GRACE · Module 7 · Project Kickoff

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Use this page while setting a project up in BST. Build the record in six steps, load the net fee across real phases, and run the five point check before the first hour is charged.

Build the record in six steps

Copy the project from a template. A project is not created from a blank form.

Confirm the executed agreement and the final fee. The fee that loads into BST is the fee in the signed agreement, not the fee in the last proposal.
Select the market-segment template. The template carries the phase structure. A scoping decision rather than a clerical one.
Copy Project from that template. The new record inherits the phases, the task structure, and the billing terms.
Set the project identity. Number, name, project manager, principal in charge, currency type, and status.
Submit for Project Accountant review. The record is not finished until it has been reviewed.
Confirm the correct Project Manager restriction. A project filed under the wrong manager is invisible on the dashboard that manager opens.

Loading a budget means three things

Budget, phasing, and staffing load together. A budget loaded without phasing gives one number for the whole project and hides the phase that is losing money.

NET FEE, NOT GROSS

Load. What Grace earns with its own people.

Oakhaven. $1,400,000 of a $2.8M total design fee, with $1.4M of consultant work outside the Grace budget line.

Failure. A project that appears to have twice the money it has.

PHASED, NOT LUMPED

Load. The net fee split across the phases the project will actually run.

Proportion. The shape of the work rather than an even division.

Failure. Construction Documents reads −$163,333.33 while the project total still reads plus $18,666.67.

STAFFED TO THE RATE

Load. Each phase staffed at the rates the fee supports.

Cost check. 120 Principal hours at $310 per hour is $37,200, close to 17 percent of an entire phase cost budget.

Failure. A phase that reads healthy on hours and unhealthy on margin.

Compute both before opening the budget

Net fee = total design fee − consultant value

Oakhaven net fee: $2,800,000 − $1,400,000 = $1,400,000

Staffing cost check = hours × rate

120 Principal hours × $310 per hour = $37,200, close to 17 percent of an entire phase cost budget

The Oakhaven phase split

Illustrative training data on the locked Oakhaven fee. Construction Documents carries the largest share because it carries the most hours.

Phase	Share of net fee	Value	What the phase is for
Schematic Design	20%	$280,000	Options framed and a direction chosen
Design Development	20%	$280,000	The chosen direction resolved
Construction Documents	35%	$490,000	The set built and coordinated
Bidding and Negotiation	5%	$70,000	The set priced and a contractor recommended
Construction Administration	20%	$280,000	The work observed and administered

Hourly and time and materials work

The scorecard is identical to fixed fee work. The budget is not. The projection is a missing input rather than a limit of the tool.

Setup question	Fixed fee	Hourly and time and materials
Where the planned value comes from	The fee in the signed agreement	An Effort Projection, the planned value of the work
Who builds it	It carries with the fee, by definition	The project manager. No one enters it unless a project manager builds it
When it is entered	At setup, with the fee	At setup, before the work starts
What Budget Effort reads when it is skipped	Not applicable	Zero
What Variance reports when it is skipped	Not applicable	Nothing. A Variance measured against zero carries no meaning

Which screen answers which question

Check the Restrictions bar before concluding the screen is wrong. It filters on Project Status, Project Manager, Currency Type, and Project.

The question	Where it is answered	What to read
Is this project earning what it is spending?	My Projects Review	Revenue beside Effort, then Variance
Is the trend improving or decaying?	My Projects Trends and Status	Variance across consecutive periods
Which project in the firm needs attention first?	My Portfolio Alerts	Variance At Completion and schedule slip
Which invoices are aging?	Aged Unbilled and Receivables Aging	The 31 to 60, 61 to 90, 91 to 120, and over 121 bands
What document sits behind this number?	The right-click Related Items menu	Open the bill from the figure

The five point setup check

Five columns, under two minutes. Run it at setup and again the first time real hours land.

Budget Effort carries a number. On hourly work this means the Effort Projection exists.
The number equals the net fee, not the gross fee. Consultant value does not belong in the Grace budget line.
Phases appear separately and sum to the total. A single undifferentiated line hides the phase that will fail first.
The project appears under the correct Project Manager restriction. Otherwise the dashboard the manager opens will not show it.
Effort Percent Complete and Revenue Percent Complete both move once hours are charged. A percentage frozen at zero after real hours means the work is charging somewhere else.

On a live project

What to do

Copy the project from the market-segment template that matches the work.
Load the net fee, not the gross fee.
Split the fee across the phases the project will actually run.
Staff each phase to the rate that phase can carry.
Enter the Effort Projection before the first hour is charged on hourly work.
Submit for Project Accountant review, then confirm the record afterward.

What to watch for

Budget Effort reading zero on an hourly or time and materials project.
A single undifferentiated budget line covering every phase.
Effort Percent Complete or Revenue Percent Complete frozen at zero after real hours.
A dashboard that appears empty, which is more often a filter on the wrong manager than a project with no data.
Consultant value sitting inside the Grace budget line.

What to avoid

Building the project from a blank form.
Loading the fee from the last proposal rather than the signed agreement.
Treating the template choice as clerical.
Charging hours before the record has been reviewed.
Reading a Variance column on hourly work that has never had a budget behind it.

Bring one live project number and its scorecard reading. Where the Effort Projection is entered in BST is documented nowhere in the course, and the Session Overview lists that gap with the rest.