labor distribution, which defines eligible pay for labor distribution.

  • User fields are a standard Landmark feature. Empty panels on the transaction forms are available to configure user fields.
  • User fields can be added for the Job Code, Position Code, and Pay Code fields on the financial transactions.
  • User fields are copied to the GLTransactionDetail business class by the transaction interface. The journalize action copies the fields to Global Ledger transactions when interfacing in detail or if the account specifies interface in detail. The same user fields must be defined on all three business classes.

I ran Distribute Individual Labor but no records are created

If you run distribute individual labor and no records are created, verify this information:

  • Labor is limited to 99 transactions per employee per period.
  • Distribute Labor Individual action: The accounting entity parameter on this action represents the Lawson Payroll company, equivalent to the Financials & Supply Management accounting entity. Specify the employee's Lawson Payroll company, which is the same company from the PR140, PR160 ,PR197, or PR198 programs. This accounting entity is used to query GlTransactionDetail records in the Lawson PRDISTRIB file for the employee for the labor period. The Lawson Payroll company is mapped to the FromAccountingEntity field. Using FromAccountingEntity ensures that all PRDISTRIB records for the employee are returned for the pay period. Records excluded by the selection group are not returned. Because an employee only belongs to a single PR company/accounting entity, do not add an accounting entity group to the Distribute Individual Labor action.
  • Inter-entity GeneralLedgerJournalControl: Lawson Payroll journals are created as “inter-entity” journal type. All employees belong to a single Lawson HR company or from accounting entity, for example, 999. Salary and wages are posted to different GL companies or to accounting entities, for example, 100. The Global Ledger post action automatically creates multiple GeneralLedgerJournalControl records for each accounting entity. The action creates memo journals in GeneralLedgerTransaction to keep inter-entity journals and Global Ledger in balance.
  • Labor distribution journals and entries: Labor distribution uses the originating PR GLTransactionDetail records as the basis for reversing and creating grant labor distribution records. Similar to Payroll and all subsystems, the from accounting entity is the same for every distribution in the journal. Similar to the results for posting payroll, posting labor distribution will always create inter-entity journals. The Global Ledger post action will ensure journals and Global Ledger are in balance for labor distribution.

I changed a project to include fringe burdens but fringe burdens are not calculating

Run the Update Assignment Fringe action to include the burden rate and burden finance structure. Run the action for each project that is changed. Use these steps to view the current assignments and verify that a burden rate and burden structure exists.

  1. Sign in as Project Administrator and select Project Setup.
  2. Open the structure, select the Employees tab and open the employee record.
  3. Select Project Assignments and open an assignment for a project that has burdens.
  4. If the fields are not displayed, run the Update job. You can override the current values by selecting the Override check box on the Update Assignment Fringe action.

How to create a business class group for eligible pay for labor distributions

Use this syntax example to exclude accrual accounts:

(FinanceCodeBlock.GeneralLedgerChartAccount != "205030" and FinanceCodeBlock.GeneralLedgerChartAccount != "205070")

How is effort certification calculated?

Question: A company go-live is November 1. In the first quarter, they only have labor periods created for November and December. Pay periods are bi-weekly for a total of eight labor periods. Will effort certification be averaged only over the periods that were created?

Response: Labor distribution and effort will be captured in Financials & Supply Management for the two months, November and December, of the effort period. Effort will be averaged over all labor periods included in the effort period, whether captured or not. The user or certifier can adjust the effort percentage accordingly when certifying effort. An adjustment is made by overriding the actual percentage average to include the effort entered, tracked, and reported in the legacy system.

Question: An employee is assigned to a project later in a quarter. Are those pay periods that were not assigned removed from the average?

Response: No. If an employee is assigned to a project later in the quarter, all periods are averaged. The effort is a percentage of work for the entire period, regardless of when the labor occurs or when the assignment begins or ends. If one minute or 500 hours are worked for a particular project, the percentage of effort is based on the total of the quarter.

How do I secure the employee number resource field on GLTransactionDetail

Security can be added to secure or suppress the Employee Identification Number resource field from displaying on the GLTransactionDetail record. These roles will still have access or visibility to the resource field:

  • Controller_ST
  • Financial Business Analyst_ST
  • Project Administrator_ST
  • Project Accountant_ST

To add security, make these security changes and associate them with the roles listed.

  • Add a new GLAllowResource_ST security class with this rule: GLTransactionDetail.Resource field is accessible in past, current, future for all actions unconditionally
  • Add this rule: GLTransactionDetail.Resource field is not accessible in past, current, future for all actions unconditionally

See the Financials & Supply Management User and Security Setup Guide for full instructions for adding security roles and rules.

How can security be added for the My lists for the project manager role?

Several My List options are available to the project manager role:

  • An instance selection exists for projects where the actor is equal to the person responsible for the project. The actor is the person who is signed in.
  • My lists, in Projects, can be bypassed by specifying a different URL, or by creating a configured list that does not include the instance selection.
  • My lists were created so that a user or manager can view only their own projects or records. If your organization doesn’t want users to view additional records, then security configurations must be created.

Why were my invoices not generated?

