Gauge staffer performance and productivity with your Utilization Board. This customizable Board shows staffer utilization based on allocated hours, inputted hours, and billable hours for specific projects. See these details based on department and/or various cost centers. It’s an easy-to-access tool that helps you keep on the pulse of your staffers.
This article will show you how to access, customize, and use your Utilization Board.
Access and Customize Your Utilization Board
Click WORKFLOW….UTILIZATION BOARD to access your Board. If Foresight is enabled in your BigTime site, click RESOURCING...UTILIZATION BOARD to access your Board.
Get the most from your Board by customizing it. Apply any number of filters and the Board will populate accordingly with detailed information. We’ll explain the filters you can add next.
Add Filters to Your Utilization Board
Your filters are located on the gray sidebar. This section will explain your filter options, starting at the top with DATE RANGE.
Date Range
Get utilization details for a specific time period, such as the past quarter or year. Click on the text box under DATE RANGE to enter your desired date range. Two calendars will populate, and you’ll select a month and year. Then, click APPLY to apply your changes.
Note: This filter can select full months. In the image above, we selected a five month time period, September and January. Although the date range says September 1 to January 1, BigTime is pulling data for all of September and all of January.
Project and Staff Cost Centers
The cost center sections, for project and staff, allow you to add filters for staff role, service offering, or N/A. Staffer department is another filter option for staff cost centers.
Cost centers are extra, customizable fields that firms use as they like. Some firms use them to refer to the department responsible for a cost. If an engineer purchases a new computer, the cost will be allocated to the engineering department. Make cost centers useful to your firm by changing the name of a cost center (MY COMPANY...MY COMPANY...LEXICON).
To add one or more field to each filter, click on the white triangle under the desired header and check the box(es) next to the field(s) you want to add.
Notice the three boxes at the bottom of the sidebar. Here’s what you need to know:
- Show Non-Billable Projects means you want to see projects used to track non-billable hours, like vacation time.
- Select Projects and Select Staffers allow you to select the specific projects and staffers, respectively, including inactive ones. Check the box next to one or both options and a picklist will populate, so you can make your selection(s).
Next we’ll see how the filters we added affect the data that populates on the Board itself.
Use Your Utilization Board
There are many ways to use your Board. We’ll go through an example of how we’d use it, in order to highlight its main functions and features.
Notice we’ve set the date range filter (on the gray sidebar) from April 1 to May 1, so our Board will populate with details during that time period.
We’re viewing the Board by the BY FUNCTION view. (See the top-right button, BY FUNCTION. We’ll explain how to change the view later in the article.) Staffers who’ve logged time during the selected date range are hyperlinked, as you can see in the image above.
Note: “Staff role” is a cost center in your account that we’ve re-labeled.
When we click on Johnny Appleseed’s hyperlinked name, we can see all of the projects he’s logged hours to (they’re listed below his name), along with many more details that we’ll explain next.
You get a lot of information just on one staffer. But what does it all mean? Here’s what you need to know, moving from left to right:
- Capacity: Ben’s work capacity is 344 hours. So there were 344 hours available for him to work during our selected date range. This number is based on the capacity you set for the staffer on their Staffer Board.
- Allocated/Budgeted: We allocated 61 hours to Ben over six projects. BigTime automatically calculates his total utilization rate, which is roughly 17%. Notice that BigTime calculates the utilization for each project, too. Get a detailed view of allocated hours by clicking on a hyperlinked number under the HOURS column. A new window will open to the resource allocation editor if you need to make changes.
- Input Hours: The time Ben has logged during the selected date range stands at 145 hours. See a breakdown of Ben’s inputted hours and utilization rate for each project under the HOURS and UTIL. columns, respectively.
- Billable Hours: The number of billable hours Ben has logged is also 145. See a breakdown of Ben’s billable hours and his billable utilization rate for each project under the HOURS and UTIL. columns, respectively.
The bottom of the Utilization Board reveals the grand totals for each of the columns explained above.
Change Board Views
Let’s move to the top of your Board and explore some more customizable features.
Modify how your Board looks and organize the data with one of these filters:
- None: You don’t want to organize your Board in a specific way. Instead, your staffers will be listed in alphabetical order.
- Department: The department, such as engineering, a staffer is assigned to. This is the most common view used.
- Group: A broad categorization of your staffers, like engineering or sales.
- Function: The role (function) of your staffer, like designer.
- Location: Some firms use this field for their different company locations, like Boston and New York. That way, the firm can see how their staff is utilized in Boston compared to New York.
Note that Department, Group, Function, and Location are cost centers and can be changed based on your firm’s needs. These values will reflect the labels you create for your cost centers.
Graphs on the Utilization Board
Visualize your data with the donut and bar graphs at the top of the Board. You can customize your data here, too.
Click the GRAY ARROW under the donut graph to change your view: allocated utilization, input utilization, or billable utilization. Easily toggle among the three options.
Our date range is for this Board is December 1 to January 1. We checked the box under “12/1/2017” to get details from the start of our date range. As a result, the donut graph updated as did the numbers on the Board itself. Hover over the bar graph for more detail on allocated, inputted, and billable hours.
*The Utilization Board is available to Premier and Projector users. Are you interested in an upgrade? Learn more about BigTime's pricing packages or email us at: customer_success@bigtime.net.