This feature allows forecast and budget hours and rates from Budget & Forecast to automatically populate the Staff view in Profit & Loss using a configuration setup.

Once configured, PMI automatically applies these values to the hours and rate rows in the P&L Staff module, ensuring staff costs remain aligned with the latest labor data from Budget & forecast.

This article explains the required settings and how to configure the automation.

Who can use it

Users with Salary editor rights for the relevant department.

Why this matters

Once configured, PMI automatically retrieves hours and rates stored in the Cockpit and uses them to calculate staff costs in the P&L Staff module.

This reduces manual entry and keeps labor calculations consistent between Budget & Forecast and Profit & Loss.

When should you use this?

Use this automation when your labor hours and rates are planned in Budget & Forecast, and you want those values to automatically populate the Staff module in Profit & Loss.

This setup is useful when:

• Labor planning is maintained in Budget & Forecast.
• You want to avoid manually updating hours in the Staff module.
• You want salary calculations in Profit & Loss to stay aligned with budgeted and forecasted labor data.

Once configured, labor values only need to be maintained in Budget & Forecast.

Before you begin

Before setting up the automation, verify the Cockpit settings.

Where to find these settings:

Cockpit > Tools > Settings

Image: Cockpit settings

• Total labor cost is disabled (recommended).
  • When this setting is disabled, PMI works with rates, allowing formulas in the P&L Staff module to populate values correctly
• Use forecast/budget hours in P&L staff module is enabled
  • This allows forecast and budget hours to be displayed in P&L Staff.

How automatic population works

In Budget & Forecast, you define the budget and forecast hours and rates.

Once row automation is configured in the P&L Staff module, these values automatically populate the Hours and Rate rows for the selected views.

This ensures that staffing data maintained in Budget & Forecast is reflected directly in Profit & Loss.

Step 1: Create salary calculation sources

To automatically populate values in the P&L Staff module, first create the variables that will retrieve the values from the Cockpit.

Where to find this setting:

Profit & Loss Staff module → Tools → Salary Calculations

Image: Add variables for Salary calculations

1. Enter the required Label values:
   • Hours
   • Rate
2. Enter the Connect values:
   • H for Hours
   • R for Rate
3. Click the + icon after each entry to add the line.
4. Click the pencil icon to edit the line.
5. In the Source dropdown, select the correct Cockpit option:
   • Cockpit Hours
   • Cockpit Rate
6. Click Save / Update.

This makes the H (Hours) and R (Rate) variables available for use for automation.

Step 2: Configure row automation for hours and rate in the Staff module

Automation is configured at the worker line level in the Staff module. In most cases, this is the row called Unspecified.

Image: Example of how the row automation should be configured

1. Go to Profit & Loss → Staff module and choose the correct view (Forecast or Budget)
2. In the date selector, choose the current year view.
3. Hover over the worker line (usually called Unspecified).
4. Click the calculator icon.
5. Enable the two auto-calculation options:
   • Line 1: Select Hours → Apply to row Hours
   • Line 2: Select Rate → Apply to row Rate
6. Click OK.
7. Click Save in the top-right corner to save the configuration for the selected view.

Result

The Hours and Rate rows will now automatically populate using the Cockpit values for the selected view.

Note: This configuration must be applied to each department and for each view individually. E.g. saving the configuration in Forecast view will only activate the automation for Forecast values.

Step 3: Verify the automation

After saving the configuration:

• Hours and rates are automatically populated
• Updates made in Budget & Forecast automatically update the Staff module

Image: Forecast values automatically populated from Budget & forecast to P&L Staff. 

Note: The Hours and Rate rows become non-editable.

Good to know

• Budgeted and forecast hours and rates are maintained in Budget & Forecast.
• The Staff module updates automatically.
• Manual updates in the Staff module are no longer required.
• A configuration can only be applied once per field.

Additional Information

Budget and forecast hours and rates are maintained in the Budget & Forecast module, but the values are stored in the Cockpit, which acts as the central data source for staffing information.

For this reason, the same automation setup can also be used to populate Actual hours and rates from the Cockpit.

However, using automation for Actuals is not recommended, as actual labor data is typically imported or maintained separately.