A practical guide to the common benefits achieved through automating your timesheet and expense capture, how significant cost savings can be achieved and how your organization can potentially improve its bottom line.

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Selecting and Implementing an Effective
Time and Expense Management Solution
A practical guide to the common benefits achieved through
automating your timesheet and expense capture, how significant
cost savings can be achieved and how your organisation can
potentially improve its bottom‐line.
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Atlantic Global’s Practical Guide to Implementing an Effective Time and
Expense Management solution
In this guide, we look at some of the common benefits you can achieve through automating your timesheet and
expense capture; how significant cost savings can be achieved and how your organisation can potentially improve its
bottom‐line. We focus on everything from the basics such as home‐grown vs. dedicated solutions, client installed
software vs. Software as a Service (SaaS), through to the more complex areas of tax credits and automated client
billing.
Using real client case studies, we highlight some of the key benefits of Timesheet and Expense Management
solutions including:
• Improved Project Cost Control
• Increased Resource Utilisation
• Shorter Billing Cycles with Improved Cash Flow
• Receive Tax Credits on R& D Expenditure
• Reclaim VAT on Business Expenses
• Reduce Reporting Timeframes
• Eliminate data entry errors and improve data quality
• Deliver projects on time and too budget
• Reduce Billing Rejection Rates
• Reduce expense costs per employee per annum
To complete the guide we present our Top 10 recommendations for implementing an effective time & expense
management solution.
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Contents
Paper‐based, Excel or a Dedicated Solution? ............................................................................................................... 5
Client Installed vs. Software as a Service? .................................................................................................................... 5
Centralised Timesheet Administration or Individual Employee Entry? ........................................................................ 6
Does your time & expense management process promote compliance? .................................................................... 6
Eliminating data entry errors? ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Controlling access to Financial Data ............................................................................................................................. 8
Hide complex functionality from end users .................................................................................................................. 9
Selecting the correct Timesheet Entry User Interface ................................................................................................ 10
Direct Timesheet Entry ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Classic Timesheet Entry .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Timesheet Management ......................................................................................................................................... 11
Compliance Dashboard ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Work Schedules....................................................................................................................................................... 12
Capture and Control all People and Project Costs ...................................................................................................... 12
Can the system cope with different Charge Out mechanisms? ................................................................................. 13
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Resource/Role Specific Charge Rates ..................................................................................................................... 13
Multiple Rate Cards ................................................................................................................................................ 13
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Client/Project Specific Rates ................................................................................................................................... 14
Activity Based Charging .......................................................................................................................................... 14
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Ensure your Expense Management process delivers a return ................................................................................... 14
Reclaim VAT on the petrol element of the mileage rate ........................................................................................ 15
Accurately Re‐charging Expenses to your Customers ............................................................................................ 15
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Eradicate unnecessary or avoidable expense ......................................................................................................... 15
Ensure projects are delivered on‐time and to budget ................................................................................................ 16
Project Budget Tracking .......................................................................................................................................... 16
Project Progress Tracking ........................................................................................................................................ 16
Recharging Time & Expenses to your Clients .............................................................................................................. 17
Integration to Finance and Accounting Packages ....................................................................................................... 17
Manual Entry ........................................................................................................................................................... 18
Import/Export Routines .......................................................................................................................................... 18
Web Services ........................................................................................................................................................... 18
Implementing a successful Approval Mechanism ...................................................................................................... 18
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Approval Permissions .............................................................................................................................................. 19
Approver Visibility ................................................................................................................................................... 19
End User Compliance .............................................................................................................................................. 19
Measuring Organisational Performance ..................................................................................................................... 20
