Financial Periods and Storing Period Performance in Primavera P6

If you use Primavera P6’s Store Period Performance feature, you can track actual units and costs to date. Storing period performance records and storing the actuals for the selected financial period, along with the earned value and planned value, so that you can track the previous periods. Also, you can compare the current and future trends.

Such a schedule maintains the assumption that the project is already resource loaded and baselined. It is imperative to take note that each task that you will store period performance on will require an actual start date, and you want to ensure that you have taken your performance (percent complete) on the project tasks.

Setting Up the Financial Periods in Primavera P6

It is imperative to note that the Primavera P6 financial periods are set up by the Primavera P6 administrator. These special permissions allow the administrator to set up monthly, quarterly, or even specific month-end reporting periods. If you have an “Admin” tab in your Primavera P6 menu, then you have administrative rights.  This section only applies to those who have administrative rights and those who will be setting up specific financial periods for the project team.

Go to the Admin tab, and select “Financial Periods”:

Use the Add button to add and/or adjust the financial periods:

Selecting Primavera P6 Financial Periods and Storing Period Performance

Ensure that you have updated your project schedule with the latest progress and that the tasks contain an actual start date. Go to the Edit tab and select “User Preferences”:

Select “Application” on the left-hand side of the User Preferences. Under “Columns”, select the ellipsis to view the available financial periods:

Select the financial periods that you want to view:

Select the end financial period that you want to view, and then select “Close”:

Ensure that the data date is set to the current reporting period that you will update the schedule with. Next, you want to input your actuals for the reporting period. The actuals can be in the form of hours, units, or dollars. In this example, we will input the actual units using the Resources tab located on the bottom half of the Primavera P6 screen:

At the top of the Primavera P6 screen, select the Tools tab, and select “Store Period Performance…”:

Ensure that the current project is selected, and use the ellipsis to select the correct financial period:

Select the “Store Now” button:

You will receive a confirmation box. Select “Yes”:

Notice that the Actual This Period Units have been set to zero and that the Remaining Units are updated, so that it sets the schedule for the next update and reporting period:

Go to the left toolbar and select the “Tracking” icon:

This Primavera P6 view will allow you to customize various criteria that you want to view. Select the Project Profile button:

In this example, we are focusing on the actuals, so we will select a limited set of options. Select “Apply”, and then “OK”:

In this view, we can see where we just loaded the actual units (represented by the blue bar):

Implementing Modifications to the Period Performance

There are cases where adjustments must be made to past period performance, and this can be in the form of a negative adjustment or the addition of actuals that were presented late and after the initial updates were made. Primavera P6 allows the user to append new values to an existing reporting period. Any earned value will be recalculated. In this example, we stored too many actual units and we need to make an adjustment to remove 20 units from the task:

Take note that the Actual Units have been adjusted accordingly:

Go to the Tools tab, and select “Store Period Performance…”, using the same reporting period:

Go back to the reporting month/financial period where you need to make the correction and select “Store Now”:

You will receive a confirmation box. Select “Yes”:

Always recalculate your project:

The Actual Units and Remaining Units have been automatically updated:

If you use the Tracking icon again and select the Spreadsheet option, you will be able to see the adjustment as well:

Conclusion

Storing period performance allows the Primavera P6 user to utilize more effective reporting measures and gain a greater understanding of the overall health of the project overall. Using this powerful feature in Primavera P6 allows a user to understand project overruns or underruns before they get out of hand.

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