Planned Costs

The Planned Costs page allows you to enter all expenses and all team positions you expect the Folio will require during its lifespan.  Expenses are added to one of three main categories: Operational expenditures (OPEX), Capital expenditures (CAPEX) or Financial expenditures (FINEX). Expenses can be single occurrence or recurrent ones.  Positions are the team members you will need to accomplish the work, such as developers, testers, team leads, etc. and are added to the operational expenditures.  Information entered here will be used to provide project health metrics on the Overview page and shown as a reference on the Costs Forecast chart.

Planned costs can be baselined for future reference and comparing various scenarios.

Expenses

Expenses are the all the expenses you plan the Folio will incur at one point or another. The Planned Costs page shows the calculated cost  for each expense and expense groups (by type). You can collapse (or expand) a group of expenses by clicking the triangle icon ( ) next to an expense type.

See the Expenses page for more information on expenses and how their cost is calculated.

Planning an expense

To add an expense, either click the Plan Expense button or hit the "a" (for add) shortcut key.  This brings the expense edition dialog.  Refer to the Editing an Expense section to learn how to fill the edition dialog. Check the Plan another box at the bottom of the dialog in order to create many expenses in sequence. 

Editing an expense

Select an existing expense to modify by clicking on it and then either click on the drop-down menu on the top-right part of the expense details view (on righthand side of the screen) and select the Edit option or hit the "e" (for edit) shortcut key.  This will bring up the expense edition dialog.

Name

Name of the expense. 

Examples: Rent for 222 Main Street, IDE licenses, Printer toner, Web hosting fee 

Amount

Amount of this expense.  Note that in the case of a recurrent expense, the amount of the payments for that expense will depend if it is amortized or not.  If the cased of an amortized expense, the amount entered here will be evenly split on the number of payments defined in the recurrence definition.  Otherwise, the amount of each payment is the amount entered in this field.

Category

Category of the expense.  See section Categories for more details on each option.

Type

Type of the expense. It is used to classify expenses and for filtering in reports.  While typing in this field, types entered previously for other expenses that match what you type will be suggested to you for completion to help you avoid typos and duplications.

Examples: Rent, Office furniture, Licenses, etc.

Recurring

By default, an expense occurs on a single date.  To change the date of occurrence of that expense or to make the expense recurrent (and possibly amortized), click the Edit link.  This brings up a dialog allowing you to define the recurrence for that expense.  As you change the values in that dialog, you are presented with a phrase explaining the recurrence, in the text area located just above. 

Refer to Recurrence for more details.

Amortized

Specifies if the payments for that expense be should split over a period of time or not. This option appears under the Recurring field when the Repeat value in the Recurrence definition dialog is changed to something else than Once.  When amortized, the this expense gets evenly split into payments occurring on dates defined in the Recurring field.

Labels

JIRA Issue Labels to associate the expense with

Refer to Labels for more details.

Description

An optional, free form description of the position.

Deleting an expense

Select an existing expense to delete by clicking on it and then either click on the ... menu on the top-right part of the details panel (on righthand side of the screen) and select the Delete option or hit the d (for delete) shortcut key.  This brings up a dialog to confirm expense deletion.  Click the Delete button to confirm the deletion, or Cancel link to abort.  Deletion is permanent, thus make sure you really want to delete an expense before proceeding.

You can delete multiple expenses (even a mix of expenses and positions) at once. Refer to the Multiple Selection to learn how to perform a batch deletion.

Attaching files to an expense

You can attach files to an expense in order to keep related documents handy (invoices, quotations, etc.). To attach files to an expense, select it and then click button Attach Files in expense details panel on the right.  This will bring up a dialog where you can pick a file (or multiple files simultaneously, if your browser allows it) and enter an optional comment.

Viewing Expense details

When selecting an expense, more information on that expense is displayed in the details panel on the right. Note that you can also select multiple expenses (or even a mix of expenses and positions) at once by selecting multiple lines.  This provides you an aggregated view showing the total cost associated with these expenditures.

