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Expanding on the labor estimation feature introduced in v3.5.37, InfraLink v3.5.40 introduces the Hours (beta) section of Preventative Maintenance and Task type Case Details panels. The Hours (beta) section houses four main fields: Estimated Hours, Earned Hours, Remaining Est. Hours, and Total Activity Time allowing those with Case Read permissions to view a comprehensive breakdown of the labor anticipated and performed for that Case.
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Because InfraLink Service Budgets track funding status as part of the Case workflow, they offer near-real-time funding status and eliminate the need for external budget tracking tools, such as Excel spreadsheets. Additionally, a client and contractor's cooperative use of InfraLink Service Budgets can help expedite the work approval process and improve funding-based work scheduling, which benefits all parties.
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A Service Budget is associated with one (1) InfraLink Contract. Only Cases created under that Contract may apply against that Service Budget. However, just as a client contract may include multiple budget amounts (e.g., CLINs), multiple Service Budgets can be created under a single Contract in order to track the different segments of work/costs. Accordingly, InfraLink must determine which work (i.e., Cases) fall within the scope of each Service Budget. Two things contribute to this determination:
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- Service Budgets View - Accessible from the Main Menu (see Finance stack), the Service Budgets grid view presents all configured Service Budgets a user has privileges to access.
- Filter this view by Contract, Name, Start/End Dates, Location, Case Category and/or Total Awarded amount.
- Quickly glean essential budget-tracking information, including:
- Total Awarded amount
- Uncommitted Balance remaining,
- Unrequested Balance remaining, and the
- Closed costs, Committed costs and Pending Requests upon which those calculations are based.
- Use the New widget, atop the grid view, to create a new Service Budget.
- Contract Details Display - Once a Service Budget is created for a Contract, a summary of that budget will be displayed within the Contract Details panel. Scroll to the Service Budgets section near the bottom of the panel.
- Case Forms and Details Display - Case forms and details now provide users instant access to real-time Service Budget information:
- The New/Update Case forms will now present a Budget field, from which the user can select the desired Service Budget.
- This field presents the traditional magnifying glass icon, which provides the user access to all Service Budgets available for selection.
- Each Service Budget option also displays the budget's current balance information, to help ensure adequate funding is available for the requested work.
- This field presents the traditional magnifying glass icon, which provides the user access to all Service Budgets available for selection.
- Once a Service Budget is associated with a Case record:
- The Service Budget association will be prominently displayed near the top of the Case Details panel.
- Positioning your mouse over that Service Budget value will present a pop-up with a current budget summary.
- Case Update forms will present the associated Service Budget, as well as its balance summary, within the Estimated Cost section of the form.
- The Service Budget association will be prominently displayed near the top of the Case Details panel.
- The New/Update Case forms will now present a Budget field, from which the user can select the desired Service Budget.
- Case Category Configurations - Several new Case Category configurations impact the way Cases interact with Service Budgets:
- Billing Type - InfraLink's Service Budget feature supports two billing types, time & materials or firm fixed price. These billing types vary in the way that costs are applied against the budget in Closed statuses:
- T&M - The Service Budget applies the Estimated Cost against the Service Budget in Committed statuses, and then applies actual costs (Case-logged Material, Billable Labor and Misc Expense costs) against the Service budget in Closed statues.
- FFP - The Service Budget applies the Case's Estimated Cost against the Service Budget in both Committed and Closed statuses.
- Estimate Type - This configuration controls how a Case's Estimated Cost value is entered:
- Direct Entry (most common) - The user manually populates the Estimated Cost field during Case creation or update.
- Excel File - The Estimated Cost value is pulled from a properly formatted field within an uploaded Excel spreadsheet.
- Require Service Budget Selection - When enabled, a user cannot transition a Case into a Committed status without a Service Budget selection.
- Enforce Service Budget Funding - Optional when Require Service Budget Selection is enabled. When enabled, this feature prevents a Case from entered entering a Committed status when the Case's Estimated Cost exceeds the Service Budget's available balance.
- Billing Type - InfraLink's Service Budget feature supports two billing types, time & materials or firm fixed price. These billing types vary in the way that costs are applied against the budget in Closed statuses:
- Case Status Business Logic Configurations - Whether or not a Service Budget considers Costs as committed or closed depends on the Case's current status.
- The New/Edit Case Status forms include two unique Business Logic settings, upon which that determination is made:
- Committed Work
- Is a "Closed" status
- Service Budget Permissions - The following new Permissions apply to Service Budget privileges at the Contract and Case level:
- Contracts → Service Budget → Create, Read and Update
- Cases → General → Select Case's Service Budget
- Note: Users must also have Contracts → Service Budget → Read Permission to see the Service Budgets available for a given Case.
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