Track personnel expenses and efforts

With EMDESK, you can track personnel costs and efforts that have occurred by participants on work items, e.g. projects, work packages and tasks. 

You can find the expense tracking in the "Expenses" section. All records are organised in the table view with the options to filter, search, or export.

To report expenses for other costs, e.g. goods and services, please read "Expenses reporting". 

Follow the instructions below on how to report personnel costs and efforts. 

Note: The "Resources" menu was recently removed. The sections previously under it, like "Budget" and "Expense," are now accessible directly from the main menu to make navigation easier.

1

Click Expenses in Home menu, this will open the "Expenses" section.

2

Then click + Report Expense at the bottom. You can also report expenses using the option menu at each activitiy under Workplan or at each participant under Participants.

3

This will open a sidebar, where you can report personnel costs:

• Date: Set the date or period (the cost/effort will be distributed evenly along the period)
Tip: If you have already created reporting periods, you can use them instead by clicking "Set period instead date" and  then clicking "Select reporting period instead", all reporting periods appear for selection:



• Activity: Select the relevant project or activity
• Participant: Select the relevant participant
• Cost Category: Select a Personnel costs category of the type "Rate" to enter costs plus efforts based on a rate; to enter costs only select the Personnel costs category of the type "Fix"
  
  
  Note: There may be more than one personnel cost categories. Cost categories can be customised and configured in the Customisation settings. There are 2 types of cost categories: fix amounts ( Fix) and rate-based amounts ( Rate) costs. Rate-based are e.g. personnel costs and depend on the quantity and rate, whereas the fixed amounts costs are fix costs for goods or services. 
• Indirect Cost Rate: Once both, cost category and participant are selected, the indirect cost rate is auto-selected, since it depends on the selected cost category and participant
Note: To edit the indirect cost rate, you must have at least Edit access right to the participant you are reporting about and adjust its cost rate in the Financial Profile (see "Roles, access levels, and access rights").
• Cost Rate: Select the correct rate from the available options, which depend on the selected participant (only available when you choose the personnel costs category of the type "Rate")
Note:

• To edit default cost rates, you must have at least Edit access right to the participant you are reporting about and update the cost rate in its Financial Profile (see "Roles, access levels, and access rights").
• To report effort/time without costs, choose "No rate", the input for costs will then disappear:



• Effort: Once you chose the cost rate, the input for effort appears. Enter the amount of spent effort. The unit is set according to the unit which set in the cost rate (Person/Month (PM), Person/Day (PD), or Person/Hour (PH)). To change the unit, click the drop down:



Note: To adjust the default time unit for the cost rate, you must have al least Edit access rights to the participant you are reporting about and update the cost rate in its Financial Profile (see "Roles, access levels, and access rights").
• Cost (€): The cost is auto-calculated based on the effort and rate (optionally, you can enter the costs first, the effort is calculated based on the rate)
• Description (optional): Enter a short description
• Not eligible: Toggle the switch to not calculate funding
• No overheads: Toggle the switch to not add indirect costs
• Tags (optional): Classify and label the costs with tags (see "Using tags")

4

Once you have completed filing out all the information described above, click Save Expense.

Note: Activity, participant, and cost category must be defined for each expense, otherwise the expense is considered as unassigned. Unassigned entries are listed in a separated table in the end of the "Expenses" tab and are not accounted in the expenses.