Purpose of Control Elements in PRISMG2

PRISMG2 is very similar to PRISM Project Manager in many ways. However, in some cases PRISMG2 provides additional capabilities, such as Control Elements. In PRISM Project Manager, a Control Account has a single quantity value and a single hours value but could have multiple cost values called Cost Elements.

PRISMG2 now allows you to have multiple Quantity Elements and multiple Hours Elements, as well as multiple Cost Elements. Combined these are called Control Elements. The graphic below is an example of how multiple Control Elements can be applied. There are three Hours Elements, one for Home Office Hours, one for Field Office Hours, and the last for Subcontractor Hours. This means that you could potentially baseline and track all three types of hours on the same Control Account. There are three Quantity Elements as well. One is for Concrete Quantity, the next for Steel Quantity, and the last for Piping Quantity. Note that on many projects quantities are never tracked. However, if 1|Page

they are tracked usually these are Key Quantities, which are the major quantities of items being installed in the field that are easily measured for progress. Finally, the graphic indicates six Cost Elements. There are three associated with Labor costs; Home Office Labor, Field Office Labor, and Subcontractor Labor. The other three are associated with Material costs; Concrete Materials, Steel Materials, and Piping Materials.
Note that there could easily be other Cost Elements, such as, Equipment, Rental Equipment, Freight, Taxes, etc. However, for the purpose of this white paper, these are not included. Generic Quantity Elements will be discussed at the end of this paper.

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In the old PRISM Project Manager, Cost Elements are defined with a Price Base, either Quantity, Hours, or None. Essentially, you define a rate structure for calculating the ETC for a Cost Element. The graphics below show two Cost Elements, the first is for Labor with a Price Base of Hours. The second is for Materials with a Price Base of Quantity.

In the graphic below, these two Cost Elements were added to a Control Account. The Price Base for each is displayed as an H (hours) on the Labor Cost Element and a Q (quantity) on the Materials Cost Element. In addition, the ETC Price of $25.00 was added to the Labor Cost Element and $5,000.00 on the Materials Cost Element. This causes the forecast or ETC cost to be calculated using the rate of $25.00/hour for Labor and $5,000/unit for Materials.

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In PRISMG2, since there are multiple Hours and Quantity Elements, you have complete control over creating rates. In the graphic below, the Home Office Labor is assigned a Rate Element, which is Home Office Hours. By assigning an Hours Element to a Cost Element, a Cost per Hour rate structure is established. Field Office Hours and Subcontractor Hours are also assigned to their corresponding Labor Cost Elements in the example. In addition, Quantity Elements are assigned to Cost Elements. For instance, Concrete Quantity is assigned as a Rate Element to Concrete Materials. This establishes a Cost per Quantity rate.

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Total cost, hours, and cost data are applied to Control Accounts in PRISMG2, using three separate Control Element subpanes. In the example below, five Cost Elements, three Hours Elements, and two Quantity Elements are applied. If an ETC rate is applied to a Control Element that has a Rate Element assigned then the ETC is calculated based on the ETC Rate assigned. For instance, if an ETC Rate of $200.00 is applied to Concrete Materials, and then the ETC Quantity for Concrete Materials is modified from 350 CYs to 400 CYs then the ETC cost would be recalculated to be $80,000.

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What are some of the advantages of having multiple Quantity and Hours Elements?
As stated previously, you can assign more than one Hours or Quantity Element to a single Control Account. In addition, even if you did create multiple Hours and Quantity Elements but only assigned one per Control Account, you would still have a means to roll-up these Key Quantities and Hours at a project level or at a top level of the WBS, without having to apply filters and assign groups to aid in filtering or grouping of data. The report below indicates each Control Account, the associated Control Elements, and values applied to each.

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The report below is exactly the same as the report above, except that it is summarized at a project level. Notice that you can see total quantity values for the Key Quantities and total hours for the major types of hours. Of course, the total cost values are also shown.

These rate structures also define the unit costs calcualted in the Unit Cost report. The main reason for using more than one Hours Element is to separate subcontractor hours from main contractor or owner hours. The main reason for using more than one Quantity Element is to easily track and report progress on Key Quantities. At the end of a project, the historical data gathered is useful for estimating future work. Of course, in order to make this work, the accounting system used must be set up to gather actual cost, hours, and possibly quantity data in the way that Control Elements have been defined.

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Generic Quantity Elements

In some cases, you may want to track miscellaneous quantities. You can create a Control Element for this purpose.

When using this methodology, you can then add a Quantity Element to a Control Account and enter a Quantity Unit and a Quantity Title that is specific to that Control Account-Quantity Element. However, it is important to note that you cannot assign the same Quantity Element twice to a Control Account. Therefore, if you want to track two different quantities on a Control Account you will need to create two separate Quantity Elements. Below, the Misc Quantity was applied to two different Control Accounts, with each given the same Quantity Title of Rebar.

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Using this method, the Quantity Title and Quantity Unit entered in the Control Account-Quantity Element subpane is displayed in the detail report.

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When summarized at the project level, these items are summarized as well. However, what is actually occuring is that all of the QTY control element details are summarized together, regardless of the Quantity Title and Quantity Unit given to each individual element on Control Accounts. The title and unit displayed is coming from the last record using the QTY control element.

To show this, the Quantity Unit and Quantity Title for the last Control Account using the QTY control element is changed.

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The two QTY control elements use two different titles and units. The first is Rebar and LBS and the second is Fittings and EA. When the data is summarized at the project, you can see that the quantity values are combined, which make no sense. In addition, they they have the title and unit descriptions of the second Control Account.

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