Allocation Budget Reporting

BigTime contains a large number of reports, and the ones that show a staff budget per project/period typically draw their "budget" data from allocation budgets. Here are a few specific reports and screens your team can use to keep track of allocation budgets.

• Allocation Detail Report(s). The Staff Management reports on Allocation Detail give you a month-by-month (or week-by-week) summary of staff time. Each line on these reports shows you how much time each staff member has allocated to each project, how much time they actually spent for the period, and what percentage of their total time that project took up. They're great reports for "history," and they're equally useful for giving managers a "whole firm" view of what's coming up for planning purposes as well.
• Staff Availability Report. This report (once again a Staff Management report) shows you how much of a staff member's time has been allocated for a given 12-month period. It gives you a full year picture of your staff's free capacity, and it can be sorted and grouped by team, function, etc.
• Work-in-Progress Reports. These Staff Management reports give you a snapshot of time allocations vs. actuals in a specific period.
• Staff, Month-to-Date view. The Month-do-Date view on your Management... Staff List screen shows you the hourly allocation(s) vs. actual time input for each of your staff members, so you can get a real-time snapshot of where you stand vs. your allocation budgets (overall for your entire staff) at any time during the month. This view is useful because you can drill down to a detailed look at allocation budgets vs. input hours for any staff member on the list.
• Project List, Trailing (Monthly) Views. For retainer accounts, the "current month" numbers are often deceptive (you may have a light month followed by a heavy month), so these firms tend to look at averages. The "Trailing Views" (in the Management... Project List screen) show you totals allocated time vs. total input time for a trailing 3, 6 or 12 month period. This highlights projects or accounts that are trending away from your overall retainer-based budget.