Initial Data Setup and Configuration

Once the system has been installed, you will need to populate a number of entities to match your organization's needs.  You may consider other systems that will be feeding data to or receiving data from Unanet when determining how to configure your system.  Data can be entered via the user interface as well as via our import feature.

Below is a list of features you may consider while preparing your system for use.  As certain elements rely on other elements to exist, the sequence of these steps is somewhat relevant, so start from the top, and work your way down.  Which features you need to address will depend on your Unanet license.   The table below indicates those items that may apply to a specific functional area ( identified with a T for Time, E for Expense and P for Planning, F for Financials,or T&E for Time and Expense). Otherwise, the item may be of general interest.

After these steps, if you have the Financials license and are using the purchasing features, you can refer to this Knowledge Center page for information on configuring for purchasing: Purchasing Configuration and Usage Guide (search for this topic in the Knowledge Center).

Certain activities require a Unanet user having the Administrator role while others will require various other roles (such as Project Manager, Resource Planner or Resource Assigner role).   You will initially need to log in as an Administrator.  Once you have some of the data entered, you may want to create additional users having other roles to perform some of the later steps.

 

See the Features by License for more information about the various functionality available with each Unanet edition.

If you are integrating with a 3rd party back office system (e.g. Quickbooks), you may want to first review the product specific configuration guidelines.

 

#

Data Element / Comment

Functional Area

 

Administrator ID Setup

 

1

Create Administrator User ID
In order to proceed with system configuration,  
you will first need to create an Administrative user account.  This will require the creation of a Person Organization and a new user account.

 

 

Organizational Setup

 

2

Define Organization Types (optional)
(e.g. Internal, External, Customer, Vendor, etc.)

 

3

Define Organizations
(e.g. define your "Internal Organization Hierarchy" -- Project Owning Organizations, Person Organizations, Financial Organizations, your "External Organization Hierarchy" -- Project Organizations, Customer Profiles and Vendor Profiles, as well as specify your Default GL Posting Organization)

 

4

Define Payment Terms
(e.g. used in Invoicing, etc.)

T&E

5

Define Organization Addresses
(e.g. supply addresses for organizations, including default Bill To, Ship To and Remit To addresses)

 

6

Define Organization Contacts
(e.g. supply contacts for organizations, including default Bill To, Ship To and Remit To contacts)

 

 

Core Financial Setup

 

7

Define Accounts
(e.g. define master list of accounts, chart of accounts, associate accounts with account categories on various entities for use in posting, etc.)

 

8

Define Bank Accounts
(e.g. define list of accounts used for making deposits or payments, etc.)

F

9

Define Fiscal Years
(e.g. define list of fiscal years that can optionally be available for reporting and required for use with Financials)

 

10

Define Payment Methods
(e.g. define payment methods for use with Expense Reporting as well as with Unanet Financials)

E, F

 

Employee and Sub-Contractor Setup

 

11

Define Time Periods
(e.g. time reporting or payroll periods -- weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, etc.)

T

12

Define Business Week
(e.g. In order to calculate available time for users, Administrators can define a variety of business week definitions -- e.g. Full Time - M-F or Part Time - Mon through Thursday, etc. -- these definitions are then associated with each user)

 

13

Define Time and Expense Approval Groups
(e.g. setup the
names of the groups of managers who approve timesheets and expenses -- this is a necessary step before adding individual users)

T, E

14

Define Locations  (optional)
(e.g. locations can be defined and subsequently used as a person's default location, a project's default location, assignments may have specific locations identified, etc. )

 

15

Define Employee Types  (optional)
(e.g. additional options to categorize users as well as limit subsets to certain pay codes or expense types, etc. )

 

16

Define Labor Categories  (optional)
(e.g. labor categories such as Programmer, Engineer, Analyst, etc. can be set up with associated rates and can be assigned to users at the project or task level)

T

17

Define Pay Codes
(e.g. earnings and leave categories to classify reported hours – regular time, overtime, vacation as defined in payroll system)

T

18

Define People and their Roles
(e.g. the employees, customer approvers, subcontractors, suppliers, etc.) Define each user's roles which determine what functionality they'll have in the application. Will they approve others time and expense entries (Manager role), will they manage projects (Project Manager role), can they view Cost information (Cost Rate Manager role), etc.)

 

19

Define Organization Access
(e.g. define rules for which organizations individuals will have visibility into, etc.)

 

20

Define Alternates
(e.g. configure users to perform work on behalf of others, etc.)

 

 

Project Setup

 

21

Define Project Types
(e.g. categorize type of work performed: billable, non-billable, direct,indirect, admin, development, etc.)   Unanet has one predefined type = 'A’ for Administrative

 

22

Define additional Project Statuses (optional)
(e.g. Proposal, Pending, Planning, Open, Closed, etc.) Unanet has two predefined project statuses (’Open’ and ’Closed’)

 

23

Define Projects and Tasks
(e.g. define internal projects, customer projects, leave, activities, events, overhead, etc.)

