You use planning resource lists to plan the cost and effort of a project. You can define the resource needs at a high level, such as indicating that you need an organization or supplier involved in the project. You can also define your resource needs in a more granular form such as specifying a particular team role, a particular person, or even a specific financial element. You define planning resources in the context of a planning resource list.
A planning resource can represent any of the following:
- A single identified resource such as a named person (Amy Marlin), or a specific piece of equipment or non-labor resource such as a laptop
- A combination of an identified resource with specific attributes (Amy Marlin of Consulting East)
- A combination of resource-related attributes such as a team role in a specific organization (Architect – US East Coast Region or DBA – Chicago HQ) or a specific expense of a financial category (Airfare – Employee Expenses)
In regard to the types of resources described in the topic Resource Types, you can only use certain resource types in the context of a planning resource list. The following table shows these resource types, their descriptions, and where they are defined:
| Resource Type | Description | Defined in |
|---|---|---|
| Person Type | Distinguishes employees and contingent workers. For example, the project requires 100 hours of people effort and you have resources only for 80 hours. You can plan 80 hours of employee time and 20 hours of contingent worker time on the project. | Oracle Human Resources |
| Team Role | A placeholder for the actual resource that will be assigned to a requirement. | Oracle Projects |
| Projects Non-Labor Resources | An implementation-defined asset or pool of assets. For example, you can define a non-labor resource with a name such as PC to represent multiple personal computers your business owns. | Oracle Projects |
| Inventory Item | An item that can be purchased or produced, and for which you can budget and track the costs associated with the consumption of the item. | Oracle Inventory |
| Item Category | A collection of similar inventory items used to track the aggregate consumption of material. | Oracle Inventory |
| BOM Labor | Labor resources defined in the Bill of Materials (BOM) module of Oracle Manufacturing associated with a job such as a welder. | Oracle Manufacturing |
| BOM Equipment | Equipment defined in the Bill of Materials (BOM) module of Oracle Manufacturing such as a lathe. | Oracle Manufacturing |
| Resource Class | A classification of resources into people, equipment, material items, and financial elements. | Oracle Projects |
A planning resource list is a combination of planning resource formats and planning resources. The following table shows examples of planning resource lists:
| Planning Resource Format | Planning Resources |
|---|---|
| Named Person – Financial Category – Organization | James Robinson – Direct Labor Cost – Vision Health System |
| Job – Organization | Consultant – Atlanta Manufacturing |
| Person Type | Contingent Worker |
| Team Role | Account Manager |
Your implementation team can define the following types of planning resource lists:
- Project-Specific: A planning resource list for which you can add or delete planning resources for a given project. Planning resource formats for project-specific planning resource lists are maintained centrally, but the planning resources are project-specific.
- Centrally Controlled: A planning resource list that you cannot modify within a project. This type of planning resource list is maintained for the enterprise and used by the projects in the enterprise to plan work and budget cost.
Viewing Amounts with Planning Resource Lists
You can create a financial plan by copying a workplan, or another financial plan, or actual transactions on the project. You can match actual amounts to planning resources in the following ways:
- Matching Source Planning Resources To Target Planning ResourcesWhen you create a financial plan or a budget by copying a workplan or another financial plan, the system assigns each planning transaction in the source to a planning resource in the planning resource list used by the target workplan or the financial plan. Planning resource precedence rules govern how the target resource is determined.You use the source transaction attributes to determine the matching planning resource.
- Matching Actuals To Planning ResourcesSimilarly, when transactions are charged to a project, the system assigns each actual transaction to a planning resource in the planning resource list used by the target workplan or the financial plan, based on the planning resource precedence rules.If the system does not find a matching planned resource, then Oracle Projects creates an unplanned transaction for the planning resource that most closely matches the actual transaction, based on the planning resource precedence rules.
