Feature Release: Point in Time
Take a look at this exciting feature release to PLAN-IT | PROJECT that empowers our users to more easily monitor and track the progress of budgets and variances throughout a project. A version of this was available in our legacy 2.0 platform, called milestones, and is now live in PROJECT with additional enhancements.
What is the Point In Time feature?
Point In Time (PiT) empowers a medical equipment planner with the ability to track how multiple project budgets, including a project’s primary budget, has changed over time. The planner establishes a set of milestones, or “points in time,” to track — for example, project phases, meetings, or change requests — and then can see how the budget has changed as the project has progressed through those milestones.
With this feature, the equipment planner has the power to:
- Determine and edit the points in time.
- Monitor and visualize overall project budgets, or drill down to specific category budgets to view how the budget has changed.
- NEW: Autocapture budget data at predetermined stages. This feature is called the Points in Time Schedule. For instance, a medical planner can set an autocapture to record the budget every time an item is put into “purchased.” This autocapture provides an ongoing ability to track variances between item stages in a project. Previously, this feature in the 2.0 platform was limited to capture budget data only on “released,” and did not allow users to compare multiple stages. This enhancement allows users to track both Points in Time using the “milestone” concept, as well as by stage.
What enhancements have been made to the Point In Time feature in PROJECT compared to the 2.0 platform?
We’re pleased to deliver several exciting upgrades in PROJECT to make this feature even more useful to medical planners. Enhancements include:
- The ability to view PiT data at the item detail level. This enhancement allows users to view an item’s current actual financial data compared to the selected point in time, to help with tracking changes in the project budget.
- Two new variance tracking reports: one at the item scope level, and one at the project scope level. These reports show variance calculations for approved budget values and actual budget values at each point in time.
- A new budget analytics dashboard with charts and graphs that visualize the budget variances at each configured point in time to help planners monitor, analyze and report on this information.
When and how would an equipment planner use the Point In Time feature?
Point In Time gives equipment planners the data they need to analyze and report on budget changes throughout a project. This includes:
- Monitoring budgets and variances throughout all stages of project planning.
- Reviewing quick, at-a-glance variances that are tracked to particular points in time, which can be used to produce variance reports and provide visibility to see where large changes in cost occurred. If reported by item, the planner can also see which items impacted the budget to the greatest degree.
- Using the data visualizations (charts and graphs) to report to leadership on budget variances throughout the project
- Conducting an analysis at the end of a project on how and why the project varied from the original budget estimate
How does the Point In Time feature compare to the Add Delete Update (ADU) report?
The Point In Time feature is really focused on project budgets, and how financials have changed throughout the project at the various milestones the equipment planner has established.
The ADU report, on the other hand, serves as more of a change log, and allows project teams to see how items and specifications in a project have changed throughout predetermined periods of time in a project.
Want to learn more?
