Manage the not-to-exceed status and validations
When costs or entries are submitted on your projects, you'll often need to approve various changes, determine if they're chargeable, and make sure that they follow certain steps. For example, if you have a 40-hour work time limit for one project resource, whenever they make an entry for their time, it must be validated against that limit of hours. The system uses not-to-exceed on these limits to validate that no entries exceed the limits that were previously set up.
Not-to-exceed on approvals
The system creates an approval record when a time, expense, or material usage entry has been submitted. The system performs a not-to-exceed validation check at the following levels, if the approval is chargeable and maps to a time and material contract line:
Check against the limit that's set up for the customer on the project contract line
Check against the limit that's set up on the contract line
Check against the limit that's set up for the customer
Check against the limit that's set up on the contract
The not-to-exceed validation detail will inform the user at which level the validation failed. If the check passes, the approval is given a validation status of Success. If the check fails, the approval is given a validation status of Failed. When the submitted time, expense, or material usage entry is considered non-chargeable, the not-to-exceed validation status is set to Not Applicable with the validation detail equal to Not applicable. The checks at each level involve ensuring that the amount of sales value on this approval won't violate the not-to-exceed limit at that level, after you've accounted for the billing backlog and the amount that's been invoiced to date at that level.
The system creates cost and unbilled sales actuals records when a time, expense, or material usage entry has been approved. A not-to-exceed validation check at the following levels will be performed when the unbilled sales actual that's being created is chargeable and maps to a time and material contract line.
Check against the limit that's set up for the customer of the project contract line
Check against the limit that's set up on the contract line
Check against the limit that's set up for the customer
Check against the limit that's set up on the contract
These checks ensure that the amount of sales value on the actual won't violate the not-to-exceed limit at that level. The checks account for the amount of billing backlog that's already recorded and the amount that's been invoiced to date at that level.
If the check passes, an unbilled sales actual is given a not-to-exceed status of Committed. If it fails, it's given a not-to-exceed status of Failed. The Not-to-exceed Status and the Not-to-Exceed Validation Detail fields are set to Not Applicable if no limit has been set up at any of the four The checks at each level involve ensuring that the amount of sales value on this approval won't violate the not-to-exceed limit at that level, after you've accounted for the billing backlog and the amount that's been invoiced to date at that level.
Reset the not-to-exceed status
Project managers prioritize invoicing for one body of work, time, expense, or material usage over others that are already committed from the available not-to-exceed amount. The committed amount will be reduced after the not-to-exceed status is reset on unbilled sales actuals and when these actuals have passed the validation.
To reset the not-to-exceed status, select one or more actuals from the Time and Material Billing Backlog view or the Actuals view, and then select Reset Not-to-Exceed Status.
The not-to-exceed status will be reset to Not Evaluated on all relevant selected actuals.
Reevaluate the not-to-exceed status
To reevaluate the not-to-exceed status, select one or more actuals from the Time and Material Billing Backlog view or the Actuals view, and then select Reevaluate Not-to-Exceed Status. Reevaluation is useful in the following scenarios:
If a renegotiation of not-to-exceed limits with the customer and actuals will need to be reevaluated
When the project manager wants to fine-tune the invoicing of the unbilled sales backlog by prioritizing one body of work over another