UO Project Status and Activity

The add-in splits the Excel Template report output by billable task or project - depending on the Template. It then gives you the option to review it and add any comments before the worksheets are distributed to your list of recipients.

Download the Project Status & Activity Excel Add-In  (ZIP file, December 2021)

The new version of the add-in is compatible with different versions of Microsoft Excel

Full details of how to use the add-in can be found in the How To document, How to Split and Distribute PSA Add-In (PDF)

• To give Principal Investigators (PIs) and others involved in the financial management of research projects a single source of information, with which to verify the financial position of their projects.

• The report provides:

  • Summarised data on budgets, actual expenditure, committed expenditure and funds remaining, broken down by budget heading.

  • Detailed transactional information showing the costs incurred and outstanding Purchase Order commitments within a specified period(s), together with brought forward figures from previous periods.

• It is recommended that the report is circulated to PIs monthly after the module closes. Information regarding month-end (as well as year-end processes) can found on the Month End Process page. This includes the Month-End Timetable spreadsheet.

  The purpose of this report is to provide a snapshot of one or more projects for PIs at the current date or at the end of a selected period. It is not a 'one-size-fits-all' report for every purpose.

  The report is split into four sections:

1. Basic Information - e.g. Project Number, Project Name, Project Dates, PI

2. Summary Information - e.g. Budgets, Actuals, Commitments, Available Balance sorted by Task and Expenditure Category

3. List of Transactions - For dates entered (Optional)

4. List of Commitments - For dates entered (Optional)

Report Parameters:

For this report, leaving the Organisation parameter blank will return all projects linked to your department.

• Project Organisation – data security means that this default option will return projects that you are able to access, including projects owned by other departments but where you have a task, and there should be no need to change this.

• Top Task Organisation – there should be no need to enter anything here UNLESS you wish to remove tasks owned by other departments.

• Project Manager – enter a PI here if required unless you only wish to report on projects with a specified PI, e.g. where they are the Task Manager on projects owned by other departments.

• Project Type – add other Project Types if required, especially if you are trying to get a list of projects for a PI.  All project types can be included in this report.

• Project Status – all non-Closed statuses are included, but these can be changed as required.

• Project Number From/To – enter a range if required.  However, you may need to amend the Project Types that have been selected.

• Projects – enter a single Project Number, or a non-contiguous list of Projects if required.  All required projects must be owned by your department for this option.  If you wish to report on a project owned by another department you should use the Project Manager parameter.

• Transactions From/To – this will default to the current month but can be changed.  The report will return data AS AT Transactions To, including budgets, costs and commitments; i.e. historic reporting is possible.

• Include Overheads – change this to ‘Include’, if required.

• Include External Collaborators – change this to ‘Exclude’, if required, which will remove any external collaborative tasks from the output.

• Include Transactions – change this to ‘Include’, if required: a further section will be added to each Top Task.

• Include Commitments – change this to ‘Include’, if required: a further section will be added to each Top Task.

There are 2 Templates: Top Task Group By Project and Sub Task Group By Top Task, both Templates are available in PDF and Excel formats:

• PDF - a printable and emailable format that cannot be edited.

• Excel Template - a printable and emailable format that can be edited.

 Note:  Due to the complex nature of the data extracted, it is not possible to include a plain Excel output for this report.

Timing: The report draws data from tables which update overnight so it will not necessarily return transactions posted on the day the report is run.