Selecting and Implementing an Effective Time and Expense Management Solution
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This document serves as a practical guide for organizations looking to implement an effective time and expense management solution, emphasizing benefits such as improved project cost control, reduced billing cycles, and better data quality. It compares options like client-installed software versus Software as a Service (SaaS) and discusses key features, compliance, data accuracy, and user interfaces. The guide includes real client case studies and concludes with top recommendations for successful implementation.
Selecting and Implementing an Effective Time and Expense Management Solution
- 1. • Selecting and Implementing an Effective Time and Expense Management Solution A practical guide to the common benefits achieved through automating your timesheet and expense capture, how significant cost savings can be achieved and how your organisation can potentially improve its bottom‐line. 1
- 2. Atlantic Global’s Practical Guide to Implementing an Effective Time and Expense Management solution In this guide, we look at some of the common benefits you can achieve through automating your timesheet and expense capture; how significant cost savings can be achieved and how your organisation can potentially improve its bottom‐line. We focus on everything from the basics such as home‐grown vs. dedicated solutions, client installed software vs. Software as a Service (SaaS), through to the more complex areas of tax credits and automated client billing. Using real client case studies, we highlight some of the key benefits of Timesheet and Expense Management solutions including: • Improved Project Cost Control • Increased Resource Utilisation • Shorter Billing Cycles with Improved Cash Flow • Receive Tax Credits on R& D Expenditure • Reclaim VAT on Business Expenses • Reduce Reporting Timeframes • Eliminate data entry errors and improve data quality • Deliver projects on time and too budget • Reduce Billing Rejection Rates • Reduce expense costs per employee per annum To complete the guide we present our Top 10 recommendations for implementing an effective time & expense management solution. 2
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Contents Paper‐based, Excel or a Dedicated Solution? ............................................................................................................... 5 Client Installed vs. Software as a Service? .................................................................................................................... 5 Centralised Timesheet Administration or Individual Employee Entry? ........................................................................ 6 Does your time & expense management process promote compliance? .................................................................... 6 Eliminating data entry errors? ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Controlling access to Financial Data ............................................................................................................................. 8 Hide complex functionality from end users .................................................................................................................. 9 Selecting the correct Timesheet Entry User Interface ................................................................................................ 10 Direct Timesheet Entry ........................................................................................................................................... 10 Classic Timesheet Entry .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Timesheet Management ......................................................................................................................................... 11 Compliance Dashboard ........................................................................................................................................... 12 Work Schedules....................................................................................................................................................... 12 Capture and Control all People and Project Costs ...................................................................................................... 12 Can the system cope with different Charge Out mechanisms? ................................................................................. 13 . Resource/Role Specific Charge Rates ..................................................................................................................... 13 Multiple Rate Cards ................................................................................................................................................ 13 . Client/Project Specific Rates ................................................................................................................................... 14 Activity Based Charging .......................................................................................................................................... 14 . Ensure your Expense Management process delivers a return ................................................................................... 14 Reclaim VAT on the petrol element of the mileage rate ........................................................................................ 15 Accurately Re‐charging Expenses to your Customers ............................................................................................ 15 . Eradicate unnecessary or avoidable expense ......................................................................................................... 15 Ensure projects are delivered on‐time and to budget ................................................................................................ 16 Project Budget Tracking .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Project Progress Tracking ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Recharging Time & Expenses to your Clients .............................................................................................................. 17 Integration to Finance and Accounting Packages ....................................................................................................... 17 Manual Entry ........................................................................................................................................................... 18 Import/Export Routines .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Web Services ........................................................................................................................................................... 18 Implementing a successful Approval Mechanism ...................................................................................................... 18 . 3
