Store period performance

store period performance does just what it says it does it stores manhours and costs data thru a certain time period. I.E.. from update to update. Its like balancing your check book. This period represent what you have spend and earned during the update period. If you are using the schedule as a billing tool this period $ is what you would submit to get paid for this update period.

lets say an activity is $100, and you are 50% complete with this activity then you would have earned $50 THIS PERIOD and there is $50 remaining. So you bill $50

next update what you do is STORE PERIOD performance and this sets THIS PERIOD to ZERO. NOW you start to update your schedule for this reporting period this same activity is now 75% complete so you have earned another $25 for THIS PERIOD. That would be the amount to bill for THIS PERIOD.

So the pervious amount would be $50 this period would be $25 and total to date would be $75 with $25 remaining.

I wrote an article addressed when do we use this function.

Kindly read it here : https://doduykhuong.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/when-do-we-use-store-perio…

Ronnel,

I suggest to Resource Load your schedule with Material Type and Load the Corresonding Cost in it.

Regards,

Good day All,

I haven't been following this section of the forum but i decided to post this question of mine about Stored Period Performance on P6.7

My Question is, Can we ever Do or Use the Stored Period Performance on the Expenses Items and Zero out this period cost something like a regular resource & cost loaded schedule? The Funny thing is i coudn't find a this period cost for Expenses, and the schedule i am working on now is Cost loaded only on the expense side. Any idea on this? Thanks.

Regards,

Ronnel

Good day All,

I haven't been following this section of the forum but i decided to post this question of mine about Stored Period Performance on P6.7

My Question is, Can we ever Do or Use the Stored Period Performance on the Expenses Items and Zero out this period cost something like a regular resource & cost loaded schedule? The Funny thing is i coudn't find a this period cost for Expenses, and the schedule i am working on now is Cost loaded only on the expense side. Any idea on this? Thanks.

Regards,

Ronnel

Mimoune



I do work only to previous employers before I got on my own, is because I do provide quantity take off services to them and provide other engineering services that I do work on their schedules as a side line, a work I still enjoy. For every time I visit the jobsite because of scheduling issues I visit their job 20 other times. I know their personnel and always go to the storage trailer to take a look at the last Centerfold poster.



Unless contractors know you well and you are part of the everyday team, things as estimating and scheduling is not outsourced. I believe them right.



About P6 both contractors gave it a try and immediately both rejected the software. Therefore there is not much I can help here other than making reference to how most software works.



I am interested in what happens at this thread because even when P6 is not our software of choice there is much to learn from P6 users, many times their approach can be applied at other software.



In Spider Project transferring of period performance from various file versions can be done at a click of a button, no PhD required as long as you have a working finger to click the mouse. To import from Excel or any other software capable of generating CSV files you must import the CSV file into the Performance Archive using Reference Books, is a simple procedure.



http://www.planningplanet.com/forum/forum_post.asp?fid=1&Cat=15&Top=723…



Best regards,

Rafael

Rodel



hihihi, damn, it was too beautiful to be true, no thanks very much, i am just a "normal" user, my skills in database are only limited to ms access.

i imagine your solution needs some P6 API using java voodoo



best regards

Mimoune

Mimoune,

I will say yes which I already done it in the past. The only problem, it is not simple and can be done only by the advance user with knowledge in database structure, database management and a little bit of programming. If you wish I can do it for you as a favor.

Rafael



thanks very much for the references, if you don’t mind, what do you mean by my biggest client ! i suppose you work for a contractor, no !?



Rodel



the practice of putting period performance separated from the scheduling software was due to the fact that P3 originally did not support this features, even now, it is not practical as it is very complicated to modify past period performance.



but with p6, it seems this operation is straightforward, now my question is :



is it possible to import from excel to p6, performance of many period ?



thanks very much

Mimoune

Rodel,



What you say makes a lot of sense to me if you like P6 but we consider P6 not enough for our modeling needs, we do not like the tool.



Yes if the computer got all the data without data entry duplication why not? What you are doing should be the target of all P6 users.



Best regards,

Rafael

Rafael,

We also do all accounts in company accounting system (i.e. payroll, PO, invoice, payable, receivable...etc) and interfaced to primavera. Different project has different accounting system used depends of the client nominated system or sometimes alliance PLT decision. (i.e. SAP, PRONTO, JOBPAC...etc) I successfully develop an interface with those system to get the actual cost stored into Primavera using API. We use P6 for forecasting and cashflow because it more accurate and less work.

mimoune,



We enter the data in our Accounting System, at this moment my biggest client uses Sage Timberline Accounting, they enter all labor cost through the payroll module that integrates with the Job Costing Module as well as the other modules so data entry is done only once.



