using the epm project initiation oba · 1. open the pi oba by going to start > programs > epm...

ePM Quick Reference Guide #060

QRG.060_Project Initiation OBA

Using the ePM Project Initiation OBA What is the Project Initiation OBA?

Who Will Use This?

The Project Imitation Office Business Application (OBA) allows the User (with appropriate permission), to input Project data into an Excel document format and create/update projects by transferring this data directly into ePM. The Project Initiation OBA will be used for Project Information, Project Team Creation, and Customers on the project, and Funding Document creation including Cost Account allocation of the Project.

√ GSA ePM Regional Admin

√ Project Manager

√ Project Manager Staff

√ Budget Analyst (Funding)

Entering Project Information using the OBA

1. Open the PI OBA by going to Start > Programs > ePM > Project Initiation OBA and Select Project Initiation OBA. *HINT* You can also create a shortcut to the OBA program.

2. This will open the application in Excel and prompt you to login to ePM. Enter your ePM User Name, Password, and then click OK. The Project Information tab appears on the Excel worksheet.



3. From the ePM menu, select either New or Open. Select option from the Add-Ins tab ePM menu

selection. (GSA Regional Administrators only assigned to ePM 1.3: Regional Administrator security category)

A dialog box opens which lists the Programs to which you have access.

4. Select the appropriate Program for your Project. ePM will then validate your security settings, so there may be a delay before the worksheet becomes ready for data entry. Then, select the OK button.

Note:

Selecting New is only available to GSA

Regional Admins with the ePM 1.3

Regional Administrator category

Selecting Open is available to all users



5. The Project Information worksheet is now ready for entry. Enter the following information for the Project: (required fields marked with *):

a. Project Name * b. Short Name * (No spaces, limit use of special characters - *&$, etc.) c. ePM Program (will auto-populate the Program chosen in the previous step) d. Location: City, State e. Project Subtype (dropdown selection) f. Project Subtype 1 (dropdown selection) g. UPN h. PCN/Line Item i. Program Area (dropdown selection) j. Region (dropdown selection) k. Responsible Office l. Area (GSF) of Total Project m. Area (GSF) Of ARRA Related Work n. Rentable SF o. Usable SF p. Design Plan Year (dropdown selection) q. Construction Plan Year (dropdown selection) r. Project Description/Justifications/Risks s. Procurement Strategy (dropdown selection) t. Delivery Method (dropdown selection) u. Buildings: Region/State/Building Number: Name (dropdown selections)

Note:

Excel automatically

adds an additional row

when inserting

multiple line items in

the Buildings column

to represent all of the

buildings associated with the Project.



6. Click on the ePM > Options menu selection, then select Validate. A confirmation dialog box displays. (For validation errors, please see Quick Reference Guide #094.)

7. Click OK to return to the worksheet.

8. From the ePM menu, click Save. The save process may take a few minutes, as ePM creates the project. After a successful save, a confirmation dialog box displays.

9. Click OK to return to the worksheet. After the initial Project record has been saved in ePM, up to four worksheet tabs are enabled for data entry.



1. As Administrator, click on the Project Team tab and enter the email address for contacts that need to be added to the Project Team on the project.

2. Once you have entered all of the Project Team contacts, click on the ePM menu selection and Save the document.

All new Contacts entered by Administrator will be exported to the project.

If the Project Role 1, Project Role 2 and/or Key Participant are edited by the PM, it will save to the project.

Selecting Project Team Members

Note: Contacts selected on the Project Team tab must already exist in ePM.

Contact information cannot be added to ePM by the PM using this tab.

Note: Project Management user accounts cannot add email addresses for new contacts or edit them in the Project workspace. However, the PMs can edit the Project Role 1, Project Role 2, and Key Participants at the project workspace.



1. Select the AB Code for the Customers involved on the project (4 digits in total; 2 digits for

Agency Code and 2 digits for Bureau Code).