If a contract invoice is not created, then verify this information:

  • The posting projects for the contract that are eligible for invoicing must be active.
  • The project contract is in Active status. If your contract is inactive, the invoice is displayed in the header. There is an Activate action available.
  • The posting projects under the contract that are eligible for invoicing must be Active.
  • The posting projects under the contract that are eligible for invoicing must be set to Billable.
  • The posting projects under the contract that are eligible for invoicing must have a project status that includes billing.
  • Transactions must be posted.
  • Open a posting contract and click the Unbilled transactions link. Verify that the status of the Payables transactions is Eligible for Billing. Verify that the status of the transaction is not on Hold in the Billed column.
  • View the contract billing method. If the billing method is Time and Materials, only time transactions are billed by the Generate Invoice action. You must have an employee assignment that is created for the resource with a billable rate.
  • Check the remaining funded billable balance on the contract. If the contract limit is met, no invoice is created.
  • Check the expense group. If an expense group on your funding source excludes the expense from being billed, no invoice is created.
  • If you have created finance structure rules, verify that your billed unearned and earned unbilled accounts are valid.
  • Check whether the Exclude Unpaid AP check box is selected. If the check box is selected, Payables invoices must be paid. The Paid Invoice Project Update process must be run.
  • Verify that the invoice date is on or before the contract end date.
  • Verify that default posting projects that are defined in the project funding sources for the contract are active. Verify that the default posting projects do not have an end date that is before the invoice date.
  • Verify there is no error tab on the project contract. Any errors need to be corrected before generating invoices again.
  • If the revenue method is Separate, verify that no revenue recognition is in a Created status. If there is a draft revenue recognition, the action will not be displayed to generate invoices.
  • Verify whether the project funding source has an invoice minimum. If the expense transactions for the funding source are less than the invoice minimum amount, an invoice is not generated.

Project contract invoice line descriptions that are passed to Receivables and printed on the invoice can be defined in these ways:

  • ProjectIContractInvoiceLine.Descriptions are determined by billing method:
    • Milestone or installment billing = Milestone description
    • Retainers = Retainer description
    • Allowance = Allowance
    • Retainage = Retainage
    • Time = Employee name
    • Material = Description from original GlTransaction.description. Expenses for material usually come from Payables.
    • Cost Reimbursement = Description from original GlTransactionDetail.Description.
    • Fees = Fee code description
  • Project Override or Billing Override, or the account and account category, are concatenated with the description.
  • The description sent to Receivables that depends on the Receivables invoice option.
    • If Receivables interface option = detail, load ProjectContractInvoiceLine.description in the ReceivableInvoiceDetail.Description
    • If Receivables interface option = summary posting project, load posting project description in the ReceivableInvoiceDetail.Description
    • If Receivables interface option = summary, load the project contract description in the ReceivableInvoiceDetail.Description

How do I personalize invoice detail for a run group date range

You can personalize projectcontractinvoice to display the date range used when generating invoices. The fields to use are: RunGroup.DateRange.Begin and RunGroup.DateRange.End.

How do I recalculate contract and funding source totals

If the contract and funding source totals are incorrect, they can be recalculated. This issue can occur due to async issues. This action is not on any menu and it requires a user action to execute. This information must be included:

Create this user action in the ProjectContract busclass: 

RunFixBilledAmounts is an Instance Action
          Action Rules
                invoke FixBilledAmounts in background

What is the difference between header error messages and the Errors tab messages?

This list shows the differences between the error message that is on the project contract header and the error messages that are on the Errors tab:

  • Async completion messages for invoicing and revenue are displayed on the project contract header.
  • The run time errors that are usually linked to a line are displayed on the Errors tab. For example, incorrect code blocks when journalizing or missing tax codes when calculating.

What if I cannot see the Journalize Revenue action?

If you cannot see the Journalize Revenue action, verify this information:

  • Verify that the project contract Revenue Recognition method is Separate.
  • Verify there are no invoices in Created status. Billed balances are updated by the Generate Invoice action. Use this action to ensure that there is no over-billing if multiple invoices are created before journalizing. If the invoice is deleted before journalizing, the billed balance is reduced and revenue can be journalized. Billed and revenue balances are required to determine the correct offset entries to billed unearned and earned unbilled accounts.

Which year end encumbrances must be reviewed?

Purchase orders that have been encumbered but not yet received before the end of the fiscal year are rolled forward to the next year. You can roll purchase order encumbrance records forward to the beginning balance of the next year. All other sub system commitment and encumbrance records must have a status of History before you can process the year-end rollover. Use the Commitment report to view the status of all commitments and encumbrances for all subsystems.

How can I track and reconcile Federal grant draw-downs?

You can use the Letter of Credit (LOC) account from finance dimension 2 to determine the draw-down. The LOC number is equal to the Federal Payment Management System (PMS) draw-down number. Personalize the Invoice Lines tab to include the LOC number. You can report by PMS draw-down number which transactions you have requested for reimbursement and when. You can also use a custom group to invoice based on the LOC number.

How are undistributed retained earnings (URE) created?

URE is calculated and stored in General Ledger Totals when journal entries are posted. Transactions are not created. The income statement transactions are read and the entire code block is used as the originating transaction apart from the URE account. The URE account is substituted for the original account. Therefore, only reports for balance sheet-type reporting include the URE.

At year-end, the URE Totals balances are rolled to the Retained Earnings (RE) account. The Retained Earnings amounts are included in the General Ledger Totals. If the Generate Year End Journals check box is selected on the reporting basis, then the generation and viewing of year-end reports is enabled. The year-end reports include the Income Statement Closing report. This report shows the movement of income statement accounts to retained earnings.