Project and Job Costing 5 - dgginc.com

.

Sage Accpac International, Inc. Confidential

SAGE ACCPAC

Sage Accpac ERP™

Project and Job Costing 5.5A Update Notice

PMUP‐ttl.doc, printed on 1/7/2008, at 6:26:23 PM. Last saved on 1/7/2008 6:22:00 PM.

Sage Accpac International, Inc. Confidential

©2008 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage Software, Sage Software logos, and all Sage Accpac product and service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc., or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Sage Software, Inc. Publisher No part of this documentation may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, microfilmed, or otherwise duplicated on any medium without written consent of Sage Software, Inc. Use of the software programs described herein and this documentation is subject to the Sage Software License Agreement enclosed in the software package.

Update Notice iii

Pmup.doc, printed on 3/5/2008, at 2:15:17 PM. Last saved on 3/5/2008 2:15:00 PM.

Sage Software Confidential

Contents

Project and Job Costing Documentation ............................................1 Installing Project and Job Costing 5.5 ...............................................2 Changes in Project and Job Costing 5.5A............................................2

Integration with Sage Accpac Order Entry ......................................4 Specify a Default Billing Rate for a Project...................................5 Specify a Default Cost for Miscellaneous Charges ............................5

Multiple Customers for Contracts and Projects ..................................6 New Options that Provide More Control and Greater Efficiency ..................9

Specify Default Posting Dates for Transactions...............................9 Recognize Only Billed Costs for Projects that Use Item Invoices ..............10 Choose Whether to Update Payroll Expense Accounts.......................10 Choose Whether to Update Budgets .......................................10

Billing Rates in Different Currencies...........................................11 Enhanced Billing Worksheet..................................................12 Enhanced Revenue Recognition and Reopen Projects Worksheets ................13 Improved Transaction Processing .............................................13

Use Separate Posting Dates and Document Dates in Transactions.............13 Edit the WIP Account for Projects that Use Item Invoices ....................14 Use Any Cost Type with Employee Expenses...............................14 Take Advantage of I/C Unit of Measure Conversion Factors..................14 Improved Material Estimates and Material Cost Processing ..................16

Integration with Serialized Inventory and Lot Tracking .........................17 Allocating Serial Numbers................................................18 Allocating Lot Numbers ..................................................21

Enhanced Reports ...........................................................25 Changes to Online Help......................................................26 Other Changes ..............................................................26

iv Sage Accpac Project and Job Costing



Changes in Project and Job Costing 5.4A .......................................... 27 Contract Maintenance ....................................................... 27

Project Maintenance ..................................................... 28 Category and Resource Maintenance ...................................... 29

New Cost Transaction Processing............................................. 30 Changes in Other Forms for Cost Transactions ............................. 30

Improved Material Tracking ................................................. 30 Material Usage and Material Returns...................................... 31 Opening Balances for Stored Material ..................................... 31

Enhanced Integration with Other Sage Accpac Programs ....................... 31 Integration with Accounts Receivable ..................................... 31 Integration with Accounts Payable ........................................ 32 Integration with General Ledger .......................................... 33 Payroll Integration ...................................................... 33

Faster and More Flexible Billing Worksheets................................... 33 Improved Revenue Recognition .............................................. 34 Closing / Reopening Projects ................................................. 35 Integrity Checker ........................................................... 35 Changes to Reports.......................................................... 35 Optional Fields ............................................................. 35 PJC Options ................................................................ 36 Post Transactions by Status Type ............................................. 36 Security .................................................................... 36

Update Notice 1



Project and Job Costing Version 5.5A Update Notice

This Update Notice outlines the improvements and new features in Sage Accpac Project and Job Costing version 5.5A.

Project and Job Costing Documentation The Sage Accpac ERP 5.5 DVD includes the following Project and Job Costing 5.5 documentation in the \DOCS folder:

• Project and Job Costing Update Notice.

• Project and Job Costing Getting Started.

• Project and Job Costing User Guide.

When you install Project and Job Costing, you also install the following documents in the \DOCS folder where Sage Accpac ERP programs are installed (for example, Software\Sage Accpac\DOCS \PM55AENG):

• Readme.wri — contains specialized information about the program.

• Technical Information.doc — describes database tables, and changes to the Project and Job Costing database or reports.

• PJC‐SETUP.pdf — is a checklist that lists the steps for setting up the Project and Job Costing program.

For a full description of all the documentation included with Project and Job Costing, refer to Chapter 1 of the Getting Started manual.

Installing Project and Job Costing 5.5

2 Sage Accpac Project and Job Costing



New program features

For information about the new features and other changes in Project and Job Costing 5.5, see the “Changes in Project and Job Costing,” sections, later in this notice.

Installing Project and Job Costing 5.5 Refer to the version 5.5 System Manager Update Notice for information about:

• System requirements.

• Compatibility with prior versions.

• Installation and activation instructions, including what you need to do before and after installation.

Note: Before you begin processing transactions in version 5.5, consider running the Convert To Stocking UOM macro to convert items used in contracts to the stocking unit of measure used in Inventory Control. (For more information, see “Take Advantage of I/C Unit of Measure Conversion Factors,” later in this notice.)

Changes in Project and Job Costing 5.5A Project and Job Costing 5.5A introduces many exciting new features. In summary, this version lets you:

• Assign different customers to projects in a contract.

• Invoice different customers than the project customer.

• Specify a posting date, in addition to the document date, for all transactions posted to General Ledger, and specify the type of date to use as the default in transaction entry forms.

