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Matrix42 Self-Service Help Center

Planning costs

Overview

A cost plan is a calculation rule that is used for distributing the costs of a contract item over a defined period. Cost plans help you monitor the following points:

  • What costs are planned in which period?
  • What costs have actually occurred to date?
  • What costs can still be expected?

When the cost plans have been generated for a contract item, you can see the breakdown of planned costs on the Costs chart on the contract item preview. In addition, the Total Costs and Current Year charts of the related contracts and master contracts display the aggregated data on cost plans from all contract items and/or contracts.

Generating default cost plans

After you enter and save all cost related information for a contract item (see the lists below), the system automatically generates a default cost plan. You can edit this default cost plan at any time. If a plan was deleted, a new default plan is created based on the current data of the contract item. When you create a new contract item, you can define one or more cost plans yourself. In this case, no default cost plan is generated.

For the system to automatically generate a default cost plan, you should enter and save the following information in a contract items’ dialog:

  • For a contract item of purchase
  • Effective Date
  • Price per Unit
  • Quantity
  • Depreciation Period (Months)
  • For all other types of contract items
  • Effective Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Price per Unit
  • Quantity

The cost projection frequency of a default cost plan is Monthly in most of the cases. However, when Depreciation Period is not specified in a contract item of purchase, the frequency is Non-Recurring.

Sample of a default cost plan

The system calculates the total amount of a cost plan and then the amount of each cost projection based on the data specified on the Billing page. Refer to Managing billing data for contract items to know more about the Billing page.

On the picture below you can see an example of a filled in Billing page.

ContractItemBilling.png

Along  with the contract item's validity period, this will be enough for the system to generate a default cost plan that will have the values depicted below.

DefaultCostplan.png

Adding cost plans

To create a cost plan manually, you should first create and save a contract item under Contracts > All Contract Items navigation item in the Contracts application.

To add a cost plan for a contract item:

  1. Go to the Costs tab of the contract item’s dialog.
  2. Click the Add button in the Cost Plans grid.
  3. In a dialog that opens fill in the following data:
  • Title
  • Cost Category. The value is pre-filled if it has been selected on the Billing page of the contract item.
  • Cost Projection Frequency. Period of time at which costs are projected. For contract items of purchase, the default option is Non-Recurring. For contract items of all other types, the default option is Monthly.
  • Start Date and End Date. By default these are the effective date and the expiration date.
  • No. of Intervals. The number of selected intervals between Start Date and End Date. The field is non-editable.
  • Unit Price. Non-editable data.
  • Quantity from This Plan and Cost from This Plan. Editing one of this fields adjusts the value in the other field accordingly. Here you can choose whether cost projections will be based on quantity or on payment amount. Default values of these fields are based on data from the Billing page (Cost from This Plan is equal to Grand Total NET).

The page also displays summarized information about the cost plan:

  • Quantity from This Plan
  • Quantity from Other Plans. Planned quantity of other plans for the current contract item.
  • Total Quantity Planned. Planned quantity of all cost plans for the current contract item.
  • Quantity Billed. Value which is calculated based on the Billing page.
  • Variance. Difference between Total Quantity Planned and Quantity Billed.
  • Cost from This Plan
  • Cost from Other Plans. Planned quantity of other plans for the current contract item.
  • Total Cost Planned. Planned amount of all cost plans for the current contract item.
  • Amount Billed. Value of Grand Total NET from the Billing page.
  • Variance. Difference between Total Cost Planned and Amount Billed.
  1. Click Save to add a cost plan with projections.

The cost projections grid displays a list of all increments from all added cost plans. Costs of a single cost projection are calculated as Cost from This Plan/Intervals.

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