Project handling

---

Project and project queries

This manual describes the various project management functions, including how to set up new projects, analyse projects, print lists, create cost estimates or quotes, and prepare invoices for clients

Projects

In the Clients and Projects view, the clients entered in the system are displayed on the left. By selecting a client, the associated projects are displayed on the right. The All Projects tab displays a list of all projects.

You can hide and fetch buttons with the blue arrow next to each button.

Only active	On both client and project side you can choose to see only active clients/projects.
Only own	Only own refers to clients for whom you, as an employee, are the client manager. Only own projects’ refers to projects for which you are the project or production manager.
To be closed	Gives an indication to the accounting department/invoicing that the project can be closed

Columns

Select columns either with a right click on the list or using the column selector at the far right of the list. You can drag and drop the columns in the order you wish. Click on the heading in the column that will control the sorting. Right click in a column header to filter the content. Columns in the client list:

Star	Used to mark clients as favourites
Minus sign	Shows that a client is deactivated. No active projects exist, and new projects cannot be registered.
Code	The client’s unique identification code
Client	Client name
Client manager	The employee code of the client manager
Group	Code/name of the group that the client belongs to

Columns in the Project list:

Star	Shows that the project is marked as a favourite
Minus sign	Shows if the project is closed
Project	Project name
Registered	Registration date for the project
PM	Employee code of the project manager
$	$ indicates that the project has WIP
Due	A red # means that there is one or several overdue client invoices on the project. One # means that the invoice is more than 8 days overdue. ## means that the invoice is more than 31 days overdue.
Invoice text written	If crossed, there is invoice text in the project’s Invoice tab
Invoice text ready	If crossed, the invoice text has been marked as ready in the Invoice tab
Production manager	Employee code of the production manager
WIP	Shows the project’s total WIP amount.
Currency	Shows the project’s base currency (only used in multiple currency handling)
Project type	External project (E), internal (I), group common or external on group level (G), project for internal, not project related work (9) and speculative- or pitch projects (J).
To be closed	The column shows with a cross if the project is to be terminated and closed. That gives an indication to finance/invoicing that the project can be closed
WIP Fees	Amount in WIP fees
WIP Purchases	Amount in WIP purchases
WIP Other	Amount in WIP other
Fixed price	If there is a fixed price for the project, it is shown here
Deadline	If the project has a deadline date it is shown here. The setting is in the project parameters.
Inv date	If invoice date has been set in the project parameters, it is shown here.
Invoiced	Shows what has been invoiced on the project (pre-invoiced included)
Time reporting	A cross indicates that time can be reported on the project.
Local name	It is possible to give the project a local name.
Reference number	Shows reference number, if it has been registered on the project.
Closing date	Shows closing date on closed projects.
Start date	Shows registered start date

New clients and projects

New clients and projects are registered in the client – and project lists. The function for registration must be activated and the user must be authorised to it. New client Press the NEW button in the client list. Enter Client ID and press OK. Then fill in the rest of the fields and Save. There are settings that must be made for registration of clients here and not in Backoffice. The fields are determined in the project parameters.

Client ID	The client’s unique identification code, can be up to four digits
Name	The client’s full name, shown on e.g. invoices
Internal name	The internal name can be used to identify the client with a name of your own choosing. The name appears as the client’s name in Marathon, but the real name appears on client invoices.
Client manager	The system automatically suggests the person who is logged in as the client manager, but it is of course possible to change employee.
Client contact	Contact person at the client
Collective client	For statistic follow-up, clients can be connected with a collective client. For example, VOLVO could be the collective client for Volvo Stockholm and Volvo Gothenburg. Collective clients are registered in the base registers.
Category	Possibility to categorise clients for statistics
VAT	Domestic- Ordinary VAT rate for domestic clients, EU – VAT exempt foreign client within the EU or Foreign - VAT exempt foreign client outside the EU

New project

Select the client and click New in the project list. The fields that are available are set in the project parameters. If manual project numbers are used, the project number must be entered first. With automatic project numbers, the number field is not displayed; instead, the project is assigned the next available number.