Utilisation ................................................................................................................................................................ 20
Productivity ............................................................................................................................................................. 20
Profitability ............................................................................................................................................................. 20
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Progress .................................................................................................................................................................. 20
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Real Time Management Reporting ............................................................................................................................. 21
Context Sensitive Reports ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Dashboard Reports ................................................................................................................................................. 21
Custom Report Writer ............................................................................................................................................. 22
Export reports ......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Top 10 Implementation Tips ....................................................................................................................................... 23
1. Quick & Easy to Use ............................................................................................................................................ 23
2. Promotes End User Compliance.......................................................................................................................... 23
3. Focus on Data Quality ......................................................................................................................................... 23
4. Ability to track Time, Cost, Expenditure and Revenue ....................................................................................... 23
5. Comprehensive Real Time Management Reporting ........................................................................................... 23
6. Simple to Implement ........................................................................................................................................... 23
6. Cost Effective and will deliver a Positive Return on Investment ........................................................................ 24
7. The Supplier can add value to the Business ........................................................................................................ 24
8. Provides additional functionality with minimal impact on cost ......................................................................... 24
9. Dashboard Driven Approach ............................................................................................................................... 24
10. Clear Upgrade Path and Product Road Map ..................................................................................................... 24
30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand ................................................................................................................. 25
About Atlantic Global OnDemand .............................................................................................................................. 25
Timesheet & Expense Management ....................................................................................................................... 25
Project Management .............................................................................................................................................. 25
Project Portfolio Management ............................................................................................................................... 25
Customer Relationship Management ..................................................................................................................... 25
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Paper‐based, Excel or a Dedicated Solution?
For many organisations time and expense management starts with the production of an internal paper based system
or an excel spreadsheet. These serve a purpose to a point but generally are prone to errors, are difficult to
consolidate and can be difficult to access. They also involve huge amounts of administration and rarely provide
management with timely accurate reporting.
By implementing a dedicated time and expense management solution, your organisation will instantly benefit from
improved reporting, more accurate data and less administration, leaving your employees free to focus on productive
activities.
In a recent case study of a major Media organisation, prior to implementing an automated timesheet and expense
management solution, Management Reports took up‐to 3 days to produce and were based on out‐of‐date and
inaccurate data. After automating their time and expense management processes with Atlantic Global reports were
produced at the click of a button based on accurate up‐to date real time data.
Client Installed vs. Software as a Service?
For many organisations, implementing a time & expense management solution involves purchasing software
licenses, installing the software on their own servers, purchasing consultancy services to configure the system and
load data, as well as paying an annual support and maintenance charge. Until recently this has been the norm and
requires organisations to make a capital investment in a system that is not always deemed mission critical. More to
the point, for organisations wishing to make the jump from paper‐based or excel solutions to a dedicated solution,
capital investment can be a major inhibitor.
Recently, there has been a lot of press coverage on Software as a Service (SaaS), whereby organisations access
solutions on a subscription basis. For many organisations this can be highly beneficial, for starters there is no capital
expenditure required to purchase the software. Secondly, the software is held on the supplier’s infrastructure
meaning there is no involvement from IT to install or maintain the software; this is all carried out by the supplier for
you. Thirdly, SaaS solutions are web based meaning they are available globally 24‐7‐365 as long as you have access
to a web browser and an internet connection. This means as an organisation, you do not need expensive security
access, VPN’s and backup processes as the infrastructure is fully maintained by the supplier.
So, whether you are looking to implement a new solution, replace an existing solution or have an existing client
installed solution, SaaS offers numerous benefits:
• No Hardware or software costs
• No IT involvement required to implement and maintain the system
• Low cost monthly subscription meaning no capital investment and a
rapid return on investment
• No annual support and maintenance charge
• No expensive infrastructure and security costs
• No upgrade costs or IT involvement
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In many cases SaaS solution providers also offer additional benefits such as free automated data loads and free
administration training to ensure you receive a configured solution with a rapid return on investment.
Centralised Timesheet Administration or Individual Employee Entry?
