| Glossary for Project |  |
| activity The smallest part of the activity structure used for a time-scaled budget. An entity that is used to represent a part of a project in an activity structure. ERP LN distinguishes the following activity types: WBS Element Project Cost Account Work Package Planning Package Milestone activity/activity budget The project budget is an activity budget with the budget control on the activity budget. This means that an activity structure must be filled and that the planning can be used. activity budget An activity budget functions in more or less the same way as an element budget whose budget method depends on the way you structure your project. Advantages of an activity budget over an element budget are: An activity budget is defined on a time horizon. You can use an activity budget for planning purposes in external scheduling packages. You can copy an activity budget to a top-down budget, and use earned value methods to measure project performance. You can either create activity budget lines in ERP LN or in external scheduling packages. activity progress The progress of an activity. ERP LN distinguishes two types of activity progress: Physical progress Schedule (time/duration) progress activity relationship Activities are sequenced with respect to work and specific dates to provide realistic schedules. An activity relationship indicates that a certain activity (successor) cannot start or end until another activity (predecessor) starts or ends. You can define the following dependencies between the predecessor and the successor activities: Finish-to-Start The initiation of the task of the successor depends upon the completion of the task of the predecessor Finish-to-Finish The completion of the task of the successor depends upon the completion of the task of the predecessor Start-to-Start The initiation of the task of the successor depends upon the initiation of the task of the predecessor. Start-to-Finish The completion of the task of the successor depends upon the initiation of the task of the predecessor. activity structure A hierarchical structure that organizes and defines the total scope of the project. Each level represents an increasingly detailed definition of a work project. In contrast to the element structure, the activity structure is activity time oriented. actual cost of work performed The costs incurred to accomplish the work performed within a given period. Abbreviation: ACWP ACWP See: actual cost of work performed adjustment In ERP LN, a modification to a frozen bottom-up budget. Modification will only increase or decrease the budget, for extensions the contract is also changed. advance payment request A way to efficiently manage your cash flow by requesting to pay an agreed amount before the project or a specific part of the project starts. The advance payment will be settled with the final invoice. For example, you can select a project and request an advance payment for certain project materials. The advance can be linked to an installment. For unit rate and cost-plus invoices, the advance payment request is settled with the next invoice(s). agreement type A lumpsum contract or a reimbursable contract. In a reimbursable contract the customer agrees to pay all acceptable costs up to a fixed fee. apportion To make a proportionate division or distribution for the earned value. When activity Y is apportioned to activity X, the earned value method of Y and X is the same. Y will copy X. X can have any earned value method. archived projects Projects that are stored in an archive company. The project archive company can be used as a repository for historical project data. assemble-to-order An environment where a product or service can be assembled after receipt of a customer's order. Abbreviation: ATO assembly order An order to assemble a product on one or more assembly lines. ATO See: assemble-to-order available-to-promise A calculation that determines how many products are available (to sell or consume in a project) at a certain moment in the future. BAC See: budget-at-completion baseline (planning) The baseline can be seen as a snapshot of the active plan's scheduled activities' start data and finish data. BCWP See: budgeted costs of work performed BCWP - ACWP See: cost variance BCWP - BCWS See: schedule variance BCWS See: budgeted costs of work scheduled bill of material A listing of all subassemblies, intermediates, parts, and raw materials that go into the parent assembly. The bill lists the quantity and costs of each component. Synonym: BOM BOM See: bill of material bottom-up budget This budget method defines all work that must be accomplished to complete the budget. A bottom-up budget is made for elements or activities. budget-at-completion The total budget amount of the finished activity or OBS element. Abbreviation: BAC budget cost analysis An analysis of the bottom-up budget. You can run several cost analyses for the same budget. Each budget is stored with a combined project code and budget cost-analysis code, so you can compare the budgets. budget cost analysis codes by project Codes by which amounts and time quantities of budget lines are calculated for budget cost analysis. budget date The date of a budget line. This date is used for: Currency conversions that relate to the project. A currency conversion is date-effective. The budget date determines which currency rate is used. Prices. These can be date-effective as well. The budget line's of a bottom-up date determines the price of the cost object. budgeted costs of work performed The sum of the budgets for completed work packages. The work package or project cost account can be finished or partially completed. Abbreviation: BCWP See: earned value concept budgeted costs of work scheduled The sum of the budgets for all the work scheduled to be accomplished within a given period. Abbreviation: BCWS budgeting method The way to measure expected productivity. ERP LN distinguishes the following two methods in the bottom-up budget: Production Rate: the number of production units produced per unit of time. Labor Norms: the