How to set up and run a project in Infor LN PCS
how to set up a project in Infor LN Project Control System
Also searched as
- infor ln pcs project setup guide
- infor ln project wbs budget estimate
- how does infor ln project costing work
- infor ln pcs progress and cost booking
Short answer
Infor LN's Project Control System (PCS) manages engineer-to-order and project-based work as a structured hierarchy: a project header, a work breakdown structure (WBS) of activities, a budget or estimate against that structure, and actual cost and progress booked back against the same elements. Getting the WBS and budget structure right before any transaction posts is what makes project cost reporting usable later.
Applies to: Infor LN Enterprise Edition, Project module (PCS)
Set up and run a project in PCS
- 1Project > Master Data > Projects: create the project header with project type, company, and default warehouse and cost center.
- 2Project > Master Data > Project WBS or Activities: build the work breakdown structure, breaking the project into activities or elements that mirror how you want cost and progress tracked, not just how the contract is worded.
- 3Project > Budgeting > Estimate or Budget: enter the budgeted or estimated cost and revenue for each WBS element, by cost component (material, labor, subcontract, other).
- 4Link purchase orders, sales orders, and warehouse issues to the relevant project and WBS element so transactions post against the right cost object.
- 5Assign labor through time registration or Manufacturing hour accounting tied to the project and activity for labor cost capture.
- 6Project > Cost Control > Actual Cost: review actual cost as it accumulates against budget, by WBS element and cost component.
- 7Record progress (percentage complete, milestones, or units completed) against the WBS to support revenue recognition, if the project uses percentage-of-completion accounting.
- 8Project > Invoicing: generate progress or milestone invoices from the recorded progress, integrated to Financials the same way sales invoicing is.
- 9Close completed WBS elements and, eventually, the project itself once all cost, revenue and invoicing activity is finished and reconciled.
Why WBS design matters more than any transaction
Every cost and revenue figure PCS reports later is only as granular as the WBS element it posted against. A WBS built to mirror only the contract's billing milestones, with no split for material vs labor vs subcontract, will produce a project P&L that cannot answer a basic question like which activity ran over budget.
Design the WBS around how the project will actually be managed and reported, then map contract billing milestones to it separately in the invoicing setup, rather than collapsing the two into one structure.
Cost components and where actuals come from
Actual cost reaches PCS from several sources: purchase order receipts and invoices for material and subcontract, warehouse issues for stock consumed against the project, and hour accounting or time registration for labor. Each source posts to the WBS element and cost component specified at the point of transaction, which is why purchase orders and issues must reference the correct project fields from the start.
A transaction posted without a project or WBS reference, or against the wrong element, will not automatically correct itself; it has to be identified and moved with a project cost transfer, which is worth checking for on any project whose actuals look implausibly low against a known spend.
Percentage-of-completion and progress invoicing
For projects using percentage-of-completion revenue recognition, recorded progress drives both recognized revenue and progress invoicing, so the progress entry has to be a considered, reviewed number, not a placeholder. Under-recording progress understates revenue for the period; over-recording creates a correction later that finance has to explain.
Milestone-based projects sidestep the estimation question by tying invoicing (and often revenue) to defined milestones instead of an estimated percentage, which is simpler to audit but requires the WBS milestones to be defined accurately up front.
Common pitfalls
- !Building a flat WBS with no split by cost component, which makes later variance analysis impossible without rework.
- !Letting purchase orders or warehouse issues post without a project/WBS reference and only discovering the gap at period close.
- !Confusing the budget (planning baseline) with the estimate (working forecast), which PCS tracks as distinct figures for a reason.
- !Recording progress infrequently, which creates large, hard-to-justify revenue swings instead of a steady trend.
- !Closing a WBS element before all committed purchase orders against it have received and invoiced.
- !Not reconciling project actual cost to the general ledger before period close, since the two can drift if integration transactions are stuck.
How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this
ERPray can answer project-status questions in plain language grounded in live PCS data: budget versus actual by WBS element, which purchase orders are still open against a project, or whether recorded progress and invoiced amount are in step. That saves a project controller from running and cross-referencing several PCS reports for a question a project manager asks in a five-minute status call.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between budget and estimate in PCS?
The budget is typically the approved baseline set near project start and held fixed for variance comparison. The estimate is a working, revisable forecast of cost to complete that updates as the project progresses, so budget-vs-actual and estimate-vs-actual answer different questions.
Can I use PCS for internal projects with no customer billing?
Yes. A project type can be configured as non-billable, in which case cost tracking, WBS and budget behave the same way but invoicing and revenue recognition are simply not triggered.
How do I fix a transaction posted to the wrong WBS element?
Use a project cost transfer (or the equivalent reclassification session for the transaction type) to move the cost to the correct WBS element rather than editing the original transaction, which preserves the audit trail.
Does PCS integrate with Manufacturing for shop orders tied to a project?
Yes, a manufacturing order can be linked to a project and WBS element so that its material, labor and overhead cost roll up into the project's actual cost alongside purchasing and warehousing transactions.
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