The next major decision for many organisations once they have implemented a solution, is whether individual
employees or a central administrator should enter time. This decision should be a simple one. Realistically, the cost
per employee for a comprehensive time & expense management solution should really not exceed £60 per year or
£5 per employee per month. So the question to ask is, will the software effectively save me £5 per employee per
month? As we start to examine the benefits of time & expense management later in this document, you will see
that a properly configured system should without exception provide a positive return on investment. Although not
tangible in itself, probably the greatest benefit to individuals recording their own time and expenses is that it enables
managers to access real time management information on the 3 main functions that affect the profitability of your
organisation: Resources, Financials and Deliverables.
Does your time & expense management process promote compliance?
Once your organisation has made the move to a web based timesheet system, it is essential that the system
promotes compliance. Generally there are two schools of thought on how to best implement this; the first is to
implement email alerts for individuals who have not entered time or who have missing days. (Although on paper this
looks like the best solution, in our experience this is by far one of the least effective ways to enforce compliance as
people ignore, delete or just become frustrated with the solution on the basis that it sends them an annoying email
each Monday morning.) Basically, emails are generally a tool to mask the fact that either user acceptance is poor or
employees have not been sold on the benefits of time & expense capture from both an individual and organisational
prospective.
A far more effective way to ensure compliance is through the actual system interface. Simple user dashboards
displayed each time a user logs in to the system can be used to graphically represent compliance and to provide an
easy mechanism for updating any missing, incomplete or disapproved timesheets. If your timesheet software is
integrated with your resource scheduling software, another trick is to enable resources to update their timesheets
directly from their work schedules. This way, users need to log in to the system each day to access details on their
task assignments. With a single click they can then easily update their timesheet for the previous day.
Likewise, the more integrated your timesheet system is with your other business solutions, the more critical it is to
the organisation and the more essential it is for your employees to use. For example, integrated Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) functionality means users will also need to access the solution to see To Do Actions
and update key actions/processes. Likewise, integration with Project Management software means users will
consistently be accessing the solution to check the status of project progress, budget performance, risk status and
resource allocations.
As well as ensuring that individuals enter their time and expenses, you will also need to provide management with a
mechanism to identify any missing, incomplete or incorrect timesheets. Again, this is an area where organisations
turn to email to notify managers of missing or incomplete timesheets. In this situation, as long as the manager
receives a single summary email detailing all errors, then we see this as an acceptable method. However, in this
environment it is essential that there are proper procedures in place to deal with escalation, it also means that you
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can face getting into a perpetual loop of sending emails for missing, incomplete and disapproved timesheets – in our
experience this devalues the system and is encouraging people to bury their heads in email rather than use the
timesheet and expense management solution to benefit the organisation. In reality, we would always recommend
selecting a product that provides managers with a clear overview of missing & incomplete timesheets along with
their approval status. This should be presented in an area of the system accessed frequently by the manager such
as, their opening dashboard and supported by clear exception reporting.
• Avoid automating email reminders wherever possible
• Provide users with a clear view of compliance along with clear quick links to
update their status and timesheet entries
• Provide management with a clear view of missing, incomplete and disapproved
timesheets based on SLA’s configurable to your organisation
• Provide management with clear exception procedures and associated reports
Eliminating data entry errors?
As we have discussed earlier, one of the major issues with paper based, excel and home‐grown systems is that they
are prone to data entry errors. A key objective of replacing such a system should be to ensure the data entered is
accurate. This means selecting a product which is highly configurable and provides key security features to aid data
entry. A major feature to help you achieve this is data restrictions.
Data restrictions are essential no matter what size or complexity your organisation is. Examples of restrictions are:
Limiting what projects a resource can enter time and expenses against, which activities can be booked against a
particular project and what activities an individual can record time against. Basically, restrictions are the
relationships between key data elements which are triangulated to ensure a resource can only book time against a
valid project, for an activity they have the ability to carry out, which is valid for the project they are working on.
Although this sounds complex, good systems provide templates which can be cloned to easily establish restrictions,
more importantly this limits user choice and in the process limits data entry errors.
