Customer Spotlight: Leverage Vision's Export and ... · report automation Enhance existing project...

Customer Spotlight: Leverage Vision's

Export and Automation to Stay Ahead of

Your Projects (VI-73)

Bryan Cohen, CPA, CGMA

DLR Group

Presenter

Bryan Cohen, CPA, CGMADLR Group

Works primarily in Los Angeles

Worked in public accounting prior to joining WWCOT Architects as their Controller

WWCOT Architects merged with DLR Group and role changed to regional financial lead

Responsible for financial and accounting services in DLR Group California and Middle East, as well as supporting global Deltek Vision initiatives for the firm

California and Middle East regions have 215 people in five offices with 50+ project managers and 5 accounting/finance professionals

Main responsibilities include: revenue/billing forecasting, financial analysis, accounts receivables and payables management, project accounting

©2016 Deltek, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2

The Firm

100% Employee-Owned firm

Services include Architecture, Engineering, Interiors, and Planning

1,000+ Professionals

Largest sectors are Education, Justice, Civic, Sports, Retail, Hospitality, Workplace, and Energy

Brand Promise to elevate the human experience through design



Agenda

Introduction

Needs Assessment

Nuts and Bolts

Training of Staff

Conclusions

Q&A


Introduction

Before:

Static financial reports

Low use of Vision automation to distribute reports

Reports delivered monthly

Difficult for end user to interpret / too much information

After:

Dynamic financial reports

High use of Vision automation to distribute reports

Reports delivered weekly and monthly

Easy for end user to interpret and isolate potential problems early


Demand

Timesheet review process was cumbersome leading to delays in timesheet submissions

Our project leadership felt they were missing the right tools to manage their projects

Monthly financial reports were not easy to navigate and hard to focus in on potential

problems

Revenue percentage completes were being submitted based solely on schedule with little

review of actual effort leading to revenue adjustments and invoice revisions

Accounts receivables balances were not reviewed often and follow up was haphazard


Supply

Provide Unposted labor reports through Deltek Vision report automation for timesheet review

Automate phase/task selection on timesheets through Deltek Vision custom

Deliver weekly budget to actual comparisons to project managers through Deltek Vision report automation

Enhance existing project financial reports through simple Microsoft Excel PivotTable tools and conditional formatting

Integrate scheduled revenue/billings with actual labor effort (at billing rates) and distribute one report that project leadership may refer to

Deliver AR reports to project leadership on a monthly basis, including AR Comments


Get organized

Develop a list of standard reports to distribute to firm leadership

Included the following columns:

– Report Name

– Relative date / time report will be distributed (i.e. Monday mornings, first week of month)

– Who the report donor is

– Who the report recipient is

– And lastly, the purpose of the report *

* The importance of this last item can sometimes be overlooked. Every report should have an explanation of what the report is for. This may be in the distribution email or imbedded in the report workbook or pdf


Assess Needs

Evaluate usefulness of each report and remove any legacy/old school reports that may

not be referred anymore

Identify recurring reports that may be automated through Deltek Vision

Identify static financial reports that may be better as an Microsoft Excel export with

PivotTable functionality

Add new reports based on the demand of management, try and remove yourself from

the maintenance of each report through Deltek Vision automation


Standard Report / Weekly draft timesheet

One individual in each office responsible for timesheet “Approval” in Deltek Vision

Scheduled Unposted labor report delivered to inbox of project managers listed in Deltek Vision each week before timesheets post

Report includes all labor activity on their projects

Contract employees complete timesheets so their time shows up as well

Project managers are given a window of time to review and respond with any time transfer requests

Time transfers are centralized to accounting

Allows for efficient review of timesheets and convenient report for project managers


Deltek Vision

Reporting / Employee / Unposted Labor

Report Options:


Deltek Vision

Click Email dropdown / To

Project Managers

Add a standard message

Set the desired time report

runs

Schedule a recurring report


Standard Report / Weekly phase update report

Scheduled report to project managers showing all active projects with the “active

phase” in Deltek Vision (Active phase is a user defined field on each project record)

Project managers may then request for active phase change to occur or change

themselves in Deltek Vision

A phase change alert will be emailed to project leadership and assigned practice

leader for quality assurance purposes

The active phase of the project will automatically pull to timesheets, so timesheet will

be automatically directed to active phase of project and reports will reflect time more

accurately


Deltek Vision

Reporting / Project / Project List

Report Options:


