Overview
Have you ever began work on a Project in Parallax, only to realize there was an error with the allocations that comprised your Sold Snapshot? Sure you can regenerate your Sold Snapshot with a new one based on your current allocations, rates, etc. by moving the Project back to Awaiting Start, but this replaces your old Snapshot, losing the allocations, etc. that you had previously captured. The longer you wait to do this, the less helpful of a comparison tool the Sold Snapshot becomes.
Never fear, we've heard your feedback and with our newest release, we're revising the Financial Settings page to make your Sold Snapshot editable.
| What does this mean? | Here we'll dive into what it means to be able to make changes to Sold, and what it doesn't mean. |
| We'll break down the actual functionality of what's changing here. | |
| Spoiler, it will not! Check out here for more detail on what this means for allocations. | |
| How should this affect the way I use the Sold Snapshot? |
Find out more about what this means for the Sold Snapshot and how to think about this update. |
| Listing Page update |
We've paired this update with a tweak to the Active Listing page - check out more info here! |
What does this mean?
Don't worry, we haven't changed the way you'll initially take a Sold Snapshot - this will still occur each time you move a Project to In Progress status. You'll still be able to move a Project back to Awaiting Start to generate a whole new Sold Snapshot - but you can also edit the Snapshot you already took.
This means that Sold Snapshots will now start out based on the planned Allocations and Financial Settings (Rate Card, Bill Rate/Service Revenue and Financial Model) when you move the Project to In Progress - you will also be able to manually update these things* to correct any errors.
*Important Note - Financial Models are the exception!
Because Financial Models shouldn't typically change after work has begun on a Project, and because there is no easy point-in-time for Financial Models to change (i.e. For all time? From the time you edit it? From the start of work?), the Financial Model still cannot be changed while In Progress. However, you can still move a Project back to Awaiting Start if you really need to change the Financial Model!
How does it work?
In addition to the Projected and Planned Views on the Financial Settings page, we've added a third, Sold View. By selecting this View, you can edit the following elements of your Sold Snapshot, in order to correct errors and regenerate your Sold Snapshot based on the correct info.
For the Project Overall, you can:
- Update Target Budget.
- Adjust Target Margin.
For T&M Offerings, you can:
- Change the selected Rate Card.
- Modify the total Sold Hours per Role.
- Adjust the Bill Rates per Role.
With a Fixed Bid Offering or Fixed Retainer Offering, you can:
- Select/Deselect the option for Calculating with a Rate Card.
- Update the Offering's Service Revenue.
- Change the selected Rate Card.
- Modify the total Sold Hours per Role.
In addition to these changes, the refreshed Sold Snapshot will also have the benefit of including any Cost changes that you've made after the Project was moved to In Progress status with Effective Dates that fall within the project.
Some changes that cannot be made while a Project is In-Progress include:
- Changing the Financial Model.
- Updating the Period (Fixed Retainer).
Once you've made the intended adjustments, you can select "Save" to regenerate your Sold Snapshot.
Will changing Sold Hours update/change Allocations?
In short, no.
This change represents the ability to override the planned Allocations that you had previously set up before moving the Project to In-Progress. Naturally, if you you edit your Sold Hours using this new feature while the Project is In Progress, Sold Hours won't be based on any Allocations, but instead based on the Hours you manually enter.
Additionally, as you make changes, you'll want to keep in mind that:
- Editing Sold Hours or Sold Bill Rate will naturally affect Sold Revenue on T&M Offerings.
- Editing Service Revenue or Sold Hours on Fixed Offerings will naturally affect Rates.
Here's the process for making changes after a project is already In Progress, as many of the fields can't be modified when the project is no longer Awaiting Start. While changing the project status back and forth is okay, it will override your Sold Snapshot if the shaping has changed since the status was last updated.
The Sold Snapshot is generated when moving a project from Awaiting Start to In Progress. This Sold Snapshot maintains the integrity of what was initially sold when the deal was marked Closed/Won, which enables the ability to report against how the project is performing compared to what was sold.
Updating the Sold Snapshot
- The Project status must be In Progress
- In the Financial Settings tab, select Sold from the drop-down in the upper left, next to the Project Revenue.
- Enter the sold hours for each role
- Click Save
How should this affect the way I use the Sold Snapshot?
The Sold Snapshot is intended to represent a point-in-time benchmark that you use for comparison after the Project is sold. For this reason, the more you regenerate the Sold Snapshot on an In-Progress Project, naturally the less useful it's going to be as a frame of reference.
To that end, it's best to view this enhancement as a way of addressing errors that were made prior to the Project starting or of refreshing Cost Changes during the life of the Project, rather than to make meaningful retroactive changes.
Listing Page update
Because the Sold Hours can now be adjusted to correctly reflect what a Project was Sold for, we have updated the Sold vs. Planned hours on the Active Projects Listing Page to Actual vs. Sold Hours - this way you can track quickly and easily against what you Sold the Project for (as well as more easily identify and adjust Projects that were unshaped at time of sale), rather than seeing at a glance only how you're executing against plans.