number of hours required to carry out one unit of the cost object. budget labor-rate search path A search path that determines which cost and labor sales rates from which sessions are used in labor budget lines: labor, trade group, or project. The default labor rate that is used is defined as the level 1 labor rate. If this is not available, level 2 is used, and if this is not available, level 3 is used. budget line The most detailed level of a bottom-up budget. The elements or activities in a budget can contain an unlimited number of budget lines. Each budget line includes a quantity of a cost object, a cost component to which the cost object is assigned, and a budget date. budget-line status The status of the budget line. The status defaults from the element or activity to which it belongs. ERP LN distinguishes the following statuses: Free: the general data for a budget line has been recorded, and can be changed. Actual: you can still change the budget data and generate the control data. You can also log the budget history. Final: you cannot change the budget data anymore. You can only add or change the budget lines through a budget adjustment. You can also log the actual budget history. budget status The budget status of an element or activity. ERP LN distinguishes the following statuses: Free: you can enter and change budget lines. Actual: you can change the budget data and the budget lines. In addition, you can generate the control data in the Project Progress module. You can log the actual budget history. Final: you cannot change the budget data without using budget adjustments. business sector An area of commercial endeavor. Projects can be categorized according to the business sector to which they refer. calendar file A file containing calendar information for one or more calendars. capital project A project used for internal use in which deliverables can be booked as fixed assets but delivery of goods is not possible. In a capital project, you are the business partner. categories A user-definable classification for projects. COGS See: cost of goods sold commitment A financial obligation that represents future costs. contract amount The total amount of the project contract. For a time-phased budget version, the contract amount is expressed as follows:
    contract amount = profit fee + management reserve + distributed budget + undistr. budget
The contract amount is used to determine the invoice limit. contract subamount The contract amount relating to a particular business partner that is broken down into subamounts expressed in different currencies. control code A common parent cost-object level, a level above the special cost object. A control code is used for control purposes. For analysis, you can group cost objects of the same cost type under a control code. If you use a cost object to categorize a group of cost objects, it can be its own control code. You cannot have more than one control code in a tree. This is used for the frozen bottom-up budget. control data Data that is used to monitor a project. cost component A cost component is a collection of cost objects with a certain characteristic. A cost component does not depend on the cost type, therefore, for example, a project can be monitored from another dimension. For example, all the costs that refer to electrical work, for example, cable and installation work, are visible if the applicable cost objects are linked to the cost component Electrical work. cost control The method that ERP LN uses to control project costs. Cost control involves: Recording actual costs against the expected costs entered in the budget. Reporting on any differences between budget, forecast, recorded costs and progress. If an element or activity uses cost control, the expected costs of the individual element as entered in the project budget are carried over to the control budget. If an element or activity does not use cost control, its budgeted costs are aggregated to the next, higher-level element in the budget structure for which cost control is applied. cost-control periods In this period project-related costs and revenues are booked. cost item An administrative item that represents certain expenses. The item is not a physical product and cannot be handled logistically. cost object A type of cost carrier for the resources used in your project. The following cost objects are available: Material Labor Equipment Subcontracting Sundry Costs Cost objects can be standard or specific for a project. The cost object is related to a control code for cost controlling purposes. cost of goods sold The expense a company incurs in order to manufacture, create, or sell a product. It includes the purchase price of the raw material as well as the expenses of turning it into a product. Abbreviation: COGS cost performance index A measure of cost efficiency on a project. The cost performance index is determined by measuring the ratio of earned value (EV) to actual costs (AC):
    CPI = EV / AC
If the result is less than 1.0, cost is greater than budgeted. If the result is greater than 1.0, cost is less than budgeted. Example
EV | PV | AC | CPI | SPI
270 | 335 | 250 | 1.08 | 0.81
Abbreviation: CPI See: schedule performance index See: earned value concept cost plus contract A contract based on calculation of time and material after parts of the project are finished. Agreement on prices and labor is made before the project starts. cost-plus contract A contract that is carried out based on cost reimbursement and a profit percentage. cost price The cost object's cost price. cost type A way of categorizing cost objects and control codes according to the nature of the costs that they represent. ERP LN Project distinguishes five cost types: Materials Labor Equipment Subcontracting Sundry Costs cost variance Any difference between the estimated cost of an activity and the actual cost of that activity. Synonym: BCWP - ACWP CPI See: cost performance index destination warehouse The default project warehouse to which goods are sent before they are used in the project. discrete lines Bottom-up estimate lines