Project leads booked people in percentages and hoped for the best
Each of the firm's projects is its own P&L: fees billed monthly at the top, the cost of the people delivering it below. But leads scheduled resource as a percentage of a person, so part-time hours, booked leave and colleagues on several projects at once quietly changed what they actually got. Fees change as projects grow or shrink over many years, and nothing put forward billing and forward resource cost side by side.
Billing and resource on the same model as the timesheets
The forecast report sits on the same semantic model as the timesheet report, so client, project, person, grade and date mean the same thing everywhere. Forward named billing from the in-house system forms the top line; scheduled hours at each grade's standard rate form the cost, turning percentage bookings into hours and pounds.
Billing against the baseline
Forward named billing for each project, compared with the default baseline the system sets at the start of each financial year, so leads can see how fees have moved since the year began.
Hours, not percentages
Resource booked as a percentage of a person is turned into hours and cost at each grade's standard rate, and reduced automatically for booked leave and part-time working.
Recovery and margin
Recovery and margin for every project, month by month, in percentages and in pounds, so a spike caused by someone's holiday is easy to spot.
Scheduled vs actual
Scheduled time is compared with the time people actually recorded, looking back as well as forward.
Allocations and availability
Team allocations and upcoming availability by project, grade and person, including anyone booked across projects for more than all of their time.
Data quality in plain sight
Missing forecast rows and unscheduled resource are flagged on the report rather than hidden, so gaps in the schedule don't look like spare capacity.
Where the data lives and how it flows
The client's in-house time and billing database, read through a dedicated read-only account
What changed
The forecast report runs on the same model as the timesheet report, so the definitions the firm had already checked carried straight across.
Project leads now see each project's fees, cost and recovery months ahead, in pounds as well as percentages, and spot an overbooked person or a recovery spike before it happens rather than at month end.