Project Administration · training guide · draft

How to set up a new project from a signed contract

Create the project, phases, budgets and billing terms in Vantagepoint, the folders in ProjectWise, and request the project site so charging can begin.

Typical time: about 39 min · Use this when a notice to proceed or a signed contract arrives from the project manager (PM).

Steps

1. 1
   Open the notice to proceed or contract email in Outlook. · Microsoft Outlook

   Set up from the signed contract or notice to proceed. If work starts before signing, open an at-risk project.
2. 2
   Open the attached agreement and fee schedule PDF. · Adobe Acrobat

   Find the agreement number, fee by phase, rates, overhead cap and dates before you start entering anything.
3. 3
   Start a new project in the Projects area. · Deltek Vantagepoint
4. 4
   Enter the client type from the contract: DOT, federal, city or private. · Deltek Vantagepoint

   decide: Read the category from the contract. Most entries are Municipal or State DOT.
5. 5
   Enter the contract type exactly as the contract states it. · Deltek Vantagepoint

   decide: DOT work is almost always cost plus fixed fee. Entries are split evenly between cost plus fixed fee and lump sum.
6. 6
   Set billing terms to match the contract type. · Deltek Vantagepoint

   decide: Cost plus fixed fee gives cost plus with fee by percent complete. Lump sum gives percent complete. Time and materials gives hourly.
7. 7
   Enter the phase budgets from the fee schedule. · Deltek Vantagepoint

   For multi-year contracts with separate funding by year, treat it as a special case. The team didn't describe the setup steps.
8. 8
   Create the project folders. · ProjectWise Explorer
9. 9
   Request the project site in the browser. · Microsoft Edge

Watch out for

• Contract data is retyped by hand in about 84% of cases, and about 4% of those entries don't match the contract. Recheck numbers against the PDF.
• Don't let anyone charge to the project until setup is complete and the PM has confirmed the budget.
• Unusual cases (at-risk starts, multi-year funding) are seen differently by the team, from almost never to often. Check the contract for them before you begin.
• Opening the PDF and creating the project in Vantagepoint are the longest steps, about 8 and 15 minutes. Missing details here slow the whole setup.

Faster ways

• Copy the agreement number, fees, rates, overhead cap and dates from the PDF and paste them into Vantagepoint instead of retyping them.
• Ask the IT or automation owner about a Copilot Studio and Power Automate flow. It could read the contract and prepare the Vantagepoint project and ProjectWise folders for you to approve. Unusual contracts would still be manual.
• Use Microsoft 365 Copilot to pull the key contract terms into a short summary to check your entries against.

Written by AI from how the team actually did this work (2026-10-19 to 2026-10-23): the most common path, the steps people add or redo, and where errors happen. Review and edit before sharing.