Client ID	Selected client is filled in automatically
Name	Project name
Project manager	The person who is logged in is suggested as project manager, but this can be changed.
Production manager	The person who is logged in is suggested as production manager, but this can be changed.
Project description	Possibility to write a description of the project
Type	Project type, used for follow-up. External (E), internal (I), group-wide or external within the group (G), projects for internal non-project-related work (9) and speculative or pitch projects (J)
Job type	Type of job for the project. You can use up to three types.
Client contact	Contact person at the client
Master	For statistical purposes, projects can be linked to each other. For example, project SAS 0002 can be the master project for SAS 0004 and SAS 0005. In this way, the projects can be analysed either individually or all three together.
Special invoice text	Possibility to write a special invoice text on the project’s invoices- The text will be suggested on every invoice, but you can remove it.
Our ref on invoice	Fill in the field if someone else than the project manager shall be the reference on the invoice.
Time reporting	Check the box if the project shall be available for time reporting in Marathon.
Group	The project group that the project belongs to.
Cost centre	If the revenue from the project shall be booked on a certain cost centre.
Fixed price	In the project analysis and reports, it is possible to compare the registered and invoiced amounts with the fixed price.
Deadline	Deadlines can be displayed in reports. Exceeded deadlines generate a notification on the start page.
VAT	Enter VAT type for the project. It is important for the VAT calculation in Marathon.
Inv date	The project’s invoice date (optional).
Copy from	With Copy from, data from an existing project can be retrieved. In the window that opens, the project is retrieved and any information already entered is overwritten with the project data.

 

Analysis

Inside a project under the Analysis tab, the current status of the project is displayed. Underlined headings and amounts indicate that it is possible to drill down for more detailed information.

Currency	You can use another currency than the base currency. The amounts will be recalculated with current rate from the currency register.
Fees/Purchase/Other	Select in the drop-down menus how you wish to present the information about fees/purchases/other when deepening on the underlined headings. Example: If you choose Category/Code/Employee in Fees, the information will be presented first divided per fee category. If you deepen one step you see it divided per Fee code and Employee. Thereafter, next level shows details of the employees’ time reporting rows and comments.
Show only updated hours	By ticking the box, only the updated time is displayed. Depending on the parameter settings, time reports are updated automatically or not.
Total master project	Clicking the box displays statistics for all projects linked through a master project. Master projects are determined during project planning or changed under the General info tab.
Show period	The Analysis tab normally displays the current status of the project, but by selecting Show period and specifying a period, the information will only apply to that period. Please note that Invoiced shows what has been invoiced from what has been registered during the selected period.
Fixed price	A fixed price can be entered in the project setup or under the General info tab, if the field is enabled.
Cost estimate	The column shows the project’s cost estimate divided in fees, purchases and other. (If the parameter setting Include only confirmed estimates is activated, only confirmed are shown here.)
Quant.	Number of reported hours, purchases and other records.
Registered	The column calculates the value of actual fees, purchases and other. Registered fee shows the value of hours multiplied with the hourly rates or price per code that are set in the system. For purchases, the purchase price (cost) plus possible mark-up is shown.
Adjusted	Adjustments are usually made in connection with invoicing or when the project is completed. Click on the underlined text to see details of adjustments.
Invoiced	The column shows what has been invoiced for the project so far. Read more about invoicing below.
WIP	The amount to be invoiced. The WIP (work in progress) refers to the registered amount plus any adjustments minus the invoiced amount.
Pre-invoice	Shows if there is anything pre-invoiced (not invoiced from the WIP) that has not yet been deducted from WIP. When deducted, it will instead show in the Invoiced column.

To follow up on what has been invoiced for the project, click on the column heading Invoiced. The image below will then appear.

The image shows information about invoices, amounts and what the invoices relate to. By clicking on the invoice number on the left, you can see the items on which the invoice is based and the instructions from the Invoice tab. The icon on the right shows what the invoice to the client looks like in PDF format. The red mark in the Due column indicates that the invoice is past due. # is displayed if an invoice is 8 days or more past due. ## is displayed if an invoice is 31 days or more past due.

General info

The General info tab displays the project information that was entered when the project was created or synchronised from the client. To change any information, select Change and the same registration screen as when the project was created will appear. A project can be deleted using the Delete button if nothing has been entered in it. Authorised The Authorised tab shows the project manager for the current project and the account manager for the client. It then shows which employees have authorisation for the project. 

Price

The Price tab shows how the project is priced divided in fees, purchases and other.

If there is a fixed price for the project, it will be shown at the top of the respective area. Any hourly rates that differ from the employees' regular hourly rates will then be shown. The special hourly rates cannot be changed in this view; they can only be entered by an administrator. The following order of priority is used for special hourly rates ****/*** means all employees and all job codes. The example in the image above shows that all employees cost 1500 SEK on all codes, except Charlie, who normally costs 1200 SEK, but when working with job code Information gathering, he costs 1000 SEK. If the parameter setting Price per job code is activated instead of Price per employee, the special rates will not be taken into consideration. It will only say that hourly price is fetched from code For purchases, there are fixed markups per code that are used to calculate the price for the clients. For other records, the unit prices are retrieved from the respective other code.  

