Full Sail Partners Blog | Scott Gailhouse

During the implementation of Deltek Vantagepoint, professional services firms should understand the connection between the Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). A typical first step to consider whether the firm needs to re-organize these structures. Whether it be the uniqueness of each, or the relationship between the two, the attention paid to these early stages of development is instrumental to the flow and reporting of information in your Deltek Vantagepoint database. In the following, we’ll explore some areas to consider when designing these structures in your database. 

Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)

When it comes to designing the Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) in Deltek Vantagepoint, it's important to consider the specific needs of your professional services firm. The OBS can range from simple to complex, depending on the size and requirements of your organization. Here are some examples of different OBS approaches. 

• Location Approach: With this approach, the OBS is organized based on the physical locations of your offices or project sites. Each location represents a hierarchical level in the structure, allowing you to track and manage projects and resources across different geographic areas. 
• Discipline/Department Approach: In the discipline or department approach, the OBS is structured around different functional areas or departments within your organization. This allows for efficient resource allocation, project assignment, and collaboration within specific areas of expertise. 
• Market Sector or Business Development Driven: This approach focuses on organizing the OBS according to your firm's market sectors or business development strategies. Each market sector or business development unit can be assigned a hierarchical level, enabling you to analyze performance and profitability based on these segments. 

Deltek Vantagepoint provides flexibility in designing your OBS, offering up to five hierarchical levels to accommodate your specific requirements. It also allows for the allocation of overhead requirements within the structure of the database. If you plan to utilize the multi-company functionality in your database, it's important to reserve level one for different companies within your enterprise. 

Financial accountability is a crucial aspect of any professional services organization. When building your OBS, it's essential to consider the financial implications. For example, if you use a two-level OBS structure, such as office and department, each combination will generate an income statement. This means that someone within your organization should be responsible for reviewing and managing these statements. 

Deltek Vantagepoint also enables the extraction of various cross sections for combined financial reporting. For instance, if you have a mechanical department in three offices, you can create a mechanical income statement that provides accountability at different levels: 

• Office Accountability: You can track the financial performance of each individual office separately, gaining insights into the profitability and expenses associated with specific locations. 
• Office/Department Accountability: This level of accountability allows you to analyze the financial performance of different departments within each office. It helps in evaluating the contribution of each department to overall profitability. 

• Overall Department Accountability: By consolidating the financial data of the mechanical department across all offices, you can assess the department's overall performance and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation and strategic planning. 

The OBS in Deltek Vantagepoint offers the flexibility to design a structure that aligns with your professional services firm's needs. By carefully considering the OBS approach, financial accountability, and the ability to generate cross-sectional reports, you can effectively manage projects, resources, and profitability within your organization. 

Projects and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a critical component that determines how a project is organized and how revenue and costs flow within a professional services firm. Most firms find it effective to build their WBS based on project budgets, aligning with the fee and scope defined in the client contract using a bottom-up approach. 

Deltek Vantagepoint provides the flexibility to define up to three levels in the WBS, commonly referred to as Project, Phase, and Task. However, these labels can be customized to match your firm's preferences. Furthermore, the WBS allows for the assignment of accountability within a project. You can designate a project manager, as well as phase and task managers, based on their scope and budget responsibilities. 

It's important to note that project builds and WBS structures do not have to be identical across all projects. While each professional services firm may have its own unique requirements, it is generally recommended to have at least one WBS level 2 for every project, indicating another variation in the WBS. Additionally, projects can be built with no WBS level 3 or only certain portions of the WBS level 2 extending into the WBS level 3. 

The OBS and WBS structures function both individually and in tandem to support overall financial and operational accountability within your organization. At the lowest level, the WBS drives how revenue and costs are allocated within the OBS. Here are some additional factors to consider when working with the OBS and WBS structures: 

• "Mirroring" the OBS in WBS for Overhead Projects: For projects involving overhead costs, it can be beneficial to mirror the OBS structure within the WBS. This helps ensure that the appropriate overhead costs are accurately assigned to specific projects, allowing for better cost tracking and financial reporting. 
• Combinations of Cross-Charge, Intercompany Billing, and High Accountability in WBS: Consider how cross-charges, intercompany billing, and high levels of accountability will be incorporated into your WBS. Deltek Vantagepoint offers capabilities to support these requirements, allowing you to accurately allocate costs between different departments, offices, or business units within your professional services firm. 

By carefully considering these aspects of the OBS and WBS structures, you can establish a robust framework for financial and operational accountability within your professional services organization. Deltek Vantagepoint empowers you to customize and tailor the OBS and WBS to meet your firm's specific needs, ensuring accurate project tracking, cost allocation, and financial reporting. 

Is it Time to Update Your OBS and WBS Structures? 