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Approval Permissions .............................................................................................................................................. 19 Approver Visibility ................................................................................................................................................... 19 End User Compliance .............................................................................................................................................. 19 Measuring Organisational Performance ..................................................................................................................... 20 Utilisation ................................................................................................................................................................ 20 Productivity ............................................................................................................................................................. 20 Profitability ............................................................................................................................................................. 20 . Progress .................................................................................................................................................................. 20 . Real Time Management Reporting ............................................................................................................................. 21 Context Sensitive Reports ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Dashboard Reports ................................................................................................................................................. 21 Custom Report Writer ............................................................................................................................................. 22 Export reports ......................................................................................................................................................... 22 Top 10 Implementation Tips ....................................................................................................................................... 23 1. Quick & Easy to Use ............................................................................................................................................ 23 2. Promotes End User Compliance.......................................................................................................................... 23 3. Focus on Data Quality ......................................................................................................................................... 23 4. Ability to track Time, Cost, Expenditure and Revenue ....................................................................................... 23 5. Comprehensive Real Time Management Reporting ........................................................................................... 23 6. Simple to Implement ........................................................................................................................................... 23 6. Cost Effective and will deliver a Positive Return on Investment ........................................................................ 24 7. The Supplier can add value to the Business ........................................................................................................ 24 8. Provides additional functionality with minimal impact on cost ......................................................................... 24 9. Dashboard Driven Approach ............................................................................................................................... 24 10. Clear Upgrade Path and Product Road Map ..................................................................................................... 24 30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand ................................................................................................................. 25 About Atlantic Global OnDemand .............................................................................................................................. 25 Timesheet & Expense Management ....................................................................................................................... 25 Project Management .............................................................................................................................................. 25 Project Portfolio Management ............................................................................................................................... 25 Customer Relationship Management ..................................................................................................................... 25 4
- 5. Paper‐based, Excel or a Dedicated Solution? For many organisations time and expense management starts with the production of an internal paper based system or an excel spreadsheet. These serve a purpose to a point but generally are prone to errors, are difficult to consolidate and can be difficult to access. They also involve huge amounts of administration and rarely provide management with timely accurate reporting. By implementing a dedicated time and expense management solution, your organisation will instantly benefit from improved reporting, more accurate data and less administration, leaving your employees free to focus on productive activities. In a recent case study of a major Media organisation, prior to implementing an automated timesheet and expense management solution, Management Reports took up‐to 3 days to produce and were based on out‐of‐date and inaccurate data. After automating their time and expense management processes with Atlantic Global reports were produced at the click of a button based on accurate up‐to date real time data. Client Installed vs. Software as a Service? For many organisations, implementing a time & expense management solution involves purchasing software licenses, installing the software on their own servers, purchasing consultancy services to configure the system and load data, as well as paying an annual support and maintenance charge. Until recently this has been the norm and requires organisations to make a