Using Timesheets MTS for Fixed Price Projects

If you are in the situation where you bid or quote on a project on a fixed price basis you may think Timesheets MTS is of limited use. Nothing could be further than the truth. By using Timesheets MTS to track fixed price projects you will be able to account for retainers or progress payments. You will also be able to track the REAL COSTS of conducting the project versus the amount of revenue it generates.

Setting Up the Fixed Price Project

Set up your contact and project/tasks as per normal (see Adding Projects and Adding Contacts for more information). Then you want to setup the project for a fixed price. To do this go to the Financial Details tab of the project and check the Fixed Price Invoicing check box and enter an invoice amount in the Invoice Amount box.

To enable you to track your real project progress for the fixed price project you now need to setup your project budget. Timesheets MTS allows you to setup a budget as a total of individual task budgets or as an overall project budget. Decide which you want to use and setup your project budget as required.

Invoicing a Fixed Price Project

Timesheets MTS allows you to invoice a fixed price project in one or many invoices to suit your billing cycle. When creating an invoice and selecting a project that is a fixed price project you will be informed you can only invoice the project by itself. When creating the line items for the project you will be asked to enter the invoice amount as a percentage of the fixed invoice total. You can arbitrarily add line items to the fixed price to account for items outside of the fixed price. When an invoice is raised against a project with a fixed price you will find that the 'Invoice to Date' total on the project maintenance page will update giving project managers an idea of financial progress to date.

Tracking Profit Margin of a Fixed Price Project

For purposes of future accuracy in quoting and to monitor your real profit margin it is essential that you still track time/expenses/trave etc on fixed price projects. Have your users use the timesheet screen as per normal to do the actual activity tracking. A number of reports in Timesheets MTS allow you to track your current spend against budget (which in a fixed price project is your revenue). The best of these is the Productivity Report. This will give you an accurate measure of progress against budget in both financial (or dollar) terms and real terms (hours, miles etc etc).