Resources

Labor rates and overhead burden are pulled directly from SAP based on the individuals and Organizational Information provided; therefore, they should be the most current rates available.

The Stacked area graph shows the Fiscal Years (FYs) included on the Estimate along the X-Axis and the total estimated Cost on the Y-Axis with areas shaded to indicate the various elements of cost.

• The Project Type, Overhead Key and Program Office will default to the values shown below; however, this information should be updated to reflect the settings appropriate for your project. These settings determine overhead and other rates used for calculations in your estimate. If you have any questions about this information, please contact your organization’s Finance Officer.
• The ORNL Performing Division will default to the creator’s organization. Again, this can be updated as necessary to reflect the organization performing the project/task being estimated.
• Finally, Users can update the Default Labor Unit for the Estimate to either Hours or FTE (Full-Time Equivalents) based on their preference.

• Only Administrators can edit access privileges under the "Sharing" tab. Note that one Admin must always be identified on an Estimate. Administrators can add other Users to the Estimate as Administrators (Read, Write, Lock/Unlock, & Delete privileges), Collaborators (Read & Write privileges), and Viewers (Read privileges).
• To add, simply navigate to the "Sharing" tab and select the tab role you would like to add (Administrator, Collaborator, or Viewer). On the respective tab, select the "Add Administrator", "Add Collaborator", or "Add Viewer" button accordingly; this will bring us a search panel on the right-hand side. You may search for a user by Name, Badge Number, User Id, or by using the organizational drop-downs provided to narrow your search down to a specific group. Once you have identified the individual you would like to add, click on their name or press "Select" to add them. Once you are done sharing, be sure to save your changes.
• Note that individuals can only maintain one role on the project; therefore, if you want to change a user’s privileges (for example moving them from a viewer to a collaborator), you will first need to remove them their current role before adding them to them to the new role and saving.

• Any user with access to an Estimate, can copy the Estimate - making the User the Administrator of the new/copied Estimate.

• There are two methods to copy an estimate.

  1. A quick method is to copy an Estimate using the drop-down on the Estimate Card and select "Copy to new estimate." A notification will be provided that "Estimate has been copied" and a card for the new Estimate will be added to your Estimate list with the Title "Copy of [Previous Title]." User’s can also "Save copy" of an Estimate from within the Estimate.

  

  2. Users can also save a copy from within an Estimate. When in an Estimate, select the "options" drop-down in the top right-hand part of the screen and select "Save copy." Users will be given the option to update the Title from the default "Copy of [Previous Title]." In addition, the user can decide if they want to copy the permissions from the sharing tab (to include members present from the original estimate as preferred).

  

• Only Administrators have the ability to Lock or Unlock an Estimate. Locking an Estimate prevents any further changes from being made. Note that is an Estimate is locked, it also cannot be deleted. To lock or unlock an Estimate, simply use the drop-down provided on the Estimate Card:
• Alternatively, from within an Estimate, users can lock an estimate by selecting the "options" drop-down on the top right-hand side of the screen and select "Lock estimate."

• Only Administrators are given the ability to Delete an Estimate. To delete an Estimate, simply use the drop-down provided on the Estimate Card to "Delete estimate":
• Alternatively, from within an Estimate, users can delete an estimate by selecting the "options" drop-down on the top right-hand side of the screen and select "Delete estimate."

• Resources can be added to an Estimate on the Resource tab or when developing your Estimate (once an activity has been added) using the Mini Resource Dictionary that appears on the right-hand side of your screen once an activity has been added.
• To add a resource from the Resource tab, select respective resource type: Labor, Subcontracts, Materials, Other Direct Costs, Internal Services. Within the type, select the specific resource category. Once added, Resources can be left as generic categories or customized using the resource drop-down (see “How do a create a custom Resource (Labor or Material) to assign to Activities within my Estimate” for more information). The types and categories are as follows:
• • Labor: ORNL Personnel, Wage Pool & Org Burden, and Total Personnel Cost
  • Subcontracts: Task Bases, Govt Transfers-Other Labs, Govt Transfers-Non-Labs, University Students, Staff Support.
  • Materials: Materials Other Direct Cost: All ORNL Business Travel and Miscellaneous Other Direct Cost
  • Internal Services: Other Services, Waste Services, Space- User-Defined, Utilities-User Defined
• To add a resource from within the Estimate, use the dictionary icon at the top right-hand corner of your screen to open the Resource Dictionary. You can expand each type as necessary to see/select existing resources. To add a new resource, select the + sign by the respective resource type and select the specific resource category. Users are then given the ability to select and/or enter related resource details.