capital investment in a system that is not always deemed mission critical. More to the point, for organisations wishing to make the jump from paper‐based or excel solutions to a dedicated solution, capital investment can be a major inhibitor. Recently, there has been a lot of press coverage on Software as a Service (SaaS), whereby organisations access solutions on a subscription basis. For many organisations this can be highly beneficial, for starters there is no capital expenditure required to purchase the software. Secondly, the software is held on the supplier’s infrastructure meaning there is no involvement from IT to install or maintain the software; this is all carried out by the supplier for you. Thirdly, SaaS solutions are web based meaning they are available globally 24‐7‐365 as long as you have access to a web browser and an internet connection. This means as an organisation, you do not need expensive security access, VPN’s and backup processes as the infrastructure is fully maintained by the supplier. So, whether you are looking to implement a new solution, replace an existing solution or have an existing client installed solution, SaaS offers numerous benefits: • No Hardware or software costs • No IT involvement required to implement and maintain the system • Low cost monthly subscription meaning no capital investment and a rapid return on investment • No annual support and maintenance charge • No expensive infrastructure and security costs • No upgrade costs or IT involvement 5
- 7. can face getting into a perpetual loop of sending emails for missing, incomplete and disapproved timesheets – in our experience this devalues the system and is encouraging people to bury their heads in email rather than use the timesheet and expense management solution to benefit the organisation. In reality, we would always recommend selecting a product that provides managers with a clear overview of missing & incomplete timesheets along with their approval status. This should be presented in an area of the system accessed frequently by the manager such as, their opening dashboard and supported by clear exception reporting. • Avoid automating email reminders wherever possible • Provide users with a clear view of compliance along with clear quick links to update their status and timesheet entries • Provide management with a clear view of missing, incomplete and disapproved timesheets based on SLA’s configurable to your organisation • Provide management with clear exception procedures and associated reports Eliminating data entry errors? As we have discussed earlier, one of the major issues with paper based, excel and home‐grown systems is that they are prone to data entry errors. A key objective of replacing such a system should be to ensure the data entered is accurate. This means selecting a product which is highly configurable and provides key security features to aid data entry. A major feature to help you achieve this is data restrictions. Data restrictions are essential no matter what size or complexity your organisation is. Examples of restrictions are: Limiting what projects a resource can enter time and expenses against, which activities can be booked against a particular project and what activities an individual can record time against. Basically, restrictions are the relationships between key data elements which are triangulated to ensure a resource can only book time against a valid project, for an activity they have the ability to carry out, which is valid for the project they are working on. Although this sounds complex, good systems provide templates which can be cloned to easily establish restrictions, more importantly this limits user choice and in the process limits data entry errors. Taking a major Insurance Company as an example, as well as restricting user choice, by implementing data restrictions the system becomes vastly easier to use, meaning, limited or no end user training is required and your rollout and user acceptance periods are greatly accelerated. “We went from 0 to 1500 users, in 5 UK “All information was now sourced from sites, in a week. At the end of the week one central repository, which had the we had over 200,000 approved hours immediate effect of reducing billing ready for monthly charging” rejection rates from 29,000 to Zero” 7
- 8. In a comprehensive solution, one or more restrictions may be implemented, common restrictions that should be available include: • Projects valid against Resources • Activities valid against Resources • Expense Types valid against Resources • Cost Rates valid against Resources • Charge Rates valid against Resources • Activities valid for Projects • Expense Types valid for Projects As well as restrictions, your chosen solution should also have the flexibility to remove all non essential functionality from the user interface and hide financial information. We will explore these in more detail. Controlling access to Financial Data Without doubt, one of the most sensitive pieces of data you will store in any time and expense management solution is cost data on your resources and charge out rates. With such information stored, it is essential that the solution you implement has a mechanism for restricting access to financial information. For example, in the Atlantic Global Solution we utilise login templates to control access to financial information. Ranging from no access for basic users, through to view codes and/or amounts for project managers, extending all the way up to being able to change codes and values. The key is that an unlimited number of login templates can be configured to provide tailored financial access for all of your users from no access through to full access. Even if you do not wish to manage cost and revenue through the system initially, it is definitely worth considering a solution where you can easily utilise this functionality in future as there are significant benefits to be gained through analysing cost and revenue. • Look to implement a solution that captures the key elements of your day to day operations including time, cost, revenue and expenditure • Ensure the system has the flexibility to grow with your organisations requirements allowing you to introduce the concepts of cost, revenue and expenditure without impacting the user experience • The ability to hide cost data from users is essential, select a system that allows you to specify the level of cost and charge access at the user level 8