Searching for expenses

You can search for expenses by their name using the search box located at the top left of the screen.

Consulting History

Tempo Folio records all changes that occur on Folios and their data for auditing purpose. When an expense, revenue or team member is selected, the details panel shows a History sub section, quickly accessible by clicking the corresponding icon () in the details panel's navigation bar.  The History section displays a table listing all changes that occurred on the selected item and their associated data, such as attachments, wages, allocations and worked hours. Changes displayed include creations, updates and deletions and are sorted from the most recent to the oldest. An update is recorded for each modified field, so a single edition of an Expense can possibly add many rows in the History table. Also, if the table holds more than five entries, then some entries will be hidden by default: click the row showing ellipses (...) to expand the table and show all changes.

The History section is visible only to users who can edit the Folio, a.k.a Folio administrators.

 

TimestampDate and time at which the change occured.
AuthorAvatar of the JIRA user who performed the change. Hovering the avatar brings up a tooltip with more info on the user. Clicking it takes you to the user's page.
Change

Description of the change. It ends with the database ID of the modified item between square brackets.

Hovering the description of updates brings up a tooltip showing the value before and after the change.

Copying an expense to actual

Select an existing expense to copy to actual by clicking on it and then either click on the drop-down menu on the top-right part of the expense details view (on righthand side of the screen) and select the Copy to actual option or hit the "t" (for to Actual) shortcut key.  This will copy the selected expense to actual, including its attached files. 

You can copy multiple expenses to actual at once by selecting them in the budget (by pressing and holding the Control key while clicking the expenses to copy).  You can then copy the selected expenses the same way you copy a single expense.  The confirmation message will inform you of how many expenses have been copied.

Positions

Positions are the salary expenses you plan the Folio will incur at one point or another. The planned costs page shows the calculated cost for each position and position groups (by title). The cost displayed on group title rows is simply the sum of the costs of the positions in that group. You can collapse (or expand) a group of positions by clicking the triangle icon ( ) next to a position title.

See the Positions page for more information on positions and how their cost is calculated.

Planning a position

To plan a position, either click the Add Position button or hit the "o" (for position) shortcut key.  This brings up a position edition dialog.  Check the Plan another box at the bottom of the dialog in order to create many positions in sequence.

 


Name

Name of the position

Examples: J2EE Developer 1, Database Administrator

Title

Title that will be used to classify positions. While typing in this field, titles entered previously for other positions that match what you typed will be suggested to you for completion to help you avoid typos and duplications.

Examples: Developer, Q&A, Management, etc.

Cost rate

Cost of an hour for this position (wage)
Repeat

Number of positions to create.

Example: if repeat is 6 FOLIO will create six positions. All created positions will have the same exact values (title, wage, ...).

FromDate from which this (or these) position(s) are planned to start working on this project.
ToDate until which this (or these) position(s) are planned to be working on this project.

Planned Effort

Amount of time the position is planned to be active during the Folio. The effort can be entered in one of two ways:

    • By specifying a percentage of normal business hours between the two specified dates. The planned effort will be calculated based on the normal hours per day configured in the Work Schedule.
    • By specifying an amount of time between the two specified dates. The specified time will be evenly dispatched in the timeframe.

The effort will be displayed as a number of hours in the Planned costs screen, no matter how the value was entered.

Labels

JIRA Issue Label to associate with the position.

Refer to Labels documentation for more details.

Description

An optional, free form description of the position.

Planning positions from estimates

You can ask FOLIO to automatically plan positions based on the estimated effort of issues in scope within the folio's time frame.

  • Derive planned positions to match the sum of original estimates of the Folio's scope.
  • Completes budgeted positions if your currently planned positions are not sufficient to match the estimated effort.

Name

Name of the positions

Examples: J2EE Developer 1, Database Administrator

Title

Title that will be used to classify positions. While typing in this field, titles entered previously for other positions that match what you typed will be suggested to you for completion to help you avoid typos and duplications.

Examples: Developer, Q&A, Management, etc.