 

24

Define Project Administrators
(e.g. define specific users responsible for various roles on a project, such as Project Approver, Resource Assigner, Project Manager, etc.)

 

25

Define Project Labor Categories
(e.g. you can define a sub-set of labor categories that will be available to a specific project, and establish custom rates if desired)

T

26

Define Project Pay Codes
(e.g. you can define a sub-set of pay code that will be available to a specific project if desired)

T

27

Define Project Locations
(e.g. you can define a sub-set of locations that will be available to a specific project)

 

28

Assign People to Projects
(e.g. Users can assign themselves to certain projects via the My Projects screen, or they can be explicitly assigned to projects or tasks with specific rates, labor categories and more)

 

29

Define Note Status (optional)
(e.g. for use in project collaboration via the Project Notes feature)

 

30

Define Note Types (optional)
(e.g. for use in project collaboration via the Project Notes feature)

 

 

Time Configuration

 

31

Define Change Reasons  (optional)
(e.g. useful when using DCAA compliance features)

T

32

Define company Holidays  (optional)
(e.g. required for automatic timesheet pre-population of holiday time)

T

33

Configure Leave Accruals (optional)
(e.g. useful if you plan to use Unanet to manage leave balances or leave accruals, you'll need to review the leave management features)

T

34

Configure Dilution  (optional)
(e.g. feature to calculate diluted hour and cost rate information based on hours worked)

T

35

Assign Approvers and Submitters To Time and Expense Approval Groups
(e.g. assign Unanet managers as Approvers to Approval Groups and assign each user as a Submitter to an approval group -- can be required or optional for time users)

T

 

Expense Configuration

 

36

Define Currency Types
(e.g. list of currencies to be available within your installation)

E

37

Define current Mileage Rate
(e.g. needed if you plan on using the built in expense mileage wizard)

E

38

Manage Per Diems
(e.g. ability to import per diem locations and rates if you plan on using the per diem related functionality)

E

39

Define Expense Vendors for expense types (optional)
(e.g. Eastern Airlines, Value Jet as vendors for your AIR expense types -- needed if you would like a pre-defined list of vendors to appear when entering expenses)

E

40

Define additional Expense Types (optional)
(e.g. Office Supplies, Equipment, Travel, etc. -- Unanet has a number of predefined expense types built into the system that come with an accompanying wizard.  By default, a number of these expense types are disabled.  You can enable the ones you'd like to use, add additional custom expense types and provide customized expense type names to meet your needs)

E

41

Define Project Expense Types
(e.g. you can limit which expense types will be available on a project by project basis)

E

42

Assign Approvers and Submitters To Time and Expense Approval Groups
(e.g. assign Unanet managers as Approvers to Approval Groups and assign each user as a Submitter to an approval group -- can be required or optional for expense users)

E

 

Project Accounting / Costing Setup

 

43

Customize Posting Options
(e.g. define posting related options)

 

44

Define Cost Elements (optional)
(e.g. define the Labor, ODC and Indirect Cost Pool elements that will be used in your installation)

 

45

Define Cost Structures (optional)
(e.g. define the Cost Structures that will be used in your installation)

 

46

Define Cost Report layout (optional)
(e.g. define one or many cost report definitions for use with the Project Accounting Reports)

 

47

Define Cost Pool Groups
(e.g. define rules for allocating costs and calculating Indirect Cost Rates)

F

48

Define Fee Calculation Methods
(e.g. define rules for calculating fees)

 

49

Define Posting Groups
(e.g. define account category default accounts and custom posting groups)

 

 

Project Billing Setup

 

50

Configure Fixed Price Items (optional)
(e.g. add fixed price items and schedules to projects)

T&E

51

Configure Pre-Billed Labor (optional)
(e.g. add pre-billed labor items to projects)

T&E

52

Define Invoice Number Formats (optional)
(e.g. create Invoice Number formats to be associated to specific projects)

T&E

53

Define Invoice Formats (optional)
(e.g. create Invoice formats to be associated to specific projects)

T&E

54

Define Additional Item Types (optional)
(e.g. for use with Invoicing functionality to manually create invoice one time items entries)

T&E

 

Portfolio Feature Setup

 

55

Define Skills (optional)
(e.g. includes defining Skill Types, Skill Levels and Skills -- subsequently, users can associate these Skills with their own skill profile)

P

56

Activate Plan Set Names (optional)
(e.g. if you plan to use the multiple planning version / scenarios functionality)

P

 

Misc. Configuration Items

 

57

Customize Email templates for subject and message content (optional)
(e.g. add customized ’subject’ and ’messages’ (including links to your Unanet) in each enabled email event template)

 

58

Activate Alerts Scheduler (optional)
(e.g. if you plan to use the system alerts feature, you'll need to enable this via the Admin >> Schedule screen)

 

59

Configure Budget Names and Budget Profiles (optional)
(e.g. if your Budget Managers plan to use the system budgeting feature)

F

60

Define Images (optional)
(e.g. logos for including on login screen, reports, invoices, etc.)

 

 

 

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