Project Definition

Use Project Definition to maintain the project master data. This data is the comprehensive base data that is used to manage the project. The master data is reusable from project to project, for example, labor rates, employee responsibilities, and trade groupings.

  • Creating a project

    Before you create a project by using either a template or the Projects session, you must define the parameters. Use the project data management session to create your project.

  • Project 360

    In project-driven companies, regardless of the role, all users access projects to complete their tasks. Typically, different users must perform tasks in different phases of the project. For example, an estimator will estimate a project, a sales engineer will prepare the quotation, the project manager will perform project definition, and the design engineer will set up the budget.

  • Parameters and defaults

    You can set up general default values and parameters that define how Project works. Where necessary, you can override these values when you are running a project.

  • Sufferance tax

    A tax or levy that is payable to a local or municipal authority to compensate for a disruption caused by a project. For example, compensation for removing a sidewalk or part of a street to install the water pipes or sewer while constructing a high-rise apartment building.

  • Third party

    A person or organization with an indirect or non-contractual interest in a project, for example, a government body or regulatory agency.

  • Standard cost objects

    Maintain standard cost objects for these cost types:

    • Labor
    • material
    • Equipment
    • Subcontracting
    • Sundry costs

  • Standard labor

    Use labor codes to control the costs of a labor code or of a group of labor codes. The labor rate determines what cost and sales rates are used in budget lines and in hours registration.

  • Standard sundry costs

    Sundry cost objects can be standard or project-specific . The cost object is related to a control code for cost-controlling purposes.

  • Standard cost object mapping with service

    Cost object mapping is based on project activities only. Materials must either be included in the project budget itself, and handled in Project, or treated as part of the reference activity, and then handled in Service.

  • Buy-from business partner files

    If a supplier can provide a file with item prices and discounts, you can import this information. You can then define the relationship between supplier codes and your own codes and the relationship between items and the supplier discount groups.

  • Revenue codes

    Revenue codes are codes that you can use to categorize amounts you invoice to your customer. As with cost objects, you can define both standard and project-specific revenue codes.

  • Standard structures

    You can define a library of standard elements and activities. You can copy these project structures or template projects.

  • Standard elements

    You can maintain a library of standard elements that you can copy when you maintain a project.

  • User-defined structures

  • Various additional structures used in projects, either for reporting purposes or for responsibility assignment and subsequent performance measurement, are maintained in user-defined structures.

    Standard surcharges

    You can define standard surcharges. Each line in this list refers to a unique combination of company, cost type, sundry cost code, and sequence number.

  • Standard overhead

    You can define standard overhead costs. Each line in this list refers to a unique combination of company, cost type, overhead cost code, and sequence number.

  • Currencies in project

    If You can specify the currency to use for a particular project. This currency can be different from the currencies specified for your company or you must specify a currency that is defined for your company.

  • Defining surcharges

    Surcharges are a means of defining indirect project costs. Typically, surcharges are used to cover general overhead costs, such as storage, handling, maintenance costs, and management overhead

  • Templates

    Templates provide a user-friendly way to define a project. Use a project template to predefine a set of project types for a company.

  • Costing Breaks

    For projects involving production or service of an item (such as depot repair service), the user is required to monitor costs at various levels. Costing breaks provide a flexible method to view the breakup of costs at various levels in a project WBS. You can use costing breaks to move the costs from the top demand project pegs to other project WBS levels. You can also identify other specific cost types such as labor, material, subcontracting, and so on to redirect the costs to the other WBS levels.

  • Project Parameters

    To enable fees and penalties, you can define the revenue code in the project parameters.

    To enable progress payment, you can define the revenue code in the project parameters.

    The Revenue Code for Advance Payment field in the Project Parameters (tppdm0100s000) session, is used to default the revenue code that is used for creating advance payments in Project.

  • Length of the Element and Activity Code

    The length of the Element and Activity code can be up to 16 characters.

  • Fees and Penalties

    The Fee Revenue Threshold option is provided to include the minimum percentage of fee revenue, while generating the interim results.

  • You can use the Probability option to indicate the probability that the fee and penalty is to be awarded to or levied on the contractor.

