Clarity

Hi,

we are using the cost plan where it is grouped by charge codes and sub group by trans class.The resources are financially enabled and the Rate matrix is build based on resource financial location and resource class.Each resource are tagged to an trans class in financial properties.Users will do the forecasting based on trans class.

Now we have rolled out the resource demand and supply and our business planning wants the forecast also by roles and resources.They want to forecast by the allocations.(Populate from Staff-->Allocations).

As you know that roles cannot be financially enabled so we are unable to relate it to our current Rate matrix which is defined.i can't create an rate matrix only for roles as we need the Financial Location and resource class.

so we asked our users to choose an trans class which is specifically created for roles and manually entering the cost which is not the business wants.They want the allocated hours to be automatically converted in to cost and appear in the cost plan.They want an single plan where for both resources and roles should be forecasted based on the allocated hours.

so how you are handling the Forecasting based on Roles which involves resource financial.It would be great if you share your experience.

cheers,
sundar

Hi, Sundar.

We have a very similar business problem, so here is what we have done.

We do our forecasting and cost plan generation based on Role then Charge Code. Since in ideation you are mainly forecasting by roles and not names people, we have to plan and financially forecast at that level.

We have Resource Role added in our cost rate matrix as the last column. We have some roles defined as on-shore and some as off-shore, which of course have different rates. This way, when you have roles in a cost plan that aren't assigned to a person ... you still get a descent blended rate by which to plan from.

Hopefully this helps!!

Lori Hagewood

Hi Sundar.
We too wish we could forecast with a mix of Resource and Roles via the New From Resource Plan functionality. Attached is our ERQ, if you think this'll work for you as well, please enter an ERQ as well and make your vote count!

Rob,
As Sundar explained: you CAN create new or populate existing cost plan from resource plan, as long as your plan doesn't use Transaction Class for grouping. This is because transaction class is a part of the financial properties for a named resource and roles don't have financial properties. There is an existing ERQ asking for financial properties for roles.

Besides that if you have strict (no wildcard) matrix definition (such as one requiring specific Transaction Classes or Resource Classes), then your roles would not find a rate because roles don't have those financial properties.

As a quick test you can add a catch-all matrix row with * in all columns, and create a cost plan that is only grouped by Roles, you should see all roles in there.

Hi,

we have also raised an case with CA support they reverted back the feature is not available currently.They said they have already got an similar enhancement request.

CLRT-24730 : Cost Plans - To be able to associate a Transaction Class with a Role and to use resources primary role when populating costs.we are going to raise this and also pressing for an solution for us.

our business feels that with out Roles Forecasting the Figures will not be accurate.we don't know when CA will come back / provide an Fix for this.

As the requirement is urgent i thought of an round about way-->

To create an custom portlet (NSQL based) which will show the roles with allocated hours with cost by month for a project.I can get the rate / cost for all roles and maintain in an Temp Table or even maintain that in an separate Rate matrix which will not be used in any projects.Then i will build an custom query which will show the roles with the assigned projects showing allocated hours with cost.(Monthly view)
Then i can create a custom attribute in cost plan and provide an link to the portlet where it will show the roles with allocated hours and cost for the project in months. Based on that PM can forecast on roles by choosing an transclass which is specifically created for Roles.They need to copy the cost from the custom portlet and paste it in the cost plan.so now the cost will be more accurate and the forecast will have an full view on resources / roles.

i know it is an custom one (Portlet part alone) but until CA suggests an solution can i try this approach.Please provide your feedback about this approach.
i welcome all your feedback.

cheers,
sundar

Hi all.
Please Comment & Promote if you think Financially Enabling Roles will provide value to your organization.

[size=7] Click Here for Idea: Ability to financially enable roles so that Transaction Class may be used for forecasting.[size].

Lori,

Thanks for your reply.i appreciate your reply.

we are using Financial Location,Resource Class and chargecode in our Rate Matrix.Here the Grade is defined in the resource class and also as you mentioned the rates are different and we have lot of grades based on each financial location.60 Locations and many grades for each location and also we have 3 charge codes.

But the key here is that we use the cost plan forecasting where we are grouping it by transclass and sub group by chargecodes which is our group standard and that condition is widely used in our Financial Reports / Extracts.All named resources are tagged to an transclass(It is created based on Financial Location) which is provided by finance for recharge purposes.

The challenge is that unless iam able to associate an Role with an Transclass i will not be able to bring it in the cost plan.

Micheal,

Thanks.i will also raise it.

cheers,
sundar

Creating Cost Detail Plans using ALLOCATIONS and ASSIGNMENTS options require an in-depth understanding for the Primary Group and Secondary Group-By fields. Allocations can only be done with certain combinations of TRANSATION CLASSES and ROLES. The table below illustrates the valid combinations. (See Attached File).

Once a Cost Plan is promoted as a Budget Plan the Group / Group By structure is set for that investment.

Hi all.
As I understand Sundar's first post, Sundar's business users wish to build their cost plan from the project schedule where the team is a combination of Named Resources and Roles (Unfilled Requirements) via the New From Resource Plan functionality. The resulting cost plan would have all hours and associated costs created with the simple click of the button.

Sundar, please let me know if I misunderstand this. This is our use case above.

Given that use case, I don't believe the matrix attached above works. The problem here is that hours & costs from the Roles (Unfilled Requirements - non Named Resoures) are not included in the system generated New From Resource Plan cost plan.

Am I misunderstanding this?

Rob,

You can forecast Roles and Resources via cost plan (Add from Staff Plans -->Allocations or Assignments) and then the cost should
automatically show up based on the allocation.

It depends upon how you have defined your rate matrix and what you have selected in your Group by and sub group by of your cost plan.

Cost Calculation -->In project financial properties--> labor transaction rates -->The Rate and cost field should be tagged to an rate matrix.The fields will be selected based on the organization requirement in rate matrix and will be defined with cost.

If you have created the Rate matrix based on Roles and charge codes and then created an cost plan using Group by Roles and sub group by charge codes it will work.For named resources you must have associated with an primary role.If you have done the allocations for those roles and resources then when you click populate from staff button which will prompt for Allocations / Assignments then you need to choose allocations.Then whatever you have allocated (The Hours which is based on your availability) it will derive the cost from rate matrix and show in the cost plan dynamically.

For us we have defined the rate matrix purely based on Financial attributes like Location,resource class and charge code.And in the cost plan too we are using Trans class (Which is again an Financial attribute) as Group by and Charge code as sub group by.

As you know that Roles are not Financially enabled.The cost is calculated based on the attributes defined in rate matrix and then it will be grouped by the field which you have choosed in cost plan.For us we are not able to relate the role with Transclass as it was an Financial attribute.

i even tried by adding Roles and Transclass to our existing rate matrix along with Location and Resource Class but when i click the Add from Staff Plans -->Allocations it is checking that the Resources / roles are financially enabled or not.we also can't have two rate matrix for an project.(1 for roles and 1 for resources) and again we can't have 2 different Group / Sub Group By structure for an cost plan.

Hope i have confused you :happy

cheers,
sundar