Mass copying tasks

by Hudson Van-Dal | Feb 15, 2022

Mass copying tasks

Introduction
Copying tasks

Introduction

ITM Platform allows you to perform operations on a group of tasks of a project by navigating to the Tasks section and selecting the tasks you require. The selection is made by ticking the tick box to the left of each task.

As soon as you start making your selection, you can see the number of tasks you selected at the bottom of the list, and four options are enabled.

Copy: Copies the selected tasks to another project, as explained in more detail in the next section. Apart from copying tasks, you can choose to include the task members, purchases, revenues, risks, or issues related to the tasks you are copying.
Update Status: Select a status from the dropdown list to the left of this option and click on the button “Update Status” to change the status of all selected tasks
Delete Task: Deletes all selected tasks. Before deleting the tasks, ITM Platform will ask for your confirmation.

Move Dates: This allows to move the start and end date of all selected tasks. The date you select applies to the start date of the earliest of the selected tasks, and the rest of the tasks will be moved within the same number of days.

Copying tasks

Clicking the option “Copy” opens a pop-up showing how many tasks will be copied.

Clicking on the option “see which,” you get a list of the selected tasks.

The pop-up allows setting several options that will be applied when copying the list of selected tasks.

Destination Project: Select the project you want to copy the selected tasks to from a dropdown list of all available projects. By writing in the field, you can filter the list.
Dates: The dates of all tasks will automatically be adapted based on the difference in start dates between the origin and destination project.
Status: Select the status you want to apply to all tasks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the status unchanged.
Priority: Select the priority you want to apply to all tasks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the priority unchanged.
Type: Select the type you want to apply to all tasks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the type unchanged.
Include descriptions: Select this option to include the task descriptions in the copied tasks.
Include dependencies: Select this option to include the relations between predecessor tasks and the copied tasks. Relations between predecessor tasks and copied tasks can only be copied if the predecessor task and the dependent task are included in the list of selected tasks.
Include documents: Select this option if you want to include the documents of the copied tasks.
Include custom field values: Select this option if you want to include the custom field values of the copied tasks.
Include task members: Select this option if you want to include the task members of the copied tasks, as explained in more detail in the below section “Include task members.”
Include purchases: Select this option if you want to include the purchases that depend on the selected tasks, as explained in more detail in the “Include purchases” below.
Include revenues: Select this option if you want to include the revenues that depend on the selected tasks, as explained in more detail in the “Include revenues” section below.
Include risks: Select this option if you want to include the risks that depend on the selected tasks, as explained in more detail in the “Include risks” section below.
Include issues: Select this option if you want to include the issues that depend on the selected tasks, as explained in more detail in the “Include issues” below.

Click ” Next ” to proceed once you are happy with the selected options. Before copying the tasks, ITM Platform gives you a summary of the tasks to be copied and a list of warnings, if applicable.

The warnings that the pop-up screen can show are:

Summary Tasks: ITM Platform will show a warning when you are copying tasks of which the summary tasks are not included in the list of selected tasks. Clicking on “see which,” you can see which Summary Tasks are missing. If you choose to proceed, the tasks will be copied, but without being the child of the summary task.

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Dependencies (Predecessor): This warning will be shown if one or more predecessor tasks are not included in the list of selected tasks, while their dependent tasks are in the list of tasks to be copied. The warning will only be shown if you include the task dependencies.

When you receive warnings on the summary screen, you can either choose to cancel and include additional tasks in the selection to fix these issues or choose to proceed. Once you confirm, the copied tasks may take up to a minute to appear in the destination project.

Include task members

Select this option if you want to include the assigned task members on the tasks to be copied. A section with an additional option is opened when you select the option.

Assign team members to the destination project. If you select this option, team members are automatically added to the destination project if they are task members on one or more copied tasks. If the option is unselected, any task member that is not a team member on the destination project will not be included.

Include purchase

Select this option if you want to include the purchases that depend on the tasks to be copied. When you select the option, a section with additional options is opened.