  • Revenue Recognition

    The Percentage of Completion option in the COGS method is used to recognize the revenues and expenses periodically, during the contract period, prior to the completion of the project/contract. When calculating the COGS, LN also considers the loss component.

  • Standard Structures

    You can define the Start Percentage, End Percentage, and Milestone Percentage for the Standard Activities, to calculate the Earned value of the project.

  • Project Master Data

    The Project Master Data (tppdm0600m000) session allows the user to access and set up the project master data from a single dashboard or 360 session. The master data that is available and can be used is also listed. You can also view the master data by company.

  • Task

    For consistency with other domains in ERP LN, the labor cost object is renamed to task.

  • Intercompany Rates

    Intercompany Rate and Intercompany Rate Transaction Date fields can be defined at the cost object level, in these sessions:

    • Task (tppdm0615m000)
    • Task (tppdm0111s000)
    • Project Task (tppdm6615m000)
    • Project Task (tppdm6111s000)
    • Sundry Costs (tppdm0514m000)
    • Sundry Cost (tppdm0114s000)
    • Project Task (tppdm6615m000)
    • Project Task (tppdm6111s000)

  • Skills

    Now, skills can be specified to the tasks for the estimate lines and labor activity budget lines. The use of skills is optional. This helps to find out the most suitable resource capable of doing a specific job.

  • Project History

    The Log Project History field is used to enable the history session in projects. The data that is modified in Project, can be viewed in the history session.

  • Project Schedule

    An option is provided to view the project schedule or multiple project schedules based on the activity selection in a Gantt chart. The chart displays the activity planning that includes the scheduled start and finish dates, the relationships between activities (including milestones), and the progress of the activity. The cost type options can be used to select whether to display the corresponding budget lines. The activity and milestone sessions can be started from the project schedule and the project schedule can be started from key project and activity sessions. A tooltip displays some key information of the selected bar.

    Activity budget information can be accessed from the Gantt view. An activity and budget can be deleted from the Gantt view using the keyboard options.

  • The Project Schedule (tppss2700m000) session is extended with these options:

    • Activity Relationships
    • Show Codes

    The Show Column group box and Options group boxes are included in the Project Schedule (tppss2700m000) session.

    These options are included in the View menu, in the Project Schedule (tppss2700m100) session, to show/hide the overdue activities.

    • Show/Hide overdue activities
    • Show/Hide critical activities
    • Show/Hide free float
    • Show/Hide total float
    • Show/Hide markers
    • Show Constraints
    • Show (un)availability of resources

You can use the drag-and-drop feature to modify the activity and budget dates.

External scheduling interface can also be accessed using the Actions menu in the Project Schedule (tppss2700m100) session.

  • Network Planning

    Network planning can be used to calculate the critical path, earliest and latest start and finish dates, and float time for the project based on the Planning Method:

    • Forward
    • Backward

    Project network planning can be performed for activities of type Work Package and Planning Package.

  • Update Option

    When you set the New Status to Closed, and select the Update Mode, and click the Update option in the Update of Project Status (tppdm6202m000) session, LN generates a list of issues that must be resolved. For example, orders that are yet to be processed or if the status of a project must be set to Finished.

  • Search path

    The Level wagerate hours accounting list in the Project (tppdm6600m400) session, is extended with the Department option. So that, the wage rate associated with the department as specified in the Project Management Offices (tppdm0110m000) session, must be considered as one of the options (priority) to default the labor rates in the labor lines. By default, LN considers the search path in this order:

    • Priority 1
    • Priority 2
    • Priority 3
    • Priority 4

  • Project Master Data

    The Project Master Data (tppdm0600m000) is set to expired.

  • Equipment Information

    The user can specify additional equipment related information such as Product Type, Product Class, Manufacturer, and Planner.

  • Code Length (Equipment/Subcontracting)

    The code length is extended to 47 characters long for the equipment and subcontracting cost types.

  • Access Item General

    You can also access the Items (tcibd0501m000) session, to define the service data for subcontracting, from the Subcontracting (tppdm0513m000) and Equipment (tppdm0512m000) sessions.

  • Project Pegging in Field Service

    The options for project pegging is extended to include field service.

