About Optional Fields in Project and Job Costing

Project and Job Costing supports Sage 300 Transaction Analysis And Optional Fields Creator.

Optional Fields let you customize your Project and Job Costing system by letting you store additional information you want to keep with records and transaction details, and provide an additional means of analyzing your contracts, projects, and costs.

You can use an unlimited number of optional fields in Project and Job Costing. However, you must first define optional fields for your Sage 300 system using the Optional Fields screen in Common Services. (For more information about setting up optional fields in Common Services, see the System Manager help.)

Once you have set up optional fields for your Sage 300 system, you use the Optional Fields screen in the PJC Setup folder to define optional fields for use in Project and Job Costing records and transaction entry screens. More...

You can manually add optional fields to a record or transaction. Alternatively, you can use the Auto Insert option on the Optional Fields screen to set up an optional field to be included automatically for specific types of record or transaction. For more information, see PJC Optional Fields Screen.

Default Optional Fields for Transaction Details

You assign transaction detail optional fields for each detail on the detail entry table or on the separate detail entry screen using the Optional Fields Zoom button associated with each detail.

Default optional field entries appear for Project and Job Costing transaction details, as follows:

• For basic projects, if the optional fields used in transaction details match the optional fields defined for the project category, the optional field entries from the project category appear as defaults for the transaction. Otherwise, the default value for the optional field is used.
• For standard projects, if the optional fields used in transaction details match the optional fields defined for the resource, the optional field entries from the project resource appear as defaults for the transaction. Otherwise, the default value for the optional field is used.
• For adjustments, if the optional fields for the detail you are adjusting or transferring match optional fields that are defined for adjustment details, the entries from the originating transaction are used in the adjustment detail.

  Originating transactions use optional fields defined for that type of transaction, and they can be different from optional fields defined for adjustment details. If they are different:

  • For basic projects, if the optional fields assigned to the project category match the optional fields defined for adjustment details, the entries from the project category are used.
  • For standard projects, if the optional fields assigned to the project resource match the optional fields defined for adjustment details, the entries from the project resource are used.

  If you defined an adjustment details optional field that is not assigned to the project category or resource, the optional value specified in the optional field record is used as the default.

• On billing worksheets:
  • For summary invoices, if the optional fields assigned to the contract project match the optional fields defined for billings, the optional field entries from the contract project or contract category (depending on the accounting method) appear as defaults for the transaction.

    If an optional field that is assigned to billing worksheet details is not used for the contract category or contract resource, the default value specified for the optional field in the setup record is used.

  • For item invoices, if the optional fields for the transaction you are billing match the optional fields you defined for billing worksheet details, the entries from the transaction are used as defaults.

    If an optional field that is assigned to billing worksheet details is not used in the transaction, the entries from the contract category or contract resource (depending on the project style) are used as defaults. If it is not used in the contract, either, then the default value specified for the optional field in the setup record is used.

Sending Optional Field information to Other Sage 300 Programs

The Optional Fields setup screen lets you specify groups of accounts for which optional field information can be passed to General Ledger and other Sage 300 programs when you post transactions that use optional fields. (The optional fields used in a transaction must match the transaction details optional fields used for an account in order to be passed to General Ledger.)

You can - and should - restrict the flow of optional field information that is passed to other Sage 300 programs. To do this, you use the optional fields Settings screen (which you open by clicking Settings on the PJC Optional Fields screen).

The Settings screen lists the groups of accounts that are affected when you post transactions of the type for which you are defining the optional field. Select from the list all the account groups for which you want to pass values to General Ledger when you post transactions that include the optional field.

Note: While all account groups are initially selected for new optional fields, you need to consider carefully the purpose of the optional field you are defining. You should send values to General Ledger only for optional fields that require financial analysis, and only to accounts where they are required. For example, you might want to send optional fields that contain customer numbers or sales territories only to revenue accounts.

You do not need to send optional field information for analysis that is performed only in Project and Job Costing. If you routinely send all the optional fields you use in Project and Job Costing transactions, your General Ledger may become unwieldy, and you may also considerably slow down processing.

Other Sage 300 programs will accept optional field information sent with transactions from Project and Job Costing if your system is set up to send optional field information to these other programs and accounts, and you use the same optional fields for the affected screens, which are:

• Accounts Receivable:
  • Invoices
  • Invoice Details
• Inventory Control:
  • Shipments
  • Shipment Details
  • Adjustment Details
• US or Canadian Payroll:
  • Timecards
  • Timecard details
• General Ledger:
  • Account transaction details

    For example, when you post revenue recognition worksheets, the optional fields must match the transaction optional fields assigned to the Billings and Revenue accounts for the information to pass to General Ledger.

Accounts Receivable, Inventory Control, and Payroll will respect the optional field settings that are specified in Project and Job Costing when sending G/L transactions to General Ledger, if you use the same transaction optional fields for the affected accounts in General Ledger.

For example, if the transaction optional fields assigned to the Billings and Revenue accounts match the transaction details optional fields used on a job-related invoice, when you send the invoice transaction to General Ledger, Accounts Receivable uses the settings from Project and Job Costing.

To see exactly which accounts are affected by any type of transaction, on the Optional Fields setup screen, select an optional field for the type of transaction or transaction details (different accounts are affected at each level), and then click the Settings button.

Initially, all optional field settings are selected in Project and Job Costing, so that all information will be passed to the other programs if the optional fields match. You should change the settings to ensure that only optional field information that is required in another Sage 300 program will be sent.