A milestone is a single point-in-time event in a financial project plan or a project plan with zero duration and effort.
A milestone:
- Represents a contractual obligation with a client.
- Can be used in project plans for scheduling purposes.
- Has associated deliverables.
- Can be used in project plans for invoicing and revenue recognition.
- Can't incur costs directly.
- Has statuses that track the completion progress.
- Can require a review and approval before completion.
Create financial milestones as a peer or child task in the Manage Financial Project Plan or the Manage Project Plan page. Once a financial milestone is created, you can view it in both these pages.
A few points to note about milestones:
- They aren't chargeable.
- They are always at the lowest level in the project plan.
- You can assign resources but can't specify efforts because milestones are point-in-time events in the project but can't track any effort with it.
- To convert financial milestone to a task, clear the Milestone check box.
- For financial milestones, the planned start date and planned finish date are the same. If you update the planned start date, the application sets the planned finish date to the same date and vice-versa.
- Billable milestones can be associated with a contract line for billing and revenue recognition purposes.
- The Milestone Completion Approval workflow is initiated when you request completion approval for billable milestones, including those that aren't associated with a contract line.
- You can configure an auto-approval rule in the Milestone Completion Approval workflow if you don't require manual approvals for billable milestones.
- The primary project manager is the default approver for the Milestone Completion Approval workflow. If the primary project manager submits the request for milestone completion approval, the milestone is automatically updated to the Complete status.
- Use attachments from the task details to track any attachments or deliverables for milestones. These attachments will be sent to the approvers during the milestone completion approval.
- They have statuses that track their completion progress.
Milestone
Statuses
Non-billable milestones
- Not Started
- In Progress
- Complete
Billable milestones (when workflow is enabled)
- Not Started
- In Progress
- Completion approval requested
On the Manage Financial Project Plan page, use the Change Milestone Status dialog box to update the milestone status and actual dates. For billable milestones, you can select the Completion approval requested status to initiate milestone completion approval. The approver (the primary project manager) can then review the milestone details and approve the milestone completion.
