Grace PM Academy · Technical Session · BST #2

How Today Was Built

Same 3 responsibilities. This time, the clicks behind them.

Session 1 covered setup and navigation. In Session 2, Nick Newman went into live BST and worked one real project from the dashboard. The 3 PM responsibilities didn’t change: billing and collections, resourcing and scheduling, and project health.

Find the new BST guides on MILO

Read the project summary, then check one task

Update task dates and resources

Review a pre bill and submit it

Emerging PMs may not see all the data in BST yet. That’s how BST security is set up today. If you’re missing access, send Nick Newman a short Teams message. The names go to leadership as one list, so the fix covers everyone at once.

New On MILO

4 BST resources, all in one place

Open MILO, go to the Process tab, then select BST 11 Project Management Resources. The new items carry a “new” label. Keep them open while you work.

PM dashboard setup video

Configures your PM dashboard to match every other PM at the firm, so everyone reads the same information.

PM dashboard inquiries guide

Lists each inquiry you can open from the dashboard and what it’s for. Example: the project detail inquiry shows who charged time to your project in a given month.

Where do I find it in BST 11

A scenario guide. Find your question, such as “How much effort was charged to my project this month, and by whom?” It names the inquiry that answers it.

Project summary inquiry guide

Defines every column header on the project summary inquiry. Read it before you read the numbers.

Reading The Project Summary

Read the whole project first, then one task at a time

From your dashboard, select the project row, right click, go to Related Items, and open the View Project Summary inquiry. Hold Ctrl as you click so it opens in a new tab. Then load one of the 2 shared views from the Views menu.

PM best practice view · laborGrace time only

Use it to check how the Grace team is doing against its own hours and fee.

PM best practice view · totalGrace time plus consultants

Use it to check the whole project, consultants included.

The default views can carry 100 to 200 columns, and most of them don’t tell you anything about project performance. The shared views hold only the columns below. The numbers come from the live demo project.

1
Finish dateA finish date of 1/1/29 is the default BST filled in when projects transferred. It means the schedule hasn’t been updated since the transfer.
2
Budget effort against all effortBudget effort is your fee, consultants and reimbursables included. All effort is everything spent so far. On the demo project, the fee was $750,000 and $360,000 had been spent.
3
To date against allTo date counts only posted time: on a timesheet, approved by the supervisor, and posted by HR. All adds pending time. The gap can run a week. Effort remaining is budget minus to date, so it can show more money left than you really have. The demo had $2,000 spent that wasn’t posted yet.
4
Revenue, billings, and work in progressWork in progress is revenue minus billings. The target is 0 or greater. The demo had billed $381,000 and recognized $646,000 in revenue.
5
Unbilled effortWork on the job that hasn’t been billed yet. On September 17 it should be roughly the time since the August 31 billing. If it’s much higher, effort may have been held from an earlier month. Find out why.
6
Receivable balanceInvoices still outstanding. The demo had $325,000 out. That can be fine or a problem. The receivable aging inquiry shows how old each invoice is.

Skip the effort at completion column for now. It estimates total effort at the end of the job, and it reads low whenever consultant time isn’t scheduled. Also check the period type. Set to date, it shows everything. Set to range, it follows your from and to posting dates, so you can look at a single month.

Check One Task

A finished task with effort left over is a task done well

Click the plus at the top left to expand the tasks. On the demo project, 2 phases showed opposite results.

Under budgetPre design: $19,000 budgeted, about $10,000 spent

The task is closed and effort remaining is positive. That’s a strong sign the team worked well.

Over budgetSchematic design: $22,000 budgeted, $32,000 spent

About $9,000 over, more than the amount pre design saved. Some of that time may belong to another phase. Check before you decide.

An additional service with its own phases reads the same way, like a small project inside the project. The demo’s additional service ran $9,000 over in schematic design and about $14,000 under in design development. That pattern suggests time charged to the wrong phase.

Select the task row, right click, Related Items

Open View Task Detail in a new tab

Read who charged time, when, at what rate, and the timesheet note

Summary first, detail second

The project summary shows how each task performs against its budget. The project detail inquiry lists transactions but doesn’t compare them to budget. Start at the summary, find the task that looks wrong, then right click into its detail. The timesheet notes column often says which phase the time was meant for.

Updating Dates

Change dates in the project document, on the lowest line

1
Open the project documentOn the dashboard, right click the project, go to Related Items, and select Open Project. Hold Ctrl to open it in a new tab.
2
Go to the tasks tabThe tasks tab and the resources tab are where a PM works about 99% of the time. The rest of the document belongs to your project accountant.
3
Set Show Levels to level 2It gives you a cleaner view of each task.
4
Expand the task and change the child datesThe bold parent line takes its dates from the child lines under it. Change the children and the parent updates.
5
Validate if you want, then submitValidate reports success or the error code. Skip Save. Click the green arrow and select Submit. The change goes to your project accountant for approval.
6
Refresh the summaryBack on the project summary, click the running man to reload the data and confirm the new dates.

2 tips came up during the demo.

ShortcutSelect the cell below, then press the period key

Select the cell once, then press period. It copies the date from the cell above.