Taking a major Insurance Company as an example, as well as restricting user choice, by implementing data
restrictions the system becomes vastly easier to use, meaning, limited or no end user training is required and your
rollout and user acceptance periods are greatly accelerated.
“We went from 0 to 1500 users, in 5 UK “All information was now sourced from
sites, in a week. At the end of the week one central repository, which had the
we had over 200,000 approved hours immediate effect of reducing billing
ready for monthly charging” rejection rates from 29,000 to Zero”
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In a comprehensive solution, one or more restrictions may be implemented, common restrictions that should be
available include:
• Projects valid against Resources
• Activities valid against Resources
• Expense Types valid against Resources
• Cost Rates valid against Resources
• Charge Rates valid against Resources
• Activities valid for Projects
• Expense Types valid for Projects
As well as restrictions, your chosen solution should also have the flexibility to remove all non essential functionality
from the user interface and hide financial information. We will explore these in more detail.
Controlling access to Financial Data
Without doubt, one of the most sensitive pieces of data you will store in any time and expense management
solution is cost data on your resources and charge out rates. With such information stored, it is essential that the
solution you implement has a mechanism for restricting access to financial information. For example, in the Atlantic
Global Solution we utilise login templates to control access to financial information. Ranging from no access for
basic users, through to view codes and/or amounts for project managers, extending all the way up to being able to
change codes and values. The key is that an unlimited number of login templates can be configured to provide
tailored financial access for all of your users from no access through to full access. Even if you do not wish to
manage cost and revenue through the system initially, it is definitely worth considering a solution where you can
easily utilise this functionality in future as there are significant benefits to be gained through analysing cost and
revenue.
• Look to implement a solution that captures the key elements of your day to day operations
including time, cost, revenue and expenditure
• Ensure the system has the flexibility to grow with your organisations requirements allowing
you to introduce the concepts of cost, revenue and expenditure without impacting the user
experience
• The ability to hide cost data from users is essential, select a system that allows you to
specify the level of cost and charge access at the user level
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Hide complex functionality from end users
One of the absolute key factors when implementing a timesheet & expense management solution is to ensure you
focus on simplicity. Solutions that are quick and easy to use with little training almost always deliver greater
benefits. Why, because they are used and valued by the business.
To ensure your system is simple and easy to use, it is essential that it can be configured so that users have access to
different features and functionality. In our experience, to keep administration to a minimum you should focus on
defining clear user roles in the solution, for example:
• Basic Users: Timesheet & Expense Entry only
• Line Managers: Timesheet & Expense Entry, Approvals, Utilisation Analysis & Reporting
• Project Managers: Timesheet & Expense Entry, Approvals, Project Progress Reporting, Cost
and Revenue analysis, Budgeting & Reporting
• Finance: Full Cost & Revenue Reporting, Billing, Budgeting & Reporting
• System Administration: Full Administration Access
Although roles and responsibilities will vary greatly between each organisation, the underlying factor is that the
solution should offer flexibility and the ability to grow with your organisation.
To do this key configuration options are required such as:
• Custom Fields: no solution can cater for every user requirement; if it tried it would be un‐
usable. A good solution should offer the option to add your own custom fields in various
data formats. Remember though: if you do not use the field for filtering, analysis or
reporting it has no value in the system
• Screen‐labels: the system should be able to be configured to your organisations
terminology. Simply changing screen labels such as Resource to Employee can make a
world of difference to user acceptance
• System Access: features should be available to remove unwanted functionality such as
overtime and/or financials; to control access to filters, reports, dashboards and views; as
well as define exactly what data a user can gain access too
Time spent ensuring your system can be tailored to each individual role upfront may save you a lot of time and
money in the future. Also, if you are a multi‐national organisation, multi‐lingual and multi currency support may be
essential.
