I’m often asked if there is a way to define an ‘AND’ or an ‘OR’ between the values and percentages in the Deltek Cobra thresholds. The short answer is Yes, there is a way. Here we’re going to take a look at how to do this and what it why you should or should not do it.
Let’s start with an example. Let’s say we have a dollar value of $25,000 and a percentage value of 10% set in our Thresholds tab in our WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) code file.
Is Deltek Cobra going to show a variance if just one of the values is exceeded, or both? The answer to this questions is found in the Report Definition tab of the Report Properties dialog.
Out of the box, Deltek Cobra places an ‘OR’ value in the Report Definition for the IPMR CPR Format 1 and most other reports. If you right-click on any of the reports you can open the Properties option and see the Report Definition tab in there.
At the bottom of the Report Definition tab you can see the ThresholdFilterCompareType option which is currently set to OR (highlighted above). When this report is run, if the threshold value ($25K) has been exceeded OR the percentage (10%) is exceeded, the control account will be indicating an exceeded value. The CAM (Control Account Manager) will then need to write a variance report to explain it.
Change And Versus Or
You can edit this line in the Report Definition tab to ‘AND’. Why would you do this? Well, one reason may lie in your contract with your customer. If your contract calls for both thresholds to be exceeded before it triggers the need for a variance report, this can save paperwork. This is preferable, of course, as it means the CAMs will typically need to fill out fewer variance reports. Nevertheless, check your contract before adjusting this as it may not be an option for your system.
If you found this Deltek Cobra Threshold article useful, you might also enjoy this article How to Setup Deltek Cobra to Recognize the “AND” in Thresholds on the subject.