To get set up with BigTime Foresight, you’ll need your designated customer support person to turn it on. From there, you can expect a few standard things to happen with your data as it syncs to Foresight from BigTime. This article will explain, piece by piece, exactly what happens to your BigTime account when you first integrate with Foresight. These changes streamline processes, centralize key data, and enhance oversight of staff, projects, and contracts.
Activating Foresight in BigTime
Navigation in BigTime
Projects & Staff
Contracts and Managing Costs
Changes in Staffers' Profiles
User Permissions
Skills Management
Time and Expense Tab
Activating Foresight in BigTime
To begin using BigTime Foresight, a BigTime representative must enable it. Once activated, you will see a new tab labeled Resourcing in your main navigation. This tab gives you access to the people calendar, project calendar, skills list, and other Foresight features.
Navigation in BigTime
With Foresight activated, the Resourcing tab becomes a key resource management area. It includes:
My Settings: Personalize your Foresight experience (e.g., set calendar colors, configure substitute managers, and adjust utilization settings).
Demand Calendar: A tool for forecasting future projects and resource needs.
Team Member Calendar: This lets managers view their team’s work hours and time-off requests.
Project Calendar: A space for tracking project progress.
Skills List: A place to manage employee skills, seniority levels, and time-off types.
Analytics Tools: Provides access to key reports such as the availability, project finances, and utilization reports.
Tabs prefixed with "My" (e.g., "My Time Off", "My Skills") are for individual staff and show personal information.
Projects & Staff
All projects and staff set up in BigTime will automatically sync with Foresight. You’ll notice a new View Project Calendar button on your project list that redirects to the Foresight project calendar. Teams are now created in Foresight, and the changes are synced back to BigTime.
You can still designate a staffer as a team lead in BigTime. However, assigning team members to projects will now occur exclusively in Foresight. Existing project teams will also sync automatically when Foresight is activated, allowing for further edits in Foresight.
Foresight will become the place where you will create teams. The teams you create in Foresight will sync back into BigTime.
Contracts and Managing Costs
In Foresight, contracts are the foundation for managing employee periods and costs. Once synced, a contract is automatically created for each staff member based on the employment dates and cost fields in BigTime.
Employee Cost Rates: These rates are pulled from the staff profile in BigTime. If a staff member has no cost rate set, the contract will default to a zero (0.00) cost rate in Foresight.
Contract Period: The start and end dates of contracts are derived from the staffer’s employment dates.
Capacity: Staff capacity (e.g., 160 hours per month) is automatically calculated based on the standard 8 hours daily, 5 days a week. After the initial sync, contract, and capacity management moves to Foresight, where changes can be made directly.
In the picture below, you can find the Contracts section in BigTime Foresight:
After the integration, Foresight becomes the central source for contract details. A new Manage Contract button will appear under the Capacity and Cost Rates sections of each staffer’s profile in BigTime, allowing direct access to their Foresight contract for updates.
Changes in Staffers' Profiles
Although the staffer profile in BigTime remains largely unchanged, Foresight enhances it by adding additional details, such as contract information and skills. Any staffer-related costs and capacities will be managed exclusively in Foresight.
User Permissions
With Foresight enabled, new user permissions are added under the BIGTIME FORESIGHT section in the user rights window. By default, these permissions are disabled for all users except system administrators. Managers and higher-level users will have more extensive access compared to regular staff.
Skills Management
Skills management is now fully handled within Foresight, and the Skills option will be removed from the My Company dropdown menu in BigTime. Skills from BigTime do not automatically transfer into Foresight, so technical support is required to import any existing skills data.
Time and Expense Tab
In Foresight, managers and administrators gain new capabilities within the Time and Expense tab, including approving or rejecting time-off requests. Staff can manage their personal time-off submissions through the My Time Off tab.
The integration of BigTime Foresight introduces significant changes aimed at enhancing the efficiency of resource, time, and cost management. By centralizing project teams, contracts, and skills management within Foresight, firms can achieve better visibility into workload distribution, resource planning, and overall project profitability.