Moving off Deltek Ajera: keeping project, time and billing history

What history does Ajera hold?#

Deltek Ajera holds the financial memory of a small architecture or engineering firm: every project, phase and fee, every hour charged, every invoice and every payment. For many firms it is also the only place where budgets can be compared with what projects actually cost.

Closed projects are the reference library a firm uses to price new work. When a principal writes a fee proposal for a school renovation or a site plan, the real question is how many hours similar phases took, by role, and how often scope crept past the contract.

That detail also matters in disputes. If a client questions an invoice, or a claim arises long after a project closes, timesheets, invoice notes and payment records are the firm's evidence. Summarized history in a new system will not answer those questions.

Timesheet notes deserve particular care. Short entries such as 'revised grading plan per city comments' record why the hours were spent, and they are often the only written trace of review cycles with permitting agencies, clients and subconsultants.

• 1Project and phase setup: client, contract type, fee, billing terms and project manager.
• 2Timesheets by employee, project, phase and activity, with notes where staff wrote them.
• 3Expense reports and reimbursable costs charged to projects.
• 4Invoices under hourly, lump-sum and progress billing, with invoice notes.
• 5Payments, receivables and write-offs by project.
• 6Consultant and vendor bills passed through to clients.
• 7Budgets and the progress figures used to bill and report status.

Export routes out of Ajera#

Ajera history usually comes out through a mix of report exports, a database backup and whatever the conversion carries, and most firms need all three. Confirm menu names and options in your version's documentation or with your Deltek partner.

Run report exports with closed and inactive projects explicitly included, because report defaults often focus on active work. Split the largest reports, such as timesheet detail, by year, and save the report settings you used so each export can be repeated or explained later.

What changes if you move to Vantagepoint#

Moving to Vantagepoint changes how much of the database your firm controls directly, especially in the cloud. Deltek's help says the Vantagepoint Backup Database utility exists only in the on-premise product and does not apply to the cloud product.

Exports work differently too. Vantagepoint's Export List View dialog sends list view grids to CSV or Excel files. In the cloud product the export is scheduled and you are notified in the Notification Center when the file is ready; exports of more than 500 records from apps such as Projects, Employees and Firms run on the process server, and your user ID must be mapped to an employee record.

Cloud service requests go through the Deltek Support Center and are accepted only from a designated Vantagepoint administrator, so name that person before go-live. Because a cloud firm cannot run its own database backup, keep the Ajera archive complete on its own rather than counting on pulling history back out of Vantagepoint later.

The Ajera export checklist#

The checklist assumes Ajera access continues until the new system is live and reconciled. Keep project numbers unchanged in every file, since they join time, billing and payments and are how staff will search the archive.

• 1Agree in writing which projects and years the conversion includes, in detail or in summary.
• 2Take a full database backup if your firm hosts Ajera, and test that it restores.
• 3Export project and phase lists, including closed and inactive projects.
• 4Export timesheet detail by employee, project, phase and activity across all years.
• 5Export invoice registers, invoice detail and invoice notes.
• 6Export payment, receivable and write-off history.
• 7Export consultant and expense detail tied to projects.
• 8Save PDF copies of final invoices and project summaries for major projects.
• 9Reconcile totals by year against financial statements before Ajera is switched off.

Illustrative: a civil engineering firm leaving Ajera#

Illustrative: a fictional civil and structural engineering firm is moving from a self-hosted Ajera installation to Vantagepoint in the cloud. The conversion scope brings over active projects, open invoices and receivables.

The CFO adds an archive step. IT takes a full Ajera backup and tests it on a spare server, then accounting exports timesheet, invoice and payment detail for every closed project, year by year, with project and phase numbers intact. A principal flags projects where client contracts make deliverables client property, and those are marked in the archive index.

The firm now prices municipal work from its own history of actual hours by phase. When a former client disputes an old invoice, accounting finds the timesheets and invoice notes quickly instead of tracking down a former employee.

Client ownership and confidentiality in project records#

Project records in an A/E firm mix the firm's own business records with material a client may own or control. The billing system is usually the firm's record, but invoice notes and project descriptions can repeat confidential client details.

How SourceX approaches A/E project and billing history#

SourceX approaches Ajera history as records of how professional work is scoped, staffed and billed. Hours by phase, invoice notes and budget overruns reflect domain expertise that is hard to reproduce from public sources.

In the SourceX five-step transaction, the fit check starts from metadata about systems, years and project types. Rights review separates firm records from client-owned deliverables, Preparation removes client, employee and pay details, and the firm approves each release, with a SourceX Evidence Packet recording what was licensed and for what permitted use.