Actual Time & Costs

Actual Time & Costs is a powerful view important for those tracking time and costs against estimates, and for those wanting to edit the costs (company and client costs) associated with a project's approved time entries.

The Actual Time and Costs view displays, for the chosen project, each approved time entry as a line item in the grid. Because the number of time entries can quickly grow, you may need to use paging buttons to view all time entries. You can also use the Task or Employee filters to reduce the amount of time entries in the grid.

This topic explains (1) the factors used in calculating company and client costs, (2) describes how to review summary cost information for a project, (3) how to edit the cost factors for an individual task assignment and (4) how to edit cost factors for multiple projects and task assignments.

If enabled, the upper right corner of the screen has a Currency drop-down list which permits calculated costs to be reviewed in any enabled currency. The 'Display by Project Currency' option displays costs in the currency associated to the selected project.

Notes:

Only approved time entries are displayed in the Actual Time & Costs view.
Expense costs can be reviewed using the Approved Expenses view.
Cost and rate details can be hidden from specific users by selecting the appropriate Cost Security options in the Security Groups view.

How actual company and client costs are calculated:

Actual client and company costs are automatically calculated for each approved time entry. These costs are displayed in several key locations within the software and in numerous reports. The following defines company and clients costs and explains how costs are calculated.

Actual company cost is the calculated amount used to determine your company's cost to accomplish a task or project.

For each approved time entry:

Company cost = hours worked x employee rate of wages x overtime wage prorating

- Hours worked (Duration): The number of hours worked by the employee on the task.
- Rate of wages: The hourly wage rate (pay rate) for the employee assigned to the task. This is initially set using the rate of wages value for the employee.
- Overtime (OT) wage prorating: An overtime multiplier assigned to the employee's rate of wages value. This multiplier is initially set using the prorating field in the overtime rates view.

Actual client cost is the calculated amount used for billing clients (or charge back) for tasks or projects.

For each approved time entry:

Client cost = billable hours worked x task prorating x employee rate charged x overtime charge prorating

- Billable Hours worked (Duration): The number of billable hours worked by the employee on the task.
- Task Prorating: A multiplier assigned to the task. Used when you charge clients more (or less) for time spent on specific tasks. This is initially set using the value in the task's prorating field.
- Rate charged: The hourly rate charged (billable rate) for the employee assigned to the task. This is initially set using the rate charged value for the employee.
- Overtime (OT) charge prorating: An overtime multiplier assigned to the employee's rate charged value. This multiplier is initially set using the prorating field in the overtime rates view.

You can display costs in any currency if Currencies functionality is enabled. For client and company costs calculations, each employee's time entry costs are calculated and displayed using the exchange rates valid for the day of the time entry. See 'How currencies are applied to time entries' for brief description.

Displayed costs = Costs calculation as described above x exchange rate (for the currency being displayed) on the day of the time entry.

To review a project's estimated vs. actual time and costs:

Select Actual Time & Costs from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Actual Time & Costs).
Select the project from the Project drop-down list near the top of the view.

The project time and cost summary information is displayed at the top of the screen. It compares estimate and actual values for Total Hours, Company costs and Client costs.

Notes:

Actual vs. Budget statistics are also available from the Project Assignments view's Statistics function.
Detailed actual vs. estimate reports are available from the Reports view.
Filtering the information displayed in the grid by using the Task or Employee drop-down lists does not alter the Project Summary information.
Company or Client costs are only displayed to users with appropriate security rights.

To edit a single task assignment's cost factors:

Select Actual Time & Costs from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Actual Time & Costs).
Select the project from the Project drop-down list near the top of the view.

Each approved time entry for the selected project is displayed in the grid

Note: The number of rows displayed in the view is limited by the Paging setting. You may need to click the paging buttons or (upper right corner of the screen) to view additional record pages.

Optionally select an employee and task from the drop-down lists at the top of the view to further reduce the number of records displayed in the grid.
Click the task assignment row to edit.

Click the Properties button on the toolbar.

Modify any of the available cost factors.

When enabled, currency options are available for both rate fields. The editable currency selection is the currency stored for this time entry. The value displayed in parentheses () is the calculated hourly rate using the currency selection made in the upper corner of the Actual Time & Costs view. In the sample image shown below, the employee is paid 40.00 USD per hour for this time entry. This project's rates and costs are calculated and displayed in Euros.

About the Task summary information

Click Done to automatically save and close the window.

Notes:

Modifying any of these factors only alters the values for this specific combination of time entry, project, task and employee. The original source for these proratings and rates are not affected and future time entries entered against this task assignment will continue to use the original values. To modify cost factors for future time entries, use the Project Planning tool or the Budgeted Time & Costs view.
The OT charge Prorating value cannot be edited if the time entry is set as non-Billable.
To modify a task assignment's Billable status, use the Actuals Wizard (see below) or locate and edit the time entry using the Time Calendar view.
Rate and Overtime (OT) information is only available to users with appropriate security rights.
When Time Lockout is enabled, the attempt to edit time entries, associated to employees that fall within the lock out period, is not permitted and the operation will be cancelled. With the appropriate security rights, mass updates can be accomplished using the Actuals Wizards (see below).

To edit cost factors for multiple projects and task assignments:

Select Actual Time & Costs from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Actual Time & Costs).
Click any task assignment row.
Click the Actuals Wizard button on the toolbar.
Select the projects, tasks and employees for which the cost modifications will be applied. When the Actual Wizard is initially launched, the lists highlight the project, task and employee originally selected in step 2.

The list boxes initially display all available projects, tasks and employees. To only view a project's task assignments that have existing time entries, select the project from the list and check the View Task/Employee for existing time entries box.
Modify any of the available cost factors by first selecting the checkbox and modifying the value.

When enabled, currency options are available for both rate fields. If modifying one or both rate fields, select the currency to be linked with all the time entries selected.

Notes:

Modifying any of these factors only alters the values for the specific task assignments selected. The original source for these various proratings and rates are not affected and future time entries entered against the task assignments will continue to use the original values. To modify cost factors for future time entries, use the Project Planning tool or the Budgeted Time & Costs view.
To display the tasks linked to Project Planning tool or Microsoft Project projects within the Task list, first select the project linked in the Project list and then check the ‘View Task/Employee for existing time entries’ box.
Rate and Overtime (OT) information is only available to users with appropriate security rights.
When Time Lockout is enabled, the attempt to edit multiple time entries that are locked down will only be permitted for users with the appropriate Security option enabled (Time Lockout – Bulk Edit Override). Otherwise, only time which is ‘unlocked’ can be edited. Edits made to time entries that are locked are recorded in the Audit trail.

Click Apply to update all existing time entries with the updated cost factors and then Close.

Tips:

You can review budget vs. actual statistics for any item in the Project Assignment's assignment tree.
Cost and rate details can be hidden from specific users by selecting the appropriate Cost Security options in the Security Groups view.
Use the Show/Hide column function to personalize what information is displayed in the Actual Time & Costs view's grid.
Double click an item in the grid to see that item's properties .