Planning Resource Precedence Rules
Planning resource precedence rules are used to match planning transactions or actuals to the target planning resource list. The following table shows the precedence hierarchy used to find a matching resource format in the target planning resource list:
Note: A lower precedence number denotes higher precedence. For example, Resource Element/Incurred By Resource has the highest precedence.
| Resource Format Elements | Precedence |
|---|---|
| Resource Element / Incurred by Resource | 1 |
| Team Role | 2 |
| Financial Category | 3 |
| Organization | 4 |
| Supplier | 5 |
The following table shows the hierarchy used to find a matching resource type in the target planning resource list after the resource format is determined:
| Resource Type | Precedence |
|---|---|
| Named Person | 1 |
| BOM Labor | 2 |
| Projects Non-Labor | 3 |
| BOM Equipment | 4 |
| Inventory Item | 5 |
| Job | 6 |
| Item Category | 7 |
| Person Type | 8 |
| Resource Class | 9 |
The following table shows an example of a planning resource list that contains two planning resources:
| Planning Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Planning Resource A | Named Person – Financial Category – Organization (Amy Marlin – Professional – Consulting East) |
| Planning Resource B | Job – Organization (Principal Consultant – Consulting East) |
When Amy Marlin, a principal consultant in the Consulting East organization, enters timecards (with expenditure type as Professional), the costs are associated with planning resource A because the attributes are shared, and Named Attribute has a higher precedence than Job.
Actual amounts are matched to planning resources using the following rules:
- For Centrally Controlled Planning Resource Lists
- The resource class for the source transaction is determined.
- The matching resource format with the lowest precedence number in the target planning resource list for the resource class is determined.
- The planning resource within the format with the lowest precedence number is determined. If a planning resource does not exist for the given format, then step 2 is repeated with the next precedence number.
- For Project-Specific Planning Resource Lists
- The resource class for the source transaction is determined.
- The matching resource format with the lowest precedence number in the target planning resource list for the resource class is determined.
- If the planning resource does not exist, then a new planning resource is created.
Assigning Planning Resource Lists to a Project
You assign a planning resource list to either a workplan or a financial plan, or both. You can assign any planning resource list to a financial plan. However, to assign a planning resource list to a workplan, you must select the Enabled for Workplan check box on the planning resource list page.
To assign a planning resource list to a workplan or financial plan, peform the following steps:
- Select the project with which you would like to associate the planning resource list and navigate to the Workplan or Financial Setup page.
- Select Plan Settings to view the planning resource lists.
- Select and apply any planning resource list from the Setup section for a workplan.
Adding Planning Resources to a Project
If you are using a project-specific planning resource list for your workplan or financial plan, you can add or delete planning resources within a project. However, the changes you make are exclusive to the project and do not affect the planning resource list defined at the implementation level.
When you add a planning resource, you select both a resource class and a planning resource format. The resource class is a high-level categorization of resources. The planning resource format determines the level of granularity with which you want to plan for resources in your projects. The following table shows the resource classes:
| Resource Class | Description |
|---|---|
| People | People resources represent named persons or any grouping of named persons by attributes such as job, organization, or role, whose time (effort) capacity is consumed to complete the project work. Example: Amy Marlin |
| Equipment | An equipment resource is a non-person resource such as machine, equipment, or facilities whose time capacity is consumed to complete project work. Example: Laptop |
| Material Items | Material items differ from equipment resources in that the resource itself, rather than the resource capacity, is consumed to complete project work. Material Items are physically tracked as inventory, sub-assembly, WIP, purchasable items or finished goods in the Oracle E-Business Suite. Example: WIP |
| Financial Elements | Financial elements are resources that have a financial value in the project. Usually the physical identification of the resource is either unimportant or meaningless compared to tracking its financial value. In general, financial elements are aggregate resources classified in a way that achieves accounting and financial management objectives. Examples: Expenses and Supplier Costs |
The resource class determines the available selection of predefined planning resource formats. A planning resource format is a combination of the attributes shown in the following table:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Resource | One of any enterprise objects such as people, equipment, facilities, materials used to complete and track a project |
| Financial category | A financial category represents the type or category of costs. A financial category contains the following resource types:Expenditure TypeExpenditure CategoryEvent Type (financial planning for revenue only)Revenue Category (financial planning for revenue only) |
| Organization | Any level of an organization such as divisions, groups, cost centers, or other organizational units within a company |
| Supplier | A business or individual that provides goods and or services for payment |
| Team role | A requirement for a particular project |
| Incurred by resource | An incurred by resource represents the resource that is incurring an expense amount. This element allows users to distinguish between a named persons time being consumed, and tracking expenses for that same named person. |
If a planning resource list is enabled for a workplan, you can use the following only once in a planning resource format in the planning resource list:
- Named Person
- BOM Labor
- BOM Equipment
- Projects Non-Labor Resources
- Inventory Item
Related Topics
Defining a Planning Resource List, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide
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