For Sage International:



http://www.sage.com/ourbusiness/sageworldwide



For Sage Timberline Office Accounting:



http://www.sagecre.com/products/timberline_office/accounting

For Sage Job Costing:



http://www.sagecre.com/products/timberline_office/accounting/job_cost_a…



http://www.sagecre.com/assets/sagecre/Documents/PDF_Products/STO_JobCos…



For Payroll:



http://www.sagecre.com/products/timberline_office/accounting/payroll



For Purchasing:



http://www.sagecre.com/products/timberline_office/procurement/purchasing



http://www.sagecre.com/assets/sagecre/Documents/PDF_Products/STO_Purcha…



http://www.sagecre.com/products/timberline_office/accounting/remote_tim…



All financial reports are issued on a weekly basis.



I do not believe they use the Project Management Module, because of their volume of work. Nor the Scheduling software that integrates with the accounting system, I consider it a Mickey Mouse module, BS with the integration of this module, sorry ladies understand I am a Contractor and not a priest.



We use Scheduling software for planning, not for record keeping other than activities actual dates. We plan at breakfast, we plan at the coffee break, we plan at lunch time, and we plan at dinner. Planning is our life line.



We love mixed rice and beans but do not mix scheduling with accounting, sound reporting on a weekly basis is good enough for us. We use accrual method so expenses are recorded before payment is done, we recognize purchase expenses at purchase order placement, labot at time card submission, we record expenses as soon as possible.



We use the schedule for cash flow estimates, here we consider the tool of great help, so we need the costing feature in our scheduling software. Is not merely for the progress payment S curves we use it. We value scheduling as a planning tool.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Mimoune,

P6 has a capability of storing performance period and you don’t need excel spreadsheet to keep it. P6 has 2 tables where it stored performance period which are Activity performance period and resources performance period. If this is properly setup it is very useful. I always used this function to keep my period performance every cut-off period so I can report a correct graph and cash flow.



Under Admin Financial period you need to create a cut-off period date where you stored performance period. (i.e. weekly, forth night, monthly and etc...) Then run stored performance Period on every corresponding period date.



You can display the value by selecting the field under Financial Period on the spreadsheet column or display actual using Financial Period Data.



Primavera has also capability of recording actual value every cut-off period without using performance period function. That’s another process.

Rafael



are you using excel to record those daily distributed card and weekly production data, or it is stored in a database.

and please do you have any ideas about software used to record actual progress (physical quantities, manhour), google give me names like primavera cost manager, deltek cobra



best regards

Mimoune

Fayas,



Did you tried to edit the values at the resource usage table by setting it to display weekly periods and resource costs, and then edit your values. As per my posting no 14.



Period updates in most software only edit last period, in order to edit prior periods you have to edit them at the table.



Sorry this is as far as I can go as I no longer have access to P3e, an older version of P6. Let everyone else know where you are so they can follow you.



Best regards,

Rafael

"don’t cover each project activity" - indeed a missing link.



They complement each other, none is a substitute of the other.



The main difference is that here for many decades Job Costing have been an accounting function.

Rafael,

here in Russia we separate project cost management and accounting.

Accounting data are always late for decision making and don’t cover each project activity.

Usually accounting information is compared with the project cost data each month with two or three weeks delay (as an example: on Novemner 20 we will compare the costs for October).

Best Regards,

Vladimir

The following is a link to a paper of my own on the issue of how most contractors at home track their costs.



http://rapidshare.com/files/269181396/Job_Costing_for_Construction.pdf



Usually the small contractor start tracking job costs using the limited job costing functions available in inexpensive accounting software, 80% start with Peachtree Complete Accounting, good enough to be used to manage their business for several years. The cost of the software is ~250$/license. It provides the contractor with all federal and state (as a US territory Puerto Rico is included) quarterly and yearly reports. Every year updated quarterly and yearly reports and tax tables are issued and sold for ~$50. The software in various versions provides for basic job costing.



http://www.peachtree.com/



Then when the accounting system is outgrown the contractor upgrades to more sophisticated software, most of which do provide to transfer accounting data from Peachtree Complete.



Our contractors track their job cost trough the accounting system but they have schedules for breakfast, coffee break, lunch, snack and dinner. Even when just a few track costs using the scheduling software the value of schedules is never questioned; your survival depends on good scheduling.



Most of us use the period report function within the scheduling software to track production progress, is relevant to planning, and provides you with trends. Though accounting precision is not required we need period productions close to reality, averaging various periods is not good enough. For those who track costs using their scheduling software this requirement would rule out software not capable of doing so.



