KLUSA is a web based mul-project management soſtware soluon. For easy overview and simple navigaon KLUSA is divided into modules: Project management • for planning, steering and reporng of single projects Resource management • for maintaining pools, skills and individual resources in a request- commit workflow between project manager and resource manager Mul-project management • for reports across a set of projects Demand management • for early planning and value benefit analysis Porolio management • for strategic project porolio analysis and scenario planning Cost management is performed in the project management module for single projects and in the mul-project and porolio management modules for aggregated informaon. Cost plan, displayed by month and work package KLUSA Overview Expectations of a multi-project management solution KLUSA Cost-Management Cost management in an individual project 1 Plan. Decide. Succeed. Data Sheet KLUSa Project Cost-Management A state-of-the-art project management tool is ca- pable of processing all cost data associated with the project in a clear and businesslike fashion. This includes planned and actual cost data from a single cost record up to summary reports and analysis. The benefit of a soſtware tool is its ability to intelligently link the available data in order to obtain and display important aids for the user: Project managers require cost trend analysis • charts for the project Project offices expect overviews of which • projects are exceeding budgets Accounng departments expect project cost • data to be correctly assigned and synchronized with an ERP system at the end of each month Creang the cost plan The first step in project cost management is to cre- ate a cost plan. In KLUSA, this plan consists of ma- terial costs and the costs for planned resources. The costs for the planned project resources are calculated by KLUSA automacally from the re- source plan using aributes as cost center, cost type and cost rate, each allocated to the individu- al resources. Planning material cost is also very easy. The project manager selects material from a pre- defined list and enters the quanty for a me period. These material lists can account for vary- ing unit prices over me, so it is always ensured that the correct prices are assigned to a given period.
Transcript
KLUSA is a web based multi -project management soft ware soluti on. For easy overview and simple navigati on KLUSA is divided into modules:
Project management• for planning, steeringand reporti ng of single projectsResource management• for maintaining pools,skills and individual resources in a request-commit workfl ow between project managerand resource managerMulti -project management• for reports acrossa set of projects
Demand management• for early planning andvalue benefi t analysisPortf olio management• for strategic projectportf olio analysis and scenario planning
Cost management is performed in the project management module for single projects and in the multi -project and portf olio management modules for aggregated informati on.
Cost plan, displayed by month and work package
KLUSA Overview
Expectations of a multi-project management solution
KLUSA Cost-ManagementCost management in an individual project
1Plan. Decide. Succeed.
Data SheetKLUSa
Project Cost-Management
A state-of-the-art project management tool is ca-pable of processing all cost data associated with the project in a clear and businesslike fashion. This includes planned and actual cost data from a single cost record up to summary reports and analysis. The benefi t of a soft ware tool is its ability to intelligently link the available data in order to obtain and display important aids for the user:
Project managers require cost trend analysis•charts for the projectProject offi ces expect overviews of which•projects are exceeding budgetsAccounti ng departments expect project cost•data to be correctly assigned and synchronizedwith an ERP system at the end of each month
Creati ng the cost planThe fi rst step in project cost management is to cre-ate a cost plan. In KLUSA, this plan consists of ma-terial costs and the costs for planned resources. The costs for the planned project resources are calculated by KLUSA automati cally from the re-source plan using att ributes as cost center, cost type and cost rate, each allocated to the individu-al resources.
Planning material cost is also very easy. The project manager selects material from a pre-defi ned list and enters the quanti ty for a ti me period. These material lists can account for vary-ing unit prices over ti me, so it is always ensured that the correct prices are assigned to a given period.
Illustrati on of cost progress and forecast
2Plan. Decide. Succeed.
KLUSa
Project Cost-Management
Data Sheet
Every project plan is subject to change, and hence should be adapted up to the moment of project completi on. In order to have a reference against which to measure project progress and plan de-viati ons, the project base plan is saved as a copy of the current plan when the project is approved. Later changes can be adopted as a new reference through change request approvals. Three plans are therefore available for calculati ons and analy-ses: the current plan, the base plan, and the last approved plan.
KLUSA cost monitoring in individual projects
The costs accrued during the project durati on are allocated to the project as actual costs ac-cording to the relevant ti me period and the cost type. The costs can be entered manually. How-ever, this task typically is automated (see below), or cost data is imported from ERP systems. The allocati on takes place using the project ID and the work package’s WBS code. Att ributes like ac-count type, account group etc. are synchronized as well.
