Project Status
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Columns on the status form and their meanings - Lump sum proposal items
- Columns on the status form and their meanings - Rates proposal items
- Non-default nominal account costs
- Colouring of proposal items
- Troubleshooting
In this reference article, we will explore the different fields in the status update window. We will use same examples to fully demonstrate its use and we will also present certain troubleshooting cases. This is an in-depth article, for all fields of status update window. Please make sure you have gone through Record project status tutorial prior continuing.
Columns on the status form and their meanings - Lump sum proposal items
On Lump sum proposal items, the main concept is the percentage of completion of works. Recorded hours from diary entries will be compared against the budgeted hours. Project status is also recorded by the PM based on the percentage of completed works.
Carefully review the columns on the example above. You can find their meaning in the table below. We are focusing on proposal item 205166 (Survey Building F5):
|
COLUMN NAME
|
DESCRIPTION | 09/11/2023 | 09/30/2023 | Difference 9/11 to 9/30 |
| ID | Proposal Item unique ID | 205166 | ||
| Name | Proposal Item name | Survey Building F5 | ||
| Department/ Service | Department/ Service where the proposal item is assigned to | Digital Engineering / Point Cloud (Processing) | ||
| Type | Defines whether proposal item is "Lump", "Rates" (automatic or with budget) | Lump | ||
| Costs | Cost of proposal item | £247.00 | ||
| Price | Price of proposal item (including overhead and profit) | £476.00 | ||
| Hours | Total recorded hours from the employee diaries. All these hours are assigned to their relevant proposal item. 0% at the difference column means that no hours have been recorded during this period. | 67.86% | 67.86% | 0% |
| Status | Percentage of completion (status) of proposal item according to the Project Manager of the project. On the 22nd November 2021, we have used 10.5% of the allocated hours for completing 35% of the project. Difference on status between 17th and 22th November, is 5%. | 25% | 32% | 7% |
| Value | Kompass will calculate the value by multiplying statuses with the proposal item price. Difference between the selected dates shows the value change, practically the WIP that can be invoiced to the client. | £119.00 | £152.32 | £33.32 |
Columns on the status form and their meanings - Rates proposal items
On Rates proposal items, the main concept is not the percentage of completion of works or the percentage of hours recorded. Instead we use the term "Units". Some examples of units could be:
- a day's work
- a week's work
- all works and resources required to deliver a single product
- all works and resources required to deliver a certain service i.e. a drawing, a report etc.
- etc.
Carefully review the columns on the example above. You can find their meaning in the table below. We are focusing on proposal items above in turns:
|
COLUMN NAME
|
DESCRIPTION | 08/31/2023 | 09/30/2023 | Difference 8/31 to 9/30 |
| ID | Proposal Item unique ID | 205693 | ||
| Name | Proposal Item name | Bus stop survey | ||
| Department/ Service | Department/ Service where the proposal item is assigned to | Digital Engineering / Condition Building Survey | ||
| Type | Defines whether proposal item is "Lump", "Rates" (automatic or with budget) | Rate⥁ (automatic rate) | ||
| Costs | Cost of proposal item | $2,326.00 for 2 units that have been recorded in the latest status update. When PM is adding additional units, cost will be changing. The cost per unit can be also seen as $1,163.00. | ||
| Price | Price of proposal item (including overhead and profit) | $6,400.00 for 2 units that have been recorded in the latest status update. When PM is adding additional units, cost will be changing. The price per unit can be also seen as $3,200 | ||
| Hours | For rate items, these mark units and not hours. Therefore, if one unit includes 1 employee working for 9.5 hours against a proposal item and there are 19 hours recorded, Kompass will return 2 units. | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Status | Units worked according to the Project Manager of the project. On the August 31st 2021, we have worked for 1 unit. On the September 30th 2023, we have worked for 2 units. Difference on status between those days is 1 unit. | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Value | Kompass will calculate the value by multiplying status with unit price. Difference between the selected dates shows the value change, practically the WIP that can be invoiced to the client. In this instance, $3,200 x 1 | $3,200.00 | $6,400.00 | $3,200.00 |
|
COLUMN NAME
|
DESCRIPTION | 08/31/2021 | 09/30/2022 | Difference 8/31 to 9/30 |
| ID | Proposal Item unique ID | 205691 | ||
| Name | Proposal Item name | Survey of Buildings | ||
| Department/ Service | Department/ Service where the proposal item is assigned to | Survey & UAV / Inspection (Traditional) | ||