Status: Select the status you want to apply to the purchases copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the status unchanged.
Dates: The due dates of all purchases will automatically be adapted based on the difference in start dates between the origin and destination project.
Include descriptions: Select this option to include the descriptions in the copied purchases.
Include provider: Select this option if you want to include the provider in the copied purchases.
Include documents: Select this option if you want to include the documents of the copied purchases.
Include projected amount: Select this option if you want to include the projected amount of the copied purchases. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amounts of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the projected amounts with.
Include purchase number: Select this option to include the purchase number of the copied purchases.
Include actual amount: Select this option to include the actual amount of the copied purchases. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amounts of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the actual amounts with.
Include custom field values: Select this option if you want to include the custom field values of the copied purchases.

Include revenues

Select this option if you want to include the revenues that depend on the tasks to be copied. When you select the option, a section with additional options is opened.

Status: Select the status you want to apply to the revenues copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the status unchanged.
Dates: The due dates of all revenues will automatically be adapted based on the difference in start dates between the origin and destination project.
Include descriptions: Select this option to include the descriptions in the copied revenues.
Include documents: Select this option if you want to include the documents of the copied revenues.
Include projected amount: Select this option if you want to include the projected amount of the copied revenues. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amounts of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the projected amounts with.
Include revenue no.: Select this option if you want to include the revenue number of the copied revenues.
Include actual amount: Select this option if you want to include the actual amount of the copied revenues. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amounts of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the actual amounts with.
Include custom field values: Select this option if you want to include the custom field values of the copied revenues.

Include risks

Select this option to include the risks related to the tasks to be copied. When you select the option, a section with additional options is opened.

Status: Select the status you want to apply to the risks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the status unchanged.
Type: Select the type you want to apply to the risks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the type unchanged.
Impact: Select the impact you want to apply to the risks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the impact unchanged.
Probability: Select the probability you want to apply to the risks copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the probability unchanged.
Include documents: Select this option if you want to include the documents of the copied risks.
Include descriptions: Select this option to include the descriptions in the copied risks.
Include total cost: Select this option if you want to include the total cost of each of the copied risks. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amount or setting of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the total cost with.
Include total schedule variation: Select this option if you want to include the total schedule variation of each of the copied risks. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the number or set of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the total schedule variation with.
Include change in scope: Select this option if you want to include the change in scope of each of the copied risks.
Include mitigation plan: Select this option if you want to include the mitigation plan of each of the copied risks.
Include contingency plan: Select this option if you want to include the contingency plan of each of the copied risks.
Include the total cost of risk management: Select this option if you want to include each of the copied risks’ total cost of risk management. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amount or setting of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the total cost of risk management with.
Include total hours of risk management: Select this option if you want to include the total hours of risk management of each of the copied risks. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the number or set of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the total hours of risk management with.
Include risk manager: Select this option to include the assigned risk manager on the risks to be copied. A section with an additional option is opened when you select the option.

Assign risk manager to destination project: If you select this option, team members are automatically added to the project if they are risk managers on one or more of the copied risks. If the option is unselected, any risk manager that is not a team member on the destination project will not be included.

Include custom field values: Select this option if you want to include the custom field values of the copied risks.

Include issues

Select this option if you want to include the issues related to the tasks to be copied. When you select the option, a section with additional options is opened.

Status: Select the status you want to apply to the issues copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the status unchanged.
Type: Select the type you want to apply to the issues copied to the destination project or select “Keep Current” if you want to keep the type unchanged.
Include documents: Select this option if you want to include the documents of the copied issues.
Include descriptions: Select this option to include the descriptions in the copied issues.
Include change in project cost: Select this option if you want to include the change in project cost of each of the copied issues. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the original project’s amount or setting or set a percentage to multiply the change in project cost with.
Include change in project schedule: Select this option if you want to include the change in each of the copied issues. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the number or set of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the change in a project schedule with.
Include the cost of issue management: Select this option if you want to include the cost of issue management of each of the copied risks. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the amount or setting of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the cost of issue management with.
Include hours of issue management: Select this option if you want to include the hours of issue management of each copied issue. Leave the field on the right empty if you want to copy the number or set of the origin project or set a percentage to multiply the hours of issue management with.
Include issue manager: Select this option if you want to include the assigned issue manager on the issues to be copied. A section with an additional option is opened when you select the option.

Assign issue manager to destination project: If you select this option, team members are automatically added to the destination project if they are an issue manager on one or more of the copied issues. If the option is unselected, any issue manager that is not a team member on the destination project, will not be included.

Include custom field values: Select this option if you want to include the custom field values of the copied issues.