- 9. Hide complex functionality from end users One of the absolute key factors when implementing a timesheet & expense management solution is to ensure you focus on simplicity. Solutions that are quick and easy to use with little training almost always deliver greater benefits. Why, because they are used and valued by the business. To ensure your system is simple and easy to use, it is essential that it can be configured so that users have access to different features and functionality. In our experience, to keep administration to a minimum you should focus on defining clear user roles in the solution, for example: • Basic Users: Timesheet & Expense Entry only • Line Managers: Timesheet & Expense Entry, Approvals, Utilisation Analysis & Reporting • Project Managers: Timesheet & Expense Entry, Approvals, Project Progress Reporting, Cost and Revenue analysis, Budgeting & Reporting • Finance: Full Cost & Revenue Reporting, Billing, Budgeting & Reporting • System Administration: Full Administration Access Although roles and responsibilities will vary greatly between each organisation, the underlying factor is that the solution should offer flexibility and the ability to grow with your organisation. To do this key configuration options are required such as: • Custom Fields: no solution can cater for every user requirement; if it tried it would be un‐ usable. A good solution should offer the option to add your own custom fields in various data formats. Remember though: if you do not use the field for filtering, analysis or reporting it has no value in the system • Screen‐labels: the system should be able to be configured to your organisations terminology. Simply changing screen labels such as Resource to Employee can make a world of difference to user acceptance • System Access: features should be available to remove unwanted functionality such as overtime and/or financials; to control access to filters, reports, dashboards and views; as well as define exactly what data a user can gain access too Time spent ensuring your system can be tailored to each individual role upfront may save you a lot of time and money in the future. Also, if you are a multi‐national organisation, multi‐lingual and multi currency support may be essential. 9
- 10. Selecting the correct Timesheet Entry User Interface It’s fair to say that there are a wide range of timesheet interfaces available through different solutions. Trying to compare and summarise the benefits of each would be a document in itself. The question is: if one timesheet interface works better for one user in one specific role and another for a user in a different role, why do most timesheet applications only provide one method of data entry? To us, this is a huge limitation of some systems and can limit the benefits these systems deliver. Like most of the questions we have raised so far, this is not a case of selecting one correct interface; it is a question of selecting a solution with the flexibility to deliver the correct timesheet entry interface for each of your users. Commonly, three forms of timesheet entry interface exist, these are: Direct entry, classic entry and timesheet management. In addition, more advanced solutions provide timesheet entry via compliance dashboards and via work schedules. In order for you to judge how effective your existing timesheet solution is, let’s explain the concept behind each timesheet entry option. Direct Timesheet Entry The Direct Timesheet Entry interface is probably the most common format provided by Timesheet Software providers. Similar in style to an excel spreadsheet the interface provides a weekly timesheet with project and activity combinations listed down the left hand side. Users simply select the day of the week and enter time directly into each cell, navigating between cells using their keyboard. This type of interface is ideal for users that spend time working on similar project and activity combinations week in week out. However, this type of interface can become quite messy if the user in question has more complex time recording requirements, such as, recording time at a task level, specifying overtime or changing the chargeable status. Key features include: • Keyboard Navigation • Quick entry of hours directly into cells • Copy Timesheets from previous weeks • Clone existing timesheet entries Classic Timesheet Entry Classic Timesheet Entry is ideal for organisations where the time recording requirements are more complex or vary on a project by project basis. Classic entry views provide a weekly view of a user’s timesheet with a row representing each project that the user can record time against. The key to the classic timesheet entry view is that when the user drills into a cell representing the day and project they wish to record time against, different data entry options are presented depending on the type of project accessed. For example, projects that require time to be tracked at the task level will provide a task option to the end user. Projects that require time to be tracked at the deliverable level will display a list of deliverables. Projects that require time to be recorded at assignment level will display a list of resource assignments. Projects requiring a 10
- 11. progress update will display a percentage complete field. The advantage of this view is that different options are provided to the user depending on the project displayed. In more advanced systems these options are limited further using restrictions, for example, only show resource assigned tasks across a 2 week window or restrict timesheet entry to project start and end dates. Referring back to our earlier point – these options ensure the system is extremely easy for the end user to operate and by limiting options ensures the data input into the system is highly accurate. Additional features available to help data input and cover complex requirements include: • Create batch timesheet entries across a date range with the ability to exclude specific dates • Optionally track time against departments and roles • Provide the ability to change the chargeable status of time • Input custom data, based on custom fields displayed dependent on the activity selected • Optionally provide users with the ability to select the appropriate charge out rate • Record time against projects and activities, and optionally drill down to task, assignment or deliverable level Timesheet Management The Timesheet Management view, as its name suggests is generally used by more advanced users of the system to analyse time, cost and revenue and approve time. This type of view is essential as it enables your users to filter data to analyse time, cost and revenue by key variables such as clients, projects, activities, resources, departments, roles, locations, cost rates and charge out rates. To ensure ease of use there are 2 key factors that should be available to