In the ever-evolving landscape of professional services firms, it's crucial to regularly assess and update your Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Deltek Vantagepoint. As your business needs change and evolve, it becomes imperative to optimize your system to ensure it aligns with your current requirements. This is where our firm can help. 

One popular OBS/WBS methodology gaining traction is the implementation of a 3D matrix solution that incorporates both geography and market sectors. By combining these dimensions, you can create a powerful framework that enables efficient project management, resource allocation, and financial reporting. However, implementing such changes requires expertise and guidance from both functional and data consultants to ensure a smooth transition. 

At Full Sail Partners, we specialize in Deltek Vantagepoint consulting services, including OBS and WBS optimization. Our experienced consultants can work closely with your team to analyze your current structures, identify areas for improvement, and design a new and more productive system tailored to your unique needs. 

Timing and cutover planning are critical to the success of any system update. Our consultants will guide you through the entire process, ensuring that the implementation is seamless, minimizing disruption to your operations, and maximizing the benefits of the new OBS and WBS structures. 

Now is the perfect time to get creative and strive to get the most out of your Deltek Vantagepoint system. Don't let outdated structures hold your firm back. Explore the possibilities of a Navigational Analysis with our firm today. Let us help you unlock the full potential of Deltek Vantagepoint and drive efficiency, profitability, and growth within your organization. Learn more about how a Navigational Analysis can help your firm by clicking the image below. 

Year-end is the final accounting process to close “the books” at the end of each year. With 2023 just around the corner, it is never too early to plan for your year-end close. Planning and organization on your part can make the year-end process less challenging for the entire accounting staff.   

Take the Time to Document and Get Organized 

As always, you should take the time to document your year-end procedures. Not only the tasks performed in Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision, but all accounting tasks you perform should be documented so that you have a comprehensive guide that you can refer to every year. It is also vital that you create an accounting calendar.  

The accounting calendar is not just for year-end, but for month-end and quarter-end tasks as well. This calendar is a schedule of anticipated dates for financial activities. You should also develop a year-end checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything. One other tip to make this process go smoothly is to make sure that you are performing your month end reconciliations on a timely basis. 

Common Year-End Tasks 

Some of the more common year-end tasks for most companies are: 

• Reconcile All Cash Accounts - Verify all transactions have been posted into Deltek Vantagepoint/Vision to ensure your general ledger balances match your bank statements. Make adjustments as required. 
• Credit Card Reconciliations – In order to ensure all credit card transactions are captured, make sure all expense reports are entered and posted. 
• File Reconciliation Report – This report should be run at month-end and at year-end. This report identifies discrepancies between the GL and the subledger reports. 

• Final Invoicing – Process all client invoices for the fiscal year. 
• Review Outstanding Accounts Receivables - Follow up with clients who have outstanding accounts receivable beyond 30 days. Send past due statements and/or simply give them a call. Enter the results of your collection efforts in the comments section of Vision Invoice Review. Year-end is an excellent time to collect your outstanding receivables. If you determine there is uncollectable AR, be sure to write those invoices off. 
• Review Unbilled Detail - Time and expense transactions that cannot be invoiced to clients should be written off at this time. 
• Fixed Assets – Fixed Assets are larger purchases that are made throughout the year (i.e., equipment, automobiles, furniture, computers, etc.). Check to see if all fixed assets reported on the balance sheet are still owned. If not, record the sale or disposal of these fixed assets. Verify the depreciation on your fixed assets as well. Then make any necessary adjustments. 
• Employee Expenses and Accounts Payable - Verify that all accounts payable vouchers have been recorded in Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint. Make your 401(k), SEP IRA, and Simple IRA contributions, if you have not done so. Try and pay all your vendors and employee expense reports by year-end. 

• Notes Payable - Verify notes payable (i.e., loans) amounts on your balance sheet match the statements from your lenders. Then make adjustments if necessary. 
• 1099 Forms – Order 1099 forms. Make sure all W-9 forms from your vendors and/or contractors that are paid $600 or more throughout the year are on file in the Firms Hub in Vantagepoint or the Vendor Info Center. Don’t forget 1099s should be mailed by January 31st. 
• W-2s – Order W-2 forms if you run payroll in Vantagepoint/Vision. W-2s should be mailed by January 31st. 
• Budget for Next Year - Create your GL budget for the new year. 

Be Prepared to Close Out the Year 

In Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision, opening the 1st period of your fiscal year also opens the new fiscal year. Depending on your security rights, you can still process in the prior fiscal year if needed. 

There are several initialization utilities that need to be performed. For example, Open New Period (fiscal year), Open New Benefit Year, 1099 Initialization and Open a New W-2 Quarter/year if you are using the payroll module. Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision will generate a posting log for the initialization utilities. If your Vantagepoint or Vision database is configured for Multicompany, the initialization utilities need to be run in each company. The only exception is the Open New Period utility, which opens for all companies at once. 