Gantt Chart

by Hudson Van-Dal | Dec 28, 2020

The Gantt Chart

Toolbar
Contextual menu
Columns
Task editing
Task dependencies
Effort-based duration
Progress calculation
Saving and further actions

The Gantt chart will be displayed on waterfall projects

Create a new task
Edit a task
Undo – Redo
Collapse – Expand all summaries
vZoom in-out
Zoom to fit
Navigate time spans
Show active baseline
Create a new baseline
Automatically schedule tasks by dependencies (toggles on/off)
Schedule selected tasks by dependencies (one time)
Set task duration based on estimated effort (See the effort-based duration section for more on this)
Show critical path
Search tasks by name
Import from MS Project
Export to PDF

Contextual menu

When you right-click on a task, a menu will show the various options available, such as edit the task, filter by name, add a task, indent, outdent, or delete.

The availability of some of these options are conditioned to the task’s characteristics:

A task cannot be deleted if it has a team assigned, has risks associated, or has issues associated
The indent option will be available if the previous task can be converted to a summary. For example, if the previous task has a team assigned, the indent option will not be enabled

Columns

You can customize the columns section’s layout (left panel) by right-clicking on any column’s name. You will be presented with various options

Filter
Select which columns you want to be displayed
Sort by one or multiple columns

Your custom view will be saved and available on your next visit. Clearing the browser’s cache will result in your preferences to be reset to the default setting.

Task editing

You can edit a task by clicking on the edit button while positioned on the task, right-clicking on the task and selecting “Edit” or by double-clicking on the bar representing the task on the Gantt’s right panel

Most options display information about the task and are self-explanatory. Nevertheless, some fields require further explanation:

GENERAL → Effort: read-only field displaying the sum of all user estimated efforts. It does not include the unassigned effort if the task had any.
GENERAL → Manually scheduled: Checked by default, allow users to schedule the task manually. Unchecked will schedule by dependencies automatically.
RESOURCES : You can set both the percentage and number of hours for each resource. See the effort-based duration section for more on this.
ADVANCED : You can apply constraints for your tasks. Please note that at task creation, a “Start no earlier than” constraint will be set to the task start date. If you remove it, the task will start following its dependencies, or at the project start date if there are no dependencies.

Task dependencies

You can set dependencies between tasks in all their forms (Start-Finish, Start-Start, Finish-Start, Finish-Finish) and set the number of lead or lag days between them.

There are three ways you can do so:

Hover the start task’s bar and drag the circle to its successor. You can then double click the arrow created between the tasks to edit the dependency.
Display the predecessor and successor columns and add the task you want to create a dependency to. You can add a suffix to indicate the direction of the dependency (SS, SF, FS, FF) plus or minus the number of days in case you need to add a lead or a lag.
Edit the task and use the tabs Successors and Predecessors.
Note that once dependencies are established, you cannot convert a task to a summary task.

Effort-based duration

You can set the task’s duration based on the estimated efforts of the team assigned.

To do so, on Edit task RESOURCES set the percentage of dedication and the number of hours you estimate the task will require for each member. Then, select the task or tasks, and click on the toolbar’s icon “Set task duration based on effort” . As a result, the task will automatically set the duration to the number of days of the team member that will take longer.

For example, a task has two users, both of which have 40 estimated hours. This setting will make the task duration to be five days. If you change the percentage of one of them to 50%, the task will take ten days.

Progress calculation

Summary tasks and project calculated progress will show the progress according to the progress calculation method applied to the project.

Each summary will have its “% Done” updated when one of the subtasks is updated. Similarly, the “Calculated Progress” located on the right-top corner of the page will also be updated. Note that the “% Completed” field on the left will only be updated when you save with the “Create an automatic progress report” option checked.

Saving and Further Actions

When you save the Gantt chart, you make it available for other users and trigger some other actions:

Team members will be notified according to their communication preferences
Estimated hour distribution will be recalculated if need be.

How to create a calendar and include non-working days and holidays

by Hudson Van-Dal | Dec 16, 2020

Weekly working hours and weekend configuration

In ITM Platform, you can create different working hours and set up non-working days for each week (weekends).

Weekly working hours

In the section ORGANIZATION → USER MANAGEMENT → Working hours, you will find a default working hour setting created with eight working hours from Monday to Friday.

