Engineering and architecture
Deltek Vantagepoint data: what A/E firms can export and license
By SourceX Editorial · Updated
Short answer
Deltek Vantagepoint data can be licensed when exports keep the project chain intact: opportunities, project plans, resource assignments, hours by phase and budget revisions, linked by project number. Payroll, HR records and billing rates usually stay out. Scope a package from field lists and date ranges first; no files leave the firm during the initial fit check.
Key takeaways
- Vantagepoint history is most useful when project, phase, staffing and hours records stay linked by consistent project numbers.
- Employee pay, HR records and labor rates are usually excluded, while hours by phase can often stay once names become stable pseudonyms.
- Timesheet comments and CRM notes are free text and need human review, because automated scanners can miss personal details.
- The export route depends on deployment: report and search exports, the API Deltek documents for integrations, or database extracts for on-premises systems.
- Projects under restrictive client contracts are flagged one by one, not excluded wholesale.
Which Vantagepoint records are worth exporting for licensing?#
The Vantagepoint records worth exporting are the ones that show how a firm plans and runs projects: the work breakdown structure, resource plans, hours charged by phase, budget revisions and the pursuit history that led to each project. AI developers building project-planning and operations agents look for exactly that: a plan, the decisions made against it and what actually happened.
Financial ledgers on their own are less useful. A general ledger shows that money moved; a project record with planned hours, actual hours, a revised estimate at completion and a closeout date shows how experienced project managers adjusted to scope changes, staff shortages and client delays.
The test for each module is simple. Does the record connect to a project and a decision, and can it be shared without exposing a person's pay or a client's confidential terms?
Module by module: licensing fit and privacy handling#
Vantagepoint modules differ sharply in licensing fit, so scope them one at a time. The table reflects how A/E firms commonly treat each area; the final call depends on your client contracts and the rights review.
| Module or area | What it typically holds | Licensing fit | Privacy handling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Projects | Project setup, phases and tasks, status, budgets, estimate-at-completion revisions, closeout | Strong when phases are used consistently | Replace client names and site addresses with sector and region labels |
| Time and expense | Hours by employee, project and phase; timesheet comments; expense reports | Strong for hours by phase; weak for expenses | Pseudonymize employees, drop pay and cost rates, review comments by hand |
| Billing and receivables | Invoices, billing terms, fee type, write-offs, collection notes | Moderate; fee structures are often sensitive | Convert amounts to ratios or exclude them; remove client contacts |
| CRM and proposals | Firms, contacts, opportunities, pursuit stages, go/no-go decisions, win or loss | Strong for pursuit decisions and outcomes | Remove contact names, emails and phone numbers; keep roles |
| Resource planning | Planned assignments by role and period, utilization targets, staffing changes | Strong when paired with actual hours | Keep role and grade; drop names |
| Employees and HR | Personal details, compensation, reviews, professional licenses held | Usually excluded | Leave in place |
| Accounting and general ledger | Journal entries, vendor payments, overhead allocations | Limited | Exclude vendor banking and payment details |
Which records link into a useful sequence?#
A Vantagepoint sequence is useful when one project number threads through every stage, from the first opportunity to the final invoice. Buyers value the sequence more than any single table because it shows cause and effect: a scope change, a revised budget, a staffing shift and the hours that followed.
Check that project numbers survived past migrations. Firms that moved from Deltek Vision or another ERP sometimes converted only summary history, which breaks the link between older plans and the hours charged against them.
- Opportunity and pursuit stage, with the go/no-go decision and the win or loss outcome.
- Proposal and fee approach, kept as type and structure rather than dollar values where fees are sensitive.
- Project setup with phases and tasks, including any later restructuring.
- Resource plan by role and period.
- Hours charged by phase, linked to the same roles.
- Budget and estimate-at-completion revisions, with dates and the stated reason where one was recorded.
- Additional services and contract amendments added during the project.
- Billing milestones and closeout status.
How do A/E firms get data out of Vantagepoint?#
A/E firms usually get Vantagepoint data out through one of four routes, and the right one depends on deployment, licensing and who administers the system. Confirm what your edition and plan allow with your Vantagepoint administrator and Deltek's own documentation before planning any extract.