Deltek will issue a Year-End update at the end of December containing tax updates for payroll users. Also, be on the lookout for Deltek’s Vision and Vantagepoint Year-End guide for more detailed information on year-end closing. 

Believe it or not, but there are several applications in Deltek Vantagepoint that go unused simply because end users really don’t understand the concepts behind them. Labor Cross Charge, Consultant Accruals and Overhead Allocation are a few of those applications. This high-level overview is intended to make the user more informed about useful accounting features within Deltek Vantagepoint. These features are designed to provide the user the best view of a project’s overall health as well as the health of the professional services firm as a whole. 

Consultant Accruals

When invoicing clients each month on percent complete or lump sum type projects, oftentimes the percent complete billed on behalf of subconsultants does not really reflect what the subconsultants have actually invoiced the project. Consultant Accruals is a way to account for the differences. The Consultant Accruals account shows the difference between what the prime firm has billed the client versus what the subconsultant has billed the prime firm on the balance sheet. 

Consultant Accruals uses either the Project Budgeting Worksheet or Project Plan as the budget source to calculate accruals. The user must complete the Expense Costs tab of the Project Budget Worksheet for each subconsultant at the lowest level of the WBS. When the user receives an invoice from the subconsultant, it is entered in the Transaction Center, AP Vouchers using the same expense chart of account number and WBS level that is set up on the Project Budget Worksheet.  

When posted, the user will see a debit for the voucher amount to the expense chart of account (COA) number and a debit to a COA number called “Accrued Consultant”. Prior to running Consultant Accruals, enter the percent complete for each vendor on the Expense Costs tab of the Project Budget Worksheet or the ETC or EAC percent if using the project plan to calculate the accrual. 

Once Consultant Accruals is run, Deltek Vantagepoint will adjust the original posting to the expense COA number if there is a difference between the percent complete entered in the project budget worksheet and the amount entered in AP for that subconsultant. An adjustment will also be made to the Accrued Consultant COA number with an offset entry to the Consultant Liability account. The “Accrued Consultant” account will show the difference between the percent billed on their behalf and the amount the subconsultant billed the firm.  

Usually running the Consultant Accruals routine is part of the month end processes. 

Overhead Allocation    

Professional services firms have a variety of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used to closely manage a firm’s financial and operational performance, and profit margin should be one of them. The Overhead Allocation utility in Deltek Vantagepoint is used to assign indirect costs to regular, revenue producing projects to measure net profitability. 

Overhead Allocation must be configured in a firm’s Vantagepoint database and should be run on a timely basis – usually after timesheets are posted or at month end. Overhead Allocation can give the user a true understanding of a project’s profitability. 

There are two options for applying overhead to projects – multiplier or proration. Overhead can be applied to a project’s revenue or direct labor. 

The multiplier method applies a multiplier that is determined to every dollar of direct labor spent on a project. The proration method uses a firm’s actual, year-to-date indirect expenses. Firms generally prefer the multiplier method because of its consistency. Project managers always know how much overhead is being applied to their projects. The proration method, because it is based on actual indirect expenses, will change month to month. Deltek Vantagepoint uses total overhead expense divided by total direct labor to determine the multiplier used when Overhead Allocation is run. 

There are a number of reports including the Project Progress, Office Earnings and Project Summary report that when run at cost will display overhead. Running the Overhead Allocation process will return a report detailing the amount of overhead applied to projects and the actual overhead rate of the firm. 

Overhead allocation can be run anytime as it is used for reporting purposes only. 

Labor Cross Charge 

Firms using organizations within Deltek Vantagepoint, may want to consider using the Labor Cross Charge utility. A cross charge occurs when an employee in one organization works on a project owned by another organization. The professional services firm can choose a revenue share, where the borrowing organization is charged revenue based on an agreed upon price by the loaning organization. In this scenario, the loaning company would see an increase in revenue and the borrowing organization would see a reduction in revenue.  

A firm may also choose to bill the borrowing organization indirect cost reducing the loaning organization’s direct/indirect expenses and increasing the borrowing organization’s direct/indirect expenses. By default, when time is posted, the labor cost follows the project’s organization. The user may choose to have the labor cost transferred back to the employee’s organization during the labor cross charge process. 

Labor Cross Charge can be used on Regular type projects or both Regular and Overhead type projects. Labor Cross Charge is run as part of the month end process after billing to clients has been completed. Having a clear understanding of how these applications work in Deltek Vantagepoint will help the firm decide if it could benefit from their use. 

Get the Most out of Deltek Vantagepoint 

Deltek Vantagepoint was designed with project-based users in mind. So, it is important for users to be knowledgeable about all the helpful accounting features within Vantagepoint that can provide them with an overall picture of firm projects. For professional services firms seeking guidance on how to get the most out of their investment, Full Sail Partners offers a complete Navigational Analysis. Click the image below to learn more.  

