Introduction to Investment Features
Power Framework shows “Investment” tabs when maintaining Portfolios, Programmes and Projects. These provide spreadsheet-like experiences for maintaining financial data relating to these entities. Budget, Forecast and Actual amounts are entered within a parameterised, hierarchical structure as per this example:
Budget Categories at the top of the hierarchy provide the container for budgets. They split into Cost Categories, which represent groups of Cost Sub-Categories. It is at the lowest, Cost Sub-Category level that Forecast and Actual amounts are maintained for Programmes and Projects.
Budget Categories can be flagged as Capital Expenditure (“Capex”) or Operational Expenditure (“Opex”). This then applies to all subordinate categories and is used for reporting purposes to split cost into Capex/Opex.
In Power Framework Administration look for the Investment Parameters section to maintain these parameters:
Miscellaneous Investment Settings
In this area, you find various switches that will be set upon implementation of the tool and should not require any further maintenance once the tool is in use.
The following settings are defined via the “Investment Settings” record. This has several tabs as follows:
Tab: General
In the ‘General’ tab the following values are set:
| Field | Comment |
| Base Currency | The base currency of the application is defined (internally, all amounts will be stored using this currency). This can be left blank (Default currency will be used). |
| Heat Map Colors | Defines value ranges and associated Hex color codes for coloring of heat maps. |
| Heat Map Colors (Percentages) | Defines value ranges and associated Hex color codes for coloring of heat map percentages. |
Tab: Investment
In the ‘Investment’ tab the following values are set:
| Field | Comment |
| Hidden Process Stages |
Select Project Stages to act as filters for projects showing in the “Allocate Programme Budget” feature within the Programme investment tab. By selecting stages in the list, any projects currently at those stages will not be shown, and therefore cannot be allocated budget by the Programme. Use this to hide projects too early in the project lifecycle to be allocated any budget. |
| Show Multiple Calendars | Select Yes to allow use of more than one calendar. This allows the use of two calendars, one aligned with the traditional calendar (Jan to Dec) but also a separate calendar aligned with whichever month the financial year starts in. |
| Default Calendar | Select either Financial Year or Calendar Year as the default calendar for use when setting the default view. Users can still switch between the two (see Investment Tab of a Project). |
| Financial Start Month | This determines where the financial year begins, for example April is the default for Financial Year. |
| Historical Lock (months) |
Leave blank for no historical lock, any historical data will remain editable. Set to 0 to prevent users from updating any data on columns in the past. Set to 1 to allow users to enter data on the current and future months and the previous month. Set to 2 to allow users to enter data on the current and future months and the previous 2 months, and so on. |
Tab: Resource Demand
In the ‘Resource Demand’ tab the following values are set:
| Field | Comment |
| Resource Capacity Number of Years | Defines how many years are open for a definition of resource capacity. |
| Hide Resource Demand Actuals | Set this to Yes if you do not want to see Actuals in the Resource Demand Tab. |
| Hide Resource Demand Rate | Set this to Yes if you do not want to see Rates in the Resource Demand Tab. |
| Historical Lock (months) |
Positive number that defines how many months in the past should be locked for editing. E.g. 1 means every resource demand until the previous month is locked for editing. 2 means, everything until 2 months ago is locked for editing. If empty, no lock is applied. If 0 no changes to the cells in the past can be made. |
| Unique Fields |
List of Custom Fields added to the table to be included in the Resource Demand grid. |
Tab: Azure Settings
In the ‘Azure Services’ tab the following values are set:
| Field | Comment |
| Azure Services Url | Enter the Azure Services URL here. |
| BG Data Check | Set this to Update or Info as required. |
Tab: Integrations Settings
In the ‘Integrations’ tab the following values are set:
Azure Active Directory
| Field | Comment |
| Enabled | Set to Yes if Azure Active Directory is Enabled. |
| Match Groups | Enter Match Groups as required. |
Project Online
| Field | Comment |
| Enabled | Set to Yes if Project Online is Enabled. |
| Import Actuals | Set to Yes if Actuals are to be imported. |
| Convert Hours to Days | Set to Yes if hours are to be converted to days. |
| Hours per day | Set to number of hours per day. |
Budget Categories
Budget Category records simply define the Budget Category Name as well as the Expenditure Type (Opex or Capex).
When entering budgets for Portfolios, Programmes or Projects, these will be captured at Budget Category level.
For each Budget Category, set up at least one Funding Source (see Funding Sources section) – only then will this category show up for Budget capture at Portfolio/Programme level.
Also set up at least one Cost Category for each Budget Category (see Cost Categories section), as otherwise no Forecast/Actual figures can be captured below it.
Cost Categories
Define the Cost Categories which will relate to the Budget Categories created above.
These will provide the grouping for Cost Sub-Categories defined in the next step (allowing the user to expand/collapse the investment grid by these groups, as well as allowing the calculation of group Forecast and Actual totals).
For each Cost Category set up at least one Cost Sub-Category.
Cost Sub-Categories
At the bottom level of the hierarchy (explained in the Introduction to Investment Features section above), Cost Sub-Categories define the rows of the Investment grid, allowing capture of Forecast and Actual values.
These records are maintained as follows:
| Field | Comment |
| Name |
The name of the Cost Sub-category. Make sure that names are unique. |
| Cost Category | Select the parent Cost Category. |
| ID | Used to store a General Ledger account or cost centre code, in order to link to an external financial accounting application. Used by the Cost Transaction Import function, to allow financial transactions to be joined to this Cost Sub-Category. |
| Actual Transaction Based |
Set to Yes or No. If set to Yes, then the Actual amount cannot be entered by the user in the project Investment grid within any rows associated with this Cost Sub-Category. Instead an Actual total amount will be displayed, the user may click on this to see the detailed Cost Transactions that make up this amount. |
| Actual Transactions | Select from a list of available transaction types (e.g. Resource Demand) to indicate which one of these should be allowed to post Cost Transactions, as a breakdown of the Actual amount. |
| Forecast Transaction Based |
Set to Yes or No. If set to Yes, then the Forecast amount cannot be entered by the user in the project Investment grid within the row associated with this Cost Sub-Category. Instead, a Forecast total amount will be displayed, the user may click on this to see the detailed Cost Transactions that make up this amount. |
| Forecast Transactions |
Select from a list of available transaction types to indicate which one of these should be allowed to post Cost Transactions, as a breakdown of the Forecast amount. |
Deactivating Cost Sub-Categories
If you wish to retire a Cost Sub-Category, you can simply deactivate it (i.e. edit the category record and click Deactivate in the top menu).
Deactivated Cost Sub-Categories will no longer show in the investment grids of Programmes and Projects unless there are historical line items with values attached (in other words, existing figures against deactivated categories will continue to show, but no new costs can be captured against these).
Funding Sources
Funding Sources provide the containers for Budget Amounts attached to Programmes and Portfolios. When defining the budget at Portfolio or Programme level, these are entered as amounts broken down by Funding Sources related to Budget Categories:
Funding Sources are maintained as follows:
| Field | Comment |
| Name | The name of the Funding Source. |
| Budget Category | Select the parent Budget Category (which will make this Funding Source available as a funding source for this Budget Category, so that budget amounts can be entered to contribute to the total budget). |
| Use for Portfolios | If set to Yes, then this Funding Source will show when maintaining budgets at Portfolio level. |
| Use for Programmes | If set to Yes, then this Funding Source will show when maintaining budgets at Programme level. |