Inactive phasesYou can still change their dates

Fix any 1/1/29 dates on closed phases when you have time. Real start and end dates tell you how long that phase took, which helps you scope and schedule the next project for that client.

Several people can change a date but only get Save As, with Submit grayed out. Don’t use Save As. Nick doesn’t think it’s a permissions problem. Bring it to a BST Coffee Hour, or send Nick a Teams message, so it can be traced.

Updating Resources

Change resources in the project progress inquiry. No approval wait.

You can change resources on the resources tab of the project document, but your project accountant has to approve it. The project progress inquiry posts the change right away and updates staff schedules at the same moment.

1
Open the project progress inquiryFrom the dashboard: right click the project, Related Items, Open Project Progress. It has 3 panes. Left is tasks and resources, middle is the schedule, right is totals.
2
Set Show Levels to level 2Dates are gray in this inquiry. Change dates in the project document, then come back here for people and hours.
3
Add the resourceSelect the task’s labor line, right click, and select Add Resource. Pick the employee.
4
Enter estimated hours on the employee lineAlways work on the lowest line. The task line is locked because BST can’t tell which person the hours belong to. In the demo, 100 hours came to $17,000 of estimated effort.
5
Spread the hours, then adjustRight click the row and select Spread Estimated Remaining by Week. BST spreads the hours evenly across the phase dates. Real work is rarely even, so type over any week that needs more or less.

This inquiry doesn’t show the person’s bill rate. The room found 3 places to get it.

Pricing tab

In the project document, the pricing tab lists the bill rate for each resource class.

Task detail

The task detail inquiry shows the effort rate on every time entry.

Quick math

Divide estimated effort by hours. $17,000 for 100 hours is $170 an hour. MILO also has the bill rate schedule.

Cost rate and bill rate are different numbers. Cost is roughly what the person is paid, plus overhead. PMs don’t see cost. Compare estimated effort to your fee sheet instead. If you staff someone at $170 an hour where the fee sheet assumed $100, one option raised was fewer hours, such as 80, to hold the budget.

Questions From The Room

Estimated hours, budget hours, and moving hours between phases

1
Are estimated hours and budget hours the same thing?At the start of a project, yes. Then things change. A client asks for one more review of the schematic set and there’s no additional service for it. Update the estimated hours so the extra work gets scheduled. Budget hours stay as the baseline.
2
What happens when estimated hours climb above budget?Project accountants watch for it. Past a set amount, they’ll ask whether the budget hours should change. That process isn’t consistent in BST yet and will become more important over time.
3
Who enters the budget?Your project accountant sets up the first budget and estimated hours from your fee spreadsheet. You can enter them yourself if you choose.
4
Can I move leftover hours to the next phase?Yes. Work with your project accountant. If pre design has 5 hours left, they can move to schematic design. Don’t pull so many that the old phase goes negative on hours remaining.
5
Can I see every staff member’s hours per week?That’s the resource plan. It’s aimed at studio and practice leaders, and it’s still being worked out in BST.

The Monthly Pre Bill

Review it, comment on it, submit it

Every month accounting sends a pre bill for each of your projects. It shows what the system proposes to bill, based on last month’s effort. Your job is to agree, or say what should change.

1
Open the Bills inquiryRestrict it to your name as project manager. Check the latest bills and latest pre bills options, include drafts, and click the running man.
2
Open the pre billSelect a pre bill, right click, go to Related Items, and select Open Pre Bill. The left side previews it. In the demo, a permitting task had $14,000 budgeted and $3,000 billed, and $625 of new effort brought the proposed bill to $3,625.
3
Read the transactions tab, sorted by taskCheck who charged time and read the notes. In the demo, time under permitting was labeled BN, the code for bidding. It likely belongs in the bid phase. Say so in your comments.
4
Check the info tabLook at the final bill recipients. You and your project accountant should be copied, and the invoice should go to the right client contact. Invoices sent to the wrong person get paid late.
5
Check task health before you set percentagesGo back to the project summary for that task. Use it to decide how far to bill.
6
Comment, then submitWrite plain instructions, such as “Bill permit to 50%” or “Bill AS #3 to 20%.” Click the green arrow and select Submit. Your project accountant sends the invoice. Collections are yours from there.

Pre bills don’t open on their own when you log in. They also show in your BST to dos, under Pre Bills. With 15 to 20 projects, the Bills inquiry is faster. With a few, the to dos list works.

What Comes Next

Put it to work this month

1
Load a PM best practice view this weekOpen your project summary inquiry and select a shared view from the Views menu. Every PM then reads the same columns.
2
Fix the 1/1/29 dates on your active projectsUpdate the child task dates in the project document and submit. Your schedule is only as good as those dates.
3
Report missing accessIf BST hides data you need, send Nick Newman a Teams message so your name goes on the list for leadership.
4
Bring stuck issues to a BST Coffee HourSave As instead of Submit, locked estimated hours, anything that stops your update. The next Coffee Hour is about a week out. Small questions can go to Nick by Teams message at any time.
5
Collections comes laterThe collections process, from invoice to payment, was named as a topic for a later session.