In our previous NetSuite feature spotlight blogs, we’ve looked at the standard Projects feature as well as the more advanced Project Management feature. While these features are foundational to using projects in NetSuite, some other features provide more specific functionality that you might need. Let’s take a look at one of those: the planned work feature in NetSuite.
Enabling the Planned Work Feature
The planned work feature is located under the Projects section of the Company tab in Enable Features. To turn on this feature, you must also have enabled Projects and Project Management.
Using the Planned Work Feature
Planned Work Functionality
What does the planned work feature in NetSuite allow you to do? At its core, planned work allows your project managers to create fixed project plans. Once a fixed project plan has been created for a project, it will not change to reflect the actual work that is tracked on the project. Project managers can easily compare the planned work for a project with the actual work that was done.
Planned Work Changes to Project Record
Let’s see what changes Planned Work makes to the project record. Navigate to a new project record (Lists > Relationships > Projects > New) and ensure that you are using the Standard Project Form.
When you are using the Planned Work feature, it adds a “Planned Work” field to both project and project task records. If you are going to track your planned work via project tasks, then the Planned Work field on the project record will reflect the sum of all the planned work for any connected project task records.
This feature also changes the field “Estimated Work” to “Calculated Work” on the project record. The Calculated Work field adds the planned work to the actual work that is tracked outside of the planned work for the project.
Another useful aspect of Planned Work is that it allows you create backward schedules on project records. Backward scheduling means that you can set the end date for the project, put in the tasks and time that are expected to complete the project, and generate the necessary start date. You’ll notice under the Scheduling Method field in the Project Dates section that you can select either forward or backward scheduling on each project.
Conclusion
The Planned Work feature is a simple way to have greater control over your project management. In future blogs, we’ll be looking at other project features that NetSuite provides. Subscribe to our mailing list below to receive those blogs directly in your inbox each week!