You can use the Activity and Resource Reports to display Estimate summaries to print and/or export information to multiple formats, including: PDF, Excel, or Word.

Within the Report section of the Estimate, Users can create a report based on Activity or Resource by selecting the related tab. They can customize these reports further by selecting the level of detail they need from the drop-down menus on the left-hand side, and by expanding and selecting specific columns of interest from the “Select Column” drop-down on the top right-hand side and pressing the “Apply” button.

Yes, users can reorder Items and Activities on the Estimate tab. To reorder an Activity or Item, simply hover over the activity and press the up or down arrow that appear over the activity number to move up or down. The numbering will change accordingly.

Similarly, within an Activity, Items (resources tied to an activity), can be reordered using the arrows provided.

Users can define custom resources that can then be assigned to multiple activities for planning purposed.

To create a custom resource, first select the related resource type (Labor, Subcontracts, Materials, Other Direct Cost, or Internal Services), then use the drop-down on the right-hand side to “fill in resource detail”:

Users can then define the related custom name (optional), specify a Unit Cost and related Unit. If Users enter “hour” or “hr” as the unit, it will enable FTE calculations on the Estimate tab:

On the Estimate tab, users can then add the resource to an activity on the Estimate tab and enter a related number of units (i.e. each, hour, FTE, etc.) in order to calculate the related cost for the activity:

Entering “hour” or “hr” within the Unit field of a Resource (either under the Resource tab or in the Mini Resource Dictionary”) will enable FTE calculations in the Estimate section. Note that entering “hour” or “hr” within an Activity will NOT enable FTE calculations.

FTE is calculated for an activity based on the FTE % specified for the duration of the activity (rather than for the entire FY); therefore, Users should enter the %FTE they expect the individual to support the task during the activity period. For example, if you identify a resource as 50% FTE for an activity that lasts 3 months, the application will calculate the cost of 50% of their time (FTE) for the three-month period identified.

An Estimate Title must be present in order to save the Estimate. Users are given the ability to save or not save as they navigate between tabs; however, the Estimate Card, Sharing/Access Privileges, and Reports will not update to incorporate these changes until they have been saved. Therefore, if you want to view or print a report without saving the changes to the original Estimate, it is suggested that you make a copy of the Estimate.

When a user attempts to navigate away or discard changes without saving, they will be provided a confirmation message to verify the user is aware their changes will be lost. Note that as users can navigate between tabs without saving, keep in mind that there may be changes on other tabs as well that have not been saved.

Once a resource is assigned to a specific activity, it is considered an “Item.”

Yes, if a user marks an Activity for removal or removes an Activity, the items within the Activity will also be marked for removal or removed accordingly.

You can not currently import your Estimate directly into the Project Management Tool; however, RES plans to integrate these tools going forward. In the meantime, your Estimate can be used to populate your spend plan entered under the Financials Tab within the Project Management Tool.

No, Estimator takes into account material fees and overhead, but similar to SAP and ePlan, taxes are not automatically added to materials and subcontracts. Users should determine whether these resources are taxable and add the applicable sales tax to the cost accordingly.

Users should add this cost as a Lump Sum Wage Pool Cost (as the Rated Unit Cost x Number of Participants x Number of Months). This should account for the cost and correct the Org Burden Overhead rate being estimated.

RESolution allows you to see only the information that you have access to in the underlying business system. For example, for procurement data, you would only see the information your user ID and roles provide access to in SAP.

If you have concerns about data you are able to see, send an email to solution@ornl.gov.

The values provided at the bottom of the performance chart are based on the monthly status updates.