Cost estimate

The project’s cost estimate(s) are entered in the Cost estimate tab. It is used for quotations Use the blue arrow to see hidden buttons.

Confirm	When an estimate is confirmed, it is saved with date and username. A parameter controls if it shall be required that an estimate is confirmed before it can be used in the analysis tab, reports, etc.
Delete confirmation	A confirmed estimate cannot be changed, but you can delete the confirmation if you need to change something. If it is confirmed again, it will get a new confirmation date and username.
Activate	Possibility to activate a deactivated cost estimate
Deactivate	If a project has several estimates, you can deactivate those revisions that should not be included in analysis and reports etc.

Make a new cost estimate with the New button. The estimate has tabs for Fees, Purchases, Other and Text & Currency. The estimate can be registered in any detail level of your choosing. The hourly rates in the Fees tab are suggested from the project's price list if sufficient information to determine this has been entered. In the Purchases tab, markups are retrieved from the project's price list. In the Text & Currency tab, headings can be specified, and you can write estimate texts. In Estimate text after, you can write text that is to appear after the estimated values in the printout.

Copy from	You can use estimate templates or copy a previous estimate when you shall make a new cost estimate.
Templates	Estimate templates are registered in the Base registers.
Update prices	If you set an estimate on employee level, and their price is changed, you can update the price here.
Import team	Fetches the employees registered as team on the project.

After saving the estimate you can print it out with the Printout button.

Special invoice text	Text that appears as special invoice text on the project
Estimate text before	The text entered under Budget text before in the Text & Currency tab.
Page break	Tick if there should be a cover page with information about the project before the estimated values for fees, purchases and other are presented.
Estimate records	Shows the information in the tabs Fees, Purchases and Other
Page break	Page break before Estimate text after
Estimate text after	The text entered under Budget text after in the Text & Currency tab
Fees/Purchases/Other	The drop-down menus are used to determine how detailed the estimate printout should be.
Show hours	Tick if the estimate shall show number of hours for fees
Subtotals	The drop-down menu specifies the level of detail for the subtotals based on the selections made for displaying fees, purchases and other. The higher the number, the more detailed the subtotals.
Include 0-rows	Shows also row with amount zero
Show amounts in detail rows	By unticking this box, the amount for each item will not be specified in detail, only the total amount for fees/purchases/other.
Printout VAT	Tick if VAT shall be printed out in the estimate summary
Language	You can select languages, provided that the cost codes have been translated if they are included in the printout.
PDF/Spreadsheet	The estimate is printed either as a PDF or as a spreadsheet that exports the information to Excel.
Print template	Select template for the estimate printout.

 

Fees

In the Fees tab, the Reconciliation tab to the left shows the times that employees have registered either for the project or in total. Yellow days are not ready, green days are fully reported and red days are incomplete. If the Only project box is checked, hours marked in bold appear on the days that contain time reports for the project.

The Resource Planning tab is displayed on the right under Fees. You can select a date range and view the list by employee, code, date or in detail.

Only planned time	Here you can see both what has been planned and what has been registered for the project by checking/unchecking the box.
Date	Possibility to enter a time range
Employee	Hours per employee
Code	Hours per code
Date	Hours per date
Details	Shows a detailed list

 

Purchases

In the Purchasing tab, you will find Quotation queries on the left. Queries can be sent to suppliers, after which a purchase order can be created based on the quotation. Purchase orders are created either from the quotation or under the Purchase order tab. The purchase order can then be used when approving supplier invoices to match the purchase against the purchase order.

Press New to create a new quotation query.

Purchase of	A field for free text will also appear as Free text on the purchase order and will then also be displayed in Marathon Attest.
Purchase code	Type of purchase
Quoted price	Can be filled in once the quotation has been answered and can then be viewed as a column to get an overview of which supplier to send the purchase order to and to see price trends for previous quotations.
Our ref	Employee at the own company, that is a contact person.
Company	Company that the purchase goes to
Supplier	If the supplier is registered with address and terms of payment, this field will be automatically filled.
Delivery address	Address for delivery, Choose Own, Client or write address manually.
Goods label	Possibility to label the delivery
Description text	Text field for notes to the supplier. You can connect a PO-text to each purchase code, that will display automatically in the field
Copy from	Possibility to copy information from an existing quotation.
Printout	When saved, the quotation can be printed to PDF or sent to the supplier by e-mail.
Create purchase order	If the quotation shall become a purchase order. When creating a PO, it will get a serial number.
Open purchase order	You can open the PO to make completions. You can also open iy tin the Purchase order tab.
Print purchase order	The PO can be printed to PDF or sent to the supplier by e-mail.