that are not attached to any primary structure element. distributed budget The top-down budget part that is distributed across the activities. You can look at a distributed budget on various levels: For activities: the distributed budget equals the budget that is already distributed to the lower level activities. For the version: the distributed budget equals the budget assigned to the top activity of the activity structure. This can at most be equal to the sum of the contract amount minus profit fee minus management reserve document types A user-definable classification of project-related documents. EAC See: estimate-at-completion earned value concept A time-phased method for measuring project performance. It compares the amount of work that was planned with work that was actually accomplished to determine if cost and schedule performance are as planned. There are a number of different ways in which you can use the earned value method to determine how budget amounts are to be earned: Milestones Milestones are attached to the activity and a percentage or amount of the budget is assigned to each milestone. When you reach a milestone, the assigned budget is earned. Start and End Percentage Percentage values are assigned to the start and end points of the activities. In other words, the start percentage is earned when the activity starts and the remaining percentage is earned when the activity is completed. Percentage Completed Budget amounts are earned in proportion to the percentage progress of the activity Level of Effort Budget amounts are released in proportion to effort. This method is appropriate for time-driven activities where it is assumed that there will be no discrepancy between scheduled work planned (BCWS) and work performed (BCWP). Apportioned Apportioned efforts are those which have an intrinsic performance relationship to some other discrete activity. Budget amounts are earned in the same way as for the linked charge. element The smallest part of an element structure. An element is used to define the (structure of the) work of the project, so that you can carry it out. element/activity budget The project budget is an element budget, which is linked to activities in order to create a control budget. This means an element and activity structure must be filled and that the planning can be used. element/element budget The project budget is an element budget with the budget control on the elements. This means that an element structure must be filled but that planning cannot be used. element budget The bottom-up budget or control budget that consists of elements. The alternative is an activity budget. The elements can be related in a multilevel hierarchical structure, and each element can contain cost-object budget lines. The advantage of an element budget over an activity budget is: Multiple parents makes budgeting easy for repeating work. With the use of frequencies calculation of amounts needed of one element is faster and easier. element relations The way to determine the positioning of elements in comparison to other elements. Element relations are the basis of a layered (multilevel) element budget. The elements can also be linked to activities, a relation that is used when you generate control data for an element/activity budget. Elements use frequency as a tool to calculate element amounts fast and can have a multiparent structure. element structure The multilevel, multiparent, hierarchical tree-like structure of elements that can be the basis of a budget. element type A way to distinguish project elements. A project with a Progress Invoice invoicing method can contain two types of elements: direct and indirect. If the progress is more than 100%, direct elements can have more than 100% progress. Indirect elements can never have more than 100% progress. equipment A cost type that is required for resources, which is not consumed while the project is carried out. Examples of equipment are machinery and tools. equipment group A special equipment cost object that acts as a grouping cost object to other equipment cost objects. This is a useful way of grouping together similar equipment cost objects. ERP Configurator's ATO template This template is used to configure a product that can be assembled in a mix-model flow according to an engineering model or a process model. The template also includes a final assembly schedule. ERP Configurator's MTO template This template is used to configure a product that can be produced. The template configures items, bills of materials, and routings based on a generic product structure. estimate-at-completion The forecasted total cost of a project, activity, or organization-breakdown-structure element when the defined scope of work is completed. To calculate the estimate-at-completion: Actual costs + ETC Abbreviation: EAC estimate line A detailed estimate breakup. For example, if you require item A for the estimate, you enter this item with its specifications on the estimate line. estimate-to-complete A realistic forecast appraisal of the remaining work. Abbreviation: ETC estimate type The way in which the calculation of the estimate is performed. An estimate type is either top down or bottom up. Top Down In calculating the cost or sales amount in a top-down structure, you distribute a top amount to the lower level elements. Bottom Up In calculating the cost or sales amount in a bottom-up structure, you enter exact amounts for lowest level elements and aggregate them to make the top amount. estimate version A means to compare estimates. An estimate can have various versions. Each version is stand-alone and is not derived from the previous version. A version can, however, be copied or compared. ETC See: estimate-to-complete exchange-rate type A way to group currency exchange rates. You can assign different currency exchange rates to different invoice-to business partners and/or to different types of transactions (purchase, sales, and so on). expense tax An internal purchase cost that can be booked on a non-finalized project. The transaction costs are posted separately if direct