Changes in Project and Job Costing 5.5A

Update Notice 3



• For projects that use item invoices (except those using the accrual‐basis accounting method), choose to recognize only costs that you have billed on a billing worksheet.

• Choose whether to use the expense accounts entered on employee timecards, or the accounts specified for the employee in Canadian or US Payroll, when you update payroll.

• Choose whether to update Budget Maintenance when you process transactions. (Processing is much faster if you do not update budgets!)

• Set up billing rates in a variety of currencies, if you use multicurrency in Project and Job Costing.

• Change the A/R account set used on invoices you generate for Accounts Receivable.

• Use I/C units of measure that are consistent with units of measure specified for an item in Inventory Control. Project and Job Costing converts quantities used in transactions you process in other Sage Accpac programs using the unit of measure conversion factor from the item record.

• Use Sage Accpac Serialized Inventory and Lot Tracking to track material transactions.

• Change the work in progress account in transactions for all projects that use an item invoice type.

• Use a price list when processing material usage and material return transactions.

• Use a price list when setting up revenue estimates for material on standard projects.

• Use the I/C cost for an item when setting up cost estimates for material on standard projects.

• Use non‐labor cost types when you process employee expenses on timecards.





In addition, Project and Job Costing version 5.5 is fully integrated with Sage Accpac Order Entry 5.5, and it now:

• Accepts costs from job‐related shipments that you post in Order Entry.

• Accepts new contracts and original estimates that you post with job‐related quotes in Order Entry.

The rest of this notice explains these new features in more detail.

Integration with Sage Accpac Order Entry

Project and Job Costing now integrates with Sage Accpac Order Entry.

When you enter a quote in Order Entry, you can now start the New Contract Wizard to create a new contract in Project and Job Costing. When you post the quote, Order Entry sends estimates of the quantity, total cost, and total revenue to Project and Job Costing. When you change the quote to Active and post it in Order Entry, Project and Job Costing changes the project status to Open.

Project and Job Costing also accepts costs from job‐related shipments that you post in Order Entry. For shipments that use project invoicing, Project and Job Costing handles the billing for the costs.

You can choose to post job‐related invoices in Order Entry for projects that use item invoicing (except for projects that use the completed project accounting method). When you post the invoices in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Receivable updates Project and Job Costing with the costs and billing information.

Two new options on the Project Maintenance form let you set a default method for calculating costs and billing amounts on job‐related documents you process in Order Entry:

• Default Billing Rate.

• O/E Miscellaneous Charges.


Update Notice 5



Specify a Default Billing Rate for a Project

The Project tab on the Project Maintenance form lets you specify a default billing rate for documents you process in Order Entry and for material usage and material returns transactions you process in Project and Job Costing.

For projects that use a billing rate (such as time and materials projects), you use the new Default Billing Rate option to select one of the following sources:

• Billing Rate. Select this option to use the billing rate specified for the project. (On a standard project, the billing rate is assigned to each material resource; on a basic project, the billing rate is assigned to the category.)

• Use Customer Price List. Select this option to use the price list for the specified customer to determine the billing rate.

• Use Specified Price List. Select this option to use a price list defined in Inventory Control. If you select this option, an additional new field appears that lets you enter the specific price list.

Specify a Default Cost for Miscellaneous Charges

A new option, O/E Miscellaneous Charges, lets you specify one of the following selections as the default cost for miscellaneous charges you process in Order Entry:

• Default Cost From Misc. Charges. If you select this option, the extended cost and extended amount specified in the miscellaneous charge setup record in Order Entry are used as defaults.

• Default Cost From Contract. If you select this option, the cost specified for the miscellaneous charge for the project category (on a basic project) or the resource category (on a standard project) is used as the default.





Decide Whether to Record Costs and Charges in Order Entry

You can now record job‐related non‐material costs in Order Entry as miscellaneous charges. Order Entry sends both cost and revenue amounts to Project and Job Costing.

You can also process job‐related item costs on sales orders in Order Entry, as well as on receipts in Purchase Orders.

Before processing miscellaneous charges in Order Entry, you should be aware that:

• There is a risk that you can record the same costs twice.

• There are some differences in the calculation of overhead for job‐related material costs you process in Order Entry and those you process in Purchase Orders.

Avoid processing the same costs twice!

To avoid double‐counting, you should establish guidelines on how to record job‐related miscellaneous charges and how to transfer item costs to projects.

Updating overhead and labor costs in Project and Job Costing

Project and Job Costing calculates overhead for job‐related purchase receipts and sales orders. For project categories that use the Percentage Of Cost overhead method, the calculations vary, depending on which program you use to process the costs:

• The costs of items you process in Purchase Orders do not include taxes. The associated overhead calculations are based on amounts excluding taxes.

• Order Entry, on the other hand, uses I/C item cost amounts, which include allocated taxes. Therefore, overhead calculations are based on amounts that include allocated taxes.

Multiple Customers for Contracts and Projects

New options on the Contract Maintenance form and the Project Maintenance form let you assign different customers to projects within a contract and bill different customers on a contract project.


Update Notice 7



• The new contract option, Allow Multiple Customers, lets you assign customers other than the contract customer to individual projects in a contract.

Project and Job Costing uses the contract customer as the default customer for new projects. However, you can change the customer for a particular project until you post an invoice for the project in Accounts Receivable.