Best regards,

Rafael

I don’t agree.

Cost management shall not be separated from schedule management. Project success criteria include costs and project decisions shall be weighted by their impact on project success criteria.

Accounting software does not provide all necessary information for project performance analysis and decision making. In any case it is too complicated to use several packages to analyze one project.

Using PM software just to set dates is too primitive.

Best Regards,

Vladimir

mimoune



I agree with you, I believe the functionality is good for some modeling where the data is needed, that for modeling a good approximation is enough and separate accounting and database software are better.



Either way if you are to keep period performance records better do it right, no matter what software you use.



Our approach is to use accounting and integrated job costing for these purposes and use the CPM for modeling your schedule.



We rarely use the costing features and when so we use it to model the progress payments if required by the specs.



We believe even in court the auditable accounting records have more credibility than the CPM where data can be easily tampered.



Best regards,

Rafael

Fayas



in the company i work for, we store period performance in a separate database,(in house oracle app)

perhaps scheduling software are not well suited for that purpose !!



mimoune

Fayas



I believe similar to MS Project you got to edit the values at the resource usage table set to display weekly periods and resource costs, and then edit your values.



Best regards,

Rafael

Anoon,



You are correct, the problem is with how you tell your software, each is different, and in addition different settings within your software make it behave different. Many times I know what I want the software to show but many times it goes in the opposite direction, and it is not the software but me who is missing something.



Yes you know the progress was 0 but I would not be surprised if the software does not expect this to happen. Because I don’t have P6 there is a possibility because of some setting I am not aware it is still insisting on displaying other number.



By the way, so many options to automate computations just create chaos; it is not uncommon that a change in a single setting changes everything in some software compromising the integrity of your historic data. Some software has gone to the extreme with the options.



Best regards,

Rafael

All,



I cannot think of any good reason why to store a period’s performance would not be necessary.



Actuals are actuals and cannot be changed, if you had progressed 50% today, and 0% percent tommorrow, your progress would still be 50% the day after.



So it is obvious that the progress in the period between the first and third day is zero %.



Now if you are billing on a daily basis, it will mean that you can claim 50% on the first day (or today), and zero billing on the third day.



Or my understanding on the subject is not correct?

Fayas,



If I understood you right you mean no progress for a specific activity during the last update period, in such case period performance was 0%, try entering 0% instead of leaving the field empty, this way the software will know it was 0% instead of the average for the remaining periods. For some reason work stopped, maybe a non-critical activity and resources moved to other critical activity or maybe any other reason, not uncommon. Here you can blame it on the rain, last week it rained a lot.



I do not have P6, if you need specific details, insist on your question.



If I understood it wrong, let me know, if we don’t figure it out someone else will assist us.



Best regards,

Rafael

To all:



If you do not use period updates the software will average the to-date progress with the to-date duration using a running average.



For example if you have a two weeks duration activity and report 50% progress for the first week , the software will average actual progress to 50%/week for the first week. Then if for the next week the activity is not finished and only 10% is realized the software will average the update for the first two weeks to be 30%/week. You will get an updated report that will show a 30% progress for the first week while the same report based on the prior update would show a 50% progress.



Averaged progress is always linear, irrespective of the resource curve, if you want to go with true progress you have to tell the software and enter the data on the period updates or at other screens such as period performance. In P3 modifying prior period performance values is an issue, in P6 is easier.



Using the period updates is optional, but it is the correct way of keeping accurate "as built" records on the CPM schedule.



If you model progress payments with your software and do not use period updates you most probably will get inconsistent results.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Anoon,



As said, if not required to record progress or costs on a periodic basis (weekly, monthly, etc, not necessary to use.



Regards

JMFrade

It’s good to use this feature if you want to record the actual quantities and cost periodically. If not used, the quantities and costs are always spread out over time periods.

Thread moved to P6



Cheers,



G

Hi Joe,



I don’t understand. I always thought that it (store period performance) refers to current schedule’s periodic progress. Why progress will reset to zero when using it?



Do you mean even when using it along the way or in the middle of project’s progress?



cheers

Hi,



One result is that when U use it the field progress this period is reset to zero and will record any progress entered during next period.



Basically, if you do not use it, field total progress achieved will be allways equal to progress this period (same applies to costs, etc)







BR



JMFrade

I had never used it to be honest, but with my little understanding, I believe it is used to record actuals on a timely manner, i.e. weekly; monthly, etc.



When you update your schedule, actual data is supposed to change with time, when there is no movement in your project, then only time will change.