Consultants Plan Settings

Use the Consultants options on the Plan Settings dialog box to specify the planning level, rates, and multipliers for planned consultants on your plans.

This dialog box automatically displays when you create a new Navigator plan or you convert a Vision plan to a Navigator plan.

You can establish the Consultant Plan Settings under the following conditions:

• The Consultants planning tab is enabled on the General tab in Vision > Configuration > Planning > Plan Settings. If you do not have the Resource Planning module, the option is on the main Plan Settings form.
  Note: If you are using Vision Multicompany, the system checks the option's setting in the Vision Plan Settings for your project's company.
• Your role has access to the Consultants planning tab on the Navigator tab in Vision > Configuration > Security > Roles.
• Your role has the Allow changes to rate/method tables option selected on the Planning tab in Vision > Configuration > Security > Roles if you need to change reimbursable consultants rate calculations. If you do not have the Vision Resource Planning module, the Allow changes to rate/method tables option is on the Navigator tab.
• The project's charge type is Regular. Consultants cannot be planned on Overhead or Promotional projects.

Location

To display the Consultants page of the Plan Settings dialog box, complete the following steps:

1. Select a project that has a Navigator plan.
2. Click and select Plan Settings. The Plan Settings option does not display if the project does not have a plan, the plan is a Vision plan, or if you do not have appropriate access rights.
3. Navigator automatically checks out the plan when the Plan Settings option is selected, you have appropriate access rights, and no one else has the plan checked out.
4. Select the Consultants option. The Consultants Plan Settings fields display.

Contents

Field	Description
Planning Level	Use this drop-down list to select the default WBS level that will be used to plan consultants for the project: Project: Select this option to plan consultants at the Project level. Phase: Select this option to plan consultants at the Phase level, if the project has phases. Otherwise, consultants are planned at the Project level. Lowest Level: Select this option to plan consultants at the lowest level of the WBS. The options in this list are based on the WBS settings that are defined in Vision > Utilities > Key Formats. For example, if the Phase length is set to zero, then Project is the only option that displays in the Planning Level list. Note: You cannot change the planning level if the project has a baseline plan and planned consultant amounts, or if your security access does not allow you to change the baseline. Changing the planning level has multiple implications if the existing plan includes resource levels that are planned under a level that is different than the new level: Any planned resource rows under a WBS level that does not match the new planning level are removed. If any of the planned resource rows to be removed are included in the baseline, the rows will be removed from the baseline. Note that removing rows from the baseline may impact the ETC. If your access rights don't allow you to change the baseline, you cannot change the planning level. Any planned resource rows already at the new planning level remain. Resource rows with JTD will be shown at the new planning level once the change is finished. If the plan is not balanced (where some phases have tasks and some do not) and you select Lowest Level, Navigator will remove the resource rows that are lower than the selected level. Changing the level to a lower one and the project has the lower level and there are resource rows under a higher level. All the resource rows are removed.
Reimb. Consultant Billing Markup	Use these fields to define the settings for reimbursable consultant planned amounts. Note: If the Budget Type is set to Cost, or the Use Billing Currency not Project Currency option is selected on the Rates tab of Vision Accounting Configuration and the project currency is not equal to the billing currency, the Rate Method automatically defaults to None and the Rate Method, Rate Table, Recalculate, and Multiplier fields are display-only.
Recalculate	Select this option to apply the current settings and recalculate the planned bill amounts for reimbursable consultants. You must click Save for the recalculation to occur.
Rate Method	Select one of the following Rate Method options: Multiplier Only: The planned billing amount will be calculated as Planned Cost x Multiplier. From Account Rate Table: The planned billing amount will be calculated using the rate for the consultant expense account from the specified table. If no rate is found, Planned Cost x Multiplier will be used. From Category Rate Table: The planned billing amount will be calculated using the rate for the consultant expense category from the specified table. If no rate is found, Planned Cost x Multiplier is used. None: The planned billing amount will be equal to the planned cost. The Rate Method is initially set to the default value that is defined in Vision > Configuration > Planning > Plan Settings. If Rate Method is set to None, only billing amounts are visible. If the Rate Method is set to Multiplier Only, From Account Rate Table, or From Category Rate Table, a Planned Cost or Planned Billing column displays on the Consultants grid. Use this field to view the planned cost or expense amounts at billing.
Rate Table	This option is available if you specify From Account Rate Table or From Category Rate Table as the Rate Method. Use this field to specify the rate table that you want to use. This list contains either Expense Account Tables or Expense Category Tables, depending on the selected Rate Method. Only the tables you have access to appear in the list, and they must also be marked as Available for planning in the Vision Billing application.
Direct Consultants - Multiplier	The multiplier is displayed for informational purposes only. The value is always 1.000 and cannot be changed. The planned cost and planned bill amounts for direct consultants are always equal to one another.
Multiplier	Enter a multiplier to apply to all reimbursable consultants entries when the Rate Method is set to Multiplier Only. If the Rate Method is set to From Account Rate Table or From Category Rate Table, the multiplier is applied to any account that is not found in the selected table.