the end user. Firstly, each user should be able to define their own filter criteria with the ability to save filters for future usage. In more advanced systems these filters should be based on all standard fields but also optional custom fields added into the system specifically for the purpose of filtering and reporting. Based on your permissions you should also be able to share your filters with other users, to ensure each user has a common interface associated with their role in the organisation. The second key factor in enabling ease of use is to provide dynamic links from dashboards. Today’s business solutions are now focused on the end user experience more than ever. One key aspect of this is dashboards, which provide users with key information. Dynamic links should be provided directly from dashboards into the timesheet management view, key examples of this include: • Drill down into project specific timesheets to analyse time, cost & revenue • Analyse time spent of projects by Activity, by Resource • Drill in to approve specific employee timesheets • Drill in to analyse disapproved time 11
- 12. Compliance Dashboard For those systems that provide dashboard interfaces, it is important that not only does the system focus the user on timesheet compliance, it also provides a quick and efficient method for users to directly enter their time and expenses. This can be in the format of directly entering a timesheet, following a dynamic link to update or amend timesheets or providing a drill through mechanism to the appropriate timesheet entry view. The key focus here is that we are simplifying the system, improving ease of use, as well as providing a user with quick access to every option required to complete their day to day tasks. Work Schedules Many timesheet & expense management systems also include integrated project planning and resource scheduling. A good tip when implementing this type of system is to ensure it allows your users to update their timesheets directly from their work schedules. This way, a user is encouraged to use the system in order to indentify the tasks they should be delivering and then with a single click can easily update their timesheet and progress. With this type of solution, the tighter the integration, the greater the compliance and more accurate reporting you will gain from the back end. • Select a timesheet solution which offers multiple entry formats targeted at specific user types • Utilise Dashboards to promote compliance, ease of use and speed up data entry • Integrate with Resource Schedules for automated timesheet updates Capture and Control all People and Project Costs An essential feature of any time and expense management solution is the ability to track and control all of your people and project costs. Systems that do not offer cost and revenue metrics will soon become outgrown and leave you resorting to Excel spreadsheets to carry out costing calculations. When measuring cost, look for a solution that enables you to analyse metrics relevant to your organisation for example Employees, Contractors, Departments, Roles, Resources, Projects, and Activities; along with any custom criteria. Trend analysis is also important, for example, being able to compare travelling costs between employees and projects will enable you to better plan and cost projects in future. Analysis of contractor costs vs. utilising or training internal resources may potentially yield huge cost savings. Dependent on your geography, make sure you configure the system to take advantage of local tax laws, more importantly look for a solution provider that is aware of these rules and can advise your organisation on how best to achieve a positive return on investment. One such example of this in the UK is Tax Relief on Research and Development expenditure. For a company like Atlantic Global a large share of our software development is Research and Development; without recording timesheets and categorising the Research and Development element we would never be able to claim this tax relief. 12
- 13. At Atlantic Global we have reclaimed over £80,000 in tax credits on Research and Development expenditure. A 1000%+ return in 5 years measured against the subscription cost of Atlantic Global OnDemand. The key to success in this area is to ensure your resource costs are accurately reflected in the system and that your resources, projects and activities are categorised in line with your anticipated benefits. A simple interface to analyse these costs either via standard reports or via dashboards is also essential. Can the system cope with different Charge Out mechanisms? For organisations which re‐charge their time and expenses onto their clients, it is essential that the solution you utilise provides you with the flexibility to mirror the way in which you charge. There are many methods in which companies charge, however, at a minimum a competent solution should offer: • Resource/Role specific charge rates with the ability to override the charge rate on a project by project basis • Ability to establish multiple rate cards • Client and Project specific charge rates • Activity based Charging Resource/Role Specific Charge Rates At a minimum, a solution should allow you to establish a charge rate for each resource. Depending on your organisation this may be specific to the actual resource or reflect the roles which you deliver as an organisation, for example: Consultants, Designers, Developers, Project Managers or Partners. Each resource will have a default charge rate which is then used to calculate the chargeable time when chargeable work is recorded. This is ideal for time & materials projects or for comparing the potential revenue generated versus any fixed price billing. For flexibility with this type of billing, features are required to enable the role/rate charged per resource to be changed on a project by project basis. For example, I may be charged as a developer on project 1 but as a senior developer on project 2. Multiple Rate Cards For many organisations having one charge rate per role is too simplistic. Rates are negotiated on a project by project basis meaning the ability to specify a rate card per project is a must. Systems like Atlantic Global which include a comprehensive project charge rate matrix, mean you can establish different charge rates for different roles on different projects without the need to create hundreds of charge rates in the system. Such functionality reduces the administration overhead, ensures the system remains streamlined and ensures each resource is charged out at the correct rate on each project without any interaction from the end user other than selecting the project and entering their hours worked. 13