Generation of actual costs in KLUSA
Actual personnel costs can be generated in KLUSA automati cally by allocati ng the employees to their assigned work packages. Employees account the ti me spent on a work package in KLUSA, and KLUSA calculates the cost.
Cost evaluations for cost forecast and trend analysis
Various tools are available to allow the project manager and the management team to evaluate very quickly and easily whether a project is expe-riencing signifi cant plan deviati ons:
Cost forecast
The cost forecast is calculated from the actual cost up to the end of last month (accounti ng period) and the cost plan from the current month up to project end date. The cost forecast compared to the cost plan or the cost base plan (reference plan) allows deviati ons to be noted quickly and is there-fore a useful tool for evaluati ng project progress.
Cost management on a multi-project level
Quick identi fi cati on of major plan
deviati ons
3Plan. Decide. Succeed.
KLUSa
Project Cost-Management
Data Sheet
KLUSA includes the module Management. In this module, various graphical and tabular evaluati ons are available to the project management offi ce / management team:
Management dashboard: Projects, which devia-ti ons exceed a specifi ed limit of variance between planned and actual values, are listed here.
Allocati on of costs to projects: Oft en, details of where the money has really gone are missing. Which cost centers caused which costs? How are the costs allocated to customer projects? How many small, medium and large projects are run-ning, and what plan costs are esti mated for this? KLUSA provides an overview to answer these
questi ons on a mouse click. In all views, tables and charts a drill-down functi on is available. Clicking on an area of a pie chart brings up a list of the relevant projects. A further click takes the user to the cost overview of the individual project.
Illustrati on of cost distributi on by various criteria
Project overview with aggregati on of cost data
4Plan. Decide. Succeed.
KLUSa
Project Cost-Management
Data Sheet
Cost overview of a group of projects: Cost center responsibles, the project management offi ce or executi ve management in the company oft en re-quire an overview of what share of the budget has been consumed, what actual costs have been ac-crued so far in a cost center, and other similar questi ons. KLUSA also formats this data in a clear
manner. These overviews are available by limiti ng the projects to be viewed according to defi nable criteria. The evaluati ons can span enti re project durati ons or be restricted to chronological periods (quarters, business years).
KLUSA connectors, reports and data exportsKLUSA can be easily integrated with standard tools in most customers‘ system and process land-scapes. ERP SyncManager: KLUSA off ers both offl ine and online connectors to ERP systems, namely SAP®. This allows cost and other data to be synchro-nized. A typical scenario is the creati on of planned costs in KLUSA and generati on of actual data in SAP. KLUSA can import the costs from SAP and al-locate them to projects. In this way, all data is available in KLUSA for plan vs. actual cost com-parisons and other analyses. KLUSA reports: Cost data can be exported in vari-ous reports through the fl exible KLUSA report generator. KLUSA supports HTML, PDF and Micro-soft Offi ce formats (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).
This means that preparati on of reports and pres-entati ons are no longer a ti me-consuming proc-ess.KLUSA Exports: KLUSA provides all cost data for further processing in other systems. For example, Excel raw data exports are available. Another pos-sibility is to make the data available through KLUSA web services. This allows secure and pro-tected access to data by other systems like a busi-ness data warehouse.
5Plan. Decide. Succeed.
KLUSa
Project Cost-Management
Data Sheet
Benefits of KLUSA project management solutionThe goals in developing KLUSA Cost Management are simplicity and clarity. KLUSA provides simple operability, functi onality and informati on for eve-ry user depending on their specifi c role and area of responsibility. KLUSA’s ease of operati on in-creases acceptance among users.For the project manager, cost management is transformed from a disliked obligati on into a clear and powerful control tool for their project. The project offi ce can detect deviati ons early and react immediately. Reports can be quickly gener-ated for management with the aid of tools. The data is compiled online and in real-ti me – without long delays.
In accounti ng and controlling, data from KLUSA can be directly integrated into the processes used. The monthly closing or fi nancial year closing for project costs can be signifi cantly sped up and the frequency of errors drasti cally reduced using the available KLUSA methods and synchronizati on tools. Cost management is a core component of KLUSA. This takes into account the importance of projects especially in companies where successful project management is a criti cal business factor.