Deltek Vision

Click Email dropdown / To

Project Managers


Set the desired time report

runs

Schedule a recurring report


Standard Report / Weekly budget to actual report

Scheduled report showing total hours at billing rates vs. net fees, by phase, as well as

total hours vs. budgeted hours

Report sent to project managers listed in Deltek Vision

Provides project managers clarity on fee remaining and percentage complete based

on actual effort

Allows for weekly reconciliations of budget to actual

Note: We are not using project planning, but are budgeting using the projection budget

worksheet in Vision


Deltek Vision

Reporting / Project /

Project Progress

Report Options:


Deltek Vision

Click Email dropdown /

To Project Managers


Set the desired time

report runs

Schedule a recurring

report


Standard Report / Monthly project performance report

Microsoft Excel based report sent to firm leadership and project managers listing

project performance, by month, year to date, job to date, and contract balance

Conditional formatting used to highlight top ten and bottom ten performing projects

PivotTable slicers used to isolate project managers, sectors, offices, and disciplines

Provides a dashboard view for project managers

Allows for easy evaluation of project manager performance through slicer filters

Slicers allow for a push button analysis and are easy to identify and interpret


Deltek Vision

Reporting / Project / Project Earnings

Report Options:


Deltek Vision

Preview Report

Use Advanced Search

tool to extract data

Select individual projects

and export to MS Excel


Microsoft Excel

Better manage large

data export by inserting

a Table

Select Summarize with

PivotTable in the Table

Tools tab

Start creating a dynamic

dashboard for

management


Microsoft Excel

Choose different Row

Labels and Value fields

Remember to Sum your

financial information

Format report to view in

dollars

Apply conditional

formatting to highlight

top/bottom projects


Microsoft Excel

Insert Slicers under the

PivotTable Tools menu,

these will act as filters for

the end users

Include a brief

explanation of the report

and distribute to

leadership team


Standard Report / Monthly net revenue/billings to actual labor effort at billing rates Microsoft Excel based report sent to firm leadership and project managers listing

active projects with scheduled net fee revenue/billings compared to monthly effort

Expand effort out by number of weeks remaining in the period to project a full month

Conditional formatting used to highlight large variances between revenue and effort

PivotTable slicers used to isolate project managers, sectors, offices, and disciplines

Easy to identify over or under billings

Provides management a tool to evaluate the month and course correct before revenue

is posted


Deltek Vision

Reporting / Reporting / Project Detail

Run report in the current period for labor only

Report Options:


Deltek Vision

Preview Report

Use Advanced Search

tool to extract data

Select individual

projects and export to

MS Excel


Revenue Percentages

Access revenue percentages

Integrate revenue percentages with labor effort through VLOOKUP function in MS Excel

We use a Revenue Projection Grid (EleViaSoftware), so our revenue is formatted well with our project/task numbers


Microsoft Excel Once data is lined up in

Microsoft excel, you may create your analysis

We add an additional column to extrapolate labor effort and to show variance between our net revenue and labor effort

Better manage large data export by inserting a Table

Select Summarize with PivotTable in the Table Tools tab

Start creating a dynamic dashboard for management


Microsoft Excel

Choose different Row

Labels and Value fields

Remember to Sum your

financial information

Format report to view in

dollars

Apply conditional

formatting to highlighted

large variances


Microsoft Excel Insert Slicers under the

PivotTable Tools menu,

these will act as filters for

the end users

Include a brief explanation

of the report and distribute

to leadership team


Standard Report / Monthly Accounts Receivables report with AR Comments

Scheduled report through Deltek Vision sent to project managers each month

Report includes all AR (not just aged balances) to help project managers monitor

negative trends

Report includes AR Comments to help avoid redundant follow up efforts

Gives project managers a deliverable to discuss with their clients

Standardizes client follow up as reports are issued consistently each month


Deltek Vision

Reporting / Accounts

Receivable / AR Aged

Report Options:


Deltek Vision

Click Email dropdown /

To Project Managers


Set the desired time

report runs

Schedule a recurring

report


Training

Train financial or project manager lead in each office/region on reports and have them

schedule meetings with project managers to facilitate training

Include report training in onboarding of new project managers, this financial project

management training should complement the practice project management training

Encourage project managers to integrate report review in their weekly and monthly

workflows


Reference reports a lot

Refer to reports during project update

meetings and career plans

Spend time analyzing reports and send

questions or feedback to project managers


Conclusions

Management has more transparency over financial data

Reports are hand delivered eliminating excuses of not knowing how to pull reports

independently

Provides every manager an opportunity to access the data

Consistent delivery of reports that management can rely upon

Saves accounting time of running impromptu reports and helps streamlines processes


Questions & Contacts

If you have any questions or need further assistance

Bryan Cohen

– [email protected]

– Office: 213-373-6295

Customer Spotlight: Leverage Vision's Export and ... · report automation Enhance existing project...

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