Project accounting

1. The license for Visma Net must include the Projects functionality, and the functionality should be enabled in the Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000) window.
   
2. The initial system configuration must be completed and the General ledger workspace must be configured before you implement the Projects workspace. The Projects workspace can be tightly integrated with many Visma Net workspaces.
3. If you plan to track employee time spent on activities related to projects, make sure the Time reporting on activities functionality is included in your license and enabled in the Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000) window.

From start to finish, a project goes through the following stages:

• Planning:
  During this stage, you specify project parameters, define tasks, add activities, and populate the project with employees, resources, and equipment.
  Each project once created is automatically assigned the In planning status.
• Approval:
  The project passes through this stage only if approval of projects is required in your system.
• Active:
  During this stage, the project is executed, and it becomes visible in the integrated workspaces and available for posting transactions.
• Completion:
  Once the project is finished, it is assigned the Completed status.
  A project with the Completed status is no longer available for posting transactions.
  This is the final stage in the project life cycle.

For more information, see:About the project life cycle

Integrating the Projects workspace with other Visma Net workspaces allows for complete project information as all project-related data is automatically entered and visible in all relevant workspaces. Once the Projects workspace is integrated with another workspace in Visma Net, any document posted in the integrated workspace can be associated with a specific project, ensuring that all project-related activity is accounted for.

For more information, see:About integration with other modules

Visma Net supports two types of projects: fixed-price and cost-based.
With fixed-price projects, the price for the project is defined at the beginning of the project and it is not changed until in the project is complete.

With cost-based projects, the final price of the project depends on the overall cost of fulfilling the project, and the costs may be invoiced with or without a premium.

In the Projects workspace, you can compare actual project costs with original and revised budgets.
As a project progresses, you can continuously track budget execution, and see whether actual costs match the budget. This lets you know when to adjust expenditures or revise the budget. In Visma Net, you can also use continuous budgeting.

For more information, see:About project budgets

If your company regularly performs standard projects (for example, if you build standard houses), you do not need to create these projects from scratch each time a new project is started. Instead, you can create templates for standard projects and tasks, and use them each time you start a new project.

For more information, see:About templates for projects and tasks

By using the flexible rate calculation in Visma Net, you can implement complex pricing and accrual models that require the consideration of a large number of parameters. This functionality allows you to differentiate rates depending on project, task, account group, employee class or even specific dates or date ranges.

See also: Configure a rate table, Specify rates for rate tables and Create rate types

In projects, the account group plays the same role as the general ledger accounts do in the General ledger ledger: it is used to track the project budget and balances. Account groups facilitate aggregation, tracking, control, and management of information related to the project budget, costs, and future revenues.
Because they are mapped to general ledger accounts, account groups provide transfer of the project-related financial information between the General ledger and Project accounting workspaces.

To learn how to create account groups, see: Create an account group

For more information, see:About account groups

As a project moves from milestone to milestone or when it is completed, you can define the project to automatically generate invoicing information and invoices for customers.

For more information, see:About project invoicing

Visma Net provides you with a variety of options that you can use to set up user access to specific projects and to project-configuration tools.

Visma Net supports tracking purchase orders and sales orders by project as project cost commitments and project revenue commitments, respectively.
For more information, see:About tracking commitments

You can enable draft invoices in the project invoicing workflow to work with a draft invoice that is isolated from the Customer ledger workspace.
You can review and modify the draft invoice and reach agreement about the document with all required parties before the final sales invoice is prepared based on the information from the draft invoice.
For more information, see:About pro forma invoices