Overview
What-If Cost Estimate (WICE) Template are created within a Cost Estimate template. The Cost Estimate template determines the line items of WICE. Each line item can have a default value that can be used to determine the estimated costs. To use WICE templates, you should enable WICE and add defaults as desired.
Enable a WICE Template
Navigate to the Cost Estimate Templates screen either at the company or system level
Click the
to edit a Cost Estimate template.
Click the What-If Cost Estimate tab and select the Available For What-If Cost Estimate checkbox.
Additional setup can be configured as needed:
Require Review: This checkbox is used to mandate that all What-If Cost Estimates created using this template must be reviewed by an administrator before they are available for download. When checked, the Requestor will not immediately receive a report after submitting a request, but instead will be notified that the What-If Cost Estimate is pending review. A Reviewer with appropriate screen rights must click the [Post] button inside of the What-If Cost Estimate detail screen in order for the report to be available for download on the What-If Cost Estimates screen. Once the WICE template is set up for requiring a review, a Quick Workflow may be utilized to send an email to one or multiple email addresses. The conditions for the Quick Workflow can then be modified and updated depending on your business process.
Allow Configured Cities Only: When this checkbox is selected, only cities configured and associated with the respective departure or destination countries will be available for selection on the What-If Cost Estimate request form, per the configuration on the Countries screen (Configuration > Countries).
Include Home Work Time Costs: is used for estimates in which 100% of the time is not spent in the host country, and user would like the estimate to cover the time spent in the home and host, as opposed to just the time spent in host. When unchecked, the estimate will just be displaying the values in terms of time spent in the Host country and will pro-rate based on months in host. When the box is selected, any line item that has the Tax Input category of Base Compensation and pro-rate based on months selected, that line item will be pro-rated based on the total work-time in months as opposed to the months in host. The tax engine will also receive a few additional variables that will allow it to calculate more precise taxes which include the time spent in home country. Note, when this is used a new field will be created: Total Work-time in Months. This represents the months each year covered by the estimate (through the start and end dates entered) and is visible below the Months in Host Field in the line items tab for WICE only. This field is hidden on normal cost estimates.
Prevent Report Output for Errors and Warnings: When this checkbox is selected, what-if cost estimate documents will not be generated on the What-If Cost Estimates screen if the WICE which has been processed contains line items with errors. This will also cause Group What-If Cost Estimates to fail if the group contains individual what-if cost estimates with line item errors.
The Alias field is the name for the template that will appear in the Type dropdown list on the What-If Cost Estimate Request form.
The value chosen in the Associated Report dropdown list is the default report that will be delivered to the Requestor. Two reports are automatically available to be associated with What-If Cost Estimates: The What-If Cost Estimate Report and the Cost Estimate Calculation Detail Report. By default, the What-If Cost Estimate Report is associated with all newly-created What-If Cost Estimate templates. Other production reports and User-Report backed Merge Documents can also be configured to run with What-If Cost Estimates. Contact your CS representative for more details.
To enter defaults for report parameters, either click the chevron down arrow next to the Parameters link or select a different associated report from the dropdown list.
Any parameters configured for the selected report will appear. Set all desired default parameters and click the
button.
All settings entered on the What-If Cost Estimate tab only apply to the template when it is used for What-If Cost Estimates. To modify the template as it applies to regular Cost Estimates, use the settings on the General tab. Note: Only E4C Cost Estimate templates are configurable as What-If Cost Estimate templates. Big4 templates are not supported.
Configure Defaults for a What-If Cost Estimate Template (optional)
Two types of line items can be defaulted for What-If Cost Estimates:
Type: None and
Type: Compensation / Custom Calculation / Business Rule
To configure the what-if default for the line items:, click the
in the What-If Defaults column of the Cost Estimate Line Item grid.
A modal window will open with different options, depending on the line item type.
Line item type: None - will open a window allowing a default money value to be set for all What-If Cost Estimates that are created using this template.
Line item type Compensation / Custom Calculation / Business Rule - will open a window allowing the user to set either:
A fixed amount for the calculation output, or
Default values for the calculation inputs, either
Money values
Free-form text values
Dropdown list options, or
Input fields from the What-If Cost Estimate Request form
Note: Only one type of default (either calculation input or calculation output) can be configured per line item.
If defaults for calculation inputs are not entered, the What-If Cost Estimate Requestor will be prompted upon creation to enter any necessary values, pictured below. All money fields will be calculated in the data-entry currency unless otherwise defaulted.
What-If Cost Estimate defaults will be retained upon the upload of a new spreadsheet calculation version as long as the input captions are identical. If a What-If Cost Estimate contains line items producing an unexpected output for no obvious reason, it might be due to incompatible defaults. Open the line item on the What-If Cost Estimate tab of the Cost Estimate Template screen and click
. The screen will validate any invalid defaults and instruct the user how to correct them.
Things to Note
The Total Work-time in Months field is editable, but it is highly advised that users do not manually adjust this field as this could impact their tax calculations, and base compensation pro-ration.
The “Include Home Work Time Costs” field setting is saved to each estimate. This means, if an estimate is created with the box checked, that setting will remain on the estimate, even if the template is later changed.
Calculation inputs backed by Equus standard Stored Procedures cannot be defaulted and the What-If Cost Estimate Requestor will never be prompted to enter these inputs. Calculations with inputs that are backed by Equus standard Stored Procedures can only be used if the What-If Cost Estimate is configured to require review. In order for line items with these types of calculations to generate correctly, the reviewer must navigate to the What-If Cost Estimate detail screen, enter values in the Additional Inputs section of the Calculation Inputs tab, recalculate the What-If Cost Estimate, and post it to the Requestor.
WICE inputs are supported with the Variable Input option configured in the Business Rules configuration
Single-Context Company and Multi-Context Business Rules are supported in the WICE calculations. To use a Business Rule for WICE, ensure that the 'Company' context is selected from the Context Selector:
What-If Cost Estimates can now be linked to Projects after activating the system preference: Enable WICEs to be associated to a project record (EQEGRWIAPR)