In multicurrency ledgers, project customers can use different currencies than the contract customer. However, if you change the project customer after saving a project, the new customer must use the same currency as the original customer.

• The new contract option, Invoice To Multiple Customers, is a default setting for new projects.

• The new project option, Invoice To Multiple Customers, lets you post shipments in Order Entry and post invoices in Accounts Receivable for customers other than the project customer.

In multicurrency ledgers, the invoiced customer must use the same currency as the project customer.

Do not select the option if you want to allow billings only to the project customer.

The New Contract Wizard provides a new option, Default New Contract Customers To Projects, that lets you choose whether to copy project customers from the existing contract projects to the new projects.

• To ensure that all the projects on the new contract use the new contract customer, select the Default New Contract Customers To Projects on the Copy From tab of the New Contract Wizard.

• If you do not select the option, the new contract customer number is used only for the contract, and the new projects use the same customer numbers as the existing contract or template.





The Project Maintenance form also includes the following new fields that let you enter information for a different project customer:

• Customer and Description. Project and Job Costing displays the contract customer as the default project customer, and it displays the description from the Accounts Receivable customer record.

If you selected Allow Multiple Customers for the contract, you can change the customer, unless the contract is “internal,” that is, the contract customer is blank.

Type the customer number or use the Finder to select a different Accounts Receivable customer. You can change the project customer to any customer until you add categories to the project.

Once you add categories and save a project, you can change the customer only to another customer that uses the same currency as the original customer.

Once you post the first invoice for the project, you can no longer change the project customer.

• Contact Information. If you want to enter information for a contact person for the project, click the Zoom button beside this field. A separate form opens that lets you enter the name, position, two phone numbers, a fax number, and an e‐mail address for the contact.

• Customer Default. Project and Job Costing uses information from the Accounts Receivable customer record as defaults for a project, but you can change it. Click the Zoom button beside the Customer Default field to enter a different account set, retainage percentage, and retention period for the project.


Update Notice 9



• Tax Group. Project and Job Costing uses the tax group from the project customer’s Accounts Receivable record as the default tax group, but you can change the tax group for a project, if necessary.

Multicurrency ledgers

In a multicurrency system, project totals are shown in your functional currency and the project customer’s currency.

If all the projects in the contract use the same currency as the contract customer, contract totals are shown in both functional currency and customer currency. However, if you use a variety of currencies for your projects, contract totals are shown only in functional currency.

The Activity tab on the Project Maintenance form now displays expected billings, total customer receipts, and retainage receivable in the project customer’s currency.

New Options that Provide More Control and Greater Efficiency

In Version 5.5, the PJC Options form includes several new settings that permit even more control over processing functions in Project and Job Costing.

Specify Default Posting Dates for Transactions

The new Default Posting Date option on the Transactions tab lets you specify the type of date to use as the default posting date on transaction‐entry forms. (In version 5.5, each transaction uses separate document and posting dates.)

You can select Document/Transaction Date or Session Date as the default posting date.

You can change the posting date for particular transactions when you enter or edit them.





Recognize Only Billed Costs for Projects that Use Item Invoices

In previous versions, unless you generated a revenue recognition worksheet and a billing worksheet at the same time, it was possible to include costs on the revenue recognition worksheet that had not yet been billed.

A new option the Settings tab — Only Recognize Costs When Billed For Item Invoice Type Projects — ensures that when you recognize revenue for projects that use an item invoice type, only costs that you have invoiced using a billing worksheet are recognized.

If you select this option, when you recognize revenue for time and materials projects, or for fixed price projects that use the billings and costs accounting method and an item invoice type, revenue recognition includes only costs that are marked as billed.

Note: This option does not affect projects that use the accrual‐basis accounting method or projects that use a summary invoice type.

Choose Whether to Update Payroll Expense Accounts

The new Use Expense Accounts option on the Settings tab lets you choose whether to use the payroll expense account and the employee expense account from PJC timecards when you update payroll.

If you do not select this option, the timecards created in Canadian or US Payroll will use the accounts specified for the earning/deduction code in the payroll employee record.

You can change the accounts on individual timecards in Canadian or US Payroll, regardless of your selection for this option.

Choose Whether to Update Budgets

The new Update Budgets option lets you choose whether to update Actuals and Recognized budget sets in Budget Maintenance when you process transactions.


Update Notice 11



Project and Job Costing can process transactions much faster if it does not have to update the budget data each time, so select this option only if you use the Budget Maintenance feature.

Note: This option affects only budget sets set up in the Budget Maintenance form. Project and Job Costing continues to update the estimates, actuals, committed, recognized, and stored amounts you see on the Contract Maintenance form, regardless of your choice for this option.

If you select the option, later, Project and Job Costing updates the Actuals and Recognized budget sets for transactions you process subsequently. These budget sets will not reflect transactions you processed before turning the option on.

Billing Rates in Different Currencies

If you use multicurrency, you can now set up billing rates in a variety of currencies in the Categories, Employees, Equipment, Miscellaneous Expenses, Overhead Expenses, Subcontractors, and Charges setup forms.

Most setup forms now include a grid where you enter default billing rates in different currencies, as well as a default A/R item number, unit of measure, and unit cost to use for standard projects, as shown in the following example.





The Employees form and the Subcontractors form provide a separate tab to specify values for standard projects.

