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Entities

Creating a financial entity is the first step in setting up financial management. You can define as many entities as you need.

Each entity owns a unique set of locations and departments for which the entities are financially aware. To establish this financial boundary, associate the entities with a geographical OBS for locations and an organizational OBS for departments.

Once an entity is defined, you can create financial plans and establish costs for investments.

Financial controllers can set up defaults at the entity level to suggest the recommended cost plan structure for the organization. For example, they can predefine the fiscal time period type and the grouping attributes for all cost plans. The default values are automatically populated for individual investment cost plans at the time you create them. The project managers can change these defaults for their specific investments.

More information:

How to Set Up Financial Entities

Create Entities

Detailed Financial Planning

How to Set Up Financial Entities

Financial setup requires input from your IT or corporate finance department and must accurately reflect how investment costs are tracked.

The following is the recommended order of tasks for setting up an entity:

  1. Create an OBS type for a financial department and for a financial location.

    For more information, see the Administration Guide.

  2. Create an entity and associate it with the department OBS and location OBS.
  3. Create fiscal time periods.
  4. Create departments for the entity.
  5. Create locations and assign them to the entity.
  6. Associate departments with locations.
  7. Define the financial cost/rate matrix.
  8. Define financial classes.
  9. Define entity home currency and currency defaults

More information:

Edit Entities

Create Entities

If you are setting up financial management for the first-time, first establish the OBS location and OBS department associations and then create the entity .

If you have previously defined system defaults, the default values are populated when you create an entity. For example, Investment Class, Company Class, and WIP Class are populated by default.

If a cost/rate matrix exists for resources (labor, material, equipment), by default all transactions for these resources use the matrix to determine costs and rates. You can override this default by entering a different cost and rate in the transaction properties.

Follow these steps:

  1. Open Administration, and from Finance, click Setup.

    The financial organizational structure appears.

  2. Click Entities.

    The entity list appears.

  3. Click New.

    The create page appears.

  4. In the General section, complete the following fields:
    Entity

    Defines the entity name. You cannot update this value after you create the entity.

    Description

    Defines the detailed description of the entity.

    Short Description

    Defines the brief description of the entity.

    Fiscal Period Type

    Defines the fiscal time period type for the entity. This value sets the default fiscal time period type for all new cost plans created for the entity. You can change this default in the cost plan.

    Values:

    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Annually
    • Weekly
    • Semi Monthly
    • 13 Periods
    Home Currency

    Defines the home currency for the entity. You cannot update this field after the entity is created. You can only select currencies if the currency option was enabled as CA Clarity PPM was installed.

    Default Billing Currency

    Defines the default billing currency for viewing cost plans.

    Reporting Currency

    Defines the default currency used for reporting. You cannot update this field after the entity is created.

    Location OBS

    Defines the location OBS associated with the entity.

    Department OBS

    Defines the department OBS associated with the entity.

  5. In the Defaults section, complete the following fields:
    Investment Class

    Defines the investment class for the entity used for reporting purposes.

    Company Class

    Defines the default company class.

    WIP Class

    Defines the default work-in-progress class.

  6. In the Labor Rate and Cost Defaults section, complete the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for labor.

    Cost Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for labor.

    Source Location

    Defines the source for the rate and cost as coming from either the resource location or project location.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for labor.

    Values: Average, Fixed, or Spot

  7. In the Material Rate Defaults section, complete the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for materials.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for material.

    Values: Average, Fixed, or Spot.

  8. In the Equipment Rate Defaults section, complete the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for equipment.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for equipment.

    Values: Select Average, Fixed, or Spot.

  9. In the Expense Rate Defaults section, complete the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for expenses.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for expenses.

    Values: Select Average, Fixed, or Spot.

  10. Save the changes.

    The entity is created.

More information:

How to Set Up Financial Entities

Edit Entities

Fiscal Time Periods for Entities

Grouping of Cost Planning Data

How Cost Plans are Created

Edit Entities

You can change the general information for an entity after you create it. You can delete an entity as long as it is not associated with any department or location.

Follow these steps:

  1. Open the entity.

    The entity properties appear.

  2. Edit or review the following fields:
    Entity

    Defines the entity name. You cannot update this value after you create the entity.

    Description

    Defines the detailed description of the entity.

    Short Description

    Defines the brief description of the entity.

    Fiscal Period Type

    Defines the fiscal time period type for the entity. This value sets the default fiscal time period type for all new cost plans created for the entity. You can change this default in the cost plan.

    Values:

    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
    • Annually
    • Weekly
    • Semi Monthly
    • 13 Periods
    Home Currency

    Defines the home currency for the entity. You cannot update this field after the entity is created. You can only select currencies if the currency option was enabled as CA Clarity PPM was installed.

    Default Billing Currency

    Defines the default billing currency for viewing cost plans.

    Reporting Currency

    Defines the default currency used for reporting. You cannot update this field after the entity is created.

    Location OBS

    Defines the location OBS associated with the entity.

    Department OBS

    Defines the department OBS associated with the entity.

  3. In the Defaults section, edit the following fields:
    Investment Class

    Defines the investment class for the entity used for reporting purposes.

    Company Class

    Defines the default company class.

    WIP Class

    Defines the default work-in-progress class.

  4. Edit the following fields in the Labor Rate and Cost Defaults section:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for labor.

    Cost Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for labor.

    Source Location

    Defines the source for the rate and cost as coming from either the resource location or project location.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for labor.

    Values: Average, Fixed, or Spot

  5. In the Material Rate Defaults section, edit the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for materials.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for material.

    Values: Average, Fixed, or Spot.

  6. In the Equipment Rate Defaults section, edit the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for equipment.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for equipment.

    Values: Select Average, Fixed, or Spot.