Optionally, you can create different weekly working hours configurations. For example:

America office (default): Monday to Friday, 8 hours daily
Middle East office: Sunday to Thursday, 8 hours a day
hird-level backup staff: Monday to Saturday, 6 hours a day

After the working hour schedules are created, you can assign them to users.

How working hour schedules affect users

Estimated hour distribution: When you assign a schedule to a user, the estimated hours for each task will be evenly distributed over their duration, proportionally to the working hours of each day. Non-working days reflected in the user’s calendar will be excluded.

For example, an estimated 10 hours assigned to a user over five days will have an projected distribution of two hours per day.

Timesheet: days of the week marked with zero hours will be marked as non-working in the timesheet.

Weekends

Days marked with zero hours in the section ORGANIZATION → USER MANAGEMENT → Working hours will be considered weekends and will be non-working.

To what weekends affect

Duration of tasks and projects: Days marked with zero hours at the default working hours schedule will be considered non-working in calculating task durations.

For example, a task that goes from Tuesday to next Monday in an organization whose default working hours schedule in the previous example is “America office” will last five days, as Saturday and Sunday are non-working.

The tasks’ duration will also take into account the non-working days indicated in the organization’s default calendar. In the previous example, if Thursday were a public holiday, the task’s duration would become four days.

Task duration is displayed in several ITM Platform sections, such as the Gantt chart, task list, project list, and reports.

Timesheet: the days of the week marked with zero hours, will be marked as non-working in the time timesheet.

Revenue Projection Method

by Hudson Van-Dal | Sep 2, 2020

Revenue Projection Method

When you create revenue, you can fill in the revenue projected amount within the “Revenue Projection” section. This value will be displayed within the application regardless of the revenue status and can be used to compare the projected amount with the actual amount.

You can configure how the revenue projected amount will be filled in:

Manual: the projected amount will be typed. The currency can be changed to any of the enabled currencies
Based on completed tasks: The projected revenue amount will be based on the tasks completed per period. Users will be presented with a pop-up to select which tasks to include.
Each task will add its value, which is calculated multiplying the estimated hours by the bill rate of the categories involved

Configuration

There are three locations where you can set your preferences for revenue projected amount, from a higher level to the project itself:

For the whole company, in Configuration Configuration

Project Parameters → Methods.
By project type, in Configuration → Project Parameters → Project Type.
By project, in the General section of the project. This option will only be available if the option “Allow project settings to override this configuration” was ticked at the company level

At any of those levels, you will be able to set your preference for the way revenue projected amount is filled in

Revenue Recognition

by Hudson Van-Dal | Sep 2, 2020

Revenue Recognition

Introduction to Revenue Recognition
Revenue Recognition Methods
Getting Started with Revenue Recognition

Introduction to Revenue Recognition

Revenue Recognition is part of the Project Revenue Management feature in ITM Platform, which includes plan revenue, recognize revenue, actual revenue processing, and perform project account closure and financial analysis within the project life cycle.

Revenue recognition is an accounting principle that identifies the specific conditions in which revenue is recognized. The revenue recognition concept is part of accrual accounting and establishes that revenue should be recorded when it has been earned, not received.

Revenue versus cash timing:

Accrued revenues are used for transactions in which goods and services have been provided, but cash has not yet been received.
Deferred revenues reflect situations in which money has been received, but goods and services have not been provided.

Recognition principles are extensively outlined in IFRS and U.S. GAAP.

ITM Platform provides the following project revenue recognition methods.

Percentage-of-completion
Linear Distribution by Milestones
Fixed Price per Period
Bill Rate per Estimated Hours
Direct Revenue Recognition

The revenue recognition feature will distribute the total project revenue budget within the different periods of the project. Each method will use different formulas to calculate revenue recognition for each period.

You can choose to apply the same method for all projects in your company, specify a method per project type, or specify the method project by project. Before describing each of the methods, let us clarify the concepts of periods, actuals, forecast, amounts, percentages, how they apply to projects and how they affect revenue recognition.

Periods

Intuitively, you can tell a period is a range of time between two dates. ITM Platform identifies periods as days, weeks, or months. Months are more generally used for accounting and financial analysis purposes.

When a project is created, so are the periods. For example, say a project starts on November 15^th and ends on February 10^th. It will have four periods: November, December, January, and February.

Whenever a Revenue Recognition is made, it will apply to one period. Therefore, you will be able to recognize revenue for each month, using the method of your choosing.