For basic projects, you specify billing rates for categories, rather than resources, so the Categories form provides a tab that lets you enter default billing rates, as well as the default A/R item number, unit of measure, and unit cost, for basic projects:

Enhanced Billing Worksheet

The Billing Worksheet form provides the following enhancements:

• You can now specify the A/R account set for invoices you send to Accounts Receivable. The account set used for a contract appears as the default for each invoice line on the billing worksheet, but you can change account sets on the worksheet.

• If you created invoices by contract, and there is more than one customer for the contract, the billing worksheet includes a separate line for each customer on the contract.

• A new form that opens from the Billing Worksheet lets you override the default posting date. (Project and Job Costing uses either the document/transaction date or the session date as the default posting date, depending on your selection on the PJC Options form.)


Update Notice 13



To open the Posting Date Override form, click the zoom button beside the Year/Period field.

Enhanced Revenue Recognition and Reopen Projects Worksheets

The Revenue Recognition Worksheet and the Reopen Projects Worksheet also let you open a separate form where you can override the default posting date, if you want to post the worksheet entries to a different year or period than the worksheet date.

To open the Posting Date Override form, click the zoom button beside the Year/Period field.

Improved Transaction Processing

Use Separate Posting Dates and Document Dates in Transactions

Consistent with changes in other Sage Accpac ERP modules, you can now specify a posting date, in addition to the transaction date, if you want to post a transaction to General Ledger using a different date than the date of the transaction.

Posting date determines Year/Period

Note: The posting date also determines the year and period to which a document is posted.

Project and Job Costing uses the Document/Transaction Date or Session Date as the default posting date, depending on your selection on the PJC Options form, but you can change the posting date for a transaction, until you post it.





Edit the WIP Account for Projects that Use Item Invoices

You can now edit the work in progress account in transactions for all projects that use an item invoice type.

Previously, you could change the work in progress account only for time and materials projects.

Use Any Cost Type with Employee Expenses

In previous versions, when you processed employee expenses, you could specify only categories that used a labor cost type, even if the expense code was for hotel expenses or airfare.

In version 5.5, the Timecards form lets you specify a category that uses any cost type, so you can classify employee expenses using categories that are consistent with the actual expense.

Take Advantage of I/C Unit of Measure Conversion Factors

In version 5.5, when you post job‐related material transactions in all Sage Accpac applications, Project and Job Costing converts the quantity used in the transaction to the unit of measure used for the specified project resource category. (To make the conversion, the program uses the conversion factor specified for the unit of measure in the item record in Inventory Control or in Purchase Orders, if you have a standalone Purchase Orders system.)

Note: You must post all cost transactions, and run Day End Processing before you can activate version 5.5.

Convert To Stocking UOM

Before you begin processing transactions using version 5.5, consider whether to run the Convert To Stocking UOM macro.

The Convert To Stocking UOM macro converts the I/C unit of measure for all items in contracts to the stocking unit of measure used for the item in Inventory Control.

If you posted material transactions consistently in previous versions of Project and Job Costing and Purchase Orders using the stocking


Update Notice 15



unit of measure, the macro will help you standardize the I/C unit of measure for project resource categories in Project and Job Costing, and will not distort quantities.

If you have been posting material transactions in units other than the stocking unit of measure, or in a variety of units of measure, using the macro will not be as helpful.

You can use the Transaction History form to verify the units of measure used in posted material transactions.

Using fractional quantities

If you do not use fractional quantities in Inventory Control (or in a standalone Purchase Orders system), you should convert all resource categories to the stocking unit of measure. Otherwise, if you post units of measure that are less than the I/C unit of measure used for a resource category, the quantities shown for the resource category in Contract Maintenance are rounded to a whole number and may be misleading. For example, if you post 5 “each” in Order Entry, but Project and Job Costing uses “dozen,” the quantity that appears for the resource category will be 0.

Note: In version 5.5, you cannot change the I/C unit of measure once you have opened a project.

Back up your data! Back up your Project and Job Costing data before you run the Convert To Stocking UOM macro.

To run the Convert To Stocking UOM macro from the Macro menu:

1. From the Macro menu, click Run.

The Run Macro dialog box appears.

2. From the Files Of Type list, select VBA Macro.

3. Select Convert_to_StockingUOM.avb, and then click Open.

4. In the dialog box that appears, specify the ranges of contracts, projects, and categories for which you want to convert I/C units of measure to stocking units of measure.





5. Click Start.

6. Click Close.

To check the changes to your data, see the text file C:\ConvertStockUOM.txt that the macro creates when you run it.

Improved Material Estimates and Material Cost Processing

In version 5.5, estimating and processing material costs and revenues for standard projects is now very convenient.

Estimating material costs

When entering a cost estimate for a material resource category, you can use the Finder to select the cost for the material item at a particular Inventory Control location, or you can enter a different cost.

Project and Job costing applies the following rules when determining the item cost.

• If the item uses the Moving Average, FIFO, or LIFO costing method, the moving average cost is used for the estimate.

• If the item uses the Standard costing method, the estimate also uses the standard cost.

• If the item uses the Most Recent or User‐Defined costing method, the estimate uses the most recent cost of the item.

Calculating revenue

As described earlier in this notice, you can specify the source for the default billing rate for time and materials projects and for fixed price projects that use the billings and costs or accrual‐basis accounting method.

If a project uses a price list as the default billing rate, Project and Job Costing:

• Calculates estimated revenue using the price list and the quantity you enter when you add new categories (on a basic project) or resource categories (on a standard project). You can


Update Notice 17



change the billing rate for individual categories and resource categories while the project has an Estimate status.

