TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Actuals created and attached using the Scheduling Mode
- Actuals Created From Cirkus Tasks
- Actuals From All Other Sources
Actuals Created and Attached Using the Scheduling Mode
Bookings created by drag & drop through the Scheduling Mode, get automatically attached to the corresponding Budget line.
Once Bookings are added using the Scheduling Mode, the new Bookings get automatically attached to the corresponding Budget Detail. Use the Arrow icon to the left of the corresponding Budget Detail to expand or collapse the Actuals details.
If the Booking Global Status is not set to Confirmed, the Actuals will not be attached to the Budget lines. Only once they are Confirmed, they will appear in the Actuals pane at the bottom of the Budget window waiting to be attached to the corresponding Budget Detail.
Therefore IF you use a default PRELIMINARY Global Status, you can include "Preliminary" Bookings to the "Budget Actuals" view so they are auto attached when using the Scheduling Mode!
Booking Lines Attached To Budget Details
The orange and turquoise columns show the numbers for two different Time Report Modes:
- The To Date numbers (orange columns) are from the To Invoice / Used mode.
- The Forecast numbers (turquoise columns) are from the To Invoice / Used / Booked mode.
- The To Date holds the already used and time-reported Actuals, and the Forecast shows a projection of where the Actuals will end up if all time reports are filled out as Booked.
In this example, no Time Reports are filled out yet, so the To Date numbers are still 0.
Actuals Created From Cirkus Tasks
If you are using farmerswife with Cirkus integration, you may have configured your Cirkus Tasks to sync back to farmerswife Project: Objects, Services, or Extras. This configuration will create Actuals that will be seen in the main Project Window, and in the Actuals Pane of the Budgeting Window.
In the Budgeting Window, the Actual is listed on the Actuals Pane, with the Task information including Task Name, Task Number, and the synced Note.
Since 7.0 SP1, there is now a new Date column in the Actuals Pane giving more information on the Actuals that are coming through to your Budgets.
If you are already using Cirkus Integration, but would like to configure Cirkus Tasks to farmerswife Project Objects, Services or Extras, please see our Integration Article.
If you are not currently integrating Cirkus with farmerswife, please contact [email protected] for more information.
Actuals Created From All Other Sources
(Bookings, Media Orders, Work Orders, Project Objects, Extras, Time Reported Extras)
Actuals created in the traditional mode are added to the Actuals pane, at the bottom of the Budget window.
Manually Drag and Drop Actuals to a Budget Detail
Select the Actuals manually (by clicking on them) and drag & drop them onto the corresponding lines in the Budget:
Drag-and-drop Actuals onto Budget Details
The 'DigiBeta 6 min' Budget Detail now gets an arrow icon next to it, showing that it can be expanded. When clicking on this icon, the Actual is revealed with the To Date and Forecast columns now filled with the data from the Actual. It is now easy to see that 2 pieces of this material were budgeted, but only 1 has been used so far.
A Budget Detail with attached Actuals
As more time reports are filled in, the Actuals table gets more numbers in the To Date column.
Multi-Attach Actuals by selecting Accounts first
Another way of attaching Actuals is to type the appropriate account number in the Account (Entry) column, or choose an Account in the selector of the Account column:
To commit to attaching to the selected accounts, press the Attach Actuals button.
farmerswife will then pair up the Actuals and Budget Details by looking inside each of the specified Accounts and trying to match the Actuals with the same Object or Object Class in that Account, using the same Activity.
For example, if the Actual (in the Booking) is 'Flame 1' with Activity 'Compositing SD - Hour' and goes into Account '302 Online' where there is a Budget Detail with Object Class 'VFX' and Activity 'Compositing SD - Hour' in that Account, then it is a good guess that the Object will be attached to that Object Class Budget Detail.
Read more on Auto Assignment Steps and how they can help you when attaching Actuals.
Auto-suggesting Budgets for Actuals
At the top of the list of Actuals, there are two buttons that attach the Actuals to their selected/suggested Accounts. Until now, this would always attach to the currently viewed Budget, even if you had more than one Budget.
Now they can get attached to any of the Budgets. Which one an Actual attaches to, depends on the values in the new "Budget" column. Note: If you don't see it, try using "Edit View" and add the Budget column.
Attaching based on Binders
If a Budget is linked to a Binder, and an Actual is linked to the same Binder, it will automatically default to that Budget. But you can also change it manually.
Any Actuals that don't have a suggested Budget will default to the currently viewed Budget. This is indicated by an italic font in the "Budget" column.
When you link Budgets to Binders, and also link Actuals to Binders, the list of Actuals will automatically suggest any matching Budgets for when you attach the Actuals.
However, when a Budget was linked to a Binder but the Actual was linked to a Sub Binder within that Binder, it would previously not see it as a match. That is now changed, so it falls back on the Binder if there is no match using the Sub Binder.
Attach Actuals to Active Budget on Booking Creation
A convenient way to attach your booking actuals to the Budget immediately is to enable the below settings in Toolbox > Settings > Booking Defaults.
It works based on the "Auto-Assignment Steps". If there is no Auto-Assignment Step set for the Object, it will not be attached and will be added to the Actuals pane at the bottom of the Budget window.
Only Actuals can be attached to a Budget Detail: an Actual being what you have configured in the "Budget Actuals View" in fw Server > Setup > Projects > Project Views > Actuals.
You can choose between 3 options:
"Attach Actuals To Active Budget"
If this is enabled, when creating a new booking a pop up window will ask if to attach the actuals to an active budget or if you do not want to "allocate". If you choose a budget, then all objects that you add to this booking will be attached to the selected Active Budget, according to the Auto-Assignment Steps. This also later applies when adding/editing the Booking from Web Access tiers and through the Booking Time Report.
"Always Attach Actuals If There Is Only One Active Budget"
- If you have this enabled, It will not ask if there is only one active Budget but attach immediately. All objects added to any booking will be attached to the active Budget.
- This setting is only available if you have enabled the first one.
"Ask "Attach Actuals To Active Budget" Per Object"
- If you have this enabled a pop up window will be displayed each time you add an object to a booking.
- This setting is only available if you have enabled the first one and not enabled the second.
- If this setting is enabled the feature is only supported on Desktop Client. Changes and additions to Time Report of the booking through Web Access tiers are not attached.
When you have the setting "Attach Actuals To Active Budget" (In Toolbox > Settings > Booking Defaults) active, and you create a Booking in a way that automatically attaches it to an existing Budget Detail, it also attaches the Actual to any Price Agreement that is assigned on the Budget Detail and forwarded to the Final and Actual view.
These are per-user settings and are only accessible for users with "Can Edit Budget" enabled in their "Permission Profile".
This functionality works when creating a Booking:
- In the Hourline and in the Long Form (in any of the usual ways: drag and drop on the Hourline, any Long Form tree or from Toolbox > Objects or Object Classes);
- By dragging one or multiple Objects to an existing Booking, in the Hourline and in the Long Form;
- By booking an Object Class and selecting to allocate a Member;
- By adding an Object through the Involved pane in the Edit Booking window;
- And adding pre-defined services to a Booking.
NOTE: This functionality is NOT active when working in "Scheduling Mode".