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Add multiple Bill Rate lines

Kristina Lugo

By adding more than 1 bill rate line, Project Managers can compare billed rate versus cost rate for financial projections.

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Idea Submitted

Resource Management

Comments

teresampete

Yes this would be very helpful to have multiple bill rates per displine/resource.

Oliver Lang

This is brilliant and highly sought after!
Thank you Kristina for starting this, let´s vote this up: Having this will allow anyone to track margin between "billed to client" and "cost of service".

Franz Arnold

Yes, that´s what we need, fully agree.

Oliver Lang

Case description, community members: Please comment if you see room for improvement! There is always room for it.

Summary:

The current issue for Project Managers is the lack of a comprehensive system to track both external bill-rates and internal cost-rates for resources in projects, making it difficult to assess profitability and align strategies with margin goals. Currently, data for these two factors is tracked separately, complicating analysis and limiting the ability to adapt strategies. The ideal solution would be a system that allows for tracking both the external bill-rate and internal cost rate, providing a comprehensive understanding of the profitability of each clocked hour within the project. This could be achieved with a centralized "Cost Rate Table" storing all necessary data, and the inclusion of bill-rates within the project details. This would enable better project management and decision-making processes.

Key Points:

1. Current issue: Lack of comprehensive tracking system for both external bill-rates and internal cost-rates in projects.
2. Consequence: Difficulty in assessing profitability and aligning strategies with margin goals.
3. Ideal solution: A tracking system that allows both the external bill-rate and internal cost rate to be tracked.
4. Proposed method: Use of a centralized "Cost Rate Table" and inclusion of bill-rates within project details.
5. Benefit: Enhanced project management and decision-making processes.

What problem are you trying to solve?
Project Managers require the ability to report on profitability when communicating with internal management and finance. Currently, Resource Management lacks the capability to provide this information as it solely tracks the external Bill-Rate. What is lacking is the tracking of the internal Cost-Rate of resources involved in a project.

What is your use case? (Describe a scenario or story.)

I want to gain a comprehensive understanding of two aspects: Firstly, whether the project is considered "good" in terms of meeting deadlines and staying within budget. Secondly, whether the project aligns with my company's profitability goals, taking into account factors such as margins and competition. This applies to both established businesses that constantly face margin pressures while competing with other companies, as well as growing companies that aim to enhance their future margins. Both scenarios require access to data for thorough analysis.

However, the current challenge lies in the fact that data needs to be tracked simultaneously in two separate systems, which complicates the understanding process. Resource Management provides insights on the bill-rate side, while a separate Excel spreadsheet is needed to determine and match the cost-rate side. Assessing profitability based on this fragmented information often happens retrospectively, due to the significant effort required. As a result, project managers have limited or no opportunity to adapt and align their strategies with the given margin goals.

What is your ideal solution?

The ideal solution would involve the implementation of a system that allows for the tracking of two distinct rates per project: the external bill-rate and the internal cost rate.

In an ideal scenario, I would already have access to the cost-rate information of my resources, including details such as wages, salary, social insurance, and the target margin they need to achieve. This information can be stored in a centralized table, which we can rename as the "Cost Rate Table," while retaining the logic of disciplines and roles. The cost rate would encompass all the necessary data to determine the cost of each clocked hour per resource.

During the setup of a new project, I would be able to input the bill-rates that have been agreed upon with the client. Since this information is likely to change from project to project, it can be stored on the project details page.

The inclusion of bill-rates within the project offers two key advantages:
Firstly, it enables the generation of a report based on approved time, which can be combined with the agreed bill-rates. This report can serve as the basis or attachment for invoicing the client.
Secondly, it allows for a comprehensive understanding of the profitability of each clocked hour within the project, even at the level of phases. This provides valuable insights into the profitability of different aspects of the project.

Furthermore, the solution already includes the embedded forecasting option to address three essential questions:
Is the project performing well in terms of timeliness and budget adherence?
Is it contributing to the target margin?
And finally, how will these numbers look if we continue on the current trajectory?

Having all this information readily available in one centralized place would greatly enhance project management and decision-making processes.

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