The billing rates associated with each labor code in the system. BigTime allows you to determine what type of billing rates you use for each project in the system, and this type of labor-code based rate is one of the options the system supports.
The number of hours a specific staff member is assigned for a specific project. That hourly assignment is recorded on a per-month or per-week basis. So, a user might have 5 hours for Project A in the month of January, 2006, for example.
The BigTime Monitor is a program that is installed on your BigTime server. The Monitor is responsible for processing transactions, linking with QuickBooks, creating reports and a number of other tasks that may require elevated permissions to accomplish.
The system administrator is anyone within the organization who has administrative rights to BigTime. Typically, there are only a few administrative contacts (that prevents users from making accidental changes which can effect everyone in the system). Welcome emails and system instructions will come from the person you should consider the system administrator.
Your firm also has a primary contact defined at Edison's Attic, and that primary contact is the person who is allowed to open support cases with our technical support team. So, any technical support questions should be funneled through that person.
Each project in the system can be attached to a billing contact. That person is the individual to whom invoices will be sent, so it's where BigTime pulls the name/address data from when it creates invoices. It's also the name/address that is typically shared with QuickBooks as the "billing address." See the Project chapter of the System Guide for more details.
The number of hours a staff member works in a typical man-month (e.g. - a 4 week period). You fill in the capacity number on the staff member's HR/Accounting page.
BigTime support a client record and project records. Each project is assigned to a specific client, and your firm can adjust the system vocabulary to use a different term if "client" doesn't apply.
Contract terms (also called "Invoice Terms") can be used as variables in the formula you create for your invoice line items. Take a look at the Invoice Templates chapter of the System Guide for more information.
BigTime lets you setup several cost center types within the system. Cost centers are like specialized custom fields, and they can be setup to fit your firm's specific needs. Every project and every staff member can be linked to a combination of cost centers.
The advantage to using cost centers (over standard custom fields) is simple: every report and virtually every "view" screen in the system can be sorted/grouped by cost center. So, if your firm has 3 different offices, you should setup a cost center type called "office" with values of "Chicago, New York and LA" Then, every project list report can be sorted and grouped by "office" (so the LA projects group together, the Chicago projects group together, and the New Your projects group together).
You can setup your cost center TYPES (e.g. - what they're called) in the Tools...System Settings...Vocabulary screen. The actual cost center values (e.g. - the pick lists) are setup in the Tools...System Settings...Cost Centers screen.
Every staff member in the system has a default "cost factor." This number is the basic cost of one hour of a staff member's time. BigTime uses that unit to compute the dollar cost of time that is input against the projects in your system, providing an overall project cost, as well as the data for many of BigTime's project margin reports.
In BigTime, the name you see on screen for a project is not actually the value in the project's name field. It's the project's "display name." Display names are typically automatically calculated each time you update a project's information. They may contain a client name as well as a project name, a project ID or some other information from the project's General Information screen.
We provide this feature because users often see a project in a report or screen "out of context" (e.g. - it's not always listed neatly beneath a client name or a "parent" project). So, the display name is used to provide context. In addition, some organizations prefer to use ID codes instead of (or in addition to) the regular project name. The display name makes all of those options possible.
While you can fill in the display name on your own, there are a number of pre-packaged display name formats that you can simply select in the Tools... System Settings... General Settings page. If you don't see a display name format that suits your needs, contact your support representative to see if they can help you create one.
Any invoices created in BigTime are considered "draft invoices" until they are posted to QuickBooks or printed/emailed to your customers. You can delete and re-create draft invoices at any time without losing either the time or the expenses attached to the project.
An employee expense is one that is logged into BigTime by a staff member. Employees log these expenses, typically, in order to get reimbursed by the firm, so we also refer to these expenses as "reimbursable expenses."
Each of your project estimates are made up of one or more line items. Those line items are called Budget Items in the system, but you can adjust that setting in your system's vocabulary settings.
Each expense that is logged into the system is linked to a specific category, or "type code." That code tells BigTime what G/L account the expense should be logged against, whether or not the item is taxable, what per unit rate should be used (if applicable), etc.
Every BigTime customer has internal hours that their staff needs to track: things like training, internal meetings, vacation, sick time or paid time-off ("PTO") are all considered non-client projects or "house accounts." You can indicate that a particular project is a "no charge" project by checking off the "Hours/Expenses billed to this Job should be considered non-billable" check box that appears in the General Info page of the project's dashboard.
When you check off that option, whatever time the user logs against that project will be considered NoCharge (e.g. - non-billable). Then, BigTime's reports and screens that compare billable and non-billable time will be filled in correctly.
BigTime projects don't have an active/inactive check box. Instead, the system uses the Production Status code to determine whether or not a project is active. A status code that is marked as inactive (e.g. - one where the "inactive" flag is on in the list of status codes) means the project is considered inactive.
BigTime ships out of the box with four status codes: InProcess, On Hold, Completed and Cancelled. All but In Process are considered inactive. To edit those codes (or to change their active/inactive status), select the Tools...System Settings...Status Codes menu item. Project Production Status is one of the status code groups on this screen.
BigTime staff members don't have an active/inactive check box. Instead, the system uses the Status code to determine whether or not a staff member is active. A status code that is marked as inactive (e.g. - one where the "inactive" flag is on in the list of status codes) means the staff member is considered inactive (so, they won't appear in staff pick lists and won't be able to login to BigTime).
