Note:
This feature is only available to you if you have booked the "Advanced" or "Pro" package. For changes to your current package, please contact your relevant contact person or customersuccess@alasco.de.
Overview of Topics
The new cash outflow planning in Alasco offers you even more flexibility and accuracy in managing your project finances. You can easily manage planned and actual payments and implement adjustments quickly – from individual contracts to entire cost groups.
In this article, you will learn how to customise your cash outflow in view and edit mode and what new opportunities the updated solution offers you. This way, you can keep an eye on your cash outflows at all times and plan even more reliably.
Reference Basis of Cash Outflow Planning
Before you start cash outflow planning in Alasco, we recommend adjusting the reference bases of the planning amounts and the amounts that have been disbursed in the master data. The reference bases can be configured by an Admin in the master data under the menu item "Forecast and Cash Outflow Settings" in the tab "Cash Outflow".
By default, cash outflow planning is carried out based on the contract volume, and approved & paid amounts are included in the disbursed amounts.
Here you can set your cash outflow so that you can either distribute the contract volume or, alternatively, the more accurate contract forecast in real or worst-case scenarios.
This means that, depending on your forecast settings, amounts such as provisions, risks, receivables or contract conditions (discounts, cost allocations, insurance and early payment discounts) are taken into account in your cash outflow planning, allowing you to plan much more accurately.
Note:
Please note that if you have set the contract forecast in real or worst-case as the basis for cash outflow planning, the current budget will no longer be used at the level of contract units and cost groups, but rather the project forecast in real or worst-case will be used.
Getting Started with Cash Outflow
First, select the project for which you want to plan the cash outflow and click on Cash Outflow in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen under the menu item "Costs".
Initially, the cash outflow will be displayed in view mode. Depending on the structure of your project and the selected view, the cost groups and/or the associated contract units and the contracts created within them will be listed. Click on the arrow icon at the beginning of a row to expand the corresponding subordinate level or use the "Expand All" or "Collapse All" buttons located above the table on the left.
If you scroll sideways to the right or left (Shift + mouse wheel), you can view the already past and upcoming project duration. By default, the cash outflow initially uses the project duration set in the project settings. The current month is always highlighted in light blue.
If you scroll all the way to the left to the beginning of the project duration (project start), the column "Invoices paid outside of Alasco" will be displayed. Here, the sum of the invoices that were not checked via the invoice workflow in Alasco but were manually created without a date in the contract will be shown per row.
The column "Total Amount" shows you the total budget available for distribution in a cost group, an contract unit or an contract.
In each cost group and contract unit, the row "Not Assigned" will be displayed. This row allows you to quickly see whether there is still budget available in a cost group that has not yet been distributed to an contract unit or whether there is free budget available in an contract unit that has not yet been planned for contracts. This row can later also be distributed in edit mode.
The column "Available Amount" shows you the difference between the total amount and the planned or already disbursed amounts, thus indicating how much budget or contract volume can still be planned. A negative value indicates over-planning. The amount depends on the settings in the master data.
In view mode, you can configure and filter the cash outflow as needed for your individual reporting. To do this, click on the "View & Filter" button located above the table on the right.
In the new menu on the right side of the screen, you can now set whether the cash outflow should be displayed in net or gross amounts. Additionally, you can decide with the sliders whether the following rows should be included in the table:
- Show rows without plan-actual deviation: Toggles all rows that have a deviation between the previously planned amount and the currently approved or paid amount on or off
- Show rows without over- or under-distribution: Toggles all rows that are fully distributed on or off
- Show rows with zero value: Toggles all rows that contain 0.00€ on or off
- Show unassigned rows: Toggles all rows that indicate whether there is still unplanned budget available in a cost group or contract unit on or off
With the two dropdowns below, you can display the cash outflow table either grouped by cost groups including contract units or only contract units and decide in which time interval the data should be displayed. Options include months, quarters, and years. Then click on the X in the top right corner of the screen. Your settings will be automatically displayed in view mode.