With each new version of Deltek Vantagepoint, professional services firms are given more tools and features to deliver profitable projects. While version 4.0 mainly focused on supporting accounting functions, 4.5 addressed all the roles that support the success of project-based firms. Here are some of the top new enhancements and features Vantagepoint users can now begin to use.

Edit and Save with Ease in Deltek Vantagepoint

Editing and saving updated has been simplified. In Deltek Vantagepoint 4.5, the two saving modes, implicit saving (autosave) and explicit saving, have been combined. With this update, a “Save” and “Cancel” button will appear whenever a change or edit has been made to a field

Speaking of edits, Vantagepoint users will no longer need to click on a pencil icon in a field to make a change. Simply click anywhere in a field that needs to be updated to make the required changes.

Create Winning Proposals and Better Track Clients

In Deltek Vantagepoint 4.5, enhancements to proposal automation will help marketing professionals create formatted documents easier. First, Deltek has added the ability to link text elements, so text continues to flow from one page to the next similar to the functionality Adobe InDesign users are accustomed to. Additionally, Vantagepoint can now export proposals to PDFs and Word, and the proposal will retain the formatting established in Vantagepoint while creating the document.

Vantagepoint 4.5 now allows a contact to be associated to a project with a different firm that is linked to a contact in the Contacts hub. This is helpful for when a contact is a consultant for more than one firm or needs to be associated to a joint venture for a project.

A small but very helpful change also got added to the Mobile CRM. Before 4.5, when a user wanted to edit and open text field in the Mobile CRM app, it would take them to another screen that enlarged the text and the field. Now users can stay on the original screen to make changes without having to go to a new screen to make the changes, and then select done to return the entire record. This is a helpful for saving time.

Plan and Track Profitable Projects with Deltek Vantagepoint

Projects don’t always go to plan and Deltek realizes this issue. With the release of Deltek Vantagepoint 4.5, project managers can now go back and replace planned time with actual time, spread the difference if needed, or change planned hours all together. While some firms may not want employees to be able to do this, it is an option available in the security settings and can be turned on at the discretion of firm leadership.

Estimate at completion (EAC) values are critical in planning because it helps predict what a firm is going to spend at the end of a project. The problem today is that planning is job to date (JTD) as of today and estimate to completion (ETC) starts tomorrow. If one or more people have not updated their timesheet for any days before today, those hours are missing from the EAC. In Vantagepoint 4.5, JTD can be changed to pull from a specific day. For instance, the standard setting in Vantagepoint is to pull JTD from today, but now firms have the option to choose from yesterday or even the end of the week from the previous week.

Two small but convenient features have also been added for project managers. The first is the sharable search feature. Previously, users could create and save searches for themselves only. Now, saved and custom searches can now be shared with coworkers. Secondly, purchase orders with approvals have been add to the browser version of Vantagepoint. This allows the majority of project managers to work exclusively in the browser version.

Improved Invoice Approvals to Increase Draft Turn Around and New AR Reporting Enhancements

Deltek Vantagepoint 4.5 now allows for tracking invoices by billing client when the billing client changes during the life of the project. In Vantagepoint versions 4.0 or earlier, when the billing client changed for a project on the Accounting tab in the Projects hub, the change was applied to all existing invoices, cash receipts, voided invoices and credit memos. Obviously, this can create some confusion. Now, the change only applies to new invoices, voids and credit memos after the change takes place. Essentially allowing account receivables to track information separately for each billing client.

Draft invoice approvals also gained improved visibility into annotation and comment history when saved draft invoices are resubmitted. The process in 4.5 allows an approver to review a draft invoice, make changes and add comments as necessary. Now the change will apply to invoices, voids, and credit memos when a new billing client has been assigned. Essentially allowing you to track accounts receivable information separately for each billing client on a given project.

Start Using More Features in Deltek Vantagepoint 4.5

Deltek Vantagepoint 4.5 is one of the biggest releases ever to roll out since its inception. With that said, there are more improvements and enhancements that weren’t discussed in this article. For more information, checkout the Deltek Learning Zone and click the button link below for a free webinar detailing more features in Vantagepoint 4.5.

What is better than a purpose-built modern ERP with functionality to streamline and consolidate business processes? More features! With the latest release of Vantagepoint 4.0, Deltek offers even more features to make it easier for firms to deliver better projects, analyze business performance, and create more accurate invoices. Let’s check out some of these new features and see how they will be beneficial to Vantagepoint users.

Digital Markup of Draft Invoices

Clients have been asking for the ability to markup draft invoices for some time. Now with the latest Vantagepoint release, draft invoices can be digitally marked up. This allows the biller to view and edit annotations within interactive billing and markups are saved for future reference. As a result, the digital markup feature allows for improved collaboration between project managers and accounting.