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Selecting the correct Timesheet Entry User Interface
It’s fair to say that there are a wide range of timesheet interfaces available through different solutions. Trying to
compare and summarise the benefits of each would be a document in itself. The question is: if one timesheet
interface works better for one user in one specific role and another for a user in a different role, why do most
timesheet applications only provide one method of data entry?
To us, this is a huge limitation of some systems and can limit the benefits these systems deliver. Like most of the
questions we have raised so far, this is not a case of selecting one correct interface; it is a question of selecting a
solution with the flexibility to deliver the correct timesheet entry interface for each of your users.
Commonly, three forms of timesheet entry interface exist, these are: Direct entry, classic entry and timesheet
management. In addition, more advanced solutions provide timesheet entry via compliance dashboards and via
work schedules. In order for you to judge how effective your existing timesheet solution is, let’s explain the concept
behind each timesheet entry option.
Direct Timesheet Entry
The Direct Timesheet Entry interface is probably the most common format provided by Timesheet Software
providers. Similar in style to an excel spreadsheet the interface provides a weekly timesheet with project and activity
combinations listed down the left hand side. Users simply select the day of the week and enter time directly into
each cell, navigating between cells using their keyboard.
This type of interface is ideal for users that spend time working on similar project and activity combinations week in
week out. However, this type of interface can become quite messy if the user in question has more complex time
recording requirements, such as, recording time at a task level, specifying overtime or changing the chargeable
status.
Key features include:
• Keyboard Navigation
• Quick entry of hours directly into cells
• Copy Timesheets from previous weeks
• Clone existing timesheet entries
Classic Timesheet Entry
Classic Timesheet Entry is ideal for organisations where the time recording requirements are more complex or vary
on a project by project basis. Classic entry views provide a weekly view of a user’s timesheet with a row
representing each project that the user can record time against.
The key to the classic timesheet entry view is that when the user drills into a cell representing the day and project
they wish to record time against, different data entry options are presented depending on the type of project
accessed. For example, projects that require time to be tracked at the task level will provide a task option to the end
user. Projects that require time to be tracked at the deliverable level will display a list of deliverables. Projects that
require time to be recorded at assignment level will display a list of resource assignments. Projects requiring a
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progress update will display a percentage complete field. The advantage of this view is that different options are
provided to the user depending on the project displayed.
In more advanced systems these options are limited further using restrictions, for example, only show resource
assigned tasks across a 2 week window or restrict timesheet entry to project start and end dates. Referring back to
our earlier point – these options ensure the system is extremely easy for the end user to operate and by limiting
options ensures the data input into the system is highly accurate. Additional features available to help data input
and cover complex requirements include:
• Create batch timesheet entries across a date range with the ability to exclude specific dates
• Optionally track time against departments and roles
• Provide the ability to change the chargeable status of time
• Input custom data, based on custom fields displayed dependent on the activity selected
• Optionally provide users with the ability to select the appropriate charge out rate
• Record time against projects and activities, and optionally drill down to task, assignment or
deliverable level
Timesheet Management
The Timesheet Management view, as its name suggests is generally used by more advanced users of the system to
analyse time, cost and revenue and approve time. This type of view is essential as it enables your users to filter data
to analyse time, cost and revenue by key variables such as clients, projects, activities, resources, departments, roles,
locations, cost rates and charge out rates. To ensure ease of use there are 2 key factors that should be available to
the end user.
Firstly, each user should be able to define their own filter criteria with the ability to save filters for future usage. In
more advanced systems these filters should be based on all standard fields but also optional custom fields added
into the system specifically for the purpose of filtering and reporting. Based on your permissions you should also be
able to share your filters with other users, to ensure each user has a common interface associated with their role in
the organisation.
