Hi Mimoune,

I been using P3/ P3e/P5 successfully to stimulate revenue and get a realistic cash flow. It’s just a matter of exploring all the facilities/ module of the software and how it work. Honestly it’s a great advantage and makes my work easy. Here some tips to get you going.
It is much easier on P5 which have more advance features compare to P3.
First on P5 create your WBS on an Enterprise level and create a project according to your WBS structure as example shown below.

•     PROJ X (Enterprise)
. o     Preliminaries (Project)
...      Project Management (WBS)
...      Travel & Accommodation (WBS)
...      Indirect Labour (WBS)
...      Plants & Small Tools (WBS)
...      Site Establishment (WBS)
...      Mob/ Demob (WBS)
...      Consumables (WBS)
...      Currier/ Parcel & Shipping (WBS)
...      Project Overhead (WBS)
...      Insurance/ Bank Guarantee (WBS)
...      Accruals/ Profit
...      Cost not chargeable to Client (WBS)
. o     Design (Project)
...      Earthworks (WBS)
...      Civil Works/ Buildings (WBS)
...      Structural (WBS)
...      Mechanical and Equipment (WBS)
...      Electrical (WBS)
...      Instrumentation (WBS)
...      Piping (WBS)
...      Insulation/ Painting (WBS)
. o     Procurement (Project)
...      Earthworks (WBS)
...      Civil Works/ Buildings (WBS)
...      Structural (WBS)
...      Mechanical and Equipment (WBS)
...      Electrical (WBS)
...      Instrumentation (WBS)
...      Piping (WBS)
...      Insulation/ Painting (WBS)
. o     Construction (Project)
...      Earthworks (WBS)
...      Civil Works/ Buildings (WBS)
...      Structural (WBS)
...      Mechanical and Equipment (WBS)
...      Electrical (WBS)
...      Instrumentation (WBS)
...      Piping (WBS)
...      Insulation/ Painting (WBS)
. o     Commissioning (Project)
...      Civil Works/ Buildings (WBS)
...      Structural (WBS)
...      Mechanical and Equipment (WBS)
...      Electrical (WBS)
...      Instrumentation (WBS)
...      Piping (WBS)

Note: This WBS is for illustration demonstration and reference only and not intended for actual use as it all depends on the type of Project.

You can breakdown on much more detail level and modify to suit project requirements. You also can combine two, three project and separate preliminaries or all in one project and use filter to display the proper schedule. The intension of separating into EPS structure is to make it easier to control and navigate. Open your project into EPS level and not by project when analysing cost and open only the project when proper schedule is require. If you’re using P3 follow same structure using project as EPS and subproject on Project level.

Assuming that you’re done all the activities against your WBS structure and ready for resource assignment. Define you resources according to your contractual requirement as it may vary to the type of contract. For lump sum, cost plus and reimbursable you can define your resources against labour units (hrs), material, equipments, subcontract and indirect labour. For lump sum with quantities, unit rates define your labour unit into two categories, one for “hrs” without rates and the second part is “qty” per UOM (unit of measure) with rates and rest will be the same. The beauty of P5 you can assign expenses to the activity and milestones (you cannot display it on resource assignment spreadsheet but included on the report) while in P3 you can define all of these including expensed in cost account categories. In P5 you can also define your Resource Code and role grouping which is very useful when analysing your forecast and revenue. For P3 use account code and Group Resource when run Report Cost Loading. It’s a little bit complicated on Lump sum with quantities and unit rate contract because it requires to defines all resources basically named to your scope of work and labour component at the same time.

Ex: Excavation
I name it as it is (Excavation) using unit rate per cum for a start. Then define a labour component as other resources, a Tradesman for example and enter unit hrs with out rate so it will not generate any cost. Do the same thing on all BOQ components, Cost item such as preliminaries and use expenses for all non measurable items or one time cost. After that assign it to their appropriate activities and enter the budget quantities. Now you have all a budget cost same as your contract price and total man-hours allocated. Now the tricky part is your labour units which more than your budget man-hours because of your qty per UOM plus your hrs allocation per activity. This is where your “filter” function are very usable which you can save a layout to go back and fourth on cost and labour hrs. Resource group and roles are very useful on this area if you set it up properly. If you’re confused create two sets of programme and separate the Labour programme to your costing programme and create two users define field to store you budget hrs and actual hrs. Use users define field when updating labour programme using export/ import module of P5.

You can track and analyse this within activity module, tracking module and resource module using spreadsheet and resource profile. When you click spreadsheet on Activity module you will have a split screen into four parts Activity on the top left, Resources display on bottom left and top right will have and option to display grand chart, activity spreadsheet, network diagram or just the activity while on bottom right you can display anything that you can display on the top plus activity detail, resources and logic trace etc..
On tracking module you will have the same four split screen which is almost the same display and option on Activity module except for top left which is project display instead of activity. Resource module is the best to use where you can use the whole screen to display all the resource and same function with other module where do group & sort, filter.
This is where you need to play around on your screen and where Resource code and roles are very useful.

Say you used Resource module. Group & Sort according to WBS or resource code and roles if properly defined. Right click the right screen and select Spreadsheet field-> customise then select cost field that you want to display. You can customise the way you want it and generate your report.

If you required Cost S-Curve or Cash Flow or Histogram use the Tracking module.
Note: If you define your resources labour unit into two as I mention before be sure to filter it first on labour resource define on hrs otherwise you will have accumulated labour units from hrs and qty when displaying Spreadsheet or Graphics on labour hrs analysis.

The most meaningful report which includes expenses and other cost are available on Report Module. Click Report icon on left or Tools-> Report on your menu. Locate CT-01 Monthly Project Cash Flow or CT-02 Monthly Project Cash Flow by WBS. Click wizard icon on the right so you can modify the report according to your needs. Click next then Click Column and select column field you want to include on your report. Click Group & Sort and change it to your groupings. Click filter if you require filtering and showing only the data you need to show on the report. Click Next and click timescale to range your report. Click Time interval field and select all field you want on your report including expenses, actual, budget..etc. This will be your row data. Click next and rename your report for future use. Click next and run the report and click Preview to view the result. Close and click next -> Save. Play more around with this and you will learn/ discover a lot of thing. Like what I said keep exploring and you will be happy on the result.

Note: Define and Store your period performance every month or every cut-off so your actuals will not change every cut-off report.

Enjoy planning… and hope this will help.

Regards,
Rodel