    In the Costing Breaks (tppdm3600m000) session:

    • The Service tabs in this session are renamed to Service Material, Service Labor and Service Other Cost.
    • You can use either Reference Activity or the combination of Installation group/ Item/ Serial number for the service activity.
    • For Costings breaks, for the Cost Type Subcontracting, Items of the type Subcontracted Service is allowed.
    • On the Service Activities tab, using the Import Installations Groups option from the Actions menu, you can import the installation groups data.

  • Extended Element and activity code

    To offer additional options and flexibility, the element and activity code has been extended from 8 to 16 characters.

  • History on Element and Activity

    Like the project, now Element/Activity history is available. The history records are created based on the changes to the element or activity.

  • Access Item General Data

    A reference option has been added to the Project sessions for items, equipment, and subcontracting, which can be used to access the Item General data.

  • Equipment Information

    The information that can be stored for equipment has been extended. These options are introduced:

    • Classification
      • The information already available for material, is now also available for equipment.
    • Flag Manned Equipment
      • This field is informational only.
    • Planner (employee)
      • Defaults to the PRP Purchase Order
      • Input for Purchase Order
    • Responsible Department
      • This is used as part of item authorization.

  • Subcontracting Information

    The Responsible Department is now used as part of item authorization.

    This option is similar to the option added for equipment in LN 10.5.1.

  • Additional options Work Authorization Status

    Additional options have been added to the Work Authorization status. Options to update all activities in the selection (irrespective of the current status), or to only update activities with a specific status, or update activities that are On Hold activities with a certain reason code are also included.

  • Code Length for Equipment and Subcontracting cost types

    Several customers had reported that the code length for equipment and subcontracting cost types must be the same as is used for items. Therefore, the code length has been extended for the cost types.

  • Project Cost Distribution

    In Project, the financial transactions originating from a financial document (for example a journal voucher) are split as cost or revenue transactions. Now, based on the specified option in the Transaction Types (tfgld0511m000) session in Finance, either the Cost Entry Overview (tpppc2811m000) session or Cost Entry (tpppc2605m000) session is used to split the project costs.

  • Standard Cost per Enterprise Unit

    The standard cost of an item is defined for each enterprise unit in the Item Costing session. If the Pricing Policy field is set to Standard Cost in the Item-project (tppdm0105s000) session, LN defaults the standard cost in the Cost Entry (tpppc2605m000) session for the material and the Element Budget (material) (tpptc1110s000) session. To enable the default mechanism for the standard cost of the generic item, the Standard Costs at Level field in the Items (tcibd0501m000) session can be set to either Enterprise unit or Company.

  • Project Deliverables

    For the Project Deliverable, capturing the Carrier / LSP and Route has been added.

  • Return Project Deliverables

    When using project deliverables, goods received from the customer can be shipped to the project WIP warehouse.

    This is a return flow.

    This flow has no financial consequences, because the costs remain at the project.

    The returned goods are not linked to an installment for credit invoicing.

    These delivery types are used to ship goods to a customer:

    • Proj->Wrh -> BP
    • Wrh -> BP

    Both delivery types support the return flow, but the return flow ends at the receipt in the project WIP warehouse. The flow from the warehouse back to the project is not supported.

  • Earned Revenue Factor (ERF)

    Previously, you could only use the Completed Project or Actual Revenues methods to calculate earned revenue for projects without project contracts. Consequently, revenue recognition over time was not supported in this scenario.

    As from this release, the Earned Revenue Factor (ERF) method is also available for projects with linked sales or maintenance sales orders.

    Note: For projects without contracts but with linked sales orders or maintenance sales orders, you can only manually specify the ERF.

  • Calendar Visibility

    In previous versions, it was not always clear which calendar and availability type was used for a project or an activity. In this release, the calendar and availability type is displayed and you can access the working hours for the calendar and availability type combination.

  • Employment

    On the start date or appointment date of a Resource Assignment, Responsibility, or Project Appointment, a check is done whether the appropriate employee is employed on that date.

    A warning is displayed if the last date of employment of an employee present on an object coincides with the current date. For example, if the employment of a contract manager attached to a contract expires. If a project, contract, CLIN, and so on, is copied or generated, employees with expired employments are not copied or generated to the new object.