For the fit check, none of these routes needs to run in full. A list of modules in use, field names, approximate record counts and the years covered is enough to decide whether a package is worth scoping.
| Export route | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Saved searches and reports exported to Excel or CSV | Scoping, field lists, counts and date ranges | Filters that silently drop closed projects, and column names that differ between reports |
| The API Deltek documents for integrations | Repeatable extracts that keep record identifiers | Permissions on the integration account and the effort of paging through long histories |
| Database extracts for on-premises installations | Complete history in one pass, including audit fields | Needs a database administrator and a clear table map; run against a copy, not the live system |
| An existing data warehouse or reporting copy | Fast access if the firm already reports from it | Warehouses often hold summaries, not the transaction detail a buyer wants |
What must be removed or masked before anything leaves the firm?#
Employee identity and pay are the first things to remove from Vantagepoint exports. Replace names and employee numbers with stable pseudonyms so one person's hours still line up across projects, and drop billing rates, salaries, cost rates and HR fields entirely.
Client identity comes next. Client names, contact details, site addresses and project names that reveal a client should become labels such as sector, building type and region. Keep the structure that makes the record useful: phase names, project type, contract type and dates.
Free text needs the most care. Timesheet comments, CRM activity notes and project status notes can mention medical leave, family events, client disputes or personal phone numbers. Automated scanners help, but the open-source Presidio project warns that because it relies on automated detection, there is no guarantee it will find all sensitive information, so a person should review a sample of every free-text field before release.
Illustrative: a civil engineering firm scopes its Vantagepoint history#
Illustrative: a fictional civil and transportation engineering firm is moving its on-premises Vantagepoint installation to Deltek's cloud service. Before the cutover, the COO asks the controller to inventory what the old database holds and whether any of that history could be licensed.
The inventory shows consistent phase codes for most of the firm's history, linked resource plans and hours, and opportunity records with go/no-go notes. HR records, payroll and billing rates sit in the same database. Many projects were for public agencies under contracts with their own records and confidentiality terms.
The firm scopes a package of project setups, phases, resource plans, pseudonymized hours by role, estimate-at-completion revisions and CRM pursuit outcomes, with client names replaced by sector labels. HR, pay and billing detail stay out. Public-agency projects are held back pending a contract review rather than dropped, and the firm keeps a verified database snapshot so nothing is lost when the old server is retired.
How SourceX approaches Vantagepoint data#
SourceX treats a Vantagepoint package as one transaction in the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. The fit check uses metadata only, such as modules, fields, years and record counts, so no exports leave the firm at that stage.
If the firm proceeds, the rights review checks client contracts, the firm's Deltek agreement and the notices given to employees about their records, preparation applies the pseudonymization and exclusions the firm agrees to, and the firm approves the final scope. The SourceX Evidence Packet records provenance, licensing rights, permitted use, the privacy record and release authorization. Large extracts stay in the firm's own storage until delivery.
Frequently asked questions
Does our Deltek agreement limit what we can do with exported data?
Your Deltek subscription or license agreement governs use of the software and any vendor terms on customer data, so have counsel read it before licensing. Firms generally expect to own the business records they enter, but the exact wording, especially for hosted deployments, is what counts.
Can we use history converted from Deltek Vision?
Often, if the conversion kept transaction detail. Check whether timesheets, phase budgets and revisions came across line by line or only as summary balances. Where only summaries survived, the older Vision database or a retained backup may still hold the detail.
Will licensing Vantagepoint data reveal our fees to competitors?
Not if fees are handled deliberately. Dollar amounts can be removed, converted to ratios such as hours against budget, or excluded altogether. Buyers interested in project planning usually care more about hours, phases and revisions than about what a firm charged a particular client.
Who inside the firm should own the export?
Usually the COO sponsors it, the controller or Vantagepoint administrator defines fields and filters, and IT runs any API or database extract. A principal who knows the firm's client contracts should join before scope is fixed, because contract terms decide which projects are in.
Do firms on Ajera or BQE Core face the same questions?
Yes. The module logic is similar: projects, time, billing and client records, with the same privacy issues around employee pay and client identity. Export routes differ by product, so check each vendor's documentation and your plan before assuming an extract is available.
Sources
- Presidio's own documentation warns that because it is using automated detection mechanisms, there is no guarantee that Presidio will find all sensitive information, so additional systems and protections should be employed. Source
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