Until a status update is entered, these values will be blank.

A. Planned Work = (Spending Plan to Date/Total Project Cost)

B. Work Completed = Planned Work (A) * [1 +/- "Status % Ahead/Behind" (as selected in the schedule question within the Status My Project tab)]

C. Schedule % Ahead/Behind = Planned Work % (A) - Completed Work % (B)

D. Work Value = Work Completed (B) * Total Project Cost

E. Actual Spent and Actual + Commitments: From the Data Warehouse (which is updated every evening)

F. Cost Ahead/Behind = Work Value (D) – Actual Spent (E)

Project cards illustrate your current actual costs against your planned spending

The Portfolio Chart includes a third piece of information: Project Performance

• Your response to the schedule question on the last status update provides the project performance value, indicating whether you are performing ahead or behind your plan.

In the example provided below:

• While you have spent more than planned (as shown on the Project Card)
• However, you are ahead of schedule (as reported in your last status update)
• and the work that you have completed has cost you less than you anticipated (as shown on the Portfolio Chart)

The Project and Portfolio Management Tool was designed to support project based work, with the expectation that new/unused charge numbers would be provided (as is best practice). 

When a charge number is used that has charges on it prior to the Project Start Date, differences in Costs and Budget Authority may be identified between the Project Management Tool and the BI Tool due to differences in reporting periods.

The Project and Portfolio Management Tool is designed to capture all costs within the Project Period (within the Project Start and End Date); therefore,

1. Actual Costs accumulated prior to the Project Start Date will not be shown on the Project.
2. The Project’s Budget Authority (BA) is calculated as the Fiscal Year BA minus actual costs prior to the Project Start Date.

In contrast, the BI Tool currently reports all charges accumulated in the Fiscal Year (FY). 

If a “recycled” charge number must be used, it is suggested:

1.  You either begin your project at the beginning or the Fiscal Year or,
2. You begin your project in the month when charges first occurred.
3. Both of these solutions will prevent confusion between the FY-based reports in the BI Tool and the Project’s Period-based report.

An example has been provided below to illustrate how to reconcile the reports.  Note that the Project shown below has costs occurring prior to the Start Date of December 1st, 2015:

The system can easily accommodate projects with more than one Principal Investigator/Project Manager

It is suggested that the main point of contact for the project be listed on the Project Information tab as the Principal Investigator/Project Manager.

Other PI/PMs can be added under the Team Tab – this will allow them to view the project and give them the ability to update/modify milestones, complete status updates, etc.

If you enter a parent charge number, it will pick up/roll-up the costs and funding related to all of the child charge numbers associated with it (in order to prevent you from having to enter each of the child charge numbers).

If several charge numbers are provided, the related costs and funding are currently rolled up to provide the Project summary/dashboard. Note that the ability to filter your Project Dashboard for a specific charge number has been identified as a future enhancement opportunity.

*Ensure Budget Authority is applied to at least one charge number used.

A private project can only be seen by those included on the project and their chain of command.

In portfolio, search results will only be displayed for projects you are included on, within your chain of command, or those considered "Public" (NOT marked as private).

Anyone can access Projects indicated as Public; however, if they are not included on the Project they will only be able to view it as Read Only.

When using impersonation to view an individual’s Projects and Portfolios, you will only be able to see Private Projects if you are included on the Project (or in their chain of command).

A draft Project will remain in the system indefinitely.

A draft Status Update will only remain in the system for 5 business days.

If you are entering a status update within the first five business days of the month, you will have an option to status for the previous month or the current month.

When available, just use the radio buttons provided to select the month you would like to update.

The cost data is updated upon opening the application/page to reflect what’s in the data warehouse (which is updated every evening).

You cannot currently delete projects in the application – this has been identified as a future enhancement opportunity.

You may hide projects from your Project List using the drop down provided on the Project Card (as shown below).

All historical information stored in PTS, including in-process workflows, will be rolled over into the new system automatically to make the transition as seamless as possible.

None of the policy surrounding document review and release has changed, but researchers will now have built-in help tips to guide them through the publication review process.