Expanded Interactive Billing Capabilities

This newest version of Vantagepoint continues enhancing the user experience and ease of use. With enhanced interactive billing, you can view marked up drafts including comments from final invoices in prior periods. Also, when invoices are voided, Vantagepoint will keep a record of the void and the date the invoice was voided.

Store Final Invoices as PDFs in Vantagepoint

With Deltek Vantagepoint 4.0, final invoices can be stored as a PDF when they are accepted in interactive billing or final creation in batch billing. Since a PDF is created at the time of final invoice creation, you actually have a duplicate record of what you sent to the client originally. Now, with this enhancement, all invoices stored in Vantagepoint will exactly match the invoices that you sent to your client.

New Expense Report Screen Designer Capabilities

Deltek Vantagepoint 4.0 features now help with increasing expense report accuracy. Now, the Expense Report has a “lite” screen designer. This allows users to build in business rules within the expense report. Also, you can add additional columns or choose the columns you want to display on the expense report and change their descriptions. You can even make tool tips to help with accurate reporting by users. Additionally, screen designer changes apply to mobile expenses as well.

Expanded Expense Approval Features

The latest version of Vantagepoint focuses on increased usability. For expense report approvals, there is a new toggle to show all approval types or completed approvals. This gives the approver the ability to just see expense reports that need to be approved. Also, there is a new Print Lines Approval Report button for both timesheets and expense reports. This report gives the approver, at a glance, line items that still require approval.

Timesheet Status Update with Floor Checks

Vantagepoint 4.0 also helps with managing employee timesheet completion. If you are responsible for making sure employee time entry is completed on time, you can do a “floor check” to review the status of time entry for your employees for a specific timesheet period or day. This feature allows users to quickly see which employees still have outstanding timesheets and includes the ability to create a reminder email template to send to employees.

Mobile Enhancements Including Biometrics

In previous versions of Deltek Vantagepoint, users could upload receipts from a mobile device using Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR). With 4.0, users can now automatically match a line created from a receipt with a credit card charge. Biometric authentication has also been added to Time & Expense and CRM mobile capabilities. Using this new feature, users can now utilize fingerprint ID or face recognition to make it more convenient and more secure to access their Vantagepoint system. These new enhancements simplify the process making it easier for end users to complete their expense reports. Therefore, allowing for more accurate reports which benefits accounting.

Dashboard Enhancements for Clearer Insights

With Vantagepoint 4.0, Deltek continues to provide more improvements to filters, dashparts, and dashboards for ease of use for the end user. The latest release provides further visibility into project details and labor planning. One of those enhancements to dashparts is the ability to drilldown to the details to see unposted labor hours at cost and/or billing rates.

Always Looking Forward with Deltek Vantagepoint 4.0 

With each release of Vantagepoint, Deltek seeks to reimagine functionality and leverage innovation to provide usable and practical value for accounting. The latest release steps up with features that work on improving user experience, ease of use and accuracy. As always, the newest Vantagepoint 4.0 enhancements make managing and delivering projects that much better for all users and there are many more to come.

It is amazing that so many people aren’t even aware of the numerous benefits of using the Deltek Vision Payroll module. For starters, the Payroll module in Vision is a robust application that gives you control over your payroll process that you otherwise wouldn’t have if you used an outside payroll company. It allows you to meet the increasingly complex regulatory requirements by defining taxable wages based on any withholding codes that you create. You can also define how other pay wages impact a withholding calculation. All of this can be done from Payroll Withholding Setup. 

How the Deltek Vision Payroll Module Works

If your firm is using the Payroll module to process your payroll, Deltek Vision will use information from the Employee Info Center, the Project Info Center, the Transaction Center, and Accounting Cost/Pay Rate tables to process payroll.

Some of the main features of the Vision Payroll module are:

• 2 overtime multipliers – There are some firms that are required to pay overtime (OT) to hourly employees. For example, you may have to pay time and a half for some OT hours worked and maybe double time for other OT hours worked. Vision can be configured to accomplish this. For added flexibility, you also have the option to bill these overtime hours at a higher billing rate in billing terms.
• User-defined other pay fields – In addition to an employee’s regular salary, you can also add payments for other items. Some firms will use these fields to record bonus payments, moving allowance payments, allowances for fitness club memberships, public transit passes, etc.
• Contribution codes – If you make payments on behalf of your employees, i.e. state unemployment or 401k matches, you can track those payments using contribution codes. Contribution codes can record those amounts by employee. Vision will also post the entry to the balance sheet liability account.
• Withholding codes – In addition to the standard federal, FICA, and state withholding codes, users can create their own user-defined withholding codes to suite your firm’s needs. You can create withholding codes for medical insurance, cafeteria plans, wage garnishments and Roth IRA plans to name a few.
• Direct deposit – Vision supports the direct deposit of funds directly into an employee’s bank account(s).
• Payroll types – Most payroll runs processed in Vision are for your regular weekly, biweekly or semimonthly or monthly payrolls. You can also process adjustment payrolls to make changes to a payroll that has already been processed. Furthermore, you can use this feature to adjust pay, withholdings, regular, overtime, and secondary overtime pay hours, and accrued benefit hours. A bonus payroll run automates the process of giving your employees bonuses.
• Payroll reporting – Using Vision payroll reporting, you can generate worksheets that help you fill out state unemployment insurance reports, quarterly state income tax reports, and federal Forms 940 and 941.
• W-2 forms - The Payroll module prints a W-2 for each employee who was paid during the calendar year. You can print W-2s on W-2 forms that are specially designed for use on computer printers.

