How to work with phases
Product line
Standard
|Expert
Operating mode
CLOUD ABO
|ON-PREMISES
Modules
Services & CRM
Budget & Phases
Purchases
Resource Planning
Business Intelligence
A phase divides a project into subprojects. Phases are available in the Vertec Budget & Phases module.
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Phase assignment of users, service types, expense types and outlay types |
The easiest way to enter phases in the phase list on the parent project is to type something in the row with the asterix or via the right mouse button > New > Phase:
The individual phase looks as follows:
Code |
Code of phase. If the system setting Change letters to uppercase is set to Yes, the code entered is automatically changed to uppercase. |
Chargeable |
Usually, a phase is chargeable. By deactivating the relevant option, a phase is defined as not chargeable, e.g. out of goodwill. This has the following effect:
If it happens later that a phase can still be charged, the same phase can simply be set to chargeable again. Vertec then automatically adjusts the values again. |
Active |
You can only make entries on active phases. |
Status |
Each phase can be assigned a status: Offer, Accepted, Completed, or Rejected.  Changing the status of a phase sets a corresponding date if there is not yet one and all the statuses above it also do not have one:  When a phase is created, the date in whose status the phase is created receives an entry. The corresponding setting is defined in system settings Project > Status for new phases, where you can select between Offer and Accepted.
By categorizing the phases into different statuses, you can make evaluations about the current sales situation, for example, via an expression folder. Using a status change date also allows you to historicalize the sales process. In addition, the sales overview report uses the status change data to provide a summary of the sales situation. Furthermore, the status is used for creating offers, where all phases with the Offer status are considered. |
Description |
Description of phase. This is shown next to the code when entering services and helps to identify the phase. |
Start date and end date |
Start and end dates do not impact the entry of services, expenses and outlays, but are used for project controlling. They can be evaluated, for example, using expression folders and are a basic requirement for using the project control Excel report supplied by Vertec by default. |
Responsible |
You can define a responsible employee on phases. This is mainly for informative purposes (can be displayed in lists, for example). It has no automatic effect on user rights, which continue to be held by the project manager of the relevant project. You can explicitly grant additional rights to responsible employees on their phases. For more information, see user rights for phase managers. |
Budget |
You can save budget values on projects and phases to compare planned and actual values. This enables you to make evaluations such as phases with budget overrun. On fixed-price phases, the fixed amount is defined with the budget values. For detailed information, see the article about project and phase budgeting. You can also track the changes to all budget values of a phase with a date. See the article Track budget values on phases. |
Show totals |
This checkbox allows you to control whether you want to show the effective and difference values directly. In System settings, go to Project > Show totals. (Please note that showing budget values may have an impact on performance.) |
To create subphases, go to: Settings > Customizing > Link types and activate the link type Parent phase – Subphases and set the following checkmarks. Note: This is only possible with the Expert product line.
To create a subphase, click New > Phase on the phase where you want to create the subphase:
The new phase is then subordinated directly to this phase as a subphase. You can see this by the fact that the phase contains a link with a navigation button to the upper phase:
Fixed price |
Phases can be defined as fixed price. This is done by activating the Fixed price checkbox next to budget. Services, expenses and outlays can be defined separately as fixed price. The fixed-price amount is the budget amount entered (for services, the value entered in the Fee field).
 As long as the fixed-price phase is not defined as completed, it and the services, expenses or outlays entered on it do not appear on an invoice if one is created. Of course, the entries of fixed-price phases are also visible on the invoice proposal. |
Fixed prices completed as of |
Once a fixed-price phase is set to completed, it appears on the next invoice with the amount specified as the fixed amount. Fixed-price phases can only be charged as a whole.
 Different phases can be combined on one invoice. If normal phases and fixed-price phases are combined on one invoice, the normal phases are charged according to hours and the fixed-price phases are charged according to the fixed amount. Setting the status |
In the case of services, expenses and outlays on fixed-price phases and invoices, the value ext is calculated pro rata so that the total amount corresponds to the fixed price.
In this calculation, there is a large number of key data that must be taken into account, such as the chargeability of phases or service types, external fixation of values, etc.
