Project
The project master: identity, contract value, schedule, work breakdown (WBS), and budget per account. Every project report reads from here, and this project code is what transaction documents select.
When To Use This Form
- Creating a new project before its first document exists - without a project in the master, the Project field on documents has nothing to choose.
- Building the project work breakdown and budget.
- Updating the progress of each WBS task, and the project status as the work moves.
- Not for recording cost: project cost comes from transaction documents carrying this project, not typed here.
Fields To Watch
The General and Schedule & Value groups:
| Field | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Code | Required, typed by hand, up to 30 characters. This code appears on every report and is selected on documents - use a readable pattern such as PRJ-CITRA-01. There is no auto-numbering. |
| Name | Required. The project name as the customer and the team know it. |
| Project Group | Optional; only groups marked active appear. Used as a filter in the summary reports. |
| Customer | Optional. Leave empty for an internal project. Only active customers in the customer groups your role may access appear. |
| Division | Required, pre-filled from the role default division. A role locked to one division cannot change it. |
| Project Manager | Optional, chosen from the application users. |
| Internal Project | A switch. Internal projects have no revenue, so the reports leave their margin column blank - without this switch every internal project reads as a 100% loss. |
| Status | Required: Planned, Running, On Hold, Finished, or Cancelled. Only Running projects appear on the Project Dashboard. |
| Contract Value | The agreed value. Used as the comparison in the profit and margin reports, so it need not be recomputed from billing that may not be issued yet. |
| Start Date, Target Finish, Actual Finish | The project schedule. Start Date is also the filter used by the Project Dashboard and All Projects Summary, so it is best always filled. |
| Progress (%) | Cannot be typed. Recomputed from WBS task weights and progress every time the project is saved. |
Work Breakdown List (WBS)
This tab is the source of physical progress. It may be left empty, but then the project progress stays zero and the reports lose their comparison against cost absorption.
| Field | What to watch |
|---|---|
| WBS Code | Task numbering, for example 1, 1.1, 1.2. Display order follows this code - so the hierarchy is read from the code. |
| Name | Required. The task name. |
| Weight (%) | The share of this task against the whole project. It need not sum to 100: project progress is divided by the weights that actually exist, so the number stays sensible while the WBS is still being built. |
| Progress (%) | The progress of this task, entered by people. It is the only progress number typed in this module. |
| Budgeted Cost | The budgeted cost of this task, for comparison at task level. The budget read by the Budget vs Actual report is the one in the Budget List tab, not this column. |
| Planned Start, Planned Finish, Actual Start, Actual Finish | Planned and real task schedule. |
| Person In Charge | The user responsible for this task. |
| Status | Required: Not Started, In Progress, Done, or Cancelled. |
Tasks with weight 0 are excluded from project progress - not counted as zero. That is deliberate, so adding an empty row does not drag the project progress down.
Budget List
The project cost budget per account. This shape is what lets the Budget vs Actual report compare directly with no category mapping.
| Field | What to watch |
|---|---|
| Account | Required. The list holds profit and loss accounts only - revenue, cost of goods, expenses, other income/expense, and tax. Balance sheet accounts such as cash, inventory, and payables cannot be budgeted here, because the actual being compared is also profit and loss only. |
| Account Name | Filled automatically from the chosen account. |
| Amount | Required. The budget for that account on this project. |
| Notes | Free text, for example the basis of the budgeted figure. |
If the budget category you want does not exist yet, what gets added is the account in the Account master - not a new dimension here.
What Happens After Saving
- The project Progress (%) is recomputed from the weighted WBS tasks: the sum of (weight x progress) divided by the sum of weights.
- The project code becomes selectable in the Project field on transaction documents. That list does not filter by status, so old documents of a finished project can still be opened and re-saved.
- No journal is created by this form. A project is a master; its report figures come from documents carrying it.
- This form does not go through the approval workflow - all four project masters sit outside approval, which governs transaction documents.
Common Problems
- The project reports are empty although the cost has been spent. The documents have no Project filled in. Open the document, set its project, and save - the journal is rewritten along with its project tag.
- Project progress is zero although tasks are running. Task weights are still 0. Fill the weights, then save the project so progress is recomputed.
- Project progress did not change after I changed a task progress. Progress is computed when the project is saved - save the project again.
- Cost absorption shows a dash in the reports. That project has no budget rows yet.
- Project margin reads as a full loss. If it really is an internal project, turn the Internal Project switch on.
- You want to change a project code. Documents already pointing at it follow the code change, but still avoid renaming a project code already in use - it appears on printed documents and older reports.
Menu Location
- Project Management / Project Operations / Project
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