A production workflow spans several related records in ShowMgr. Projects organize the work, orders define work units, bookings plan the required elements, and actuals record the work performed. Financial documents and reports use relationships to those records.
The flow of production data
| Stage | Record | Information carried forward |
|---|---|---|
| Organize work | Project and optional master project | The grouping and identity of related work |
| Define a work unit | Order | Project association, class, status and planned dates |
| Plan requirements | Booking | Order and element references, quantity, dates and planned values |
| Assign a person or item | Specific element on a booking | The resource, facility or asset assigned to the requirement |
| Record work | Actual | Booking reference, recorded dates and units, financial values and approval information |
| Purchase externally | Purchase order and lines | Vendor, status, order associations and booking references |
| Bill work | Invoice and lines | Customer, status, amounts and related bookings or actuals |
| Review results | Report | Selected records, parameters, grouping and financial measures |
The relationships support tracing work across modules. Each record retains its own identity, values and status. The presence of one record does not indicate that every later workflow has been completed.
Follow identities across views
Begin with the project and order identities. The order's bookings identify the elements planned for that work. Actuals reference the bookings against which work or usage was recorded.
The order worksheet and Scheduler provide different views of booking data. Compare the booking ID when tracing an assignment between them. Generic requirements and specific assignments describe the requirement and the selected person or item; they should be interpreted alongside the booking identity.
Purchase-order lines and invoice lines provide additional links back to operational work. Follow those line references when reconciling a commercial document, rather than relying only on the document header or displayed order name.
Separate planned, recorded and billed values
Planned time belongs to the booking. Recorded time belongs to the actual. An invoice represents the work and values included in that billing operation.
A difference between planned and recorded units can be expected when the work changes. The resulting cost or revenue also depends on rates, units, multipliers, fees and other financial settings. Approval and invoice inclusion are separate parts of the workflow.
Compare reports at the same level of detail
Identify whether a report is showing project, order, booking, actual or invoice-line information. Then match the date basis, statuses, currency and financial measure with the view being compared.
A planned-value report and an actual-value report can legitimately show different totals for the same order. Grouping and parent/child rollups can also change how rows and totals are presented.
Locate a discrepancy
| Discrepancy | Compare first |
|---|---|
| Work appears in the order but not the Scheduler | Booking identity, selected elements, dates, statuses and view filters |
| Actual time differs from planned time | Booking dates and units against the linked actual records |
| A financial line appears unrelated to the work | PO or invoice line references to the order, booking and actual |
| Report totals differ from a worksheet | Included records, level of detail, filters, currency and planned/actual/billed measure |
| A user cannot see expected work | Client context, access levels, resource linkage and filters |
Tracing the same identities through each stage establishes which records are being compared and where their values diverge.
Related articles
- ShowMgr system architecture: how the application is organized
- The ShowMgr data model: projects, orders, elements, bookings and actuals
- How resource scheduling connects elements, bookings and actuals
- How planned work connects to actuals, purchase orders and invoices
- How classes, attributes and statuses shape a ShowMgr workflow
- How identity, permissions and client context affect data access
- How ShowMgr reports obtain data and produce output
- How documents and notifications relate to operational records
- Integration concepts: interfaces, identifiers and data contracts