Understanding Primavera P6 Database Settings

by Paul E Harris
1 Introduction
When you have created a new P6 database the Database Default Settings are often not
the best and it is my opinion that they should always reviewed and some changed.

2 Understanding Databases
Oracle Primavera P6 may open three types of databases:
• EPPM, Enterprise Portfolio Project
Management. This type of
database may be opened with
either the PPM Windows Client or
the EPPM Web Client and the
administration of the database is
only undertaken in the EPPM Web
Client. Therefore, when you open
an EPPM database with the
Windows Client you will find the
Admin menu and some Enterprise
menu functions are removed and
these functions are performed in
the EPPM Web Client. This mode is
also referred to as the Optional
Client.
• PM, Professional Project
Management. This database may
only be opened with the PPM
Windows client and the
administration of the database is
undertaken in the Windows Client
using the Admin menu.
• There is also a Stand Alone load
that does not have the ability to
create users.

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3 Understanding Database Options
The database options affect all users and there are many default options in both an
empty database and the demonstration database that will need to be adjusted for most
organizations.
This chapter will take you through the important ones that the author normally changes
and these are edited using:
• Admin, Admin Preferences..., General tab in a PPM Professional database, as per the
picture below, and
• Administer, Application Settings, General in an EPPM database, no pictures of the EPPM
database will be displayed in this book, but these options are found under the Admin menu.

3.1 General
We will work through the Admin Preferences settings starting with the General tab:

3.2 Code Separator

This is the default code separator used for all codes and WBS in a project but this may
be changed for each project in the Project Window, Setting tab.

3.3 Start Day of Week

The First day of week is defaulted to Sunday. Many people prefer to see Monday
because the calendar date in the weekly view is then Monday and is a workday, as per
the picture below:

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3.4 Default Duration
This is best set at 5 days because when reduced to 1 day a new activity bars becomes
hard to see, because it becomes a very short bar.

3.5 Time Periods, Hours per Time Period

ALWAYS check the option Use assigned calendar to specify the number of workhours
for each time period.

If you do not keep this box checked, then calendars will ignore their individual Time
Periods settings, and durations in days and weeks etc. may be incorrect.
For example, in the picture above if the check box is UNCHECKED then calendars that do
not have 8 hours per day or 5 days per week will have their durations in days, weeks and
months incorrectly calculated and displayed.
NOTE: This was introduced in Version 7.

3.6 Earned Value, Earned Value Calculation

Like many descriptions in P6 this does not mean exactly what is the title suggests. These
options decide which Baseline schedule values are read to:
• Calculate the Earned Value fields in the current schedule, and
• Which baseline dates are displayed as Baseline bars.
• A baseline has two sets of data for dates, costs and units that may be read and displayed as
baseline data. An administrator must decide what data all current schedules will read and ensure
users understand the setting:
• Dates – will a baseline display the:
 Planned Start and Planned Finish, or
 Start and Finish
• Costs and Units - will a baseline display the:
 Budget (or Planned in some industry versions and the EPPM Web tool)
 At Completion
• The Planned Start, Planned Finish and Budget or Planned may hold irrelevant data. See
the Planned Dates section in any of my books.

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• The At Completion values with current dates is the author’s preferred option when
resources are assigned.

NOTE: These options apply to every user. Also, when you import a Baseline schedule from
another database you should check what options the other database has selected. Not
understanding how these options work may be a career shortening exercise!

3.7 Options,- Specify the intervals to summarize and store resource spreads
The Projects and Tracking windows do not read the latest current schedule data. They
read Summarized Data which is updated when a database is summarized, or the project
is open.
• The level at which this data is stored in the database is set in this tab and weekly is usually the
most suitable.

• A database is summarized using Tools, Summarize. Once summarized the data read in the
Projects and Tracking windows will be correct at the time of summarization.
 A database running from a server should be summarized every night by setting up
a Job Service using the Tools, Job Service command.
 A database running on a standalone database
should be summarized using Tools, Summarize
before any data is read in the Projects and
Tracking windows.
• The WBS level that the data is summarized to (and when
the data was last summarized) is set by the user per project
in the Project window, Settings tab, Summarized
data. This sets the level of detail available in the Tracking
window.

