Profitability per project
One row per project with revenue, cost, margin and budget used, read from the project's budget ledger. Time is costed at each person's cost per hour, and filters show the projects losing money or over budget.
PLANSScale only
The problem it solves
- You learn a project lost money months after it closed, from the accounts.
- Margins leave out the team's time, which is the biggest cost of the work.
- Each manager keeps a different spreadsheet, so projects cannot be compared.
- Nobody sees which client or manager has projects running at a loss.
How it works
- Approved weeks of time, approved expenses, posted vendor bills and store issues post their cost to the project's ledger by themselves.
- Posted customer invoices that carry the project post its revenue.
- Projects > Reporting > Profitability shows one row per running project: value sold, revenue, cost, margin, margin % and budget used %.
- Filter Losing Money or Over Budget, or group by project manager, client, status or health.
- Open a row's ledger to see every cost and invoice behind the figures, and open the document from there.
Everything it does
Columns
- Value Sold: the project's value
- Budget: the planned total of the approved budget
- Revenue: posted customer invoices with the project, less credit notes
- Cost: approved time, approved expenses and settlements, posted vendor bills (subcontractor bills included), store issues, rows by hand
- Cost of Labour: the time part of the cost (hidden to start with)
- OPEX Cost and CAPEX Cost: the cost split by each row's category
- Committed: purchase orders and store requests not yet billed or sent (hidden to start with)
- Margin: revenue less cost; Margin %: margin divided by revenue
- Budget Used %: cost plus committed, divided by the budget
- Health and project status
Views and filters
- List with totals, pivot (by project manager to start with) and a bar chart of revenue against cost per project
- Filters: Running (on to start with), Losing Money, Over Budget, Client Work
- Group by project manager, client, status, health or entity
- From a row: open the project or its ledger
Cost of time
- Hours times the person's cost per hour when the week is approved
- With SmartMy HRMS payroll: the cost per hour from the salary
- Without payroll: the cost rate typed on each user
- Posted once per time entry
What it does not count
- Invoices without the project; billing run invoices need the project set before posting
- Advances until they are settled
- Archived projects
Who uses it
Projects ManagerChecks margins of running projects and finds the ones losing money.
Director or ownerCompares projects by client and manager, and OPEX against CAPEX.
AccountantMakes sure invoices and bills carry the project so the figures are complete.
Where you use it
- Web: Projects > Reporting > Profitability, for managers
- The Money dashboard: actual cost and revenue this month
- Not in the phone app and not on the client portal
What you control
Settings
- Nothing to set on the report itself
- The cost per hour on each user, or from SmartMy HRMS payroll
- Budget categories decide what is OPEX and what is CAPEX
Works with
SmartMy HRMSWith payroll, the cost of each hour comes from the person's salary, so the margin uses real cost.
Questions
Why is the revenue of a project zero?
Revenue comes only from posted invoices that carry the project. Invoices from billing runs and milestones set it by themselves.Is the cost of time real or estimated?
It is the hours of approved weeks times each person's cost per hour. With SmartMy HRMS payroll that rate comes from the salary; otherwise it is typed on the user.Can I see profitability by month?
The report shows totals to date per project. The Budget Ledger has a pivot by month for cost and revenue.Does it forecast the final margin?
No. It shows what is spent, committed and invoiced so far, against the budget and the value sold.Which plan has it?
Scale. It reads the budget ledger, which is in Scale too.Related features
MONEYProject budgets by OPEX and CAPEXEach project gets a budget by cost category, marked OPEX or CAPEX, approved before it counts. Time, expenses, orders, bills and store issues fill it by themselves, with alerts at 80 % and over 100 %.TIMEWeekly timesheets with approvalEach person's time for the week sits on one sheet, sent on Friday. The project manager or your approval chain approves it as a whole. Approved hours become the project's cost and what you bill.MONEYPurchase orders, bills and invoices on the budgetPut a project on a purchase order and it is committed on that project's budget when confirmed. Its vendor bill turns the commitment into actual cost, and customer invoices with the project count as revenue.MONEYProject expenses, advances and settlementsYour team claims what they spent on a project, asks for an advance before a trip and settles it after. The project manager approves each one. Payments are recorded by method with proof, and a supplier's expense becomes a draft vendor bill.MONEYBilling runs from approved hoursEach period, a billing run gathers what a project bills. That is approved hours at their rates, fixed-price instalments that are due, the retainer fee and overage, and expenses to pass on. Once approved, it becomes a draft invoice in accounting with the entity's GST or VAT.CLIENTS, DASHBOARDS, APPS, AIDashboards: My Work, Delivery and MoneyThree ready dashboards open first in the Projects app. My Work is for everyone, and Delivery and Money are for managers. Every number counts only what the viewer may open, and a click shows the records behind it.
See your next project on it.
Tell us how many people keep time, how you bill your clients today (hours, fixed price, retainers) and what you use now. We will set up one of your real projects with you.