Integrate with Outside Payroll Companies

If, however, you decide that your firm would rather use an outside payroll company to process payroll, despite the benefits of using the Deltek Vision Payroll Module, Vision offers an interface option that can export timesheet data to most large payroll companies including ADP, Paychex and Ceridian. With this integration, a third party will be able to manage the complex areas of payroll processing such as tax withholdings.

Do More with the Deltek Vision Payroll Module

It should now be evident to most people that the Deltek Vision Payroll module is an extremely flexible tool that can be used to help your firm streamline the payroll process. The Payroll module additionally provides a wide-range of detailed reports based on the information stored in your Vision database. So, start realizing the benefits of using the Vision Payroll module and improve your firm’s payroll process today.

Ready or not, here year-end comes. With some organization and planning, however, it doesn’t have to be stressful. Let’s look at some critical tasks your firm should complete as part of the year-end process.

Preparing to Close 2017

First off, the most important task is to document your year-end procedures. Not only those performed in your Deltek system, but all of them so that you have a comprehensive guide to refer to on a year to year basis. You should also create a calendar and develop a year-end checklist as part of your year-end procedures.

Some of the more common year-end tasks for most companies are:

• Reconcile all cash accounts - Verify all transactions have been posted into Vision/DPS to ensure your general ledger balance matches your bank statements adjusting as required.
• Final invoicing – Process all client invoices for the fiscal year.
• Review outstanding accounts receivable - Follow up with clients who have outstanding accounts receivable beyond 30 days. Send past due statements and give them a call. Enter the results of your collection efforts in the comments section of Deltek Vision or Deltek for Professional Services (DPS) invoice review. Year-end is an excellent time to collect your outstanding receivables. If you determine there is uncollectable accounts receivable, be sure to write those invoices off.
• Review unbilled detail - Time and expense transactions that cannot be invoiced to clients should be written off at this time.
• Fixed assets – Fixed assets are larger purchases that are made throughout the year (i.e. equipment, automobiles, furniture, computers, etc.). Are all fixed assets reported on the balance sheet still owned? If not, record the sale or disposal of these fixed assets. Additionally, verify the depreciation on your fixed assets and make any necessary adjustments.
• Employee expenses and accounts payable - Verify that all accounts payable vouchers have been recorded in Vision or DPS. Make your 401(k), SEP IRA, and simple IRA contributions, if you have not done so. Also, try to pay all your vendors and employee expense reports by year-end.
• Notes payable - Verify notes payable (i.e. loans) amounts on your balance sheet match the statements from your lenders adjusting if necessary.
• W-9s – Order 1099 forms and make sure all W-9s from your vendors and/or contractors that are paid $600 or more throughout the year are on file. Don’t forget, 1099s should be mailed on January 31st. 1099 forms can be purchased from most office supply stores or you can order them for free from the IRS (gov).
• W-2s –If you run payroll in Vision or DPS, you’ll need to order W-2 forms which can be purchased from most office supply stores. W-2s should be mailed by January 31st.
• Budget for next year - Create your general ledger budget for 2018.

As part of the year-end process, a new benefit year will need to be opened to roll over any PTO or vacation time into the next year and to start accruals for the new benefit year. 

Initialization Utilities in Deltek Vision and Deltek for Professional Services

There are numerous initialization utilities that need to be performed in Deltek Vision and DPS. Take note that these utilities need to be completed once per fiscal year. Vision and DPS will generate a posting log for the initialization utilities which is available in the transaction center under the posting review report. If your Vision or DPS database is set up with multi-company functionality, the initialization utilities need to run in each company. Make sure to watch this video for more information.

In Vision and DPS, opening the 1st period of your fiscal year also opens the new fiscal year. Depending on your security rights, you can still process in the prior fiscal year if needed.

Is Your Firm Ready for 2018?

Efficiently complete the tasks required for 2017 year-end, and you will be ready. If your firm is having any difficulties performing year-end tasks in Deltek Vision or DPS, Full Sail Partners can be of assistance! Also, remember to check out the new Deltek Customer Care portal for numerous resources available to you.