- 14. Client/Project Specific Rates One area of re‐charging time that is often overlooked by solution providers, is client or project specific charge rates. Whereby, a fee is agreed for all work, not matter who undertakes the work. Although a very simple requirement, if this is common to your organisation, to reduce administration you will need to look for a solution that provides the ability to override the standard resource charge rate at the client/project level. Activity Based Charging The final method of charging is Activity based charging, whereby, a specific charge rate is applied based on the activity booked by the user. In this scenario, the solution should allow you to create a charge rate against each activity, or provide sufficient configuration options to allow you to select a specific charge rate based on the activity the user is carrying out. To avoid cluttering the system with hundreds of charge rates, ideally the activity based charge rate mechanism should also offer the ability to override each specific activities charge out rate on a project by project basis, to allow for discounts and other rate negotiations. No matter which charging mechanism is used in your organisation, important factors are to ensure your supplier understands the way you charge, can make recommendations for improvements, as well as provide the flexibility to change the way you charge in future. Even if all of your organisations projects are delivered on a fixed price basis, collating revenue data provides an excellent metric. For example, comparing your fixed price bid against the actual revenue you could have generated with your standard charge rates enables you to establish the effectiveness of your bid process. Other examples include, justifying annual support and maintenance contracts – if your customer queries the cost, by recording the potential revenue of each support call or site visit you can easily give the customer a fair idea of what this might cost on a time and materials basis. Ensure your Expense Management process delivers a return Most timesheet software packages now offer expense management functionality as standard. Like the timesheet functionality, the expense management process should be simple and straight forward for the end user in order to promote ease of use and compliance. Unlike timesheets, expense management systems tend to manage themselves on the basis that if a user does not enter his/her expense claims they will not get paid. However, to ensure expenses are entered in a timely fashion allowing managers to understand the impact on projects, we recommend that your expense management software provide the following features: • Simple easy to use expense entry interface • Ability to create and print expense claims • Provide users with clear visibility into the status of their expense claims • Facilitates line manager and/or project based expense approvals • Claim authorisation and payment • Comprehensive management reporting • Multi‐currency support • Categorise expenses, e.g. out of pocket & credit card expenses • Enter lump sum or unit based expenses (mileage) 14
- 15. A key to the success of your expense management system is to ensure that you maximise the usage of the data. All too often your supplier will simply set up the system and off you go. A key part of the relationship is to ensure that you receive a return on your investment. Areas in which will feel organisations can instantly see a return include: Reclaim VAT on the petrol element of the mileage rate In our experience many UK companies are not aware that the VAT petrol element of the “mileage rate” can be reclaimed. For many organisations this alone can provide an instant return on your investment. By accurately recording your business mileage not only can you easily extract the VAT element, you also have a full audit trail. Each employee travelling 20,000 per annum equates to £330 in reclaimable VAT for a potential £60 investment (Based on Inland Revenue recommended Mileage Rates). At Atlantic Global, through our own software we have claimed back over £13,000 in VAT on petrol for 25 staff claiming a “mileage rate” for business travel. Accurately Re‐charging Expenses to your Customers Often, it is the miss‐timing of entering expenses that result in expenses not being recharged to customers. A key element to any expense management solution is that it ensures expenses are captured in an accurate and timely fashion, allowing you to reduce billing cycles, increase cash flow and improve profitability. For many organisations with primitive expense management processes, delays in the expense entry, approval and authorisation process mean that expenses are not recharged to the customer and your organisation is left bearing the cost. In the most extreme case, we have seen organisations missing out on revenue in excess of £1.4m per annum, by not having a mechanism in place to pass this cost onto the client. In another example, one of our customers managed to reduce expense costs by £500 per employee per annum, by accurately passing expense costs on to the client. Measured across 1,000 employees this provided a significant return on investment. Eradicate unnecessary or avoidable expense Earlier we discussed how integrating your expense management system with your project planning and resource scheduling software can aid compliance. It also provides significant advantages when analysing expenditure. For example, resource scheduling can help you avoid unnecessary trips by using location as a key part of the resource selection process. Avoiding one costly train ticket or flight through better resource selection will instantly pay for the software and provide a positive return on investment. 15