The second key factor in enabling ease of use is to provide dynamic links from dashboards. Today’s business
solutions are now focused on the end user experience more than ever. One key aspect of this is dashboards, which
provide users with key information. Dynamic links should be provided directly from dashboards into the timesheet
management view, key examples of this include:
• Drill down into project specific timesheets to analyse time, cost & revenue
• Analyse time spent of projects by Activity, by Resource
• Drill in to approve specific employee timesheets
• Drill in to analyse disapproved time
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Compliance Dashboard
For those systems that provide dashboard interfaces, it is important that not only does the system focus the user on
timesheet compliance, it also provides a quick and efficient method for users to directly enter their time and
expenses. This can be in the format of directly entering a timesheet, following a dynamic link to update or amend
timesheets or providing a drill through mechanism to the appropriate timesheet entry view. The key focus here is
that we are simplifying the system, improving ease of use, as well as providing a user with quick access to every
option required to complete their day to day tasks.
Work Schedules
Many timesheet & expense management systems also include integrated project planning and resource scheduling.
A good tip when implementing this type of system is to ensure it allows your users to update their timesheets
directly from their work schedules. This way, a user is encouraged to use the system in order to indentify the tasks
they should be delivering and then with a single click can easily update their timesheet and progress. With this type
of solution, the tighter the integration, the greater the compliance and more accurate reporting you will gain from
the back end.
• Select a timesheet solution which offers multiple entry formats targeted at specific
user types
• Utilise Dashboards to promote compliance, ease of use and speed up data entry
• Integrate with Resource Schedules for automated timesheet updates
Capture and Control all People and Project Costs
An essential feature of any time and expense management solution is the ability to track and control all of your
people and project costs. Systems that do not offer cost and revenue metrics will soon become outgrown and leave
you resorting to Excel spreadsheets to carry out costing calculations.
When measuring cost, look for a solution that enables you to analyse metrics relevant to your organisation for
example Employees, Contractors, Departments, Roles, Resources, Projects, and Activities; along with any custom
criteria. Trend analysis is also important, for example, being able to compare travelling costs between employees
and projects will enable you to better plan and cost projects in future. Analysis of contractor costs vs. utilising or
training internal resources may potentially yield huge cost savings.
Dependent on your geography, make sure you configure the system to take advantage of local tax laws, more
importantly look for a solution provider that is aware of these rules and can advise your organisation on how best to
achieve a positive return on investment. One such example of this in the UK is Tax Relief on Research and
Development expenditure. For a company like Atlantic Global a large share of our software development is Research
and Development; without recording timesheets and categorising the Research and Development element we would
never be able to claim this tax relief.
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At Atlantic Global we have reclaimed over £80,000 in tax credits on Research
and Development expenditure. A 1000%+ return in 5 years measured against
the subscription cost of Atlantic Global OnDemand.
The key to success in this area is to ensure your resource costs are accurately reflected in the system and that your
resources, projects and activities are categorised in line with your anticipated benefits. A simple interface to analyse
these costs either via standard reports or via dashboards is also essential.
Can the system cope with different Charge Out mechanisms?
For organisations which re‐charge their time and expenses onto their clients, it is essential that the solution you
utilise provides you with the flexibility to mirror the way in which you charge. There are many methods in which
companies charge, however, at a minimum a competent solution should offer:
• Resource/Role specific charge rates with the ability to override the
charge rate on a project by project basis
• Ability to establish multiple rate cards
• Client and Project specific charge rates
• Activity based Charging
Resource/Role Specific Charge Rates
At a minimum, a solution should allow you to establish a charge rate for each resource. Depending on your
organisation this may be specific to the actual resource or reflect the roles which you deliver as an organisation, for
example: Consultants, Designers, Developers, Project Managers or Partners. Each resource will have a default
charge rate which is then used to calculate the chargeable time when chargeable work is recorded. This is ideal for
time & materials projects or for comparing the potential revenue generated versus any fixed price billing. For
flexibility with this type of billing, features are required to enable the role/rate charged per resource to be changed
on a project by project basis. For example, I may be charged as a developer on project 1 but as a senior developer
on project 2.