delivery occurs. If a delivery is made through a project warehouse, the expense tax is included in the valuation price or fixed transfer price (FTP). extension The specific agreements within or in addition to the initial contract. An extension falls outside the initial contract with the sold-to business partner. Extensions can be assigned to the bottom-up budget. ERP LN distinguishes four extension types: Scope Change Provisional Amount Fluctuation Settlement Quantities to be Settled financial result status A way to characterize the project's financial results. ERP LN distinguishes three different financial result statuses: Free This status applies until the project is finished. Determine Result If the project status is Finished, you can select this financial result status. Result Determined The final result is determined and the project status is changed to Closed. fixed-price contract A contract that is carried out for an agreed fixed price, also called a lump sum. flow shop A type of manufacturing organization in which machines and operators handle a standard, usually uninterrupted, material flow. A flow shop is a mass-production shop and has a continuous manufacturing layout. fluctuation settlement An extension type. The settlement of the price fluctuations' influence for invoicing purposes. You cannot define this extension type for Cost Plus projects and for projects with Invoicing Method set to Unit Rate. general data Data that is not project specific. This data includes generic information on business partners, countries, elements, and so on. You can either enter this data in the Project Definition or in ERP LN Common. general project data Data that is project specific. For example: Project cost object Project definition Project wage rates Enter this data in the Project Definition module. holdback A percentage amount that the customer withholds from the contract amount. This serves as a guarantee that all activities are performed, and that contractual obligations are met. In other words the holdback amount is paid after the project activities have been satisfactorily performed. hours-control periods ERP LN uses hours control periods. ERP LN uses hours control periods to: Carry out periodic control of labor hours Realize hours accounting Process wages and salaries independent multi currency This approach is required for companies that work in high-inflation countries. installment The amount invoiced to the customer when a project completes its corresponding element/activity or reaches a milestone or progress of elements/activities. interim financial results The temporary financial result that you can consult while you carry out the project and which you can transfer to the profit and loss account. Two interim result types exist: Interim Result Costs: transactions associated with costs. Interim Result Revenues: transactions associated with revenues. internal project A type of project for which no sold-to business partners are defined and no invoicing is performed. The delivery of items does not apply. An internal project can optionally be capitalized, the value can be sent to the Fixed Assets module in Financials. ERP LN distinguishes two project types: A capital project: deliverables can be booked as fixed assets, delivery of goods is not possible. An internal project: cannot be booked on the balance, and delivery of goods is not possible. The result is only visible in the profit and loss account. invoice type The way to calculate project invoices for a given contract type. The method determines when to issue invoices to the sold-to business partner. ERP LN distinguishes the following invoice methods: Cost Plus The amount is based on the financial amounts entered at cost object level plus a profit. This method is only available if the contract type is cost plus. Unit Rate The amount is based on the financial amounts per unit entered at element or activity level. Unit-rate invoicing applies to both contract types. Installment Invoicing: the amount is a subdivision of the value. This method is only available if the contract type is fixed price. Progress Invoice The invoice amount is based on progress for element or activity. Two types of elements are allowed: direct and indirect. The calculated amount of the direct elements depends on their own progress. The calculated amount of the indirect elements is based on the progress of the project as a whole and can never be more than 100%. invoicing method This method is only used for contract projects to invoice to FinancialsCapital projects have no invoicing. Sales order projects use Sales Invoicing for invoicing. labor A specific task. You can use labor codes to control the costs of a labor code or of a group of labor codes. labor rate for hours registration search path This search path determines which cost and labor sales rates are used in hours registration. The search path consists of four levels, each of which you can set to one of the following: Employee Labor Project Trade Group The default labor rate used, is level 1. If this level has no entry available, level 2 is used, and so on. landed The cost amount plus surcharges. launch To copy an estimate version to a project budget. The version estimate lines are copied to project budget lines. leading estimate type The estimate type of the structural element. If the leading estimate type is bottom up, ERP LN calculates the total leading estimate type (LET) amount by summing up the estimate line amounts with the same level type. If the leading estimate type for the top structural element is top down, the total LET is the structural element amount that is defined as top down. Top-down structural elements are only checked to see whether the estimate amounts do not exceed their parent’s amount; they are not actually used for the total estimate. Acronym: LET leaf node The last particle of a structure. If a child is added to the leaf node in the structure, the leaf node becomes a parent and is called a node. LET See: leading estimate type level of effort A budgeting method in which budget amounts are released in proportion to effort. This method is appropriate for time-driven activities where it is assumed that there is no discrepancy between work planned and work performed. level type An estimate type category that determines which estimate lines are used in aggregating totals. make-to-order A production environment where a product or service can be made after receipt of a customer's order. The final product is usually a combination of standard items and items custom-designed to meet the special needs of the customer. Abbreviation: MTO management reserve A contingency fund for unanticipated occurrences, which reduces the risk of scope changes. In a time-phased budget version, this is the amount that is withheld for control purposes rather than distributed to the activity structure or retained for profit. Management reserve is expressed as follows:
    management reserve = contract amount - profit fee + distributed budget + undistr. budget
milestone An activity of zero days that usually represents a significant event in the project. In many cases the completion of a phase of major deliverable. Milestones can be used for the moment of invoicing and the calculation of earned value. mixed model flow A type of flow shop in which two or more different products are assembled with relative small changes over time and set-up times. The product sequence can vary, for example, A-A-B-C-A-C-B-B-C-A, and so on. MTO See: make-to-order norm The number of hours required to carry out one unit of labor. Used in an activity budget with cost type Labor, Equipment, or SubcontractingNumber of hours = the number of labor units x norm This norm is useful in situations where the unit of measure for the labor cost object is not a time unit. OBS See: organization breakdown structure order lead time The time required to obtain a purchased item, subcontract a service, or rent a piece of equipment. This time includes order document preparation, sourcing, and supplier lead time. organization breakdown structure A representation of the structure of a project organization, this is usually depicted as a tree-like hierarchical structure. The organization breakdown structure is used to link the responsibilities of certain project parts, such as the allocation of a financial budget or the realization of project activities to an OBS element. Each OBS element can be linked to an employee. The OBS element is standard and can also be made project specific. Synonym: OBS percentage completed An earned value method in which time-phased budget amounts are released in proportion to the progress of the project in terms of percentage. performed The budgeted costs according to the progress at the end of the current period. In most cases, ERP LN calculates the performed as follows: performed = budgeted amount * progress phase In Project, a user-defined project subdivision. Typically, a phase consists of a number of project activities leading to a deliverable. physical progress The progress in amounts. This is different from percentage completion, which is the progress in time. plan Specifies the activity structure, the schedule, and the start and end dates. You can maintain alternative plans for a single project. The active plan is the one you actually use to track progress. planned invoice dates The date on which you intend to print an invoice and send it to the customer. planner The person or organizational unit associated with a particular project plan. planning package A type of activity. Planning packages are identified during planning to time phase major activities within a project cost account. You cannot book costs on this activity type. posting types An indication of the entry origin or how the entry is posted to FinancialsRead for entry: transaction, revenue, order, and costs, and so on. price policy You can use the price policy to calculate the equipment, item and subcontracting cost price or the purchase price. The sundry costs cost object does not use this policy and labor has its own price search path. primary structure The only structure, linked to the estimate version, that can be used to calculate the estimate. This structure is used to check the top-down constraints (if any). The primary structure is one of two structures that you can use to sort estimate lines. Alternatively, you can use the sort structure to sort estimate lines. production progress The (part of) the project or resource that is completed or used. profit fee In a time-phased budget version, the profit retained by the company that performs the project. The profit fee is expressed as follows:
    profit fee = contract amount - management reserve + distributed budget +	undistr. budget
progress The process by which an element or activity is completed over the lifetime of the project. Progress can be recorded at cost type, cost object, or at control code level. progress invoice An invoicing method based on progress for elements and activities. The difference with unit rate is twofold. Unit rate has: Invoices through installments. Invoices settled with the contract amount. progress motivation lines A line or specification in progress-based invoicing. Motivation lines or specifications form the basis for an installment. Motivation lines or specifications contain all the billable amounts and quantities. progress results The output from progress registration while a project is in progress. You can switch interim results on or off by project or by cost object within a project. If you switch it off, you can only report completed. project An endeavor with a specific objective to be met within the prescribed time and financial limitation, and that has been assigned for definition or execution. project budget The budget you work in. Control budget is the frozen budget where progress registration, customer invoicing, cost control, and input for project requirements planning are found. The purchase budget is also derived from the project budget. project cost account The only type of activity that can be linked to an organization breakdown structure. At this level functional responsibility for work and costs can be