2. Once you have entered all of the Customers on the Project, click on the ePM menu selection and Save the document. This will update the Shell/TI Reporting Code list information contained in ePM, which is then used when coding various cost documents on the project.

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Selecting Customers

Notes:

1. Be sure to match up the AB Code with the Agency Name. If you do not

know the AB Code, click on the link located above the entry grid for a

complete list of AB codes.

2. If the „Customers‟ worksheet shows existing “AB Code” and “Agency”

data that is not wanted, it must be deleted from within ePM. Unwanted entries cannot be deleted using the OBA.



Entering Funding

1. Select the Funding tab and enter data for the Funding documents that need to be created for this project.

2. Enter the following information for each Funding document: a. ASID or RWA# *

(i) The system will group together line items with the same ASID or RWA# and combine them into one Funding Document

b. Doc # (Read only – no data entry required) c. Funding Document Type * (dropdown selection) d. Item Description e. IRIS Work Item # * f. Cost Account Title * (This is a system required field;

Must match cost account title in UI) g. Function Code (dropdown selection) h. Organization Code (dropdown selection) i. Budget Activity (dropdown selection) j. Fiscal Year (dropdown selection) k. Cost Element (dropdown selection) l. Item Amount m. Workflow State (dropdown selection)

>Workflow options will depend on users permissions >The same workflow value must be selected for each line item associated with the ASID/RWA

n. Building ID (dropdown selection) o. CSI Code (dropdown selection) p. Shell/TI (dropdown selection)

3. Once you have entered all of the Funding Documents for the Project, click on the ePM menu selection and Save the document.

Note: Column headings

marked with an asterisk (*)

represent required entry

fields.

Excel will automatically add

additional rows when

inserting multiple funding

line items.

The ASID or RWA# is

required for integration and reporting purposes



The system will create the Funding documents based upon the line items entered and perform any workflow changes noted in the Workflow State field. Also, if the cost account drop down selections creates new cost account combinations, the system will create the new cost accounts as well.

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1. Log into ePM and find the Project you just created using the PI OBA.

2. Click on the Project Properties document to verify that all of the information entered into the

Excel sheet is showing correctly.

Verifying Project Information in ePM

Notes: 1. Multiple line items can be created per unique ASID#.

2. OBA business rules: If multiple rows have the same ASID# on the OBA, then only (1) Funding

document is created with multiple line items.

If multiple rows are entered in the OBA and each have unique ASID#’s, then a Funding document is created for each ASID# from that row.



3. The Main page will contain the information entered on the Project Information tab of the PI OBA Excel sheet.

4. Open the Project and select Address Book > Contacts to verify that the Project Team members entered into the Project Team tab of the PI OBA Excel sheet are showing correctly.

To

5. Select Administration > Configuration > Lookup Lists to view the Customers entered on the Customer tab of the PI OBA Excel sheet. They are added as part of the Shell/TI Reporting Code 3 Lookup List that is used to code cost documents throughout ePM.



6. Select Applications > Budget and Reporting > Funding to view the Funding Documents entered on the Funding tab of the PI OBA Excel sheet.

7. The documents will show in the Register view of the Funding section. Click on the document you want to view. The information entered will populate the Main page and the Line Items page of the Funding document.



1. From the ePM menu, select Customer Milestones > New.

2. Select a Customer from the Customers dialog box prompt and the OK button.

All Milestones are created and displayed.

Creating Customer Milestones Schedule

Note:

Prior to creating Customer Milestones, Customers are required to be selected and saved on the “Customers” tab. It is an OBA business rule requirement.



3. From the ePM menu, select Customer Milestones > Validate

The error, Schedule Document has errors appears. Highlighted in red, the schedule is validated and ready to enter the Schedule Name* and Estimated Dates* as required fields.

4. Select OK to close out error dialog screen. Enter your Schedule Name* as the following standard PBS Customer Milestone format schedule naming convention:

State-City-Project Short Name – Milestone Schedule (EXAMPLE: DC-Washington-FOB 10A – Milestone Schedule)

5. Enter Estimated Dates* for all milestones.

6. From the ePM menu, select Customer Milestones > Save. Please give it a few minutes as the

PI OBA saves this information and do not close the PI OBA at this time.

