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Management Information System(MIS)

User Guide

Management Information System

User Guide

The Management Information System (MIS) is a specifically designed tool for the

management of various donor-funded projects. It is online based and can be

accessed from any point of the globe at any time given the user has an active

Internet connection. One and the same user can work on multiple projects and

multiple users can be associated with one and the same project.

The MIS has six thematic modules – Home, Setup, Planning, Accounting,

Administration and Reports. Each module consists of several submodules with

specific functions.

Setup Module

In the Setup module, a user enters the basic information related to the project, such

as the project name, duration, budget, contract number, etc.

The budget follows the template of EU-funded projects and features “Fees”,

“Reimbursables” and “Non-reimbursables”. However, the template can be additionally

modified to mirror the specific requirements of other donors on whose projects the

company may be working.

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User Guide

In this section, the user inserts the number of working days per expert category and

the available amounts per budget line as in the contracted budget.

Afterwards, profiles of all experts working on the project are created in the

“Resources” subsection.

Multiple resources can be entered as experts, office managers, assistants, etc. A

resource is created through clicking the “New” button and entering all information

relevant to the resource, such as their Address, Bank details, Contacts and VAT

Information. After the information is entered, the user clicks “Save” and “Apply for

(project name)” and chooses the Test project.



User Guide

Upon completion of all details, the user chooses “Back to Project Resources” to

return to the menu with all resources. In order to add the freshly entered resource to

the project, the user types their name in the blank field and once it appears, he/she

chooses “Allocate”.

Once a resource is created and allocated, the user defines their permissions from

several predefined categories (e.g. “Expert”, “Team leader”, “Project manager”, etc.).

According to the user’s preference, additional permissions can be added or removed

by ticking/ unticking of the specific options listed on the page.



User Guide

After the creation of the resources, the user can also create petty cash pool from the

“Ledger” submodule through filling in the relevant details and saving them.

Upon completion, the user moves on to associating the created resources with the

project budget lines at the “Budget/ Resources” subsection. For the fees of experts,

one enters the amount that is actually paid to the expert as opposed to the amount

as per contracted budget, which was already entered in the “Budget” subsection.

With regard to the other budget lines, different resources can be associated with one

and the same budget line, for example the team leader and several other experts can

be responsible for the budget related to workshops.



User Guide

After allocating the budget, the user clicks “Next” and moves on to creating the

activities from the project.

Multiple activities can be created. Also, in the course of implementation, the name

and number of working days envisaged for each of the activities can be changed.

After creating the activities, the user clicks “Next” and moves on to indicatively

allocating a certain number of working days per resource and per activity. This

distribution is tentative and can be changed throughout the project.



User Guide

In the last submodule “Contracts” the user can upload various project-related

contracts, like for example the contract with the Client and the experts.

Planning Module

In the planning module, one can make an indicative distribution of the experts’

working days per month and per activity for the duration of the project. As in the

previous cases of the planning, the distribution can be changed if this is needed

throughout the implementation of the project. If the available number of working days

is exceeded, the system alerts the user through marking those numbers in red.



User Guide

Similar distribution can be made also for the per diems and other budget lines.

Per diems

Other budget lines

The system also allows for the planning of the incoming payments from the client and

thus for the estimation of the projected cashflow throughout the project lifecycle.



User Guide

Accounting Module

The Accounting module has the following subsections: Timesheet; Cost items;

Invoices; Outgoing invoices and Account transfer.

In the first subsection, the experts working on the project enter their timesheets,

choosing the working days (which can be broken down up to a quarter of a day), the

per diems, place of performance, activity to which the work done on the specific day

relates, and entering the details about the performed tasks.

Upon completion of the timesheet, the expert send it to the project manager who

verifies the content and in case everything is correct and corresponds to the

timesheet of the expert approved by the client, authorises it for client submission and

for payment. If the timesheet needs further editing, the project manager can send it to

the expert for review or make the corrections themselves.



User Guide

After the submission for payment, the project manager approves the expenses

associated with the timesheet in the overview “Home” module, after which they are

ready for payment.

In order to proceed with the payment, the user needs to prepare an invoice, which is

done from the “Invoices” subsection.



User Guide

There all bank and personal details of the specific resource are automatically

transferred from the “Setup” module, where they were already entered. The user

clicks “New” invoice, chooses the date of the invoice, enters the invoice number,

issuer of the receipt and description and saves the information.

After this is done, the system shows all unpaid items associated with the specific

resource and the user chooses which to add to the current invoice and which to leave

for later payment. Upon completion, the user clicks “Print” and the system provides a

printable/ savable pdf of the ready invoice.

All project expenses are entered in the “Cost items” subsection.



User Guide

When creating a new cost item, the user associates it with a specific resource,

budget line and activity and assigns it a receipt date, receipt number, etc. Cost items

can be entered in different currencies, as the exchange rate is taken automatically

from the website of the European Commission website.

The system offers the option for various kinds of extractions of the cost items to be

made based on Resource, Budget type, Budget line, etc. This function is especially

useful when extracting reimbursable expenditures for the preparation of six-monthly

Financial reports. The filtered selection can also be extracted as an Excel file.



User Guide

The user can also prepare the outgoing invoices to the client using the “Outgoing

invoices” subsection. He/ she clicks the “Create new invoice” section and enters the

date and number of the invoice as well as its description. After saving, the user can

enter the amount of the invoice (for advance payment invoices) and choose which

entries to be added to the invoice (for final payment invoices).

The last subsection of the accounting module provides he user with an overview of

the transfers of funds between the different accounts associated with the project as

well as with the option to transfer funds between those accounts.



User Guide

If, for example, the user wants to transfer funds between the bank account and the

petty cash, they choose “Bank account” as source from which the funds are taken,

“Petty cash” as where the funds are transferred to, puts the amount and description

and clicks “Transfer”.

Administration Module

The Administration Module contains summarised information about the resources

created in general in the system and the roles of resources in the specific project. It

also contains the project Calendar and space for uploading project documents.

By clicking the “Resources” tab, the user gets information about all the resources that

have been entered in the system.



User Guide

The “Calendar” tab contains a calendar by month for the duration of the proejct. The

user can enter different important dates for the project, e.g. deadlines for submission

of deliverables, meetings, etc. Once completed, the task can be ticked as “Finished”

and marked as such in the Calendar. Currently, the option for sending alerts and

reminders is deactivated but upon request can be activated again.

In the documents subsection the user can upload various documents relevant to the

project such as the Terms of Reference, reports, presentations, background

documentation, etc. In this way, the MIS can work as a cloud space where project

documents can be stored and referred to by multiple users from anywhere in the

world.

The last submodule “Roles” takes the user back to the specific project resources

where they can see the particular function in which the resource operates.



User Guide

Reports Module

From the Reports module the user can extract various kinds of reports related to

different aspects of the project – utilisation of resources, project cost, project margin,

etc.

The Activity reports provide the opportunity to extract information about the planned,

used and remaining days for all experts working on a project. The information can be

arranged by activity, resource and month and a timeframe for which the extraction is

made can be predefined. In addition to this, the filtered information can be extracted

as Excel file, which can additionally be modified and adapted to other templates. This

is especially useful for the preparation of Interim Financial Reports.



User Guide

The MIS can also generate reports about the accumulated project margin, which

allows the user to monitor the situation at any given time.

Home Module

The Home module provides an overview of expenses awaiting the user’s approval;

issued invoices; timesheets associated with the project; the project Calendar. From

this section the user can have a quick overview on the status of pending issues or

make a quick reference about timesheets, invoices and deadlines.


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