• Lets you choose a price list when you enter material usage and material return transactions. The program displays the default price list specified for the project, but you can change the price list, or enter a different billing rate, for individual material transactions.

Material allocation and fractional quantities

Note: If you do not use the Allow Fractional Quantities option in Inventory Control, when you allocate material using a percentage, Project and Job Costing rounds the quantity to the nearest whole number, and then recalculates the percentage allocated.

Integration with Serialized Inventory and Lot Tracking

In version 5.5, Project and Job Costing is fully integrated with Sage Accpac Serialized Inventory and Sage Accpac Lot Tracking.

You can now use Serialized Inventory and Lot Tracking to track items you process using material usage and material returns transactions.

Note: You can use the Adjustments form to transfer material usage or material return transactions for serialized items to a different contract, project, or category. However, to adjust a posted material transaction (say, to add a new detail or to change the quantity), you need to post a new material usage or material transaction for the serialized items.

When you process a transaction detail for an item that uses serial numbers or lot tracking, you can open a separate form that lets you select serial numbers or lot numbers for the transaction. If you use both Serialized Inventory and Lot Tracking, you can choose whether to launch one or the other program, or both programs.





Allocating Serial Numbers

If you use Sage Accpac Serialized Inventory with your company data, you can now allocate serial numbers to serialized inventory items. (An inventory item is serialized if the Serial Number option is selected in the I/C Item record.)

When you enter a material usage or material return transaction for a serialized item, you open a separate Serialized Inventory dialog box to allocate serial numbers to the items in the detail.

Before allocating Before allocating serial numbers:

• Check that the Serial Number option is selected in the I/C item record. Inventory items must be serialized before you can allocate serial numbers to them.

• Check the Serial Number List in Serialized Inventory to ensure that serial numbers are available for the items.

Serial numbers must be available for the item and the inventory location. (You can post a transaction with fewer serial numbers than the total quantity of serialized items only if Serialized Inventory uses the option Allow A Quantity In PO Or IC Receipts That Is Greater Than The Number Of Entered Serials.)

If necessary, you can create serial numbers for the item in Inventory Control, in Order Entry (using the Shipments form), in Purchase Orders (using the Receipts form), or in Serialized Inventory (using the Serial Number Edit form or the SI Receipt Entry form). Refer to the documentation that comes with Serialized Inventory for instructions on creating serial numbers.

• If you are returning serialized items to inventory, note the serial numbers assigned to the items, as well as the contract, project, category, and resource used in the transaction that transferred the items to the job.


Update Notice 19



To allocate serial number to items in a material usage or material return transaction:

1. Open the Material Usage (or Material Return form, if you are returning items to inventory).

2. Enter header information for the transaction, as usual.

3. Enter the transaction details, using the Quantity field to open the Serialized Inventory allocation form for each detail that uses serialized items, as follows:

• If you are using the Detail Material Usage/Taxes (or Detail Material Returns/Taxes) form to enter a new detail, enter a value in the Quantity field, and then click the Zoom button beside the field.

(If the Inventory Control Shipments Popup option is selected in Serialized Inventory, you can simply leave the Quantity field.)

• If you are using the detail grid on the transaction entry form to enter new details, enter a quantity, then press the Tab key or click the Quantity column heading.

Note: You cannot assign a serial number to a fractional quantity. The program assigns serial numbers using the stocking unit of measure. Therefore, enter a quantity that will result in a whole number when the program converts the unit of measure to stocking units. For example, if the stocking unit is Each and you use Half for the transaction, you must enter a whole, even number greater than 2.

• If you are changing a serial number used in an existing detail and you do not need to change the quantity, click the Zoom button for the Quantity field (or the column heading, if you are using the grid).





If you use both Sage Accpac Serialized Inventory and Sage Accpac Lot Tracking, the following dialog box appears:

• Select Serialized Inventory or Both (if you also use Lot Tracking), and then click OK.

The Serialized Inventory allocation form opens.

4. If necessary, use the Transaction Date field to change the date for the serial number allocation.

Serialized Inventory uses the transaction date as the sold date in the Warranty Maintenance and the Registration Maintenance forms.

5. Allocate serial numbers as follows:

• To allocate numbers manually, select the serial numbers you want from the list of available serial numbers, and then click Include.

Or

The program displays the session date as the default transaction date.


Update Notice 21



• To allocate numbers automatically, select a serial number from the list of available serial numbers, and then click Auto Allocate.

The program updates the list of allocated serial numbers on the right of the form. You can change the list, as follows:

• To remove a number from the list of allocated serial numbers, select the number, and then click Exclude.

• To remove all the numbers from the list of allocated serial numbers, click Clear.

6. Click Save, then click Close to return to the transaction detail form or, if you also use Lot Tracking, to the Lot Tracking allocation form.

If the Lot Tracking allocation form appears, skip steps 7 and 8, and continue at step 6 in the next section, “Allocating Lot Numbers.”

7. Click Add (or Save), and then click Close to return to the main transaction form.

8. Click Post to post the transaction.

Allocating Lot Numbers

If you use Sage Accpac Lot Tracking with your company data, you can track lotted inventory items that you process using the Material Usage and Material Returns forms.

When you process material transactions for items that use lot numbers, you can:

• Open a Lot Tracking dialog box that lets you allocate lot numbers for a selected transaction detail.

• Generate lot numbers when entering material usage transactions, if Lot Tracking uses the option to generate lot





numbers. (The option is located on the Settings tab of the L/T Options form.)