7. A prompt will appear and alert you that the document has been saved.

Continue using the PI OBA to update and edit the schedule dates such as the Baseline and Actual Dates. From the ePM menu, select Customer Milestones > Open to open the schedule. Select Customer Milestones > Workflow > Approve to transition the document through workflow.

Notes: If any of the default milestones will not be used for this project, enter “N” in column “Used [Y/N]” and for the specific row of that Milestone. Select ePM|Customer

Milestones|Save and the milestone will be removed from the list.

Notes: The purpose of having “- Milestone Schedule” in the Schedule Name* is so that the type of schedules are easily rolled up and viewable from a Program perspective.



Be sure to select Customer Milestones > Workflow > Close from the ePM menu to close out the schedule and to continue working in the PI OBA on other tabs; otherwise, you may receive the following error:

Notes:

Using Customer Milestones | Open allows you to open an existing schedule.

With Customer Milestones | Workflow | Approve, you’re able to transition the document through its workflow states.



The project Status is stored in ePM Daily Reports documents. In the ePM user interface, there is an option box to Promote to Fact Sheet on the main page of the document. This option permits such status to appear on Business Intelligence reports such as the Detailed Project Fact Sheet and Executive Project Fact Sheet reports. If a PM wants to enter project status and Promote to Fact Sheet reports, the information would be entered in the Status & Issues section of the PI OBA Status & Issues tab. From the Status and Issues tab, you have an option to either:

a) Enter the status as new information, or b) Copy Previous Executive Status in case the status doesn’t change from day to day and you

want to copy from the most recent date of the last status update. In this scenario, you are entering new status for both the Executive and Detailed status sections. Follow the steps below to create new project status narratives:

1. Type a full explanation in the cell below the label, Executive Status that explains the current project status for executives.

2. Type a full explanation in the cell below the label, Detailed Status that explains the current project status for the project team.

3. From the ePM menu, select Save. Please wait as this may take several minutes to save. 4. A message prompt will appear “Document Saved”. Select OK to close the message.

Similar to Status, there are project Issues that are documented and can be enabled to promote to the Detailed Project Fact Sheet and Executive Project Fact Sheet reports. Issues are stored in the Issues & Logs document type of the ePM user interface. If a PM wants to enter one or more Issues and Promote to Fact Sheet reports, the information would be entered in the Issues section and rows of the PI OBA Status & Issues tab.

1. Decide if the issue(s) needs to be promoted to the fact sheets. If so, select Y from the dropdown

of the first issue under the column, Promote (Y/N) 2. Enter a short description of the issue under the Issue* - required field 3. Enter a more detailed description of the issue under the Issue Description field. 4. Enter an Action Summary if actions are necessary to resolve the issue. 5. Select a Category from the list that best depicts this type of issue such as Scope or Schedule. 6. Select a “Minor” or “Major” Condition from the list that best depicts this type of issue

Adding Executive and Detailed Project Status

Adding Issues



7. Select a Responsible contact from the list that best depicts who is responsible to take action and resolve this issue. NOTE: Only contacts exported to the project will appear in this list.

8. The State, Last Updated On, and Last Updated By fields are read-only and auto-populated.

Tips

√ When presented with password update requests such as noted in the sample below, you can update your password by clicking OK and entering the appropriate data in ePM Password Change dialog box.

√

You can use and open multiple ePM OBAs using the Meridian Systems Application Launcher tool.



√ You can enter and update Project Information, Project Team Members, Customers and Funding Documents using the same Project Information spreadsheet.

√ Clicking the online help button provides generic help related to ePM, NOT for the specific uses of GSA’s documents.

√ To explode or collapse sections in a document, click on the double headed arrow buttons:

√ For additional help and support, contact your GSA Regional Point of Contact.

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