Actuals and forecast

When you select a revenue recognition method, establish a revenue budget, and set the project start and end dates, the system will automatically create a forecasted revenue recognition per period.

Forecasted revenue recognition is the expected revenue recognition for a future period. The forecast can use the revenue recognition method applied to the project or, if you configure it that way, it can just make a homogeneous distribution along all periods.

Once forecasts have been calculated, you can create an actual revenue recognition, starting with the first period.

Actual revenue recognition is usually applied to past periods and represents the revenue that has been recognized.

Amounts and percentages

Whenever revenue recognition is made, it will generate four relevant values per period: amount and percentage both for the period and accumulated to the project.

Let’s see an example:

The project has a revenue budget of 100,000 $ and has four periods. Let us assume each period will have the same revenue recognition of 25,000 $ each.

Revenue recognition amount for the period: the amount of money recognized on the period. In our example, this will be 25,000 $.
Accumulated revenue recognition amount: the amount of money recognized from the beginning of the project until that period. On the third period, it will be 75,000$
Revenue recognition percentage for the period: the proportion of the revenue recognition amount for the period over the total revenue budget. In our case, 25%
Accumulated revenue recognition percentage: the proportion of the accumulated revenue recognition amount for that period over the total revenue budget. On the third period, it will be 75%

Revenue Recognition Methods

Percentage-of-completion

This method calculates revenue recognition multiplying the project progress during the period by the total revenue budget.

Linear Distribution by Milestones

This method is based on “Revenue Milestones”. The value of each milestone is the proportion of its estimated hours within the project, multiplied by the total revenue budget

As opposed to the percentage-of-completion method, each milestone will consider a linear distribution of progress along time and will apply that percentage to-date to the milestone value, regardless of the progress reported.

To use this model, you need to create “Revenue Milestones” within the project plan. They are created equal to regular milestones but should also be marked as “Revenue Milestone” within the milestone’s general tab.

In the Gantt Chart, you should then set the milestone’s dependencies with the task you want to use in the revenue recognition of each revenue milestone. To include multiple tasks in the milestone’s revenue recognition, you have to create a summary task with those tasks and establish the dependency between the summary task and the milestone.

Fixed Price per Period

This method will divide the total revenue budget by the number of periods within the project, applying the same revenue recognition amount per period.

Bill Rate per Estimated Hours

This method recognizes the revenue as the result of multiplying the bill rate per professional category by the estimated hours of each task, factoring in the progress task as the proportion for that period.

Direct Revenue Recognition

This method recognizes all revenue, regardless of their status.

Getting Started with Revenue Recognition

Configuration

There are three locations where you can set your preferences for revenue recognition, from a higher level to the project itself:

For the whole company, in Configuration → Project Parameters → Methods
By project type, in Configuration → Project Parameters → Project Type.
By project, in the General section of the project. This option will only be available if the option “Allow project settings to override this configuration” was ticked at the company level

Regardless of the level at which you configured the settings, these are the options you can configure:

Revenue Recognition Method: any of the methods offered by ITM Platform.
Forecast Recognition Method: use the same as Revenue Recognition Method or create a linear distribution over the future periods.
Revenue Recognition Periods: Months or weeks.
Whether the actual revenue recognition amount can be manually changed or not.

Project requirements to work with revenue recognition

Once you have chosen the options that best meet your needs, make sure your project has the necessary information:

Your project has both start and end dates. Otherwise, the system will not be able to create the periods.
Your project has a total revenue budget. You can set this value in the Budget section of the project, clicking on the “Edit Top-Down Budget” button.

Accessing the revenue recognition feature

If your project meets the requirements, it will show a new “Revenue Recognition” section under “Revenue”

There are two main subsections on this page:

Summary, which provides with condensed and graphical data about the current revenue recognition status
Revenue Recognition Periods, which will display a list of all actual and forecasted revenue recognition periods

The button “Add New Revenue Recognition” button will convert the next forecasted revenue recognition into actual revenue recognition.

You will be able to add a description and, if it was configured that way, change the period amount.

Once you save, the line will turn into actual revenue recognition, and the next forecasted period will be next to become actual.

Actual revenue recognitions can be deleted from the list in the reverse order they were created. A user with enough permissions can lock actual revenue recognition lines, so they cannot be changed or deleted.

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