Cost Allocation: Understanding the components

Beeline’s flexible, user-defined cost allocation methodology. Your methodology is comprised of numerous features that help you and your users consistently distribute, effectively capture and accurately track extended workforce costs across all financial products in Beeline Enterprise.

Multiple module integration

Your cost allocation methodology works across your entire Enterprise platform—from sourcing contingent staffing or procured services through invoicing, including amendments. That means you can track cost distribution across all activities and items for which you need to measure spend separately, such as requests, assignments, projects, timesheets, milestone payments, units of measure (UoMs), and statements of work (SOWs).

About templates

Templates are a feature-rich predesigned customizable framework that combines and groups the cost allocation segments you want to track. Your cost allocation templates comprise a group of segments joined to form a cost allocation string.

For example…

 

You can have Beeline adapt your templates to align with your in-house systems and processes so cost data can be synchronized across your enterprise systems. You can choose these template types and options.

Allocation types

Take advantage of matching your Beeline methodology to your in-house systems. Have Beeline adapt your methodology to support these options for tracking cost distribution to multiple codes:

• Allocations by percentage, unit or amount.
• Allocations by industry, request type and/or header-level segments.
• Allocations at the request and/or assignment level that can persist to an expense and timesheet.

Integrate client-defined fields

Build client-defined fields (CDFs) in your cost allocation methodology and precisely track how costs are assigned to various business units.

• Include multiple CDFs and CDVs.

• Include CDFs in headers and segments.

• Include cascading CDF dropdown lists in segments.
  TIP:  Cascading CDFs let you define relationships between cost allocation segments that match the hierarchical database structure of your in-house system.

• Drive which subsequent options are available to users based on the cost allocation CDF segment they select.

• Default cost values can be set up on a user’s profile as a hiring manager, a project manager, an SOW owner, or an actively logged-in user to simplify and streamline entering cost details.

• CDFs and cascading CDFs dropdown lists are all tied to your program’s in-house systems and processes to synchronize cost data across your enterprise systems.

Learn more about your user's experience

Currently, Cost Allocation, CDFs/CDVs and cascading CDFs are supported with these Enterprise features.

Certify cost distribution and validity with effective dates

• Authorize hiring managers and program office users to set start and end effective dates for cost allocation strings on each requisition or assignment.
• Ensure that only valid cost objects are available when a timesheet or an expense is created and streamline creating a timesheet or an expense.
• Reduce the amount of inaccurate cost data uploaded to your in-house systems and increase efficient data entry, processing and invoicing.
• Align data across your systems by including cost allocation string effective dates in the web service calls from Enterprise to your in-house systems.

Find out how to set effective dates

Leverage real-time data validation

• Leverage Beeline’s built-in web services for real‑time cost allocation validation during data entry in Enterprise.
• Choose when web service calls are made to your in-house system to validate cost allocation distribution and validity, such as at financial entry points and invoicing only or also during procurement.
• Retrieve data from your program’s in-house system as users enter cost allocation information in Enterprise.
• Verify individual cost allocation segment values or combinations of values for missing, invalid or inactive cost allocation segment values.
• Display customizable success and error messages and prompts that guide users to complete all required details more efficiently throughout your procurement and invoicing workflows.
• Display a warning when a user amends an assignment that will impact existing financials and ensure that submitted, approved and invoiced financials are properly processed.
• Allow valid records to submit requisitions, onboard candidates, amend assignments, miscellaneous fees, timesheets, expenses, SOW, projects, milestones, milestone payments, and invoices to process successfully.
• Block invalid records to submit requisitions, onboard candidates, amend assignments, miscellaneous fees, timesheets, expenses, SOW, projects, milestones, and milestone payments.
• Remove financial transactions with invalid cost allocation from an invoice before they’re submitted to your ERP/AP systems.
• Send financial transactions with invalid cost allocations to the appropriate individuals so they can correct the data.
• Decrease the amount of inaccurate cost data uploaded to your in-house systems and increase efficient data entry, processing and invoicing.

Customizable web service and find out how it shows up for your users

Enhance your users’ experience

• Support cost distribution on a requisition, an assignment and at financial entry.
• Prepopulate cost center segment values based on a user’s profile and streamline creating requests, engagements and SOWs.
• Require, make optional or even hide cost segments based on a user’s selection of a header-level field or an initial segment.
• Empower users to amend a single assignment and modify cost allocation data.
• Empower project managers to enter cost allocation details once on a statement of work (SOW) and have those details persist in all SOW financials, such as milestones, units of measure and projects.
• Authorize suppliers to designate amounts to cost allocation strings when submitting milestones, resources and units of measure (UoMs).
• Permit hiring managers view and edit cost allocation strings before approving submitted milestones, resources, and/or UoMs.
• Prevent approvers and contingent talent from editing cost allocation segments on financials, while allowing them to edit cost distributions on financials, such as units or percentages.
• Let contingent talent associate hours worked to cost allocation strings on timesheets in any time-entry mode—percentage share, hourly units, daily units, or time in time out​​​​​​.
• Allow contingent talent to adjust segment value or only adjust cost distribution when submitting timesheets or expenses.
• Enable program office users to associate miscellaneous fees, milestone payments and UoM payments to cost allocation strings.
• Simplify identifying cost allocation strings using row numbers.
• Let users show or hide expired cost allocation strings.

Learn more about your user's overall experience

Include in your Advanced Notification Templates

Give your users easy visuals into distributed costs.

• Include cost allocation fields in your Advanced Notification Templates for the Expense or Timesheet core entity type.
• Approvers can instantly view hours or amounts by cost allocation string in notification emails.

Learn how to build cost fields into your templates

Customizable web service

Customizing when cost distribution and validity are verified lets you prioritize invoicing accuracy and further align cost data with your financial systems and processes.

• Choose when web service calls are made to your in-house system to validate cost allocation distribution and validity. Plus, you can choose to support the integration at one or more stages of your procurement workflows, such as at financial entry points and invoicing only or also during procurement.
• For example, you can choose to certify cost distribution and validity when costs are entered into Enterprise and when invoices are generated. And you choose not to certify cost data when a requisition or assignment is submitted.

Here are the configuration details.

API integration

Use the GET Assignment Financials endpoint in the Assignment API to pull financial information, including cost allocations, about a specific assignment from your in-house systems. The Assignment API is part of the Worker Management Services suite and is available from the Beeline Developers portal.

Import integration

• Streamline managing cost allocation data for multiple assignments by importing data and quickly amending cost allocation information for multiple existing assignments.
• Upload cost allocation segment combinations and data for all financials, such as assignments, expenses, milestones, miscellaneous fees, projects, and timesheets.
• Import default cost allocation segments by user.
• Choose which native Enterprise field values you want to import.
• Import cost allocation on grandfathered requests, assignments, projects, and milestones.
• Retrieve cost allocation segments in worker download standard CDFs.

Learn how to manage cost data with imports

Invoice optimization

• Experience successful accurate invoicing and accounting distribution for transactions (timesheets, expenses, miscellaneous fees, SOW financials, assignment amendments, and reprocessed items) that include cost allocation data, such as cost allocation strings and header‑level segments.
• Process invoicing of cost allocations by percentage distribution, units or value.
• Ratify invoices for acceptable segment values.
• Allow valid transactions to be successfully invoiced and automatically reject and remove financials with invalid cost codes.
• Send invalid lines to a suspense account.

Ready to explore?

• Overview
• Terms you should know
• Including fields in your Advanced Notification Templates
• Managing cost data with imports
• Your users’ experience
• Reporting