- 16. As well as these common areas where organisations can usually gain quick wins, a well configured expense management system will provide the following benefits: • Recover VAT on all expenses • Real time analysis of expenditure by client, project, resource and expense type • Pass expense costs on to clients in a timely fashion • Reduce Billing cycles • Help employees complete Tax Returns Ensure projects are delivered on‐time and to budget For many organisations, one of the key drivers for implementing a time & expense management solution is to aid the project management process. To do this a system must provide the basics; capture time, expenses, cost and revenue. In addition, many time and expense management applications also provide features specifically targeted at improving the project management process. For organisations with a project focus, we recommend that your selection criteria include the ability to manage project budgets and the ability to track project progress. Project Budget Tracking In order to deliver a project to budget, a mechanism needs to exist where actuals can be tracked against budget. Advanced time and expense solutions such as Atlantic Global include the ability to create project budgets. Budgets can be generated directly from project plans or broken down into specific roles, activities and date ranges. A simple budget management facility will help you control budget creep by providing your project managers with a real time assessment of budgets vs. actuals. To aid analysis, budgets can be broken down into time, cost, charge and expenditure elements. Project Progress Tracking An essential element to delivering projects on time and to budget is a mechanism to provide project managers with feedback on the progress of their project. A simple method of achieving this is to track time at task or assignment level and provide an estimate to complete. Such data can be used by project managers to review the progress of each task and its potential impact on the project time line and budget. Critical to the success of this functionality is ease of use and integration with your project planning tool. To make recording time against tasks easy for the end user the solution should allow this to be an optional setting at a project level. Also, features should exist to limit the options presented to the end user, such as only user assigned tasks, a rolling window of tasks or only incomplete tasks. Integration with your project planning tool will allow the project manager to make changes to the project timeline based on the feedback from end users. Applications such as Atlantic Global OnDemand, have fully integrated project planning functionality and dedicated project review interfaces where the project manager can analyse actuals vs. planned vs. % complete for each individual task assignment. This provides the project manager with a highly accurate real time picture of project progress. 16
- 17. Recharging Time & Expenses to your Clients An added benefit of time and expense management systems to professional service organisations is there integrated billing functionality. Most basic systems will offer the functionality to carry out time and materials based invoicing, with more complex solutions offering milestone, advanced and fixed price billing. An important point to bear in mind when evaluating this functionality is to remember these tools are not designed to replace your company accounts package, they are designed to enable you to effectively and efficiently bill for your time and expenses. However, the flexibility to grow with your organisation is essential. For highly complex billing requirements you may need to look at tight integration between your time and expense system and accounts package. Based on the assumption that your organisation has an established accounts package, minimum features required to enable you to effectively bill time & expenses include: • Quick and simple timesheet entry • Ability to capture both billable and non billable time • Ability to apply different charging mechanisms • Ability to log client account details and invoice contacts • Ability to create project based invoices by client • Ability to view, sort and filter all billable time and expenses • Ability to override Tax rates • Ability to adjust invoice values • Ability to add lines for additional items The key benefit of handling your time and expense billing through your time and expense software is that it reduces bottle necks. A well configured system will significantly reduce the billing cycle, which in‐turn will help cash flow and reduce the need for any credit. Most importantly, with accurate data, your billing will be more efficient with fewer errors, meaning you will pass more chargeable time and expenses onto your clients which will have an instant positive effect on your bottom line. Integration to Finance and Accounting Packages In order to close the loop between your time & expense system and your company accounts the ability to integrate with your accounts package is essential. By integrating your time & expense system with your accounts package you can gain an instant view of profitability as well as retain pure accounting functions such as credit control, journals and year end accounts within your accounting package – where they were designed to be managed. Depending on the complexity of your billing process and the volume of transactions, there are numerous methods of integration from the most basic manual entry all the way up to specialised web services. Examples of common integration methods include: 17
- 19. Approval Permissions Approval Permissions are key for ensuring your time and expense management solution can support your organisations approval process. Starting with the basics, the application should allow you to approve time from both a line management prospective and a project management prospective; with the ability to define exactly which projects and resources a user has access to approve time for. More advanced features such as security groups may be provided to easily group projects and resources. These greatly reduce administration when new resources join the organisation or a new project comes onboard. Ideally, the solution should provide flexibility in the way you can approve time and in its ability to accommodate future changes in organisation structure or approval processes. Approver Visibility Providing your approvers with clear visibility into approved, unapproved and disapproved time and expenses is paramount to the success of the approval process. Delivering this information in a format familiar to the user’s role in the organisation is also key. For example, a line manager may simply need to see a breakdown of his team’s hours across weeks or months with the ability to drill down to approve time. Whereas a project manager will need to drill into each resource who has worked on their project and understand any implication on cost or progress before approving time. Likewise, the Head of Professional Services will want to see how much unapproved revenue is sat in the system awaiting approval, which once approved can subsequently be invoiced. Whether, through dashboards, views or reports it is absolutely essential that each key stakeholder is provided with focused information, as this will continually drive compliance and the benefits your organisations receives from the software. End User Compliance As we have discussed earlier, the key to the success of any timesheet solution is ease of use, accuracy of data and