What is sense check mode?

Sense check is a feature to help minimize errors in your data. It highlights obvious errors and values that seem extreme so you can review, correct or validate as needed.

Sense check appears as an option on pages in PMI that have data tables, including GoGreen planning and Staffing.

How to use sense check

1. Tick the box to turn sense check mode on. You will see some cells in the data table are highlighted red.

2. Hover over any red cell to view an explanation of why it was highlighted.  There are 3 main types:

a. Extreme values:  This message makes clear this value is selected because it is so high/low in relation to a comparative section or another month.  On each line, we will highlight the 2 biggest variances (unless they are all below the pre-set threshold).  You don’t have to make changes. We just advise an extra check because the difference looks very big.

b. Incomplete data: For example if we have hours but no hourly rate. This may lead to loss of data if not resolved before saving.

c. Negative values: Values that are negative will also be highlighted. This is normally an error due to adjustments/ accruals in the ERP system. It probably needs over-writing.

3. To switch off sense check uncheck the box: Switch off sense check to examine data yourself, but you will get a warning and see any highlights when you try to save or leave the page.   

What is the threshold in sense check?

When setting up a planning version the controller will set a minimum percentage (%) for variances. For example, if something is the biggest variance to comparative data but the difference is 5.1% this will only be highlighted if the threshold is set to 5% or less. This means the controller can set a level of small differences that should be ignored. In other modules the threshold is pre-set to 10%.