• When returning lotted items to inventory using material returns transactions, you can identify the lot, or partial lot, from which you are returning items.

Note: You can use the PJC Adjustments form to transfer material usage or material return transactions for lotted items to a different contract, project, category, or resource. However, to adjust a posted material transaction (say, to add a new detail or to change the quantity), you need to post a new material usage or material transaction for the lotted items.

To assign lot numbers in a material usage or material return transaction:

1. Open the Material Usage (or Material Return form, if you are returning items to inventory).

2. Enter header information for the transaction, as usual.

4. Enter the transaction details, using the Quantity field to open the Lot Tracking allocation form for each detail that uses lotted items, as follows:

• If you are using the Detail Material Usage/Taxes (or Detail Material Returns/Taxes) form to enter a new transaction detail, enter a value in the Quantity field, and then click the Zoom button beside the field.

(If the Inventory Control Shipments Popup option is selected in the Lot Tracking program, you can simply leave the Quantity field.)

• If you are using the detail grid on the transaction entry form to enter new details, enter a quantity, then press the Tab key or click the Quantity column heading.


Update Notice 23



• If you are changing a lot number for an existing detail and you do not need to change the quantity, click the Zoom button for the Quantity field (or the column heading, if you are using the grid).

If you use both Sage Accpac Serialized Inventory and Sage Accpac Lot Tracking, the following dialog box appears:

• Select Lot Tracking, and then click OK.

The Lot Tracking allocation form opens.

If lots exist for the item in Inventory Control, the lot numbers appear in the list.





5. To change the order in which lot numbers appear, change the following options:

Sort By. Select FIFO to display lot numbers in first‐in‐first‐out order, or select LIFO to display them in last‐in‐first‐out order.

Show By. Specify whether to display lot numbers in sequential order, or specify the type of date to use to determine the “first in” or “last in” date. (You can select the stock date, expiry date, or, if you use optional fields in Lot Tracking, you can select one of four optional dates.)

6. In a material usage transaction, if no lots are available for the item, create them “on the fly,” as follows:

a. Click the Generate button.

(The Generate button is available if Lot Tracking uses the option to generate lot numbers.)

b. In the form that appears, enter a new lot number, the quantity contained in the lot, the stock date, and an expiry date, as needed.

c. Click Save to add the lot, and then click Close to return to the allocation form.

7. Allocate lot numbers to the items.

• In a material usage transaction, use one of the following methods to allocate lot numbers:

− To allocate one lot at a time, in the Quantity Shipped field, enter the quantity to allocate from each lot.

− To allocate lots automatically, select the line, and then click Auto Alloc. The program allocates lots in order from the first lot selected.

• In a material return transaction, using a line for each lot from which you are returning items:


Update Notice 25



i. In the Lot Number field, either type the lot number or double‐click the field, then use the Finder that appears to select the lot.

ii. Enter the number of items you are returning in the Quantity Returned field.

If you need to change the quantity allocated from a lot, either:

• Enter a different quantity in the Quantity Shipped field.

Or

• Click the Clear button to reset the shipped quantities to zero.

8. Click Save, and then click Close to return to the detail entry form.

9. Click Add (or Save), then click Close to return to the transaction entry form.

10. When you are ready to post the transaction, click Post.

Enhanced Reports

The Aged Work In Progress report now includes costs for fixed price projects that use the billings and costs or accrual accounting method and an item invoice type. Previously, only costs for time and materials projects appeared on the Aged Work In Progress report.

The following reports can include subtotal and total amounts in various customer (source) currencies. For example, if you print the Profit Analysis report in customer currency, all the projects for a contract are grouped and subtotaled by currency. Depending on the report, the customer number and description may also appear, so that you can distinguish between the project customer and the contract customer.

• Aged WIP • Contract Details • Contract Summary





• Detailed Transactions • Transaction History • Over/Under Billings • Profit Analysis

Changes to Online Help

Feedback • You can send feedback directly to the writer of the Help topic you were viewing. Click the feedback link at the bottom of Help pages to open your e‐mail program and start a new message addressed to our documentation team. You include your comments in the body of the message.

Tasks-oriented links • Look for a new heading in the Help Contents called ʺWhat do you want to do?ʺ Under this heading are subheadings for groups of tasks you might want to perform, such as “Process Cost Transactions,” or “Estimate and Maintain Contracts.”

Topics for particular tasks, such as “Recognize Revenue,” provide step‐by‐step instructions for performing a task. They may also include steps you need to complete before or after the task, links to related topics, and additional information you might find helpful.

Other Changes

• You cannot convert from ACCPAC Plus Job Costing to Sage Accpac Project and Job Costing version 5.5.

If you want to use Project and Job Costing 5.5, you must first convert your ACCPAC Plus Job Costing data to Project and Job Costing 5.4, and then upgrade Project and Job Costing to version 5.5.

• You can now drill down from an Accounts Receivable invoice to the billing worksheet in Project and Job Costing.


Update Notice 27



Changes in Project and Job Costing 5.4A The rest of this notice explains the features that were added in Project and Job Costing version 5.4A.

Contract Maintenance

Version 5.4 introduced several improvements to the Contract Maintenance form.

The Contract tab lets you:

• Open a new Contact Information form where you enter the name, position, phone number, fax number, and e‐mail address for a separate contact person for the contract.

• Specify a default style for new projects you assign to the contract.

You can change the default style at any time, and you can change the style for particular projects until you save the project.