One of the main responsibilities of a project manager is managing the profitability of his projects. It is easy to look at hours charged to a project at billing rates minus the value of those hours at cost to see the gross profit of a project, but gross profit doesn’t give a true picture of profitability. Most firms prefer to look at net profit to measure the financial success of projects with net profit being hours at billing rates minus cost plus overhead.

Luckily, Deltek Vision has a utility to accomplish just that – calculating net profitability on projects.

Overhead at a Glance

What is overhead? Overhead is an accounting term that refers to ongoing general business expenses, not including direct labor or expenses that are reimbursed to firms by clients. For example, business expenses like rent, health insurance and indirect labor are types of overhead expenses.

Overhead allocation must be configured in Vision and the utility must be run on a timely basis – usually at month end. Overhead allocation can give a true understanding of a project’s profitability.

Preparing Deltek Vision for Overhead Allocation

There are several decisions that need to be made during the configuration phase of setting up overhead allocation in Deltek Vision depending on the current configuration. First, the allocation scope needs to be determined. If the firm uses profit centers, additional configuration decisions will have to be considered. For example, if the firm has a “corporate” profit center, overhead may need to be distributed from the corporate profit center to the revenue producing profit centers.

Next, Vision offers two choices for the basis of applying overhead to projects - direct labor or the proration method. The direct labor method applies a multiplier that is used to determine every dollar of direct labor spent on a project. Vision uses the total overhead expense divided by total direct labor to determine the multiplier used when overhead allocation is run.

The multiplier method remains consistent if the same multiplier is in effect. Firms generally prefer the multiplier method because of its consistency. Additionally, project managers always know how much overhead is being applied to their projects. On the other hand, the proration method uses the firm’s actual, year-to-date indirect expenses. Since this method is based on actual indirect expenses, it will change month to month.

The Benefit of Using Overhead Allocation in Deltek Vision

Once overhead allocation has been run, there are several reports, including the project progress, office earnings and project summary, that when run at cost, will display overhead. Running the overhead allocation process will return a report detailing the amount of overhead applied to projects and the actual overhead rate of the firm. Not only does overhead allocation provide a clear understanding of the profitability of the firm’s projects, it also gives an indication of the firm’s overhead costs and the tools needed to increase profits.

Is your firm ready for the inevitable year-end process? Sure, year-end is always a stressful time. However, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you make a plan, document your actions and prepare Deltek Vision.

Setting-up for a Successful Year-End

Don’t be a headless chicken running around trying to get through the year-end process. Let’s review some considerations and tips to make your year-end close just a little easier.

Communication | Communicate with the rest of the firm that year-end is approaching and provide the important dates that they should be aware of, such as final timesheet due date, final expense report due date, etc.

Create a Calendar | Develop a calendar noting key items you need to complete before the year-end. Your calendar should contain all of your year-end deadlines, such as:

• Final AP check run
• Final timesheet due date
• Final bank reconciliation

Develop a Year-End Checklist | Given that year-end procedures change very little from year to year, you should create a checklist. In addition to your firm’s specific year-end tasks, you may want include these steps in your list:

• Review the unbilled detail report and make sure the allowance for doubtful accounts is current
• Reconcile all sub-ledgers to the general ledger
• Update accrued vacation
• Calculate depreciation
• Complete bank reconciliations
• Create a budget for the new fiscal year

Reconcile Monthly | Stay on top of your monthly reconciliations. Nothing adds to the stress of year-end more than having to perform several months of reconciliations that could be have been done monthly.

Recurring Transaction Files | If there are yearly JE’s or other transactions that you only post once a year, consider creating a recurring transaction file. Each year those files will already be in place so you don’t have to re-create them from year to year.

Order Year-end Forms Early | Why wait until the last minute to order your 1099 and W-2 forms? By ordering your forms in advance, you know they are on hand when you are ready to use them.

Prepare Deltek Vision for 2017

In Vision, opening the 1^st period of your fiscal year also opens the new fiscal year. If your security role permits, you can still process in the prior fiscal year if needed.

There are a number of Initialization Utilities that need to be performed in Vision. Take note that these utilities need to be completed once per fiscal year. Vision will generate a posting log for the initialization utilities, which are available in the Transaction Center under the Posting Review Report. If your Vision Database is set up with Multi-company functionality, the Initialization Utilities need to run in each company.

There are also tax forms that will need to be processed in Vision:

• W-2s if you use Vision Payroll
• 1099s for vendors that require a 1099 form

As part of the year-end process, a new benefit year will need to be opened to roll over any PTO or vacation time into the next year and to start accruals for the new benefit year.

In addition to the information above, you can view the 2016 Year-End Vision guide in the Deltek Customer Care Connect Portal here.

Take note that Vision Year-End updates in 2016 will be provided for versions 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6. If your firm is running Vision 7.3 or older, you must upgrade to a supported version to receive a 2016 year-end update. Please refer to the Support Assurance Product Lifecycle for maintenance phase descriptions.

