Protrax Dashboard Tips & Tricks
What is the Dashboard?
The Information System(IS) Dashboard is designed to give principals, project managers and other staff access to critical project and financial status with real-time information from their desktop. Reports and inquiries, based on security, are "read only" to ensure data integrity. With the Dashboard, you can:
- Improve project communication by providing project managers, principals and non-accounting staff access to real-time project information.
- Use security features to share information while protecting sensitive data like payroll and billing rates.
- Deliver reports and inquiries right to the desktop for timely review of critical project and financial information.
Much like a personal internet start-up page, the Dashboard can be customized to best suit the user’s needs. Based on your security permissions, the Dashboard can be customized to include:
- Links for the applications, tasks, inquiries, and reports you use frequently so that you can access them quickly.
- A customized snapshot of current information for projects.
How do I share information while protecting sensitive data?
Security allows you to limit who has access to certain commands and files. You can set up permissions to commands and files on an operator or group basis or a combination of the two. When using security, all users must know an operator ID and password to enter each time an application is started. After passing security, only those commands and files the user has permission to use are accessible. Setting up security is optional.
The Dashboard (and the projects component of the Dashboard) is available if employee options are set to allow the employee access to the Dashboard.
To quickly and easily access Protrax tasks and information, you can use the Dashboard as your main window to Protrax. If you are using an icon on your desktop and want to access Protrax always from your Dashboard, change the icon's property settings to use the IS.exe instead of the AX.exe.
Protrax Dashboard – What does all that information mean?
This list of definitions will help you understand the meaning of all the information on the Dashboard, such as how Protrax calculates the totals and when it uses Project Control (PC) or Contracts.
My Projects:
ID – The contract ID number appears here.
Description – The contract description appears here.
Customer – The customer (client) from the contract items appears here. If there are multiple customers on one contract, you will see “Multiple.”
Project Manager – The Project Manager (PM) entered on the project in PC appears here. If there are multiple projects linked to the contract and there are multiple PM’s on these projects, you will see “Multiple.” All PM’s will be able to see this contract on their dashboard.
Status – The status of the contract found in Contracts (CN) appears here.
Department – If there is a prefix on the Revenue tab for the contract, the prefix description will appear here as the department of record. If no prefix is listed, no department will be listed.
Type – The contract type from the Contract in CN appears here.
Amount fields – The amounts that were current as of the last posting process appear here. If postings occur during the day, using the refresh button will update the dashboard.
Contract Amount – The total contract amount, as shown on the items’ Contract tab, appears here. If there is no contract amount entered, the amount shown will be zero. If you did not import the budgets from PC, this amount may not necessarily match the budgeted amounts from PC.
Billed – Total Billed to Date (Contract).
% Billed – This is the Total Billed to Date (Contract) divided by the Total Contract Amount (Contract).
Remaining Contract – This amount equals the Total Contract minus Total Billed to Date.
Billed Profit – Billed Profit equals Total Billed to Date (Contract) minus the Total Cost to Date (Project).
Billed Profit % - Billed Profit Percent equals the Total Billed to Date (Contract) divided by the Total Billed Profit.
Reported % Complete – This is not a calculated field. In PC, there is a custom Total tab for the Project, Phase and Activity levels. Reported Percent Complete (RPC) is an entered value, based on what the PM believes the project status is. If there are RPC values on multiple phase or activities, there will be “Multiple” in the column. If RPC is shown only on the Project, that value will be shown on the screen.
Hours Budget – If hours are budgeted in PC, the hours from project totals will appear here.
Hours Actual – This number reflects the hours entered as cost in the project record, but not those entered as billed.
Earned – This is the Total Earned to Date from the Project record.
% Earned – This value is calculated using the Total Earned to Date (Project) divided by the Total Contract Amount (Contract).
Earned Profit – This amount equals Total Earned to Date (Project) minus Total Cost to Date (Project).
Earned Profit % - Total Earned Profit divided by Total Earned to Date (Project).
Contract Remaining at Earned – Total Contract (Contract) minus Total Earned to Date (Project).
If you double-click on any contract showing on the screen, the Project Status report will appear. Protrax calculates these totals using various contract totals and project totals. When you drill down into the report, you can see the values by contract item. This information may look very familiar. If you use the Contract Item Earning Summary report, you will see that the Dashboard shows the same values.
One common question regards the term “write-off.” What does this term mean? Does it indicate that the project is losing money? The following formula shows how Protrax calculates the column:
Total Earned – Total Billed – WIP available to Bill = Write Off Amount
When using contract-based billing, the write-off amount may not be a major consideration if there is a pre-bill invoice or if cost is still being entered after the contract is fully billed. These types of considerations are necessary to understand the status and value on each contract.
Knowing what the different fields mean and where the values are derived from will help you succeed in mastering the world of managing projects. If you are involved in training new project managers and others on the use of the Dashboard, these can be your tricks and tips to pass on. In addition, the time, energy, and paper you save by showing others how to use the dashboard effectively make your knowledge a big asset to your firm.
If you have additional questions, please contact our Software Support team at 800.844.0769.
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