  7. In the Expense Rate Defaults section, edit the following fields:
    Rate Source

    Defines a cost/rate matrix to use for expenses.

    Exchange Rate Type

    Defines the exchange rate type to use for expenses.

    Values: Select Average, Fixed, or Spot.

  8. Save the changes.

More information:

How to Set Up Financial Entities

Create Entities

Locations

Departments

Fiscal Time Periods for Entities

Fiscal time periods are the dates you specify as a unit for financial processing. Before you can perform detailed financial planning tasks or set up chargeback rules, you must define active fiscal time periods for an entity.

When creating time periods, the period, year, and date range you select automatically creates a series of time periods.

Example

If the time period is monthly, enter January 1 as the start date and December 31 as the finish date. Doing so creates time periods for each month in the specified year.

More information:

How to Get Started with Financial Management

Entities

Create Fiscal Time Periods

Create Fiscal Time Periods

Follow these steps:

  1. With the entity open, click Fiscal Time Periods.

    The fiscal time periods list appears.

  2. Click New.

    The create page appears.

  3. Complete the following fields:
    Period Type

    Defines the period type, such a monthly or quarterly. Once you create this time period, you cannot change the type.

    Values: 13 Periods, Weekly, Semi Monthly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually

    Fiscal Year

    Defines the fiscal year.

    Time Period Description

    Defines the placeholder description for the set of time periods being created.

    Start Date

    Defines the start date for the period or range of time periods. You cannot edit the start date once saved.

    Finish Date

    Defines the ending date for the time period or range of time periods. You cannot edit the finish date once saved.

  4. Save the changes.

    All fiscal time periods within the date range are created with a status of "Inactive".

More information:

Fiscal Time Periods for Entities

Activate Fiscal Time Periods

Edit Fiscal Time Periods

Create Entities

Activate Fiscal Time Periods

You can deactivate or delete a fiscal time period only if it is not used in a cost plan or referenced in a transaction.

Follow these steps:

  1. Open the entity and the fiscal time periods to be activated.

    The fiscal time periods list appears.

  2. Select each fiscal time period to be activated.
  3. Open the Actions menu, and from General, click Activate.

    A checkmark appears in the Active column for the fiscal time period.

  4. Save the changes.

    The fiscal time periods are now active.

More information:

Fiscal Time Periods for Entities

Create Fiscal Time Periods

Edit Fiscal Time Periods

Cost Plans

Edit Fiscal Time Periods

You can edit the name, start date, finish date, and year of inactive fiscal time periods. You can edit these attributes as long as there are no overlaps across, or gaps between the time periods. Once activated, you can only edit the name and description of a time period.

Follow these steps:

  1. Open the entity and the fiscal time periods.

    The fiscal time periods list appears.

  2. Edit the following fields as needed:
    Period Name

    Defines the fiscal time period name. You cannot edit the name once saved.

    Fiscal Year

    Defines the fiscal year.

    Time Period Description

    Defines the placeholder description for the set of time periods being created.

    Start Date

    Defines the start date for the period or range of time periods. You cannot edit the start date once saved.

    Finish Date

    Defines the ending date for the time period or range of time periods. You cannot edit the finish date once saved.

  3. Save the changes.

More information:

Create Fiscal Time Periods

Fiscal Time Periods for Entities

Plan Defaults

Use plan defaults to define default settings for all project and investment cost plans. Budget Plans inherit the grouping attributes from cost plans.

With plan defaults, you can do the following:

If you set plan defaults for period type, plan start and end periods, and grouping attributes, these default values are auto-populated when defining cost plans. Project managers can change these values in the cost plans unless the plan structure is locked.

If you do not set any plan defaults, the period type is auto-populated from the entity when defining cost plans. The plan start and end periods are auto-populated from the investment start and end dates.

Create Plan Defaults for Entities

Follow these steps:

  1. With the entity open, click Plan Defaults.

    The create page appears.

  2. Complete the following fields:
    Period Type

    Defines the type of period on which cost plans for this entity are based, such as monthly or quarterly.

    Default: The period type used in chargebacks for debit and credit rules.

    Plan Start Period and Plan End Period

    Defines the default start and end time periods for cost plans.

    Freeze Date

    Defines the freeze date. You cannot edit a plan for time periods before the freeze date.

    Lock Plan Structure

    Specifies whether you want to prevent managers from overriding plan defaults when defining cost plans. You can select this field only if you have some grouping attributes selected.

    Default: Cleared

    Grouping Attributes

    Defines the categories for designing the cost plan and benefit plan line item detail structure.

    Values: Charge Code, Department, Input Type Code, Location, Resource, Resource Class, Role, Transaction Class, User Value 1, and User Value 2

  3. Save the changes.

More information:

Plan Defaults

Edit Plan Defaults for Entities

Edit Plan Defaults for Entities

Changes to plan defaults apply only to new cost plans, not existing ones.

Follow these steps:

  1. With the entity open, click Plan Defaults.

    The entity plan defaults appear.

  2. Edit the following fields:
    Period Type

    Defines the type of period on which cost plans for this entity are based, such as monthly or quarterly.

    Default: The period type used in chargebacks for debit and credit rules.

    Plan Start Period and Plan End Period

    Defines the default start and end time periods for cost plans.

    Freeze Date

    Defines the freeze date. You cannot edit a plan for time periods before the freeze date.

    Lock Plan Structure

    Specifies whether you want to prevent managers from overriding plan defaults when defining cost plans. You can select this field only if you have some grouping attributes selected.

    Default: Cleared

    Grouping Attributes

    Defines the categories for designing the cost plan and benefit plan line item detail structure.

    Values: Charge Code, Department, Input Type Code, Location, Resource, Resource Class, Role, Transaction Class, User Value 1, and User Value 2

  3. Save the changes.