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chittermorree
Level 2

Monitoring Consulting Project

Hi all,

 

As we navigate our projects within the realm of a small management consultancy, the importance of closely monitoring billable hours and fees remaining in fixed-price projects cannot be understated. I believe many of you in professional services firms share this concern.

The challenge lies in our current project budgeting structure, which seems disconnected from the needs of professional services projects. The guidance indicates its incompatibility with tracking billable hours, a critical aspect of our operations.

I'm reaching out to gather insights and strategies from our collective experiences. How have you effectively managed this discrepancy? What tools, methodologies, or approaches have proven successful in tracking billable hours and fees in a fixed-price project environment?

Your input and expertise in this matter would be immensely valuable as we strive for more accurate and comprehensive project monitoring.

Thank you for your time and contributions.

5 REPLIES 5
JessT
Moderator

Monitoring Consulting Project

Thank you for getting help with your projects, chittermorree.

 

I understand that time tracking and budgeting are crucial in your consulting project, and I appreciate the details of your question. However, it's important to note that budgeting cannot be directly associated with projects, as it is based on accounts and not profiles.

 

On the other hand, time tracking in QBO actually works with the project feature. When  you create a Timesheet, simply add the project as billable to the project. From there, you can invoice your customer using the time entries. So, I'd like to ask for more information about this, so I can replicate the scenario on my end.

 

I'm just right here to continue helping you.

chittermorree
Level 2

Monitoring Consulting Project

Hi Jess,

This isn't quite what I was saying. So, here i will try again.

To run a consulting project we have a fee value in mind based on our day rate x no. days. This gives the project Budget.

Currently I have to extract the number of hours  charged to a project from QBO into Excel and compare that to the project budget, for each project. 

As you can imagine this is far from ideal is time consuming and with a few fine tweaks shoudl be possible within QBO as part of a project dashboard. 

Does this facility exist in QBO?

What information do you need?

JamaicaA
QuickBooks Team

Monitoring Consulting Project

Seeing the billable hours and project budget under one frame is convenient indeed, @chittermorree.

 

As mentioned above, we're unable to associate the budget with a project. Putting this under the Project menu together with the billable hours is also unavailable. 

 

I see the convenience of going to a page where you can extract and compare them. You'll want to submit this idea to our developers. They might consider this for future updates.

 

Here’s how:

 

  1. Go to the Gear icon.
  2. Under the Profile column, select Feedback.
  3. Enter your suggestions, then click Next.

 

Track your suggestions through this website or visit our blog to keep up with our recent events and developments.

 

Scan this article to familiarize the use of projects: Track hourly labour costs and profitability by project in QuickBooks Online

 

For more info about this matter, check out this guide: Turn on and set up time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

 

Feel free to comment below for any other concerns about managing projects. I want to make sure everything is taken care of for you. Enjoy your day!

4Gal
Level 10

Monitoring Consulting Project

@chittermorree 

Consider having a project management app to integrate with QBO.

chittermorree
Level 2

Monitoring Consulting Project

Thats a good shout, however, I am trying to work out if this capability exists in QBO and I just haven't discovered it. It seems like a basic essential for professional service firms so why is it not available as default?

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