Written by Nils R. | Jul 16, 2021 7:00:00 AM
What is
a
Project Hours by Consultant Report
? Project Hours Reports are considered operational analysis tools and are used by Consulting Managers to get a detailed picture of hours delivered by week by consultant and project. Some of the main functionality in this type of report is that it dynamically displays hours by week across the columns and consultants grouped by project down the rows. Filters on the report include: Starting week of the report, year, and project managers. The report can include thresholds and if the number of hours pass these then the applicable cells will switch to a red color. The far right of the report (not visible in the example below) shows Total Hours and the bottom of the report shows total hours across all projects per employee. If the report is run for multiple project managers (PMs) these will each have their projects on a separate tab (see bottom of the report). The first tab shows the summary across all PMs. On a separate tab, the report also shows all projects that are on hold. You find an example of this type of report below.
Purpose of
Project Hours Reports by Consultant Reports Professional Services organizations use Project Hours Reports by Consultant Reports to get an exact idea of all delivered project hours both per PM and in aggregate. When used as part of good business practices in PMO and Consulting departments, a company can improve its resource and planning decisions because it can track and analyze delivery hours on a week by week basis both at the most granular level as well as in aggregate, and it can reduce the chances that potential issues go undetected due to lack of visibility to delivered hours.
Example of a
Project Hours Reports by Consultant Report Here is an example of a Project Hours Report with separate tabs for summary, projects by PM and projects on hold. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"]
Example of a Project Hours by Consultant Report for Professional Service Companies[/caption] You can find hundreds of additional examples
here
Who Uses This Type of
Report
? The typical users of this type of report are: Service Leaders, Project Managers, Budget Managers.
Other Reports Often Used in Conjunction with
Project Hours Reports by Consultant Reports Progressive PMO and Consulting departments sometimes use several different Project Hours Reports by Consultant, along with KPI dashboards, consultant billing reports, client dashboards, project detailed and summary reports, project forecast models, annual budget models and other management and control tools.
Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.
What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards? Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
- Native ERP report writers and query tools
- Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
- Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Cloud Solutions and More Examples