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3.8 Admin, Rate Types, Resource and Role Rate Types
Primavera has five Resource and Role Rate Types which may be renamed in this tab.
This allows each role or resource to be assigned up to 5 rates. For example, there could
be an internal and external charge out rate for resources:
Most construction companies create a set of resources for each project with a rate for
that project and only use the first Resource Rate. In this situation it is recommended that
all the other four Resource and Role Rate Types are renamed Do Not Use.

When a project is created the Default rate is selected in the Project window, Resources
tab, Assignment Defaults section:

The rate used by resources assigned to an activity may be changed at any time in
Activities window, Resouurces tab, Rate Type drop down box:

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3.9 Admin, Preferences, Industry
The Industry type determines the terminology used in some fields and in earlier versions
was set when the software was loaded. This now may be set in the P6 Professional by
selecting Admin, Admin Preferences..., Industry tab:

When an EPPM database is being used then the Industry is set with the Web Client in the
Administration, General, Industry Selection drop down box.

The following table displays the terminology:

Industry Type Terminology Name of Project
Comparison Tool
Engineering and Construction Budgeted Units & Cost Claim Digger
Original Duration
Government, Aerospace, and Planned Units & Cost Schedule Comparison
Defense Planned Duration
High-Technology, Planned Units & Cost Schedule Comparison
Manufacturing and Other Planned Duration
Industry
Utilities, Oil, and Gas Budgeted Units & Cost Claim Digger
Original Duration

Engineering and Construction:

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Government, Aerospace, and Defense:

If a different Industry Type is selected, then P6 has to be restarted to see the changes.
The EPPM Web Client only uses Planned Units & Cost, Planned Duration and Schedule
Comparison.

3.10 Admin, Consent Notices

Consent Notices were introduced in P6 Version 18 and alert users to any corporate
policies designed to protect personally identifiable information that may be stored or
transmitted when using P6.

A Consent Notice is displayed when a user first operates one of the functions enabled as
a Consent Notice. The user must accept the consent notice before being allowed to
progress.

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3.11 Admin, Status of User Acceptance
Status of User Acceptance shows how many Consent Notices have been displayed and
accepted by users.
The User Preferences, Personal Information tab allows users to see the personal
information entered by the administrator when the user was created.

4 Admin, Categories
This menu is used to tailor the various categories which should align to your
organization’s project management procedures.

4.1 Notebook Topics

Notebook Topics are useful for recording information on a specific subject. It is
unfortunate that they may not be displayed in columns in the Projects and Activities
windows, thus it makes it difficult to share Notebook Topics with project team members
who do not have P6 access.
You may wish to consider using UDF fields for recording information that you wish to
share with people who do not have access to P6, so this data may be simply displayed in
reports columns and printed out as required.

4.2 Units of Measurement

These are the units of measurement you use for Material Resources and should be
tailored for the types of Material Resources your company uses.
NOTE: The default P6 load usually does not have any metric units and must be added.

5 Admin, Currencies
The Admin, Currencies form is used to edit currencies. When you are only using one
currency it is advised that all the other currencies are deleted to avoid users selecting
the incorrect currency.
The Base currency check box does not operate as expected and you will have to edit the
Currency ID, Currency name and Currency Symbol in the first line to suit your countries
currency and in turn making it the Default Currency.
The Exchange Rate is a simple method of calculating the cost in a different currency and
it is not possible to vary this over time.
The user selects which currency to see all their project costs using the Edit, User
Preferences, Currency tab.
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NOTE: This is a dangerous function when multiple currencies are in use, as a user may
hide the currency symbol and no one will know what currency the cost are displayed in! It
is possible to have two Currencies with the same symbol and if a user selects a different
currency then all costs displayed by the user will be converted to a different value. This
option must be carefully monitored and if you do not need multiple currencies then it is
suggested that you should delete them all, to avoid any possible problems. If you are
using multiple currencies, then make sure that all currencies have a different sign so
there is no confusion.

6 Admin, Financial Periods

This is where the Financial Periods associated with Storing Period Performance are
created.
Financial Periods have to be used when it is important to have data that reflects how
much work was completed or costs spent in each period and not just averaged over the
periods to date.
Using Financial Periods creates more accurate S-Curves.
Using Financial Periods requires a high level of discipline in the project team and are
difficult to use:
Financial Periods are created in Admin, Financial Periods,
They are set in a round number of months or weeks,
All projects in a database have the same Financial Periods,
• The Projects, Calculations tab Link actual to date and actual this period units and costs must be
checked for the Financial Periods to operate. This may be unchecked to manually fix up
past errors, but must be rechecked before storing performance,

• Period performance is stored using Tools, Store Period Performance:

• Many resource windows and reports have the option of Display Actuals using Financial
Period data.