The external value of services, expenses and outlays for fixed-price phases and invoices are calculated as follows:
The same behavior is also implemented for fixed-price invoices. This only impacts services, since setting a fixed price on the invoice only affects services.
If services are not fixed on a fixed-price stage, the external values of the services are adjusted in such a way that they add up to the fixed amount. However, as soon as the Fix external values checkbox is activated, this no longer works. Vertec no longer adjusts such services. In this case, the fixed amount is allocated to any other, non-fixed services. If all services are fixed, the fixed amount can no longer be allocated to the services.
In this case, the phase total, which is issued on the (printed) invoice and indicates the total services, no longer corresponds to the fixed amount. However, the customer is charged the fixed amount in any case.
Subphases of fixed-price phases are treated as follows:
Fixed price checkmark can be removed as soon as the parent phase is set as a fixed price. If there are already completed fixed price subphases, the parent phase can no longer be set as fixed price.Fixed price checkbox is hidden on the individual window. It is clear that this is a subphase of a fixed-price phase.This section applies only to versions 5.7 and earlier. In previous versions, subphases of fixed-price phases were treated as normal phases. If they were not fixed prices themselves, the services were shown separately on the invoice.
To correctly handle fixed-price phases without directly attached services in group services and in benchmarking, the logic for recognizing fixed-price phases without services for version 5.7 had to be added as follows: Now only fixed-price phases which either have no services themselves or no services on direct subphases, and whose subphases have no further subphases are considered as “without services”. This means that a fixed-rate phase with subphases of subphases, but without services in the entire phase hierarchy, is ignored by benchmarking and group services. However, this is not a problem because a subphase structure is only useful for entering services.
Services, expenses and outlays can be entered later on completed fixed-price phases. To do this, the phase can be set again to active.
The services, expenses and outlays entered later always have an external value of 0, but can be charged to another invoice.
For this, a member called "nacherfasst" exists for services, expenses and outlays. This is set as soon as a service, expense or outlay is entered on a completed fixed-price phase.
In the detail window of services, expenses and outlays, the reason for the deviating external value is shown as being "post-entered".
On the Settings page, you can define the project settings:
Define rates |
The rates of the services, expenses and outlays entered can be overridden here. See the article Rate system. |
Charging type for outlays |
Defines which charging types should be assigned to outlays entered for this phase. You can find explanations of the charging type in the article about creditors. |
Phase allocations |
A phase can be allocated users, service types, activities, expenses and outlay types. Here, you can specify whether these allocations are mandatory or not. If an allocation is mandatory, this has the following consequences:
You can define whether the checkboxes should be active by default in the System settings > Project:
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The allocation takes place via the relevant folder on the phase directly in the list. Here, in the example, a user is allocated. By selecting the relevant user from the drop-down list, a new allocation is created. A double click opens the individual view.
Newly created user allocations are active by default, but can be set to inactive. Inactive user allocations are not considered for entry rights, determination of rates or calculation of budget values, but are retained for documentation of the past.
On the tabs Service types, Expense types and Outlay types, the relevant settings are allocated in the same way.
These allocations can now be budgeted, in the same way as phase budgeting.
The relevant phase aggregates and displays the budget of the different allocations. Aggregated budget figures appear in black. If a budget figure is green, it was overridden on the phase.
Furthermore, it is possible for you to define the rates of the entered services, expenses and outlays, or to define whether the user who makes entries on this phase should have a special hourly rate on them (see the article Rate system). These overrides also apply to all subphases of a phase.
Note: If there are user allocations, these have priority. The budget figures on the phase then refer to the user allocations in any case.
On the allocations of users to projects and phases, you can specify a user level for the rate calculation. This allows you to override the standard rate calculation per user and project or phase, without bypassing the rate table by specifying a fixed rate.
If you go to the user level field and click on the button with the three dots, a selection of user levels appears, from which you can select the required one. If you want to remove the user level again, simply click on the button with the red X.
If a user level is set, the rate is calculated based on the rate table. If the level is set on a project, this level applies to all phases of the project. However, the level can be overridden again on the individual phase. If an explicit rate is also set, it applies.
A user may be assigned to the allocation of a project entry type (service type, expense type or outlay type) for a phase. In the following example, a user is assigned to the service type allocation > phase:
You can combine multiple allocations.