Operators · Operational performanceThe problem
Managers at this firm learned about problems after the month closed. Job, staffing and billing data sat in four separate systems, and the monthly pack of hundreds of reports arrived about two weeks into the next month. By then, an over-budget job had already run over and finished work had already gone unbilled for weeks.
Service lines had their own dashboards, but none shared data with another. The forward forecast lived in one person’s spreadsheet. There were no alerts.
How it works
One data layer sits over the four systems, with a dashboard on top of it. Managers see jobs running over budget, work waiting to be billed, aged debt and teams approaching capacity, with a trend and target line on each. They drill from service line to team to job and open the ones that need attention. Figures refresh every night, and every number can be traced to the source record.
The first system went live six weeks after kickoff. Before release, the finance team checked the first month’s figures against its own numbers.
- Over-budget jobs, unbilled work, aged debt and capacity on one screen
- Drill-down from service line to team to individual job
- Nightly refresh from all four source systems
- Every figure traceable to its source record
| Client · job | Team | Budget used |
|---|---|---|
| Hartwell Group · Year-end audit | Audit north | 123% |
| Mills & Bray · Advisory | Corporate | 96% |
| Oakford Ltd · Tax compliance | Tax | 71% |
The results
- Managers see an over-budget job while there is still time to change it.
- Finished work waiting to be billed is visible by team and by job.
- One nightly view replaces hundreds of monthly reports and a personal forecast spreadsheet.
- Every figure links back to its source record, so any figure can be checked.
