This article describes how the cost types, CapEx and OpEx, are used in Meisterplan.
General
In Meisterplan, you must input a cost type for all costs (like, for example, financial events costs). Projects must also be assigned a cost type. You can choose between CapEx and OpEx. For financial events, you can also choose the cost type Benefit.
In addition, you can add project and portfolio budgets as CapEx or OpEx. This allows you to have a detailed analysis of not only planned, but also actual, capital and operational costs.
Required User Rights
In the General section of your user group, you need to have the Access Financial Data right to access and edit cost types.
Viewing and Adding Cost Types
You must add a cost type for projects, roles and financial events. An allocation's cost type depends on the cost type of the project and the cost type of the role (or resource) to be allocated.
Projects
Each project must be assigned to a cost type. To edit a project's cost type, open the Project Details, find the Cost Type field and select between CapEx or OpEx:
You can configure the cost type field in the following views:
Roles
Each role must be assigned to a cost type. When adding a role, OpEx will automatically be chosen. To edit the cost type of a role, open the details view of each role and chose either OpEx or CapEx in the field Cost Type.
Resources always inherit the cost type of their role. You cannot change a resource's cost type.
Financial Events
When you add either planned or actual financial events to a project, you have to input a cost type. You can choose between OpEx, CapEx or Benefit. This applies to manually added financial events in the Project Details, as well as financial events added via Quick Import.
You can view the cost type of planned and actual financial events in the Project Details.
Allocations
An allocation's cost type is determined from the cost type of the project and role/resource of the allocation. Cost types are typically treated as OpEx. Only when the project cost type AND the project role type are both CapEx will the costs be treated as CapEx.
| Project Cost Type | Project Role Cost Type | Resulting Allocation Cost Type |
| OpEx | OpEx | OpEx |
| OpEx | CapEx | OpEx |
| CapEx | OpEx | OpEx |
| CapEx | CapEx | CapEx |
You can only change the cost type of an allocation by changing the cost type of the project and/or the project role.
Analyses Based on Cost Type
In addition to assigning a cost type of either CapEx or OpEx, you can also add CapEx or OpEx specific budgets on both the project and portfolio level. This allows you to evaluate costs according to your needs.
Adding CapEx and OpEx Budgets
On the Portfolio Level
In the Portfolio Manager, you can add a portfolio budget for a specific portfolio and time period (month, quarter, year). You can divide this budget between CapEx and OpEx. Learn more in the article Portfolio Budgets - Details.
On the Project Level
In the Project Details and in the List, you can add values in the fields Approved CapEx Budget and Approved OpEx Budget for each project. Learn more in the article Approved Budget and Actual Costs.
Financial Section of the Portfolio Designer
In the Financial section of the Portfolio Designer, you can view the financial figures of the selected portfolio. There, the CapEx costs, OpEx costs, total costs and benefit will be displayed. If available, it will be compared to the portfolio's budget. Learn more in the article Financial Section Basics.
Cost Type Tracker in the Project Details
When you have configured the Cost Type Tracker in the Project Details, you can use it to get an overview of the planned and actual costs, divided between CapEx and OpEx. If you have also added budgets for CapEx and OpEx, the project costs will be compared with the budgets. Learn more in the article Project Details (View).
Reports
You can also used CapEx and OpEx costs in reports for your analyses. In the integrated reports of the type Projects, Allocations and Capacity, you can configure the project cost type, resource cost type, and the OpEx and CapEx budgets.
In integrated repots of the type Financials, you can also analyze your data on the portfolio level with the fields Portfolio Budget Planned Costs, Portfolio Budget Planned Benefit and Portfolio Budget Planned Net Value.
Via the projects endpoint of the REST API and the Reporting API, you can break down actual and planned costs, as well as budgets by CapEx and OpEx, and then evalute them in your external reporting. Additionally, the portfolioBudgets endpoint of the Reporting API allows you to analyze portfolio budgets.