If a company works in projectsit encounters different hurdles in controlling than a mass-produced company. Especially when dealing with customers, the latter is often more transparent. A product has a fixed price, which at most changes due to options that can be booked. At first glance, this may also be true for a project. At second glance, however, it becomes more difficult and draws attention to the issue of project controlling.
Project controlling must react to dynamics
After all, when a customer commissions the company with a project, the "production process" is only just beginning. With project-based work, however, it is often the case that goals are set on a hypothetical basis. When, how and by what means these are achieved is also based on experience-based assumptions. It is therefore always possible that the company will have to expand its services in the project. Small customer requests that only arise in the course of the project can mean a great deal of effort for the company. Even if this was not planned, it is important for the company's profitability to calculate this. But how can an overview be maintained so that the course of the project remains transparent for everyone involved at the end? This is where project controlling comes into play.
The thing with split bookings
The difference between our solution and the SAP standard DATEV Export lies in the handling of so-called split postings. In order to use the DATEV export of the SAP Business One standard, a basic requirement is to make a configuration with serious consequences in the company settings. There you have to change the system setting ?Split journal entry by line item?</em activate. Instead of creating a single posting for an entire voucher, the system generates a separate posting for each voucher line. This generates more posting lines and a larger amount of data. The split journal entries can also affect the way reports and analyses can be created and interpreted. Depending on the volume of transactions and the performance of the system, an increased number of posting lines can also affect processing speed and system performance. For some organisations, the increased level of detail and number of postings can lead to increased complexity in accounting, which may require more accurate and attentive handling. The decision to enable this setting should therefore depend on the specific requirements of the organisation and the preferences of the accounting team and not necessarily on the option to export the data to DATEV. The reason for the mandatory setting 'Split journal entry by line item' is simple: if journal entries are split by line item, this makes the export much easier. This makes it easier to make the correct allocation to the revenue account and the corresponding posting to the account with the applicable tax. Without a precise analysis of the document origin of the journal entries, it would be almost impossible to allocate the correct amount to the correct revenue account with the correct tax. This is done in the Versino Financial Suite through time-consuming checks and calculations, as this information is withheld from us in the SAP Business One journal entry.
MariProject is the central contact point for project controlling. This is where all the data comes together and can be related to each other. Generated costs and revenues, performance and time recording, material consumption, planning and calculations.
Report Standards included
Many project reports are already delivered with the standard. This allows you to immediately evaluate budgets, degree of completion, remaining volume, target/actual comparisons, resource utilisation, project turnover and much more.
Free data analysis
Specific reports can be generated via a separate data warehouse. Of course, all evaluations can be passed on to MS Excel. With the Versino Power Bi interface, you can quickly enter the world of visual data analysis.
The basis: offer and budgeting
The basis of any good project controlling is the project proposal and the Budgeting. Here the company defines exactly how it calculates its services. This includes
Hourly benefits, employee expenses, material costs. What seems pedantic is very effective for uniform cost-performance transparency. In case of doubt, you can always refer to it. So it is better to be over-precise. It is also a good idea to include deadlines at this point, because this will prevent false impressions of when you can deliver what.
The structure: fact comparison in project controlling
Of course, all these figures are useless if you have no comparative values to hand. That's why you need to be able to access the latest figures during the project. This is the only way you can check whether you can keep up with your offer. This target/actual comparison gives you real "controlling" over your project. Depending on the size of the project, this can be a real challenge. At this point at the latest, it makes sense to use a project controlling solution. Modern solutions such as MariProject for SAP Business One enable you to call up and compare figures directly in the system with just a few clicks. In this way, you can not only detect deviations early on, but also react to them in time and - if necessary - make corrections in the procedure.
The right system
In order to be able to access these controlling possibilities, it is of course necessary to find the right system. Because even among project-based companies there are still many differences in the processes. In the search, it can be helpful to ask oneself which figures are the most important for the company to achieve its best profitability. For this, it is important to know, Which data, when and where must be in which position. Go the Processes of your latest projects. Where are there always Repetitions? Who is when responsible? And how current do the dates have to be when?
The answers to these questions will provide you with a good basis for finding a suitable system. If you are interested in the topic of project controlling, you will find here read more.
Budgets in SAP Business One
Optimisation of the integrated financial system
Financial consolidation with SAP Business One
Return rates – on the trail of returns
More key figures transparency in the ERP system