Is Your Firm Prepared for 2017?

Following the suggestions above should make for an efficient completion of the tasks required for 2016 year-end. Don’t forget to make sure your firm is using the latest version of Deltek Vision - 7.6. If you need any assistance with completing your year-end or moving your firm to version 7.6, just let us know!

You asked and Deltek listened. There are a number of new and exciting updates and features in Vision Version 7.6. Let’s see how Deltek Vision just got better!

Employee Expense Approval

In addition to Purchase Requisitions, Request for Price Quotes, Purchase Orders, Inventory Item Requests, Absence Requests, AP Invoice Approvals and General Ledger Budgets, Employee Expense Reports are now included in Approval Work Flows. Approval workflows are user designed for specific applications in Vision. All lines of the expense report can be set up for approval and/or just specific line items in a given report can be set up for approval. The workflow defines the approval process, approvers, allowable actions and alerts for a record.

Purchasing

Vendor Response enhancements were made in purchasing. As a result, Vision can be configured with up to 10 user-defined labels. When you are in RFQ or Purchase Requisition by line item, you can select from one of the user-defined labels and apply a response to that label.

For RFQ’s and purchase requisitions, you have the option to Show Suggested Vendors and Show Vendor Responses. The new Bid Evaluation report gives you the selected vendors for comparison purposes.

Also new in purchasing is a new Comments tab in Purchases Orders. The comments are for internal use only. Comments can be added even after the PO has been finalized and printed. These notes can be included on the Purchase Order Detail Report.

A PO column has been added to Vendor Review. Once you select a voucher, you can see the PO Number column on the Voucher Line Items grid. You can drill down on the PO number to display the PO and add notes if you choose to.

Benefit Accrual

Deltek didn’t forget about Benefit Accruals enhancements. Sick and vacation time can now be calculated on hours worked. This enhancement is in response to states that require firms to earn 1 hour of sick time for each 30 hours worked.

Billing

Deltek added a Retainer Ledger Report. This new report displays complete details associated with retainers by either project and/or by client. General options for this report can be set to display retainer amounts for specific time frames, i.e. last year, first quarter.

Invoices and the invoice backup report can now display the Labor Category description, Title, Labor Code description and timesheet detail.

AR Statements just got a little more personal. Similar to invoice templates created in the Invoice Template Editor, you can now add your firm’s logo to AR Statements. Margins can be defined for information printed in the heading and the Project Long Name can now be used.

Deltek also streamlined the Invoice Approval process. In the past, invoices submitted for approval would have to be un-submitted one invoice at a time. In version 7.6, invoices can now be un-submitted in batch.

Billing Invoices and Backup Reports are more flexible. On the Invoice and billing backup reports, the employee name can now be replaced with the Labor Category Description, Labor Code Description or Title while displaying the date and comments. These selections have been added to the Labor tab and the Billing Backup tab in Billing Terms.

Also new in Billing is a feature that allows you to show Fee Total and Add-on on the Final and Draft Invoice Backup Report. This selection is also available on the Billing Backup tab in Billing Terms.

Another useful feature in billing is the ability to show expenses in the billing backup report on draft invoices. The selection for this option has been added to the Billing Backup tab in Billing Terms.

Breakdown compensation in User Defined Revenue Methods. Currently in Deltek Vision, Direct Labor, Direct Expenses, Direct Consultant, Reimbursable Expense and Reimbursable Consultant can break out by compensation. In version 7.6, there are now fields available for the compensation breakout to be used in the User Defined Revenue Methods.

Credit Cards

In Credit Card Review, you can now see the Expense Report, Voucher and Chart of Account Number in the Credit Card Transactions grid. You can also perform a search by Expense Report and/or Voucher.

The User Defined Fields that are created in credit card configuration can also can also be displayed on the Credit Card Review, Credit Card Transactions tab and the Credit Card Statement Reconciliation, and the Credit Card Charges tab.

In version 7.6, you can now add employee paid credit cards. Charges paid by the employee can be marked as “Add to Expense Report” so that the employee will be reimbursed. Charges can also be marked as personal. Personal charges will not be included on the expense report.

There is also a new credit card mapping available in credit card configuration that will map the description of the credit card statement to the employee’s expense report.

Info Center Attachments

The Info Centers have a new tab called “Attachments”. Instead of entering a link in the Info Centers referencing the path where documents are stored, you can now load an actual image of the document. Info Center Attachments use the same technology as the Transaction Document Management feature.

Once uploaded, documents can be viewed by simply clicking on the view button on the attachments tab of the info center record.

Are You Excited about Deltek Vision 7.6?

Deltek Vision continues to improve with every new version, and with these enhancements, lives are made easier and firms are able make smarter decisions. What enhancements can help you and your firm? Contact us and let us know!