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Budgeted Hours

I wonder how other agencies communicate and control their budgeted hours for a particular job to the people who do that job.

Even though we are on C&P, we do not use the estimating function of C&P. We have an excellent MS Excel setup for estimating jobs but the problem we are facing is that the Creative or Production people do not get the estimated/budgeted hours for a job. As a result if they go over the budget hours we do not know until we review that job for billing.

I wonder what system/procedure other agencies follow to communicate and control the budget hours to the Creative and Production people, how successful they are in controlling actual hours against budgets and any effects of putting such controls in place.

Johnson Paul
Controller
Campbell Michener & Lee, Toronto

We've set up ballpark estimates that are a part of the Job Templates in C&P. So when a new job is opened, it has a predetermined estimate with it. The estimate is then adjusted according to the specific project parameters (usually done between AE, CD and Project Manager). Once that's done, I (Project Manager) run a report that shows what each person who will be working on the job has "budgeted" for their task(s). A copy is given to each team member and their time is highlighted. If the budget is of concern (read that as not much to work with), we will have a meeting to discuss how we can best accomplish the work and stay on budget. That way everyone starts on the same page and hopefully will proceed accordingly. Throughout the project, I run job summary reports after the time sheets have been entered into C&P. After reviewing hours accumulated against hours estimated, I distribute a copy to each team member and highlight their tasks/hours as an FYI. If things are overbudget, they know then and we address the reasons why, how to proceed, etc. This has worked out well for our agency - so good that some times people will actually come and ask how they are doing before I've had a chance to run the reports! Depending on how you input time (into C&P??), you can still run a job summary report and see what hours have accumulated. Then, you can review it against what you have estimated in Excel if you have it set up to view hours per individual tasks. I'm definitely not shy when it comes to tracking how we're doing when it comes to budgets. It's my job to stay on top of them and help get the project through our agency both on-time and on-budget.

Michelle Blair
Project Manager
SCHERMER KUEHL

This is one of the biggest reasons we purchased C&P, because of the ability to assign and manage the hours. We still have the issues of going over in the process, but the individuals are aware of what's assigned. We build the estimate based on hours, who will work on what, by task code. We then build the schedule, which automatically puts in the hours and tracks what's been used when work to do reports come up. We write up a brief and include the budgeted hours for that phase, plus the task code on the brief. When time is entered, it also flags the user how close they are to budget on the task code. The information is there ... now it's up to the managers and staff to budget the right amount of hours, then get the job done in the hours alotted. THAT's where my challenge comes up! Visit our website to learn more about the art and science of branding, and how we have created successful brand programs for clients in many industries.

Jennifer Larsen Morrow
marketing being
Creative Company, Inc.
www.creativeco.com

Our firm does use the estimate module of C & P. We allocate particular resources (designers, production artists, project managers, copywriters) and attached hours to each resource and for each task. It can be time consuming, however, during all phases of the project, we are able to see how many hours, costs and billable amounts, we have incurred against each project. The project managers are responsible and accountable, for inputting the estimates into C & P, for each their projects. The projects managers meet with their supervisors weekly, providing updates on their individuals projects. Their supervisor, then meets with me, letting me know, if we are on budget with projects, or if we are not. This also helps with the particular billing milestones, we have. I highly recommend, inputting your estimates in C & P, so you are able to see, at a moments notice (from the job progress report), where your projects are, against the approved estimate. It will take some training, but in the long run, you are working from one document and can let go of the excel document you have. You might want to review what your current excel document looks like and duplicate the tasks codes and phases into C & P, so there is little confusion and is somewhat user friendly. Good luck!

Dannielle Hernandez
Business Manager

We use the estimating functions in C&P, so our creatives can see exactly how much time is alotted for each function. Although I am not sure how your spreadsheet is arranged, one suggestion would be to have all of your estimates in one worksheet and then have them assigned to different staff members using one column for staff ID. Once you have that, you can sort the data using staff ID as the key. Once that has been done, you will have separate sections for each artist containing a listing of all of their assigned jobs along with allotted time for each task. Let me know if I can help you accomplish this.

Terry L. Jones, Jr.
Controller
Harvey and Daughters, Inc.

C&P has an excellent budget/estimating function that you might want to consider using. There is an initial budget field in the job ticket, which is separate from your estimate. You can create an estimate with up to three pricing options without having to create a new estimate, finalizing the one your client chooses. If you can make your employees use the time-tracking system of C&P, you can set in your preferences for warnings to flash on your employee's screen when they are reaching the maximum hours for that task on that particular job. It's all intertwined, and would probably take a lot of legwork out of your current operation. If you do not have enough user licenses for all your employees to use C&P as needed, break down your costs to see if it would actually save you some money to implement this part of C&P. From the billing aspect- the wonderful thing about C&P's time-tracking and estimating is that it automatically ties in to invoicing. Your WIP shows all hours and costs for that job, and tells you what's been billed and what hasn't. Being the person responsible for invoicing ( and this is easier to do in our 8-person office ), I can serve as a checker when I review job tickets from time to time just to see where everything is. If hours are getting out of control, I can point it out before it costs us. It's definitely worth your time to check it out, and get your full money's worth from C&P!

Mary Toothman
Flashpoint, Inc.

We use the estimating function. The "job progress" report nicely compares estimated dollars and hours versus actual. We e-mail this report to all account managers 2 times a week. They love it!

Barry Owens
MAI Sports

I am Director of Print Production at Wongdoody in Seattle. I have been working with Wongdoody and other agencies for the past 7 years on C&P. As Producers, who monitor job profitability and account for time and hard costs associated to each job, we create an estimate in C&P at the onset of a job before work begins in the agency. Once the client signs off on this estimate, the team (billable people) is notified that work can begin. As the project is happening through the agency, we follow all costs along the way. All billable employees enter their time in C&P and we are immediately able to track costs and keep the projects on budget. We have set up where each employee must have their time entered every 3 days, this keeps the actuals happening during the job. At the onset of the estimate, we designate set hours for each billable person once we understand the scope of the project and receive their input on how many hours it will take for them to complete their share of the project. Thus each billable employee knows from the onset the time alloted to the project. In C&P you can set up where time cannot be entered to a job, if the time exceeds the budgeted hours. If this occurs, the employee alerts us and we do a change order in C&P to the project accounting the reason for the exceeding hours and costs. This is tracked in C&P and at the final billing of the project, the client and agency has an accurate picture of the costs, changes and time that it took for the project to be completed. The nice feature of working in the estimate portion of C&P is that we can see real costs on a daily basis for each ongoing project. Accounting is able to monitor costs as well as production and the account team, thus leaving no surprises at the time a job is billed. Also by using the estimate feature in C&P, we are able to cut P.O.'s by task line item to our vendors. This allows for the Producers to stay on budget and again track costs directly to the job. Lastly in C&P, you can designate by client the mark-up. When estimating jobs, the correct mark-up is automatically added to each task that requires a mark-up. On the estimate you can then work off the budget column of the estimate, which is the actual agency costs to the perform the project and you also use the estimated column which is the costs with mark-up to the client. Thus on each job you can pull a job summary, which totals your profitability margin for each project.

Sincerely,
Kelly Showalter
Director of Print Production
Wongdoody