BigTime ships out of the box with two simple status codes: Active and Terminated. Terminated is considered inactive. To edit those codes (or to change their active/inactive status), select the Tools...System Settings...Status Codes menu item. Staff, General Status is one of the status code groups on this screen.
You'll become familiar with some of the common screens quickly, but screens you use less often may be harder to remember and more difficult to navigate. That's where the Information Box can help. This box contains a quick description or a step-by-step guide for the screen you're viewing. There may also be view/grouping settings in the information box, seek/find controls, or a set of sub-screen options.
If you're already familiar with a screen, you can turn off it's information box by clicking the close icon next to the Title. Note that this will also hide any navigational controls which that information box might include.
Every invoice in the system is made up of charges, and we call those charges "line items."
The invoicing style that a specific project uses is based on the "invoice template" you assign to the project. BigTime supports T&M billing, fixed-fee billing, retainer projects and more.
Each time entry in the system can be linked to a specific labor code. Labor codes are like short-hand "notes" which tell managers what type of work the user was doing, and they can be linked back to your QuickBooks service items.
Memorized report groups allow your firm to create a sub-set of reports, save the sorting/filtering options on those reports, and give your users access to them "directly" from the Reports menu. They allow your firm to zero in on a set of specific reports that are useful for your company.
When you connect BigTime with QuickBooks, a transaction is automatically created in the BigTime Monitor. That transaction is used to pull any changes you've made to your QuickBooks data file into BigTime (and to send updates to projects, clients or staff back to QuickBooks). The sync typically runs at night (when other users aren't in QuickBooks) to minimize disruptions, so we call it the "nightly sync."
As a part of that transaction, we pull project list updates, adds to your staff and vendor list, updates to your A/R and vendor expenses, and any adjustments to your chart of accounts and your item lists. You can also update that information manually at any time from the QuickBooks Data menu in BigTime.
If you'd like your users to be able to enter time into the system when they don't have access to your BigTime URL, then they can use an excel spreadsheet to enter time. When they're done, that spreadsheet can be imported back into the system.
If you're posting timesheet details to QuickBooks for hourly employees, then each of their time records will need to be attached to a specific payroll item (so your QuickBooks payroll system knows what rate to pay).
In QuickBooks, you enter a payroll item when you create your timesheet. In BigTime, the user doesn't get to determine what payroll item their time is attached to. Instead, you create a set of "rules" that apply those payroll items automatically.
Periods are typically calendar months in BigTime (January, 2005; February, 2005; etc.). They're just an arbitrary way to lump the various transactions in the system into logical groups. So, when you open up a list of "invoices" in the system, we pull only invoices that were created for your current invoice period to show you. It's easy to jump from period to period, but we typically show information from one period at a time in order to conserve screen real estate and time.
Periods can be setup to run based on your firm's specialized accounting calendar as well. They don't have to be tied to a calendar month. Talk to your support rep to request this type of customization.
The total dollars (revenue) expected per project and per month. Pipeline budgets are one of three budgeting options that BigTime supports.
Each project in the system can be attached to a primary contact. That person is the individual listed as the "contact" on the project's main information page, but it is not necessarily the person to whom invoices are sent. See the Project chapter of the System Guide for more details.
When your firm contracts to do work for your customers, you agree to a specific scope of work. That scope is referred to, in BigTime, as a project. Even account-based firms (like PR firms or ad agencies) will setup a project for each contract they intend to log time or expenses against.
The overall estimate for a given project. This is one of three types of budgets that BigTime supports.
The dashboard is a like mini-website dedicated to a specific project. It pops up in its own window, it has its own menu and even its own set of project-specific reports. Every project in the system has a "dashboard" that you can access by clicking on the project's name in the Management...Project List screen. All of the information on a specific project can be found in its Project Dashboard.
A library document saved to the project dashboard's Collaboration... Document List page.
The billing rates that are used to convert hours to charges. BigTime supports a number of different rate schedules, so take a look at the Invoicing chapter of the system guide for more information.
The individual(s) responsible for reviewing and approving time, expenses, invoices, budgets,etc on a given project. You setup team leadership in the General... Team List page of the project's dashboard.
Any individual who is assigned to a project (e.g. - who appears in the project's team list).
Keep in mind that QuickBooks has a specific user that is designated as the administrative user for your company data file. ONLY this user can approve an initial connection with a third party application like BigTime. Simply having "administrative rights" to the file is not enough.
The organizational chart for your firm has a set of staff "boxes," and the staff groups in BigTime should correspond to each box in your org. chart.
The billing rates associated with each staff member in the system. BigTime allows you to determine what type of billing rates you use for each project in the system, and this type of staff-based rate is one of the options the system supports.
Each user is assigned rights to access various parts of the system, and those rights are called "staff security" or "staff permissions."
If you are connected to QuickBooks, then each of your staff members can be linked to a specific vendor record in QuickBooks. We create this type of link so that we can post expense reports into QuickBooks as "bills" that are payable to that specific vendor account.
Time and materials billing. This billing format assumes that you'll bill all of the hours you work on an account (at a pre-determined hourly rate) as well as any pass-through expenses that you may accrue.
Your users will need to submit their timesheets periodically in order for you to use the time for invoices or to post it to QuickBooks. The frequency with which you'd like them to submit time is called a "timesheet period." BigTime supports weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly timesheet periods.
The number of hours a user has logged into the system divided by their capacity for the period.
An expense that was recorded in QuickBooks and which should be logged against a project.