In BigTime Foresight, you can manage three types of projects: Billable, Fixed Price, Time & Materials, and Non-Billable. This article will help you understand the difference between them and learn about different scenarios and how to replicate them in BigTime Foresight.
Table Of Contents
Billable Fixed Price
Fixed Price Support Project With Fixed Monthly Payments
Fixed Price with Different Monthly Payments
Fixed Price with Initial and Final Payment Split 50/50
Billable - Time & Materials
Time & Materials Billed Hourly
Non-Billable
Billable Fixed Price
Fixed Prices are projects in which you agree with the client on a fixed payment amount in regular intervals. It doesn't mean that the price will always be the same, but rather that the amount you charge is not dependent on the billed hours of your employees. That’s why in BigTime Foresight, client payments are mirrored as revenue overheads.
Here's the simplest example:
Let’s say you run a firm that has acquired a project deal with Company A. Company A proposed a 6-month deadline and a 60,000 € monthly payment. When you create a project in BigTime Foresight, you need to choose Fixed Price, and in the Budget -> Scheduled Section, you need to fill in the amount of 60,000 € every month in the Income section.
Fixed Price Support Project With Fixed Monthly Payments
Model |
Billing Frequency |
BigTime Foresight Modal |
| Fixed Price | Support Project With Fixed Monthly Payments | Recurring Revenue Overheads |
Let’s say, instead, you want to charge your client for work on a fixed monthly basis. Your company has acquired a project deal with Company A. Company A proposed a 3-month deadline and a 50,000 € monthly payment. You decide to go to BigTime Foresight to create this project.
To configure this project correctly, you must enter
- income
- costs
- the amount of work of a given employee
Let’s get started with your Budget. First, ensure you have the proper financial access permissions to edit a project’s budget. Log into BigTime Foresight as a manager and go to the PROJECTS tab in your main side navigation bar. Click on your project’s profile and go to the BUDGET sub-tab. Then, proceed to the Scheduled Overheads section. This is where you’ll need to add the monthly overhead fee for your project. Enter the amount and then set the overhead type as “Revenue.”
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Make sure you have financial access ➡ Log in to the Manager Role ➡ Go to the Projects Tab ➡ Go to the Project Profile ➡ Go to the Budget Section ➡ Proceed to Scheduled Overheads/Actual Overheads
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Go to the Scheduled Overheads Section and add the monthly income for this project, selecting One-Time Overhead—Revenue Type.
Enter the amount the client will pay you monthly for your staffers’ work.
Next, open a Project Report to check the correct budgeting mapping. You should have a specific amount of revenue planned for each month.
Check the Schedule And Commit Every Month Day option in the overhead editor modal to see if you want the revenue to automatically move from scheduled to actual status on a set day.
The staffer's contract should set a Project Flat Rate ($0). If the employee's contract does not have a Project Flat Rate of $0, their rate must be set up in the project’s profile in BigTime under the RATES tab. Read this article to learn more about setting up project rates in BigTime.
Fixed Price with Different Monthly Payments
| Model | Billing Frequency | BigTime Foresight Modal |
| Fixed Price | Different Monthly Payments | One-Time Revenue Overheads |
In the case of Fixed-Price projects, in which each revenue payment is different, you’ll be able to use One-Time Overheads. If the amount planned in the scheduled status changes for any reason, you can edit it before committing to the amount ahead of time.
Fixed Price with Initial and Final Payment Split 50/50
| Model | Billing Frequency | BigTime Foresight Modal |
| Fixed Price | Initial And Final Payment Split 50/50 | One-Time Revenue Overheads |
Set up a project billing model allowing your clients to split their payments. BigTime Foresight supports project billing models that split initial and final client payments 50/50. You’ll first add a one-time overhead in the SCHEDULED OVERHEADS sub-tab to set this up.
- Add a prepayment for a specific amount (you can add it as a commission)
- At the end of the project, you can add an uncommitted overhead, and it will remain waiting to be committed to a staffer..
To mirror this billing model in BigTime Foresight, simply follow the steps below:
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Make sure you have financial access ➡ Log in to the Manager Role ➡ Go to the Projects Tab ➡ Go to the Project Profile ➡ Go to the Budget Section ➡ Proceed to Scheduled Overheads/Actual Overheads
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To put it even simpler - client payments are revenue overheads in this case.
Billable - Time & Materials
A Time & Materials billing model can apply to projects you agree with the client on payment based on your staffers’ billed hours. Each employee will have two billing rates: income and cost. The income rate is the amount your client will pay for an hour of work, and the cost rate is the amount you will pay your staffer for work. Profit from that project is then calculated as the difference between income and cost.
Because clients are charged for hours worked, the BILL RATE refers to the amount you’ll charge the client. Client payments are reflected in the BigTime Foresight with the appropriate HOUR BILL RATE, which is configurable in the staffer’s contract.
Here’s another example to illustrate how this works:
John's company has acquired a project deal with Company B. The Company agreed on four employees: two front-end developers, one Backend Developer, and a UX/UI Designer. The agreement states that Frontend Developers will be paid 100 € per hour, Backend Developers will be paid 120 € per hour, and UX/UI Designers will be paid 80 € per hour. Based on their contracts, John pays his Frontend Developers 70 € per hour, Backend Developers - 90 €, and UX/UI Designers - 55 €. The project will last six months. When John creates a BigTime project, he must choose the Time & Materials billing model. When he adds employees, he will go to the BUDGET Tab of an assignment’s bill rate in BigTime Foresight and select the correct Bill Rate.
As the project progresses and employees log billable hours, John will settle the cost of work ( billable hours x bill rate), and income (billable hours x revenue rate) for each employee at the end of each month.
Time & Materials Billed Hourly
| Model | Billing Type | BigTime Foresight Modal |
| Time & Materials | Hourly | Assignment |
If you’d like to bill your clients based on the hourly time & materials logged by your staffers toward their assignments, you can do so in BigTime Foresight. First, you’ll need to build a team for your project and create assignments for them.
In the settings for each assignment, you’ll select the staffer’s rate under the STAFFER’S BILL RATE section. Assuming you have hourly billing set up as your project rate in BigTime (see image below), the bill rate you choose will always determine your staffers’ hourly rate.
Non-Billable
In BigTime and BigTime Foresight, it’s possible to create projects that are set up as non-billable. These might be internal projects for which there is no need to bill a client. To set up a project as non-billable in BigTime Foresight, first, follow the steps in this article to create a non-billable project in BigTime.
When you open that project in BigTime Foresight and create staffers’ assignments, the BUDGET tab will not be displayed in the assignment settings. This is to simplify things since your project is non-billable, and thus, assignments won’t need to be budgeted for.
Check the “Allow everyone to bill time/expenses to this Project” box in BigTime if you want everyone to have access to this project and log time in it. You can find this checkbox on the DETAILS tab for your chosen project.