]project-opem[ 2008, Title / Speaker / 1 ]project-open[ Open Source Enterprise Business Application Project Invoicing using ]project-open[ Version: 0.5

]project-opem[ 2008, Title / Speaker / 1

]project-open[ Open Source

Enterprise Business Application

Project Invoicing using ]project-open[

Version: 0.5Date: 14th Mai 2008Author: Frank [email protected]


The Challenge• Service organizations need to provide flexible responses to customer requirements• The scope and contents of projects may change during the project lifecycle• Projects may contain fixed-cost as well as variable cost phases.• It is difficult to distinguish billable hours from non-billable sales and warranty parts.

Senior management may lose considerable time resolving this type of questions.• The customer may be “flexibly” mixing planned with already delivered work to be

invoice• Difficult distinction between billable and non-billable time. • Partial invoicing at the end of project phases or milestones• Invoicing may depend on a lot of fuzzy information from different sources:• The initial quote and its rules• Verbal agreements between sales and the customer • Change requests incurred during the project execution• Timesheet information about planned, billable and logged hours• External costs of material and freelance project members

– The initial quote and its rules– Verbal agreements between sales and the customer – Change requests incurred during the project execution– Timesheet information about planned, billable and logged hours– External costs of material and freelance project members


Complex Contract Structure

Service companies frequently have to deal with complex contract structures. Variables:• Fixed-price vs. variable-price (based on time and

material) or a mix of both.• The definition of “billable time” can be complex:

– During sales: Presales time vs. consulting time– In the last project phase: Features vs. corrections.– During support: Paid support time vs. warranty time– During support: Issue fixing vs. user training

• Contracts changes during the project:– Formal changes as “Change request”– Informal changes as part of negotiations between PM, key

account and customer.


Invoicing with ]project-open[

The Project

QuoteInvoice

ChangeRequest

PurchaseOrder

Sales / Planning

Execution Milestone

2nd Phase Sign-Off

Timesheet Loggingby Employees

Order

Support

SpecseMail

eMaileMail

The Customer

External Providers

Invoice


How to Create an Invoice

• ]project-open[ offers a wide range of options on how to create an invoice, taking advantage of all available information

• ]project-open[ provides maximum flexibility in terms of how to combine all available information to create invoices.

Invoice

The ProjectSales / Planning

Execution

Milestone2nd Phase

Sign-OffSupport

Create an invoice from Gantt chart task durations. ]po[ maintains a price list per customer.

Invoice

Create an Invoice from “scratch” (manually entering quote lines)

Invoice

Timesheet Create an invoice from timesheet information (actual hours logged by employees)

Invoice

Create an invoice from one or more quotes.Quote

QuoteQuote


Document Type Permissions

• ]project-open[ allows to specify per profile who should be able to read or write certain financial documents.

• The table at the left shows a typical configuration.

• The configuration at the left implies a workflow between project managers (create quotes and purchase orders) with accounting (write invoices)

• The configuration can be modified using ]project-open[ maintenance screens.

Invoice

Quote

PurchaseOrder

Bill(ProviderInvoice)

DeliveryNote

TravelExpense

TimesheetCost

Employees ProjectManagers

Accounting

-

read own expenses, create new travel expenses

log hours (which creates timesheet cost items)

read project’s travel expenses

read, create and modify everything


-

-

-

-

read project’s timesheet costs

read project’s Provider Bills (but no right to create)

read and create project’s Purchase Orders

read project’s Invoice (but no right to create)

read and create project’s Delivery Notes

read and create project’s Quotes







Decentralized Invoicing

• The ]project-open[ workflow engine allows to formalize important processes, while other processes may be kept flexible.

The Customer

Providers

The Company

InvoiceQuote Order

PurchaseOrder

Bill(ProviderInvoice)

DeliveryNote

TravelExpense

TimesheetCost


Solution

• ]project-open[ provides a single place to store and process both formalized and semi-formalized data including quotes, timesheet, documents, email traffic etc.

• ]project-open[ has been designed for the level of flexibility needed by small and medium service organizations (3-300 employees).

• ]project-open[ workflow engine can enforce certain policies such as order or sign-off phases in larger organizations

• ]project-open[ includes wizards to create quotes and invoices from production information such as planned or spent hours

• The ]project-open[ workflow engine allows to formalize important processes, while other processes may be kept flexible.


Process Overview

• Sales & Quoting• Project Planning• Project Execution

– Timesheet Logging– Project progress tracking– Project cost tracking


Quoting Options in ]project-open[

• Quoting using Project Plan:– Create a project schedule via GanttProject– Assign “materials” to tasks– Use the Timesheet Quoting Wizard to sum up the planned

hours multiplied with the customer’s price list.

• Repeating Project Structures:– Create a “new project from template” to create a copy of a

previous project.

• Complex Projects:– Write a quote using MS-Word, – Create a new ]po[ project in status “quoting” – Store the MS-Word in the ]po[ project’s Filestorage– Create a ]po[ quote document for financial tracking


Sales & Quoting

• The Sales & Quoting phase starts during the first contact with the customer.

• Deliverables:– A textual description of the scope of the project (MS-Word document)– A “quote” document as a baseline for the invoicing process

• PO can keep track of potential projects and the size of the sales pipeline

• A PO workflow can check the completeness of quote information before a “potential” project becomes executed.

• PO allows to store unstructured information such as email, meeting and conversation protocols together with the project as a reference for the invoicing process.


Project Planning

• The planning phase intents to specify the tasks to execute the project. It may overlap with the sales phase or start afterwards

• Deliverables:– A detailed project plan consisting of a number of

tasks– Each task consists of a number of “planned” and

“billable” hours, apart from other project information


Project Planning

• The planning phase intents to specify the tasks to execute the project. It may overlap with the sales phase or start afterwards

• Deliverables:– A detailed project plan consisting of a number of

tasks– Each task consists of a number of “planned” and

“billable” hours, apart from other project information


]project-open[

Ronda Sant Antonio 51, 1o 2a08011 Barcelona Spain

Tel: +34 933 250 914 Cell: +34 609 953 751 Fax: +34 932 890 729

www.project-open.comwww.project-open.org

Thanks for your attention


wastebasket

Documents

]project-opem[ 2008, Title / Speaker / 1 ]project-open[ Open Source Enterprise Business Application Project Invoicing using ]project-open[ Version: 0.5