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7 Users, Security Profiles and Organizational Breakdown Structure
This section is intended to introduce this topic. Please refer to my other books, or the
Primavera Administration Manual for full details.
The full picture and processes for creating users and assigning access are:
• The EPS is created, allowing projects to be created under each EPS Node. This often mirrors the
company’s network drive hierarchy.
• The OBS is created and acts as a security gateway for users to access projects. This may not
need to represent your company’s OBS and often this is set up to mirror the EPS.
A user is created by selecting Admin, Users… and each user is assigned:
• A Global Security Profile which allows access to Global data, such as EPS, OBS, etc.
• A Project Security Profile for each assigned OBS Node, which allows access to one or more
EPS Nodes, Projects, or WBS Nodes within a project.
• Access to all or one Resource Node is. The user may only see and assign resources from this
node but may see any resources and their associated costs once they are assigned to activities by
another user.
• Access to a software license, allowing the user to login and start the software.
• The user may be assigned to a resource in the Resource Window, thus allowing timesheets to
be used.
• One or more Resources may be assigned to one or more Roles.

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8 Date and Time Display
The date and time display set in the User Preferences may be different for each user
and are applied to any project that a user opens.
The user’s date and time display are used in every window and report that the user
displays.
When a company requires all project schedules to look the same, then the required
format should be documented and communicated in corporate procedures.

9 Units Display
The Time Units set in the User Preferences may be different for each user and are
applied to any project that a user opens.
This function allows different users to show different units, e.g. it allows one user to show
hours and another to show days for the same project and layout.
When a company requires all project schedules to look the same, then the required
format should be documented and communicated in corporate procedures.

10 Printouts and Reports Header and Footers

The header and footers are part of the Activity Layout that a user has applied to a
project.
Unfortunately, when a user opens a different project the Layout from the last project will
still be used to display project data in the Activity window. As a result, it is very simple for
a user to print a report for one customer with the header and footer, including logos, of
another customer.
To prevent this happening, procedures and check lists should be used when your
database has multiple customer projects.

11 Project Codes
Project Codes are assigned to projects and enable projects to be Grouped and Sorted
under an alternative structure to the EPS.
For example, when an EPS represents the physical location of offices by country,
state/county and city, the Project Codes enables projects to be given tags, such as
Reason for the Project, Safety, Compliance, New Product, and Increase Production. The
Projects may be grouped or filtered under these headings.
Therefore, project codes are used to Group, Sort and filter Projects in a similar way that
Activity Codes are used to Group and Sort Activities.

12 Summarizing Projects
The data displayed in the Projects and Tracking Windows, such as Durations, Dates,
etc., may be incorrect unless the projects have been Summarized by selecting Tools,
Summarize.
You will notice that the data displayed against a project in the Projects window may
change when a project is opened and then at this point in time the latest data from the
project is read, but when the project is closed this data is read from a Summary Data
table in the database which is only updated when a database is Summarized.

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The Settings tab in the Project Window specifies to what level the data is summarized
and indicates when it was last summarized.

A large database takes a significant amount of time to summarize and may be

summarized at night automatically using Job Services.
It is good practice to set up a Job Service to Summarize a database every night.
NOTE: In the picture above, selecting Summarize to WBS Level is set to zero so all levels
of the WBS will be summarized.

13 Job Services
A Job Services may be set up in a PPM database by selecting Tools, Job Services… to
open the Job Services form, which can perform the following functions on one or more
selected projects or EPS Nodes:

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Select Administer, Global Scheduled Services in the Web for setting up a Job Service in
an EPPM database. The following functions are available:
• Apply Actuals to projects when timesheets are used.
• Batch Reports. In the Reports Window a Batch may be created by selecting Tools,
Reports, Batch Reports… to open the Batch Reports form. This creates one or more
reports simultaneously. A Batch may be run on a regular basis using a job service.
• Export one or more projects on a regular basis.
• Schedule one or more projects on a regular basis.
• Summarize projects. This must be set up to run nightly for all databases so the data in the
projects window is correct.

Paul E Harris
Director Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd
20 June 2020

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