Creating a purchase order facilitates the control of the purchase and the work of the accounting department or the approver if Marathon Approval is used, as the PO can be matched with the invoice. All the company's quotations and purchase orders are displayed under Accounting/Supplier invoices.

Printout

The project status is printed in the Printout tab. If several projects are to be printed, there is a corresponding list in Project Printouts under Project Queries. Select Print to start printing. Save Selection saves the selection for the next time the programme is used. Only updated times are shown in the printout.

General	The project General contains basic information about the project, such as the start date, project manager and client manager. It also contains information about the parameters that have been set for the project.
Total	Shows project status, i.e. the same information as shown under the Analysis tab.
Details fees	Shows fees divided according to your sorting
List fees	Shows details of each employee’s time reports. Cam be delimited with time range.
Hide amounts	Possibility to hide the price on printout
Mark acc project time	If you use Accumulated project time, the List Fees can be marked with that in printout
Details purchases	Shows purchases divided according to your sorting
List purchases	Shows details of all purchases
Without WIP	You can select to sum purchases that already are invoiced or adjusted down
List purchase orders	Shows the project’s PO: s
Details Other	Shows other divided according to your sorting
List other	Shows details of all other costs
Without WIP	You can select to sum other records that already are invoiced or adjusted down
List invoices	A list of the project’s invoices
Invoice draft	Shows what is currently in WIP for invoicing. The level of detail in the printout depends on the invoice level set for the project (done by the administrator).

 

Invoice

The invoice text is prepared, and the actual invoicing is then handled by back-office staff, who use the prepared text, and the instructions provided. Select New to create a new invoice. Multiple invoices can be created for the same project.

Text

An invoice text is created under the Text tab. You can enter free text and amounts, and you can also retrieve text and amounts from WIP, cost estimate or previous invoices.

Create text	Create text to use existing WIP in the project or to invoice from the estimate.
Detail level	Here you can choose how detailed the invoice should be regarding fees, purchases and other items. You can also decide whether the amounts should be subtotalled.
Subtotals	Here you can decide whether the amounts should be subtotalled.The suggestion can be modified by adding your own row or subtotals and entering new text and amounts. At the top right, you will see a summary of the amounts and any pre-invoices that are pending deduction.
Instructions	If the amounts do not correspond to what is in WIP, it is important to clarify to the back-office staff what needs to be adjusted, remain in WIP, etc. This is done in the Instructions field and will not be visible on the invoice. Under Invoiced on the analysis page, instructions are displayed per invoice.
Import text	If the invoice is to be similar to a previous invoice, text from the old invoice can be retrieved and then corrected if necessary.
Invoice text ready	When the invoice is ready for invoicing, tick the box Invoice text ready.
Invoicing fee	If an invoicing fee is to be added. Parameter settings for invoicing fees are required.
Planned invoice date	Here, a planned invoice date can be entered as information for the accounting department about when it is time to print the invoice.
Printout	Once the invoice has been saved, a sample invoice can be printed. Select the print template to be used for the invoice.

Notes

In the Notes tab, employees can enter notes relating to the project. The notes are stamped with the name and time. Click New to enter a new note. A box with a heading and note text will then appear, which can be filled in and saved so that everyone who has access to the project can read it.

Documents

The project documents can be collected and made available in the document tab. The documents are stored on the regular file server and linked to the project through a folder structure.

Sorting

Select the sorting order for the projects, for example by project name, project manager or creation date.

 

Project queries

Under Queries, there are tabs for Clients and Projects and All Projects, the same as in the Project entry. Here there are additional tabs, which are described below.

Overdue projects

A project that has reached its deadline (set in the project) is considered overdue. Projects where an invoice date has been entered but no invoice has been issued with that invoice date or later are also displayed here. The information is only visible to the project and production managers for the project.

Project queries

The query program is used to search for data. Various data can be batch changed in the list.

Project printouts

See the heading Printout above.

 

Reports

Under Reports, there are both a number of standard reports and custom reports. There is a separate description for report creation. Print the report by selecting the report and choosing Print.

The selection itself is made on the left side of the window. (The selection options available are determined when the report is designed, and therefore the choices may vary.)

Subtotal	Determines which subtotals the report should have.
Sorting	The sorting order for each subtotal level can be selected. By clicking on the Reversed option, the sorting is reversed so that the largest values are presented at the top.
Print format	The report can be written to either PDF or Spreadsheet/Excel.
No sums	Printing without subtotals only works with the Spreadsheet option.
Start	Start printing by clicking Start.