Quick Tip: How to tie same project on both Fixed Bid and Time Project in a Contract

Problem Definition: Many a times we have 2 different type of contract lines that we need to create for a customer, one may be of Time and Material (T&M) Type and another may be of Fixed Bid (FB) Type. The problem used to be that for each type of contract line, we needed to create separate projects that needed to be tagged with each contract line as other wise we get an error as shown below:

Solution:

While creating the Contract line of Type T&M we need to carefully select the parameters (Time, Expense and Fees) as shown in the below screen shot.

Following is what needs to be done:

1. While creating a T&M project, check the project which type of project is it, whether the Time Entry and Expenses will be Chargeable on the basis of Project Managers approval. If so, please select the Expenses as “Yes” and select “No” to the other types Time and Fee.

• When you create a quote for FB type, select Time and Fee as “Yes” and Expense as “No” as shown below.

• Now when you tag the same project on both  the type of contracts, you will not see error.
• Benefit of having same project is that for your FB and T&M type contacts you can have Milestones that can be billed as well as Time Entry and Expense can be charged to the customer simultaneously, which reduces the work or maintaining multiple projects for each type of contract.

Conclusion:

These minor tips can save a lot of maintenance burden and time of project manager and the Resource Manager both as the allocation needs to be then done on one project and also helps the team to do the Time and Expense entry on the same project.