• Specify a default tax group for a contract. In earlier versions, Project and Job Costing used the tax group assigned to the customer in Accounts Receivable.

Select the Tax Group check box to display the Tax Group field that lets you set a default tax group for the contract. The customer’s tax group appears as the default for the contract, but you can change the entry in the Tax Group field by typing the code for the tax group or by selecting it using the Finder.

If you need to change the customer tax classes for any of the tax authorities used by the tax group, use the Zoom button beside the Tax Group field to open the Customer Taxes form, where you can change the tax classes.

The default tax group and tax classes are used for new projects that you assign to the contract, but you can change the tax group and tax classes for individual projects.





Project Maintenance

The Project Maintenance now lets you:

• Specify a project style.

• Specify whether to generate item or summary invoices for fixed price projects that use a billings and costs or accrual‐basis accounting method.

Use the A/R Invoice Type field on the Project tab to set the invoice type.

• Change the tax group and customer tax classes for individual projects on a new Taxes tab.

This information is used for invoices you generate in Project and Job Costing. The tax group is displayed on billing worksheets.

The project type and accounting method determine which fields appear and the contract level at which you can change certain tax information. For example, for some project types and accounting methods, you use the Taxes tab to change the detail tax classes and tax included status. However, for time and materials projects and fixed price projects that use item‐type invoices, you specify detail taxes when you enter transactions.

You can change the tax group for a project if you need to calculate taxes for a jurisdiction where the governing tax authorities are different from those in effect for the rest of the contract. (For example, some states require taxes to be calculated for the location where the work is performed, rather than for the tax authorities operating in the customer’s location.)

You can also change the tax classes for fixed price projects that use item‐type invoices when entering equipment usage, material usage, material return, and timecard transactions. Previously, you could change them only for time and materials projects.


Update Notice 29



Activity tab On the Activity tab, the Retainage Payable field now includes tax calculated in Accounts Payable for retainage that is payable later (committed tax). Previously, tax on retainage that was payable later was not sent to Project and Job Costing.

Note that only allocated and expensed taxes are included; recoverable taxes are not.

Unprofitable Cost Plus Projects

You can now set up unprofitable cost plus projects either by entering a negative cost plus percentage or by setting up a project where estimated revenue is less than estimated cost.

Fixed Price Projects

Previously, when you opened a fixed price project, Project and Job Costing replaced the original revenue estimate with the total fixed price you entered for the project.

The program now replaces the current revenue estimate with the total fixed price.

Category and Resource Maintenance

Add a new category or resource any time

Project and Job Costing lets you add a new project category or resource at any time.

Note: If you use security in your system, you must have Add A New Category And Resource authorization to modify an open project.

Specify a cost account for cost transactions

The Accounts tab now includes a Cost field that lets you specify the cost account to be used in cost transactions for the category.

Project and Job Costing uses the cost account for the account set assigned to a contract as the default when you add categories to contract projects, but you can change the account for individual project categories.





New Cost Transaction Processing

Version 5.4 introduced the Costs transaction form. You can use it to post miscellaneous cost transactions in Project and Job Costing, for example, to record a purchase paid from petty cash, where you do not need to credit a vendor account. Project and Job Costing credits the cost account you specify.

Previously, you had to post miscellaneous costs in Accounts Payable for a particular vendor.

Changes in Other Forms for Cost Transactions

Add Cost accounts to your account sets

• For each account set, you now specify the cost account you want to credit in cost transactions.

Printing a cost transaction listing

• The Transaction Listing form and the Posting Journal form now include an option that lets you print cost transactions.

Clearing cost transactions

• The Clear History form includes an option that lets you clear cost transactions.

Improved Material Tracking

Material Allocation

For long‐range projects, you may need to track how much material you have set aside for a project, how much of the material has been used to date, and the costs of materials both stored and used.

Since version 5.4, material is considered “stored” until you actually use it for the project. Posting a material usage transaction increases the actuals and the stored amount for the project, category, and resource, depending on the project type and accounting method (as for other types of transactions). Posting an Accounts Payable transaction or a Cost transaction for material, or a Material Returns transaction also updates actuals and stored amounts.

You use the Material Allocation form to reduce the stored amount as you use material for a project. This stored amount is used to produce the AIA Report.


Update Notice 31



Material Usage and Material Returns

Material usage and material returns transactions now update stored quantities and costs. The Contract Maintenance form displays stored costs on the following tabs:

• The Totals tab on the Contract Maintenance form shows stored costs for a selected contract.

• The Totals tab on the Project Maintenance form shows stored costs for a selected project.

• The Materials tab on the Project Maintenance form shows the stored quantities and stored costs for a selected project.

All cost transactions posted for a material resource update the Stored amount in a contract, regardless of whether a transaction is billable, non‐billable, or no charge.

If you need to segregate non‐billable and no charge transactions, you could set up separate categories for non‐billable or no‐charge amounts. For example, if you set up Electrician, Electrician Non‐Billable, and Electrician No Charge, the Stored amount for each category (in the Contract Maintenance form) would reflect the amount in storage.

Opening Balances for Stored Material

You can now use the new Stored opening type to enter opening balances for stored material.

Enhanced Integration with Other Sage Accpac Programs

Integration with Accounts Receivable

The new Automatically Post A/R Batches option on the Integration tab of the PJC Options form lets you post invoice batches automatically in Accounts Receivable when you post billing worksheets in Project and Job Costing.





G/L integration options have been moved to a separate form.

