Generate labor cost plans by individual resources based on Resource Assignments

[Vinay3]

Effective labour cost planning is crucial for accurate project budgeting and financial forecasting. In the new financials experience, ‘Role’, ‘Employee Type’ and ‘Expense Type’ are available out of the box as the financial planning attributes i.e. labor cost plans on work items will be generated for the unique combination of these attributes based on the resource assignments. However, customers can configure the attributes as per their organizational needs to track financials.

Detailed information on how to configure such attributes is available in this article - Configure financial planning attributes to categorise labor costs based on the Resource Assignments

A common ask from customers has been to be able to generate cost plans unique to each individual resource for detailed visibility of estimates based on the resource assignments in the new Resource Management capability.

If you are looking for granular cost plans closer to the labor cost plan generation in the classic experience based on the resource plans, this document outlines a step-by-step guide to generating labor cost plans specific to individual users. By following these steps, organizations can improve financial tracking, accountability, and decision-making in resource management.

Step 1: Add a New Reference Column to the cost plan table

Begin by adding a column of type ‘Reference’ that references the ‘sys_user’ table in the following table:

• Cost_plan

Step 2: Configure a New Planning Attribute

Next, add a planning attribute for user with the following configuration:

• Type: Resource
• Enable it for financials
• Mark the ‘Active’ checkbox

Update the planning attribute column configurations by pulling up the columns with ‘resource’ or ‘user’ values as shown below.

Step 3: Assign Resources to a Project

Proceed to add resource assignments to the relevant project. These assignments link specific users (resources) to the tasks or deliverables they are responsible for within the project.

Step 4: Generate Labor Costs

Finally, generate the labor costs. Once completed, you will observe that the system creates cost plans that are unique to each user. This level of granularity allows for detailed cost analysis and ensures that each individual's contribution is financially accounted for.

Implementing these steps enhances the precision of cost tracking and improves overall project financial transparency.

[Nootan Bhat]

Hi Vinay,
This makes sense for the customers who are using the classic RM and planning to migrate.

But, the scenario which I have tried is based on the Resource status. So as per the RMW, we can control which status to be excluded from the aggregate calculation using "Exclude Assignment States from Availability Calculation". So, if status may be unapproved, we can avoid the aggregates to be calculated.
However, the same is not applicable when calculating the Labor cost. Even if the assignment status is excluded, cost will still be calculated for this. Which will cause issue in the financial planning for the Stakeholder. 

Let me know your thought on this.

[Alex2506]

Hi @Vinay3 

Thanks for this, works really well. 

However, we've noticed that when we set this up - Group Resource Assignments also creates a Cost Plan for everyone in the group rather than just one for the group. Essentially this is what we're trying to achieve:

User Resource Assignment - generate unique cost plan per resource
Group Resource Assignment - generate cost plan per group only (not for everyone in the group)

Thank you!

[Vinay3]

Hi @Alex2506 , it is not possible to create one cost plan per group from group resource assignment while having 'resource' as a financial attribute.

The new labor costs generation logic looks at all the configured attributes and generates cost plans for the unique combination of the attributes. Users can use the 'group by' capability on the financials screen to group the cost plans by 'Group' attribute and see the cost of a specific group in the project.

[Alex2506]

Hi @Vinay3 
I think this is going to cause a lot of confusion in the cost plans. For example, you can see 6 Resource Assignments here for a group requiring 1 FTE. (5 members in the group)

But then it's created 5 Cost plans. Surely it would make more sense to create 1 Cost plan for that group only? 

[Vinay3]

Hi @Alex2506 , In the respective resource assignments by group, is the system automatically assigning resources?

In your example, for the 6 resource assignments created by groups, 5 cost plans will be created only if there are 5 unique resources assigned to the project from those respective group assignments. If the resource field is empty in those RAs, the system will only create one cost plan with a blank 'resource' field.

[Alex2506]

Hi @Vinay3  - The system has automatically assigned the resources in the assignments. I thought that was out of the box? As in, when you choose 'Group' resource assignment, a resource assignment will be created for every user that has that group as their primary resource group?