assigned. You can detail short-span jobs in project cost accounts and use it for the execution of a project. project currency If the project is performed in another country, the project currency is useful for monitoring. This currency can be an external currency that is not specified as one of the home currencies. project deliverable A tangible or intangible item that is produced or purchased as a result of a project. A project deliverable is intended to be shipped to an internal or external customer. project status The way to characterize a project. ERP LN distinguishes the following statuses: Free A project definition has been recorded, but the project has not yet been executed. Changes are still possible. Active During the execution of a project you can release, purchase, and register cost transactions. Finished The project is completed but it has not (yet) been financially closed. You can still register cost transactions. Actual purchase orders cannot be present for the project. Closed The project has been financially closed, the project definition can no longer be changed. project type A way to characterize projects. A project can have one of the following types: Main Project: the project structure is composed of subprojects Subproject: the project is a subproject to a main project Single Project: the project is a stand-alone project and is not part of a main project/subproject structure project warehouse A warehouse that only stores goods that are used for projects. In contradiction to a normal warehouse goods are administrated for a project and its details. The goods in the default project warehouse represent inventory value. The inventory value of a project warehouse is not part of the project costs. When the goods are transferred to the project, they add to the project costs. A project warehouse can be used by one or more projects. project WIP warehouse A warehouse at which logistical transactions occur, but on which no integrations are logged. In project terms, it is as good as a project site in financial terms. In Warehousing, the warehouse type must be Project and the Project WIP Warehouse field must be selected. provisional amount An extension type that you must use if you are not sure of a certain part of the project costs when you develop your project. Settle the differences with the provisional-amounts budget and the actual costs at a later stage.: Example You are building a house with a standard kitchen costing $ 10,000, which is the provisional amount. When the house is almost finished, the customer determines on a more expensive kitchen, which brings the actual costs to $ 12,000. The customer is invoiced for the extra costs of $ 2,000. purchase budget A budget which defines a particular demand on a more detailed level than defined in the bottom-up budget. You can also use this to purchase cost objects with a manual order system. purchase budget lines A set of budget lines selected from the project budget to buy certain cost objects that are needed to carry out a project. purchase contract An agreement with a supplier for the supply of goods or services. purchase price The price at which you buy cost objects expressed in the currency in which you bought them. quantities-to-be-settled An extension type, which enables you to invoice the difference between the budgeted quantity and the actual quantity for a range of cost objects. Use this type when you are unsure of the quantities that you will spend in the project. requirements list The relation that a project has to sales-order lines or sales-quotation lines. The requirement list is created in Project and triggers the supply chain of order processes. requirements planning A ERP LN package that plans the orders and transfers them to other ERP LN packages to fulfill the project requirements. In the planning you can generate: A project requirement plan to procure material, equipment, and subcontracting, or to collect materials from warehouses A requirement list used for manufactured items produced on order resource-limited scheduling A scheduling method in which you cannot overload your resources. This method is prone to project delay. responsibility A liability on an individual or groups to perform assigned actions. revenue code A way to categorize invoiced amounts of the same invoice type in order to analyze revenue history. revenue recognition For a given contract, revenue recognition is the process that leads to the calculation (and subsequent posting to the General Ledger) of the total revenue that is estimated to have been ‘earned’, on the basis of the progress of the contract. routing operation A routing line that specifies the work center, the duration, and setup times of a Manufacturing task. sales-order project A type of project for which the invoicing and the delivery of goods is carried out in the Sales Control module of Order ManagementA sales order project is mostly used for product-based projects and is generated from sales orders. sales rate The price or rate of cost objects, elements or activities, at which you sell, that are used for your project. schedule performance index A measure of schedule efficiency on a project. The schedule performance index is determined by measuring the ratio of earned value (EV) to planned value (PV):
    SPI = EV / PV
If the result is less than 1.0, the project is behind schedule. If the result is greater than 1.0, the project is ahead of schedule. Example
EV | PV | AC | CPI | SPI
270 | 335 | 250 | 1.08 | 0.81