Refunds

Project and Job Costing supports the new customer refund feature in Accounts Receivable. When you refund a prepayment to a customer, Accounts Receivable updates the total customer receipts for the project.

Integration with Accounts Payable

Reporting tax on retainage payable

Project and Job Costing supports changes in Accounts Payable to handle reporting tax on retainage.

Accounts Payable lets you choose to report tax on retainage either when you post an original document or as required by the tax authority. If you select the option to report tax As Per Tax Authority, tax can be reported when you post the retainage document, depending on the settings in Tax Services. (For more information on how tax on retainage is handled in Accounts Payable, see the Accounts Payable documentation.)

Accounts Payable now updates committed costs in Project and Job Costing when you post an original document for which tax on retainage is to be reported later. (Note that only allocated and expensed taxes are considered committed costs. Recoverable tax is not a committed cost in Project and Job Costing.)

Tax on retainage reported immediately

Accounts Payable updates actuals in Project and Job Costing when you post an original document for which tax on retainage is reported immediately. (You can see these transactions on the Detailed Transactions report.)

Posting retainage invoices also affects billing and revenue recognition. When you post tax on retainage, the amount is included on billing and revenue worksheets.


Update Notice 33



Integration with General Ledger

You no longer specify G/L Integration options on the PJC Options form. Instead, you use the new G/L Integration form, available in the Setup folder, to select options to:

• Automatically post General Ledger batches you create in Project and Job Costing.

• Specify additional Project and Job Costing data to include with transactions you send to General Ledger.

You can specify information for the journal entry description, detail description, detail reference, and detail comment for each type of transaction.

Note: After activation, you should review the default settings, and make any changes you require.

Payroll Integration

Project and Job Costing now integrates completely with Sage Accpac US and Canadian Payroll.

You can now post job‐related timecards in Canadian or US Payroll. The program updates actuals in Project and Job Costing when you print job‐related paychecks.

You can also set up PJC Employee records for US or Canadian employees in any currency, and process job‐related timecards in US or Canadian Payroll in any currency.

You should also notice speed improvements when you use the Update Payroll function in Project and Job Costing.

Faster and More Flexible Billing Worksheets

Version 5.4 introduced many improvements in billing processes.





Creating billing worksheets

When creating a billing worksheet, you can now specify a date to which to post the generated documents.

Project and Job Costing now creates worksheets for:

• Fixed price projects that use the completed project accounting method and have no cost transactions.

• Projects that have a negative total cost. In this case, Project and Job Costing generates a credit note in Accounts Receivable.

Generating a large billing worksheet is now much faster than in earlier versions.

Reviewing billing worksheets

To complement changes to invoice processing introduced with Accounts Receivable 5.4, billing worksheets now include:

• New Tax Reporting Currency, Tax Reporting Rate Type, Tax Reporting Rate Date, and Tax Reporting Exchange Rate columns.

Project and Job Costing fills in the tax reporting fields if the currency for the tax group specified for the project is different from the customer’s currency.

• A separate line for each tax group used in a contract, for billed projects that use different tax groups. This ensures that a separate invoice is generated for each tax group in a contract billing.

Posting billing worksheets

If you use the option Post A/R Batches Automatically, the invoice batch is posted in Accounts Receivable when you post a billing worksheet in Project and Job Costing.

Improved Revenue Recognition

You can specify a date to which to post revenue recognition transactions when you create a revenue recognition worksheet.

You may also notice that posting is now faster.


Update Notice 35



Closing / Reopening Projects

You can now close a project that has outstanding retainage payable or receivable. (You must reopen the project to post a retainage invoice for the project in Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable, later.)

Integrity Checker

When checking data integrity for Project and Job Costing, you can restrict the type of data (groups of tables) to check, to fit the time you have available.

Changes to Reports

Version 5.4 introduced the following new reports:

• The AIA Report (required in the U.S.) • Committed Costs Audit Report • Stored Material Audit Report

The Detailed Transaction Report contains a new option that lets you include opening balance transactions.

See Chapter 7, “Reports,” in the User Guide, for more detailed information.

Optional Fields

You can make an optional field a required field, with or without specifying a default value. If a field is required, you must fill in the optional field during data entry before you can save the record or transaction.

If an optional field is required and has a default value, you can accept the value that appears or assign a different one, and then save the record.





If the optional field is required, but does not have a default value, you must fill in the field before you can proceed.

If you make an optional field a required field, the Auto Insert field changes to Yes. Normally, you want required fields to appear automatically in the records or transactions for which they are defined.

Optional fields now appear in Finders.

PJC Options

The PJC Options form contains several new options.

Automatically post job-related batches in A/R

• On the Integration tab, the Automatically Post A/R Batches option lets you post generated invoices automatically in Accounts Receivable when you post a billing worksheet in Project and Job Costing.

Numbering material allocation transactions

• The Transactions tab lets you specify the length, prefix, and next number for material allocation transactions and cost transactions.

It also displays the next posting sequence number to be used for these transactions, and for committed costs.

Post Transactions by Status Type

A new option on the Post Transactions form lets you select the status type of documents that you want to post. (The status types are Entered, Approved, and Ready For Approval.)

Security

You must now explicitly allow a user to see Setup forms by assigning Setup Maintenance security authorization.

Previously, a user with any security authorization had Common Inquiry privileges, which allowed users to view all setup records,


Update Notice 37



except Employee setup, and to print setup reports, except the PJC Employees report.

Documents

Project and Job Costing 5 - dgginc.com