Cost rate

Average cost of an hour for these positions (wage)

Effective date

The capacity of a position is based on the work schedule between the effective date and the folio's end date.

Editing a position

Select an existing position to modify by clicking on it and then either click on the ... menu on the top-right part of the details panel (on righthand side of the screen) and select the Edit option or hit the e (for edit) shortcut key.  This brings up the edition dialog.  Refer to Adding a position section for a detailed description of the edition dialog.

Deleting a position

Select an existing position to delete by clicking on it and then either click on the ... menu on the top-right part of the details panel (on righthand side of the screen) and select the Delete option or hit the d (for delete) shortcut key.  This brings up a dialog to confirm the deletion.  Click the Delete button to confirm the deletion, or Cancel link to abort.  Deletion is permanent, thus make sure you really want to delete a position before proceeding.

You can delete multiple positions (and even a mix of expenses and positions) at once. Refer to the Multiple Selection to learn how to perform a batch deletion.

Expenses and Positions Timeline

The Timeline View is displayed when the right part of the toggle button located at the top left of the Expenditure Browser is pressed . It shows each expense payment as well as planned positions over the Folio's timeframe as an interactive timeline chart. Each element displayed for an expense (shown in blue) on the timeline reflects a payment for that expense. Positions (shown in green) are show as periods, covering the planned allocation period for each planned position.

Timeline charts in FOLIO offer various controls to navigate and focus on certain periods of time. Please refer to the Timelines page to learn more on available ways to interact with the Timeline.

All operations described above can be executed directly from the timeline, including edition, deletion, search, multi-selection, etc.

Hovering one of the timeline elements shows the date or time period corresponding to that element as well as its summary information, such as its name and planned cost.

Import / Export

FOLIO Allows you to import or export your data in CSV (comma separated values) format.

Importing Planned Costs

To import data from an existing CSV file, click on the ... button and select Import data. Alternatively, you can type the keyboard shortcut i to open the import dialog. See Importing Data from CSV and Planned Costs/Revenues Import to learn more about importing Planned Costs.

Exporting Planned Costs

To export data to an external CSV file click on the ... button and select Export data. Alternatively, you can type the keyboard shortcut x to instantly export data. Exported CSV file includes both planned positions and expenses. See Planned Costs or Revenues CSV Export Detail to learn more about export data.

Approving planned costs

Planned costs can be approved using a baselining mechanism. Refer to the Baselines page for more information on managing baselines.

Scope Inspector

The scope inspector allows you to view the breakdown of the Folio's scope by issue type (user stories, bugs, etc.) and see if the planned positions have a capacity that matches the effort required for that scope. It will help you answer questions such as:

  • Are the planned salaries sufficient to implement the planned features of our application?
  • How much required effort has been estimated for the planned scope? How much to fix the known bugs?
  • What's the maximum effort a person can possibly provide given the current Folio's time frame?

Clicking the Scope button brings up that information in the details panel on the right.

 

Details
Scope Inspector

Shows or hides Scope Inspector.

XHides the Scope Inspector.

Inline Help. Clicking on the icon opens up an inline dialog containing definitions of elements displayed in section.

Saved filterClicking on Saved Filter link displays all JIRA issues included in your Folio's scope
Capacity per PersonA single person's capacity in terms of regular working hours given the Folio's time frame and the Working Schedule configuration.
Planned positionsTotal number of positions currently planned
Planned EffortTotal number of working hours currently planned
Assigned IssuesNumber of assigned issues among all issues in this Folio's scope.
Unassigned IssuesNumber of issues that are not assigned among all issue in this Folio's scope.
Currently Planned
Planned PositionsNumber of planned positions in this Folio.
Planned EffortNumber of work hours planned in this Folio.
Breakdown By Issue Type
Issue TypeType of issues (User Story, Task, Bug, etc.)
CountTotal number of issues by type
Earned Value Field

Sum of the Earned Value Field for all issues of given type. Will not be display if Earned Value Field is set to Original Estimate.

Original EstimateSum of Original Estimate for all issues of given type.

 

 

 

 

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