Abbreviation: SPI See: cost performance index See: earned value concept schedule variance Any difference between the scheduled completion of an activity and the actual completion of that activity. Synonym: BCWP - BCWS scope change Any change to the project scope. A scope change almost always requires an adjustment to the project cost or schedule. A scope change results in more or in less work to be invoiced. search key An alternative form of a description used for convenience during searching. Typically, it is an abbreviation, an acronym, or a mnemonic alternative to a full description. sort structure A structure that you can use to sort the estimate lines if the amount of estimate lines requires sorting. SPI See: schedule performance index start and end date percentage An earned value method in which percentages are assigned to the start and end of the activities. In other words, at the start of the activity, it is assumed that a particular percentage of the project is completed. Consequently, time-phased budget amounts are released based on these percentages. structural element A generic term for a project estimate structure element that can have a number of structure types, such as a project element, activity, cost type, an organization breakdown structure element, or an element of a reporting structure. A primary structure element is part of the primary structure that is linked to the estimate version. subcontracting A type of cost object representing services purchased from a third party for use in a project. sufferance tax A tax or levy that is payable to a local or municipal authority to compensate for a disruption caused for the duration of a project. For example, a compensation for removing a sidewalk or part of a street to install the water pipes or sewer while constructing a high-rise apartment building. sundry costs Indirect cost and costs that do not belong to other cost types are booked as sundry costs, for example, insurance costs. surcharge A means of defining indirect project costs. Typically, surcharges are used to cover general overhead costs, including storage, handling, and maintenance costs, management overheads and so on. Surcharges are calculated as a percentage of direct costs and are posted to a sundry-cost object. Surcharges can be calculated based on costs, budgets and revenues. templates for projects A user-friendly way to define a project. terms of payment The average number of days from the date on which goods or services are ordered and the date on which they are paid. third party A person or organization with an indirect or noncontractual interest in a project, for example,: a government body or regulatory agency. time-limited scheduling A planning that implies that you cannot delay the project past its current finish date, even if this means overloading your resource. time-phased budget A type of budget that is phased and spread out over a period of time. In ERP LN there are various ways to plan the activities and look at the earned value. The earned value method determines how the budget amounts are released and how the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) is calculated. top-down budget A budget method that distributes the exacted project amount across the project structure from top to bottom. This budget method is used to time-phase the available budget amount across activities. Top-down budgeting supports different earned value methods. top-down budget version A version is made to be able to track changes in the course of a project budget. More than one version can be defined for a top-down budget to support a long-term project. One version of the top-down budget will be actual. A version can be closed, which means that no changes can be made to the version data. top element The highest element in the multilevel hierarchy of an element structure. The top element is used in the project definition to link the element structure to the project. trade group A group of resources with common skills that can be used for a particular labor cost object. If you cannot yet make detailed assignments for employees, you can use trade groups for scheduling. transaction date The date on which the planned order was last changed. undistributed budget The project-budget part that is not yet distributed across the elements. You can look at an undistributed budget on various levels: For activities: the undistributed budget equals the budget amount minus distributed budget For the version: the undistributed budget equals the contract amount minus profit fee minus management reserve minus distributed budget unit of measure The unit of measure for the cost object. This unit can affect how budget line quantities are calculated. unit rate An invoicing method based on the progress and element or activity sales rate per unit. Invoices are booked against the contract amount with installments. User Defined A filtering status that determines whether sales or cost line amounts are used in the calculation of the estimate totals, and whether the line is included in the scope of the estimate. WBS See: work breakdown structure WBS element A type of activity. Usually used to break down the project scope into smaller pieces. You can define work for a work-break-down structure element. You can aggregate the costs from project cost accounts or work packages. You cannot book costs on this activity type. WKA A Dutch law which dictates that a contractor is liable to pay for a subcontractor's taxes and social security contributions. work authorization status A formal authorization procedure to begin work on a specific activity. The process helps ensure that the authorized work is done at the right time and in proper sequence. Work authorization status can have the following values: Free Work is not authorized for execution. Released Work is sanctioned for execution. This status is allowed only for activities under a leading plan and for elements which are part of the leading structure. The parent activity/element and the activity type cannot be changed. On Hold Work is under execution and needs to be suspended due to some constraints. The parent activity/element and the activity type cannot be changed. Finished Work is executed. The parent activity/element and the activity type cannot be changed. Closed Work is completed and all related financial transactions are closed. The parent activity/element and the activity type cannot be changed. work breakdown structure The top layer of the activity structure. The WBS can consist of a hierarchy of activities of the WBS element type. Abbreviation: WBS work package A type of activity. You can detail short-span jobs in work packages and use it for the execution of a project. |