Quick Start Guide: Set a budget and track a project. ARGUS Developer 7.6. Snapshot Module

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1 Quick Start Guide: Set a budget and track a project ARGUS Developer 7.6 Snapshot Module

2 PURPOSE This brief guide has been designed to show the user how the basic features in Snapshot are used to produce a budget and track your actual transactions against it. This is a complimentary learning aid to ARGUS Developer Training courses or the elearning guides. BY END OF THIS GUIDE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO 1. Assign Cost Codes to your Project Cash Flow 2. Create the Budget Cash Flow 3. Import a file containing invoice transactions 4. Spread variances in the Budget Cash Flow 5. View the KPI Budget Dashboard 6. Produce Snapshot reports ARGUS Software, Inc.

3 PREPARING THE PROJECT CASH FLOW Once you have built your development model, you will need to add cost codes to enable it to receive actual transactions. Select a cost code to link it to your chart of accounts. Ensure every item has a code assigned Click Cost Codes to display drop down list of costs codes to attach to the cash flow item A sample project data file along with a sample cost code set (.xml file) are located in the ARGUS Software installation Regions > [myregion] > Data sub-folder ARGUS Software, Inc.

4 CREATE A BUDGET CASH FLOW Your stakeholders have agreed to commit to the project and have given you a budget (agreed & fixed amount of funds) to deliver it. This budget is compared to actual results, to monitor & track variances from expected performance to allow the user to make the necessary decisions to bring the results back into line. Click Original and your Project Cash Flow is copied and displayed in the Budget Cash Flow Once an Original Budget is created, it can be broken down into smaller sections by using Released Budgets Click here to open list of budget Detail rows you wish to display/hide Budget Cash Flow is sub-divided into 3 sections: Actuals (historic data) Current (total to date) Forecast (future events) Budget Detail displays the comparison between the budget and actual results for each individual item in the project The budget has been created by copying the Project Cash Flow including all the KPI results [Note these amounts are the same as the previous screenshot] ARGUS Software, Inc.

5 IMPORT INVOICE TRANSACTIONS The project has commenced and you now need to reflect the money paid out or received, into your cash flow. You can import data from an external source via a direct database connection (configuration required) or from.csv/.xml export files. A sample actuals data.csv file is located in the ARGUS Software installation Regions > [myregion] > Data sub-folder. Invoice data can be imported via a direct connection to a finance system or as a csv/xml file Once data has been successfully imported, the invoices need to be allocated to the budget cash flow. Invoices can be imported with Phase References to simplify the allocation process Use Allocated Amount or Allocation %, to split your invoice when a cost code has been used multiple times in the model ARGUS Software, Inc.

6 SPREAD VARIANCES Once your actuals have been imported and allocated to the correct place in the cash flow, you may find that you have spent/received monies that is more/less than was forecasted. With these variances you have a choice of absorbing them into future forecasts or increasing/decreasing the overall forecast as necessary. Click View, to cycle through how you can view the cash flow (including KPI s) from a different perspective (Original or Revised Budget, Actual/Forecast) Budget Cash Flow now displays the imported actuals data KPI results have been updated to reflect the actuals (redistribution of variances has not been actioned yet) There are 5 re-distribution options: Add to next distribution period Add to last distribution period Spread evenly over remaining distribution Spread proportionally over remaining distribution Manually adjust ARGUS Software, Inc.

7 KPI BUDGET DASHBOARD The KPI Budget Dashboard tab displays a comparison of the budgeted KPI s against the latest forecast ARGUS Software, Inc.

8 BUDGET REPORTS There are eight Snapshot module reports that allows a consolidated view of multiple portfolios and projects. Consolidated Budget Cash Flow Consolidated Budget Summary Consolidated Finance Structure KPI s Consolidated Project KPI s Earned Value Analysis Log Actual Transactions Released Budget Cash Flow Released Budget Summary Select a report Click Preview Report to generate the report You can use parameters to refine the results ARGUS Software, Inc.