Milestones are crucial components within oboloo’s savings management system, providing a structured way to track and manage savings over time. This guide will explain how milestones work, how they are calculated, the differences between automated and custom milestone builders, how to edit them, and how to mark them as complete.
How Milestones Work
Milestones sit underneath a parent savings record, allowing you to split a savings project into manageable sub-projects. You can add as many milestones as needed, either at the time of creating the savings record or later by going to the Milestones tab within the parent savings record.
Why Use Milestones?
Milestones enable users to consolidate all savings records under one parent record. For instance, if you are measuring savings of a contract over 12 months and want to track savings at the end of each month, you can create 12 milestones linked under one parent project. This approach is more organized and efficient compared to managing 12 individual, unlinked projects.
Tip: Milestones are sub-projects that help you manage a savings record in smaller, easier-to-handle segments. For example, for a year-long project, you could create four milestones, one for each quarter, if savings are measured quarterly.
Realising/Completing Savings
Savings values remain projected until marked as complete. Once completed, they become realized savings. You can realize savings for each milestone by navigating to the milestone under the savings project (within the Savings Milestone tab).
Creating Milestones
Automated Milestone Builder
The Automated Milestone Builder simplifies the process by automatically generating milestones based on user inputs. Here’s how it works:
- Savings Start Date: The start date for the first milestone.
- Frequency of Milestone: How often milestones occur (monthly, quarterly, bi-annual, or annually).
- Number of Milestones: The total number of milestones.
- Total Baseline Spend: The budget approved for the project.
- Projected Cost Reduction (across all milestones): The expected reduction in costs throughout the project.
- Projected Cost Avoidance (across all milestones): The anticipated cost avoidance throughout the project.
The system uses this information to create milestones with start and end dates, distributing the baseline spend and projected savings evenly across each milestone.
Custom Milestone Builder
The Custom Milestone Builder offers flexibility to manually create each milestone:
- Specify the Number of Milestones: Determine how many milestones you need.
- Enter Details Manually for Each Milestone:
Editing Milestones
You can edit milestones to adjust their details as needed. This can be done by navigating to the Milestones tab within the parent savings record and selecting the milestone you wish to edit. Here, you can update information such as dates, baseline spend, projected cost reduction, and cost avoidance.
Marking Milestones as Complete
Steps to Mark a Milestone as Complete
- Navigate to the Milestones Tab: Under the savings project, go to the Savings Milestone tab.
- Select the Milestone: Choose the milestone you wish to realize from the table.
- Click 'Mark As Complete': This button will open a new popup.
- Amend Realized Savings: Adjust the reported realized savings if necessary.
- Confirm Completion: Click the Confirm Milestone Completion button.
Warning: You will not be able to edit the milestone once it is marked as complete.
Analysis
As you complete milestones, the visual analysis on the dashboards will update, showing your organization the delta between projected, pipeline, and realized savings.
By effectively using milestones, you can better manage and track the progress of your savings projects, ensuring accurate and organized savings records in oboloo.