About Activity Connections

Different types of objects can be connected to an activity, for example Tasks, Work Tasks, Purchase Requisition Lines, Purchase Order Lines, Shop Orders, DOP Headers etc. The connected objects report cost, hours, revenue and progress information to the activity. The type of information reported depends on the connected object as described in About Cost, Hours and Revenue Reported to Activity.

Activity Monitoring - Project Connections page displays the connection between the selected activity and other objects in IFS Cloud. The information about the connected object could include for example, object type, description, status, date created, date modified as well as estimated, planned, baseline, planned committed, committed, used and actual values for both cost and hours. Revenue information for planned, preliminary, posted and actual can also be included for the connected object. Select a connected object and click on the Object Details action command to go to the main page of the object.

The cost and revenue values will always be reported from the connected objects in base and transaction currency. If multi-currency and/or project currency have been enabled for Budgeting and Forecasting purposes for the project, then cost and revenue will also be reported in base currency using the fixed Budgeting and Forecasting rate and/or the project currency. The values are displayed in base currency in all pages where cost and revenue are available, while the other currencies are displayed only in the Project Connections page.

Types of Connections

There are two types of activity connections: manual connections and system connections. Manual connections are created by using the Connect Object action command in Activity Monitoring - Project Connections, or by manually connecting the object to the activity using the Connect to Activity action command on the object itself.

System connections will occur in following situations:

When objects are created and connected directly from the project, such as a project miscellaneous demand or task created on the activity.
When objects already connected to the activity create new objects, such as a miscellaneous demand creating a purchase requisition line.
When transactions are posted with the project ID and activity sequence number, such as the transaction when registering time IFS/Time Registration or the manual voucher row when creating a manual voucher posted with the project.

The System Connection field indicates the type of connection for an object. Some object types can be connected both manually and by the system. Only manual connections are possible to remove.

IFS Business Analytics can be used to create and analyze information based on the activity connection data available in IFS Cloud. For more information refer About Information Sources in IFS Business Analytics.

Objects that can be connected to Activities

The object types that can be connected to an activity are as follows:

Object Type	Connection Type
Activity Estimate	System
Activity Resource	System
Change Order	Manual
Compatible Unit Execution Item	Manual
Compatible Unit Procurement Activity	Manual
Customer Order Invoice Line	System
Customer Order Line	System Manual
Customer Order Line Revenue	System
Design Object	Manual
Document Package	Manual
DOP Header	System Manual
External Invoice Posting Row	System
Forecast Demand	System
General Ledger Voucher Row	System
Invoice Posting Row	System
Invoicing Plan	System
Material Requisition Line	Manual
Project Inventory Transfer	System
Project Miscellaneous Demand	System
Project Transaction	System
Project Transaction Revenue	System
Purchase Order Change Order No Part	System Manual
Purchase Order Change Order Part	System Manual
Purchase Order Line No Part	System Manual
Purchase Order Line Part	System Manual
Purchase Requisition Line No Part	System Manual
Purchase Requisition Line Part	System Manual
Requirement Activity	System
Sales Contract Project	System
Shop Order	System Manual
Shop Order Requisition	System
Sub Contract Project	System
Task	System Manual
Voucher Row	System
Work Task	System Manual

Workflow

Creating

You can create an object connection either in Activity Monitoring - Project Connections page or in the page for the object you want to connect. i.e., to connect an activity to a document package in IFS/Document Management, you can do so in the Activity Monitoring - Project Connections page or in the Document Package page by the Connect to Activity action command and selecting the required activity. Although it is recommended that you connect the object to an activity from the main page of the object, this can only be done if the particular object type is allowed for manual connections in the Project Setup Parameters/Manual Connections tab. An object can have only one activity connected.

Click on the Connect Object action command in the Project Activity Monitoring - Project Connections page and select the required object type from the drop down menu. Objects related to the selected Object Type will appear in the below section. Select the object to be connected and click OK to save the changes. The objects are from components that are allowed for manual connection with the project. When an object is selected the Description and Status fields are updated with the next save. The values of these fields are retrieved from the object itself.

Modifying

Activity connections cannot be modified.

Removing

Only manual connections are removable. This can be done in the Activity Monitoring - Project Connections page by using the Disconnect Object action command or by using the Disconnect from Activity action command from the object itself.

Refresh Project Connections

In case there is a need to update the cost/revenue element on a project connection (e.g. if it has an incorrect cost/revenue element due to incorrect posting control), it is possible to run the Refresh Project Connections action command found in the Project Connections page. This will allow you to refresh the connections for a given company, project and or object type and will update the cost/revenue element on the relevant connections based on the current basic data. This function is also used to update cost/revenue elements in case the code part used as Base for cost/revenue Elements has been changed (for more information on the process for changing the Base, please see the Release Notes).

Note: Refreshing connections can be a heavy process (depending on data volumes) and should typically be scheduled to be run outside normal working hours, e.g. over a weekend.