Frequently Asked Question

First of all, using the option "Store period performance" is not strictly necessary to start using financial periods and the corresponding actuals. This is merely a way of transferring the actuals from "Actuals This Period" into the correct financial period.

Financial periods can only be set per database; not per project.
So, if you really need different financial periods (usually weeks vs months) the options are:

• Use separate databases (throwing away the enterprise concept, such as resource management and activity relationships between projects)
• Set the financial periods to weeks and divide the actuals from the month over the 4 weeks.
• Set the financial periods to weeks and always store the actuals in the first week of the month.
• Set the financial periods to months and add the actuals of 4 weeks and store them in one month.

Remember, once you have stored actuals in the financial periods, you cannot change the financial periods anymore.
The choice you make here will probably last long. If you do want to change the financial periods, than you first have to remove the actuals.

To use financial periods these are roughly the steps:

• Create the financial periods
• Make sure the users have the privilege "Edit period performance"
• There are multiple ways of storing actuals in the financial periods
  • By Primavera P6 Windows clients
  • By Primavera P6 Team member
  • By Primavera P6 API, for example Flint
  • By Primavera P6 Web Services, for example with Pexcellent
• To start learning and viewing the result, I suggest to start with the P6 Windows client. The instructions continue with this in mind.
• Open the P6 windows client
• Make sure the user can view the financial period columns, which can be enable by:
  • [Edit] -> [User preferences] -> [Application] -> [Columns]
  • Select a start date and finish date of the financials columns which will be made available for selection later on.
• Open a Project.
• On the activities pane or on the resource assignment pane, you should be able to add the columns "Actual Labor units ..." for each financial period.
• Add some columns to get a better idea, for example [Actual Labor units 11-06-2016], [Actual Labor units 18-06-2016], etc.
• Add also the columns: [Actual Labor Units] and [Actual Labor Units This Period].
• Notice that the column [Actual Labor Units] = [Actual Labor Units period 1] + ... [Actual Labor Units period x] + [Actual Labor Units This Period].
• Notice that storing the period performance, transfers the [Actual Labor Units This Period] to the corresponding financial period, without changing the total sum.
• Notice that you can store actuals directly into the correct financial period.
• To make the actual labor units per financial period graphically visible:
  • On the activities pane, click on the button [Activity usage profile]
  • On the bottom right, you should see the planned actual and remaining labor units, but not based on the financial periods. To fix this
  • Right-click on the graph and select [Activity usage profile options].
  • Enable the checkbox [Display actual and earned value using financial period data]
  • Now you should see the 'real' data.

At the Aram Support center there is knowledge base article (in Dutch) how to prepare existing projects for the use of financial periods.
Although not everything might be relevant, it might give a better understanding in how to deal with financial periods.

https://support.aramgroup.com/kb/faq.php?id=10