    Note: this check is done only if Employee People data exists for an employee.

  • Planner

    The Planner field was not available for Subcontracting and Planned Subcontracting orders. These features have been added:

    • The (default) planner can be defined as part of standard and project-specific subcontracting
    • The planner defaults to the Planned Subcontracting order or can be manually defined
    • The planner of the planned order is input for the purchase order once the planned order is transferred

  • Trade Group

    To make the Trade Group field more easily available, this field has been changed to a display field in the Employees - Project (tppdm8101m000) session, and is added as an entry field to the Employees – People (bpmdm0101m000) session.

  • Project Pegging for Field Service

    The project pegging functionality is extended to include field service. To enable project pegging for field service, the Use Project Pegging in Field Service check box is added in the Service Order Parameters (tssoc0100m000) session. Project pegging uses Cost Component based mapping for costs in Service. Costing Breaks functionality is now extended to field service. The Service tabs in the Costing Breaks (tppdm3600m000) session are renamed to Service Material, Service Labor and Service Other Cost. Note: Generating (field) service orders is only possible for activity based projects. However, as part of the project peg, element and activity can be used.

  • Project Service integration: Subcontracting

    In Project, the Use Matching Task Codes parameter is introduced. This parameter can eliminate or reduce the need for mapping tasks in Project to tasks in Service. If the parameter is selected, LN checks whether a task used as part of a specific reference activity in Service also exists in Project and if so, use this task code. This check is performed during various processes, for example, when generating budget lines. Note: any existing mapping has a higher priority and will be considered first.

    Item - Service data for subcontracting, that is a subcontracted service as used in Project, is now possible. For a reference activity in Service, the Resource Type, Subcontracting is only used to check if the activity is subcontracted. One or more subcontracting items can be used for the reference activity of the type Field Service, which is subcontracted Note: For reference activities with subcontracting, the Activity Use field must not be set to General, in the Reference Activities (tsacm1101m000) session. The use of project specific subcontracting is excluded

    As part of the Project and Service (Field) integration, cost mapping is not required, if both the Project and Service data exist for the subcontracted service and this services are used in Project, which can be also used for the Service order.

  • Tasks: Labor code

    In the previous versions, it was not possible to block a labor code (Task) for further use. A feature is introduced by adding two new check boxes (Active for planned cost and Active for actual cost) to the task in order to divide the active task from the inactive task. Based on this checkboxes, the task are considered for time reporting or budgeting.

  • Show Open Transactions

    A new option is added to the project status to display all the open transaction in the project. This allows the user to check and close the transactions before a project can be closed.

  • Task and Sundry Cost for Planned and Actual Cost

    Infor LN now allows the user to select if a task or sundry cost can be used for the planned or actual cost.

  • Reference Activity

    A reference activity from service can be linked to project element. This allows the user to generate a budget or control data.

  • Number Group and Order Series for PCS Project

    The Number Group and the Order Series for the PCS Project can be defined for the user profile.

  • List Details view

    A new feature is added to various sessions to view the information in a list details pattern. The list of objects are displayed on the left pane and the details of the object selected on the left pane, are displayed on the right pane. This allows an easy navigation through the list of objects and view the details without switching between the overview and detail sessions.

  • Revenue Document Lines

    A new option is added to the contract deliverable to view the linked Revenue Document Lines. This option is applicable only if a revenue document line exist for the contract deliverable.

  • Bank Guarantee for Contract Deliverable

    The GTC bank guarantee functionality is now added to the contract deliverable as part of the Global Trade Compliance (GTC) module in Infor LN.

  • Tree Detail view

    A new option is added to the user defined structure elements to view the tree structure (physical breakdown) of the structure elements. This allows the user to navigate easily between records without switching between the overview and detail sessions.

  • Service Maintenance for Contract Deliverable

    In Project, for items that require service and maintenance, the Service Maintenance functionality is added to the contract deliverable and can now be used to execute the service and maintenance of the item in depot repair. The After Sales Service Lines now supports the generating of the maintenance sales order with part maintenance lines for project contract deliverable lines.

  • Subcontracted Service Items in Contract Deliverable

    The contract deliverable supports the Subcontracted Service item type.