This blog aims to outline briefly the set up necessary in X3 to use the Project Management Module, PJM.
In keeping with X3 philosophy and architecture, PJM is designed to give the user flexibility and freedom to organise their project literally as they fancy.
However, the established, project management philosophy can be implemented if one so chooses.
This is generally, Project conception and initiation, project definition and planning, project launch and execution, project performance and control and
finally project conclusion and closure.
PJM is fully integrated with manufacturing, inventory, AP / AR , sale and purchase flows in X3.
To use the module, there are certain pre-requisites that must be in place.
1. License: The license for PJM requires a license for the Manufacturing module also. This is because the PJM module uses a lot of the Manufacturing module functionality.
2. Activity codes: The screen shot below shows the activity codes specific to PJM.
PJM --- Project Management. This is the most important activity code without which the module will not work. It must be active.
PJMSA --- Project Module and sales module enabled. This allows sales/billing/invoicing on the project through the X3 sales module.
PJMBU --- Budgets tree view. This determines if the project budget set up can be displayed as a hierarchical(tree) structure.
PJMTA --- Tasks tree view. This is similar to the Budget tree view parameter for displaying the task hierarchical structure.
PJMTI --- Time entry. This defines the number of lines that can be entered in the time entry function (PJMTE)
PJMGR -- PJM grids. This controls the number of lines displayed on a search result table.
PJMPO -- Project overview. This controls the project hierarchical display as below.
3. General Parameters:
There is a parameter group exclusive to the project module. Set up ->General parameters-> Parameter values->TC-> PJM
The highlighted parameter values below are SQL queries for extracting the project progress in budget, task and revenue.
They must be set to active for project progress
.
4. The structure of a project is divided into Task planning and Cost structure.
The Task planning is the WBS (Work breakdown structure ), which organises the work steps or project tasks.
The "New" button opens the highlighted fields to enter the project task.
Selecting the "Category" field shows a selection list of task categories.
These are created in the function Task category ( GESCTA )
The Task category field is from local menu 2252.
The cost type is created on function Cost type (GESPJCC)
The saleable product, SER016 above is used to bill for the task or activity which has the cost type ENGINEER. The billing rate fo the cost type is 42.24 USD per hour in this example.
Cost group is on miscellaneous table 386
A recent improvement is the addition of Time category (GESPJTC). This enhances time management in the project such as a non-project time category which is to be tracked.
Over time, paid time off etc etc can be created.
Operations/Activity is tracked through the Manufacturing work centre which is entered as a resource in the task. Below, DES004, DES001 and DES002 are work centres.
The Work centres have a cost type field, which must be filled with an appropriate value.
For tasks that involve stock items such as purchased or manufactured goods, the Products block is populated with the products as shown below
The fields below are crucial to the project workflow:
Consumption mode -> This is how the stock movement is initiated for the product.
Primary budgeting method: This is the source of the cost of the product.
Every product has a cost type field which can be assigned with a cost type value.
5. Cost Structure
The tasks as seen above can have Activities or products that have be costs. These costs can be used to generate an associated cost budget in the Cost structure.
The highlighted field on the task is ticked and the page saved
Then, from the Cost structure, Budget T-002 is selected and from the highlighted action, Generate Budget lines, the Budget lines are generated as seen below.
6. The saleable products on some cost types or Task Product block, ticked "Saleable" on the Product detail line are used in sales orders on the project.
The products such as SER015 below are of category SERND or SEND which is non-deliverable service.
The sale unit of measure is UNT, which is a decimalized unit, which allows the invoicing of fractions/percentages of a project.
The product must have a project cost type as below.
A suitable Invoicing term for scheduled invoice type, such as P20/30/40/10, P100, 12M etc etc
Finally, personel assigned activities on a project are X3 users that have a cost type and/or be authorised for time entry on the project on the
Project management tab of the user function GESAUS.
This is briefly all the set up that should have us a working project.
The rest of the set ups are on the rest of the X3 modules that PJM is integrated with.