With the "Export" button, you can create an Excel export of your current view at any time.
Note:
Please note that the settings in view mode form the basis for the later edit mode. This means that if you have set the view mode to contract units, for example, you will not be able to distribute the budget of the parent cost group in edit mode unless you switch the view back to cost groups.
Furthermore, it is not possible to edit the distribution at the quarterly or yearly level, but only at the monthly level. This will then be summed up to quarters or years if necessary.
Editing Cash Outflow
To switch from view mode to edit mode, click on the "Edit" button in the top right corner of the screen.
In edit mode, the interface changes and you have several options to edit the cash outflow.
The current month is divided into a Planned and an Actual column in edit mode. In the Planned column, you can see the amount planned per contract, contract unit or cost group. The Actual column shows you all invoices that have been released and paid in an contract so far.
The "Planned/Actual Deviation" column indicates whether there has been a deviation between actual and planned outflows in past periods.
The past months only have an Actual column showing the sum of approved and paid invoices, as you cannot make any planning for the past. You can manually plan the expenses for contracts, contract units and entire cost groups through the individual cells of the Planned columns to represent, for example, agreed payment plans. All highlighted cells can be edited.
Tip:
You can enter negative amounts to represent refunds or other inflows.
Note:
Please note that in the cost group view, you have the option to plan outflows for unassigned amounts. Use the corresponding "Not Assigned" rows for this.
If you want to automatically distribute one or more rows, first select those rows using the checkbox at the beginning of the row. Several editing options will then be activated. With the first button "Distribute Amount", you can make a basic distribution of the available amount. You have the following options in this window:
- Specify which amount should be distributed in the selected period. By default, the entire available amount is always displayed here.
- Select the period at the monthly level in which the amount should be distributed. By default, the current month until the end of the project duration is always selected here.
- Through the Type, you can choose whether the specified amount should be distributed evenly linearly or in a bell curve (normal distribution) over the chosen period.
- With the "Reset to Zero" button, all previous planning for the selected rows will be reset.
- Click on "Apply" to apply the specified values for the selected rows.
If there are changes in your original planning due to delays, you can now easily and quickly shift the planning of entire contracts, contract units and even cost groups by several months.
To do this, first select the rows to be edited in the cash outflow again and click on the second button "Shift Plan". In this window, you have the following options:
- Select in the first field the number of months by which you want to shift the planned amounts of the selected rows. With the Plus Symbol, you can shift the planned outflows further into the future, and with the Minus Symbol, you can bring them forward.
- In the next section, you can specify from when you want to shift the planned amounts. For example, if it is foreseeable that there will be a delay in the project in September, the plan can remain until the end of August, and all planned amounts from September can then be shifted by two months, for example.
- Below, the new plan period after the change will be displayed.
- Click on "Apply" to shift the planned amounts.
Click on the "Save" button in the top right corner to save your entries temporarily or on the "Save & Close" button to save your entries and exit edit mode.
Note:
Plans are created and changed at the lowest available level and calculated upwards.
Adjustment of Cash Outflow through Paid Amounts
Disbursed amounts are displayed in the cash outflow in the Actual column of the corresponding month. At the end of the month, a month is automatically closed by the system. Once a month is closed, both the planned amount and the disbursed amount are fixed, and any difference is displayed in the "Planned/Actual Deviation" column.
Note:
As an admin, you can set in the master data under the tab "Forecast Settings" in the submenu "Cash Outflow" whether either approved and paid amounts or only paid amounts should be considered in cash outflow planning.
Switching to the New Cash Outflow
If you are already using cash outflow planning in Alasco, you can quickly and smoothly switch to the new solution project by project. With the "Switch to New Solution" button at the top right above the cash outflow, all actual and planned values will be migrated within seconds so you can continue working seamlessly.
If you are unexpectedly not satisfied with the new solution, you can switch back to the old cash outflow via the three dots and the option "Switch to Old Solution".
Caution:
When switching back to the old cash outflow, all changes made in the new solution will be deleted.