| Type | Defines whether proposal item is "Lump", "Rates" (automatic or with budget) | Rate ⤒ (budget rate) | ||
| Costs | Cost of proposal item | £13,150.00 for all 25 units. Since this is a budget rate proposal item, that number will not change based on status. The cost per unit can be also seen as £245 and £281 for core and subcontractor nominal accounts respectively. | ||
| Price | Price of proposal item (including overhead and profit) | £14,050.00 for all fixed 25 units. Since this is a budget rate proposal item, that number will not change based on status. The price per unit can be also seen as £562 | ||
| Hours | For rate items, these mark units and not hours. Therefore, if one unit includes 2 employees working for 9.5 hours against a proposal item and there are 19 hours recorded, Kompass will return 1 unit. | 2.42 | 4.84 | 2.42 |
| Status | Units worked according to the Project Manager of the project. On the 30th July 2021, we have worked for 3 units. On the 4th February 2022, we have worked for 5 units. Difference on status between those days is 2 units. | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Value | Kompass will calculate the value by multiplying status with unit price. Difference between the selected dates shows the value change, practically the WIP that can be invoiced to the client. In this instance, £562 x 2 | £1,686.00 | £2,810.00 | £1,124.00 |
Note that you can review some extra information by hovering over the "Hours" values as seen below:
On this instance, there are 9.5h budgeted per unit. 46 hours have been recorded which account for (46 / 9.5 = ) 4.84 units.
Non-default nominal account costs
Each proposal item can have staff, equipment and subcontractor/ other costs.
For the subcontractor/ other costs, depending on the setup from your organization, some of these costs might be marked as subcontractor costs (1):
Those are not considered as core nominal account but as a separate one under subcontractors. It is useful for the PM of the project to know how much their costs are distributed between those two accounts. That will allow them to more accurately update the project status.
Distinction between nominal accounts can be found under the "Costs" column. © stand for core nominal account and Ⓢ stands for subcontract nominal account. Note that
| Proposal ID | Core | Subcontract | Comments |
| 205693 | Y | N | only core works |
| 205696 | N | Y | only Ⓢ is visible, just subcontractor works included |
| 206591 | Y | Y | both © and Ⓢ are included on this proposal item |
Colouring of proposal items
Proposal items come in three colours in the status update:
| Green | Proposal items that have been either set to 100% or reached all their budgeted rates. |
| Amber | Proposal items that a change either in hours or status has occurred during the selected period. |
| No colour | Ongoing proposal items with no changes during the selected period. |
Troubleshooting
No staff resources
Each proposal item can have costs for staff, equipment and subcontractor/ other costs.
The only cost that can be directly linked with working hours of employees is the staff cost.
In case there are recorded hours against a proposal item that does not have staff costs, then Kompass will return a warning.
The exclamation marks at the hours columns below, indicate that proposal item has no hours budget set. A relevant tooltip will appear if you will hover over the exclamation mark.
Proposal item 205693 below has been intentionally created without staff cost i.e. hours budget. Exclamation marks appear next to the working hours. To resolve this, click the affected proposal items (1).
Edit the proposal item and add at least one staff cost in your proposal item. Ensure the price of the proposal item is correct after adding staff costs.
Click Save and go back to the status update of the project.
As seen above, we included one day of CAD Technician and one day of Geospatial Manager per rate. The shift is set on 9.5 hours. Therefore, the 38 total worked hours when the exclamation mark was visible, will turn to 2 rates (9.5 hours for CAD + 9.5 hours for Manager, times 2).
Exceeding budgets
The automatic rate proposal items have no threshold, manager can keep adding units on the status for as long as the project runs. However, naturally a lump sum proposal item cannot exceed 100% status. Hours can exceed 100% if the project will overrun but status cannot do so. Kompass will notify you if you will mistakenly attempt to add such a percentage and it will reset to 100%.
Equally, Kompass will notify you if you will attempt to exceed the budgeted rates on a budget rate proposal item. In the example below, you have allowed for 25 units on this proposal item and attempted to add 32 units.
The difference in this case is that Kompass will allow the excessive units but an exclamation mark will notify you that you must issue an updated proposal for your client. WIP will also account for the excessive units.