end user compliance. By selecting a solution focused on these 3 criteria your end users should enter time in a timely fashion, the data entered should be accurate meaning that approvals become easier and less time consuming, which ultimately results in improved billing cycles and accurate real time management reporting. To enable this successful process, the user interface is key, users should be provided with comprehensive compliance information as to the approval status of their time with the ability to drill in and update any disapproved/incorrect time. In Atlantic Global, any time or expense disapproved is automatically routed from the approver to the end user’s login dashboard and is highlighted in red to visually notify the user that action is required. Our guidelines for implementing a successful approval mechanism include: • Quick and easy timesheet and expense entry • Ability to enforce an approval mechanism • Ability to automatically approve time and/or expense at an individual user level • Ability to edit approved time definable at the user level • Ability to define approval permissions at the project and resource level • Permissions to support both line management and project based approvals • Tie approvals to the billing process – ensure only approved time can be invoiced in the system • Automatically route disapproved time from the approver to the end user • Provide each user with approvals data relevant to their role in the organisation 19
- 21. Real Time Management Reporting An essential part of any time & expense management solution is that it provides a comprehensive set of standard management reports based on real time data. These reports should be focused on the key metrics you use to manage your business, such as: • Detailed, Summary, Cross Tab & Graphical Reports • Timesheet Exception Reports detailing missing and incomplete timesheets • Project Cost Reports broken down by resource, activity, cost rate, role, department, task or any user defined variable • Revenue Reports broken down by client, project, resource, activity, department, charge rate, role or any user defined variable • Budget Reports detailing budget vs. actuals broken down by time, cost, charge and expenditure • Time Off reports detailing holiday and sickness • Billable Time reports comparing chargeable vs. non chargeable effort by project and resource • Invoice Reports detailing invoiced vs. chargeable vs. non chargeable work As well as offering access to reports via a menu system, more advanced time and expense management solutions like Atlantic Global OnDemand allow you to gain access to reports from specific screens and dashboards. Context Sensitive Reports Vital to the adoption of any system is that you make the system as easy to use and as relevant to the end user as possible. Tools like Atlantic Global OnDemand achieve this by offering context sensitive reports. Context sensitive reports enable users to run a report with a single click from any screen in the application without having to specify any filter criteria. For example, a user can easily run a timesheet detail or utilisation report directly from the timesheet entry screen. This functionality enables us to provide each user with access to their most commonly used reports directly from the views they use the most. Dashboard Reports Another example of improving the ease of use and access to data is Atlantic Global OnDemand’s ability to provide access to reports directly from dashboards, for example, a project manager can quickly access all project management based reports directly from their project status dashboard. Working in this manner means you can provide a user with a single point of entry to the system via a dashboard, where they can access all of the status information, views and reports they required for their role in the organisation. By hiding them from any non relevant functionality it becomes far easier to train people on the use of the system and to provide them with clear focus on the data they should be maintaining and updating. 21
- 25. 30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand Sign up today for your 30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand to see how your organisation can benefit, visit – http://www.atlantic‐ec.com/contact.html?from=30_day_trial and complete the online form. As part of your Trial we can provide: • A full data load of all your people, project and reference data • A free configuration consultation with a dedicated Solution Expert • Free User Guides • Daily Online Training Sessions • Weekly Configuration Workshops About Atlantic Global OnDemand Atlantic Global OnDemand is a comprehensive suite of business software designed to manage every aspect of your business. Built around role based dashboards, Atlantic Global OnDemand provides a cost effective, easy to use solution to all of your organisations people, project and customer relationship management processes. Atlantic Global OnDemand is delivered via 4 core modules. Users can purchase individual or multiple modules to fulfil their solution requirements. Modules include: Timesheet & Expense Management Atlantic Global OnDemand includes comprehensive time sheet tracking and expense management functionality. The solution is highly flexible, quick and easy to use and offers a rapid return on investment regardless of your business model, sector or size. Project Management Atlantic Global OnDemand provides your organisation with a consistent toolset for the planning of projects and the organisation and management of resources to ensure the successful completion of project tasks, goals and objectives. Coupled with an intuitive project dashboard which provides users with a real time view of the health of projects, Atlantic Global OnDemand provides a comprehensive, easy to use project management tool. Project Portfolio Management Atlantic Global OnDemand is a powerful Project Portfolio Management software tool that provides you with a controlled and predictable method for planning, managing and executing your portfolio of projects and programmes as well as enabling you to manage the resource capability of your business more effectively. Customer Relationship Management Atlantic Global OnDemand is a highly configurable, powerful, customer relationship management software application that allows the definition, tracking and management of all external and internal information streams. More than a conventional CRM solution, Atlantic Global OnDemand allows you to define business dashboards and processes in the system. For further details visit http://www.atlantic‐ec.com. Alternatively contact a Solution Expert on +44 (0)1274 863300. 25