Multiple Rate Cards
For many organisations having one charge rate per role is too simplistic. Rates are negotiated on a project by project
basis meaning the ability to specify a rate card per project is a must. Systems like Atlantic Global which include a
comprehensive project charge rate matrix, mean you can establish different charge rates for different roles on
different projects without the need to create hundreds of charge rates in the system. Such functionality reduces the
administration overhead, ensures the system remains streamlined and ensures each resource is charged out at the
correct rate on each project without any interaction from the end user other than selecting the project and entering
their hours worked.
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Client/Project Specific Rates
One area of re‐charging time that is often overlooked by solution providers, is client or project specific charge rates.
Whereby, a fee is agreed for all work, not matter who undertakes the work. Although a very simple requirement, if
this is common to your organisation, to reduce administration you will need to look for a solution that provides the
ability to override the standard resource charge rate at the client/project level.
Activity Based Charging
The final method of charging is Activity based charging, whereby, a specific charge rate is applied based on the
activity booked by the user. In this scenario, the solution should allow you to create a charge rate against each
activity, or provide sufficient configuration options to allow you to select a specific charge rate based on the activity
the user is carrying out. To avoid cluttering the system with hundreds of charge rates, ideally the activity based
charge rate mechanism should also offer the ability to override each specific activities charge out rate on a project
by project basis, to allow for discounts and other rate negotiations.
No matter which charging mechanism is used in your organisation, important factors are to ensure your supplier
understands the way you charge, can make recommendations for improvements, as well as provide the flexibility to
change the way you charge in future. Even if all of your organisations projects are delivered on a fixed price basis,
collating revenue data provides an excellent metric. For example, comparing your fixed price bid against the actual
revenue you could have generated with your standard charge rates enables you to establish the effectiveness of
your bid process. Other examples include, justifying annual support and maintenance contracts – if your customer
queries the cost, by recording the potential revenue of each support call or site visit you can easily give the customer
a fair idea of what this might cost on a time and materials basis.
Ensure your Expense Management process delivers a return
Most timesheet software packages now offer expense management functionality as standard. Like the timesheet
functionality, the expense management process should be simple and straight forward for the end user in order to
promote ease of use and compliance. Unlike timesheets, expense management systems tend to manage themselves
on the basis that if a user does not enter his/her expense claims they will not get paid. However, to ensure expenses
are entered in a timely fashion allowing managers to understand the impact on projects, we recommend that your
expense management software provide the following features:
• Simple easy to use expense entry interface
• Ability to create and print expense claims
• Provide users with clear visibility into the status of their expense claims
• Facilitates line manager and/or project based expense approvals
• Claim authorisation and payment
• Comprehensive management reporting
• Multi‐currency support
• Categorise expenses, e.g. out of pocket & credit card expenses
• Enter lump sum or unit based expenses (mileage)
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A key to the success of your expense management system is to ensure that you maximise the usage of the data. All
too often your supplier will simply set up the system and off you go. A key part of the relationship is to ensure that
you receive a return on your investment. Areas in which will feel organisations can instantly see a return include:
Reclaim VAT on the petrol element of the mileage rate
In our experience many UK companies are not aware that the VAT petrol element of the “mileage rate” can be
reclaimed. For many organisations this alone can provide an instant return on your investment. By accurately
recording your business mileage not only can you easily extract the VAT element, you also have a full audit trail. Each
employee travelling 20,000 per annum equates to £330 in reclaimable VAT for a potential £60 investment (Based on
Inland Revenue recommended Mileage Rates).
At Atlantic Global, through our own software we have
claimed back over £13,000 in VAT on petrol for 25 staff
claiming a “mileage rate” for business travel.
Accurately Re‐charging Expenses to your Customers
Often, it is the miss‐timing of entering expenses that result in expenses not being recharged to customers. A key
element to any expense management solution is that it ensures expenses are captured in an accurate and timely
fashion, allowing you to reduce billing cycles, increase cash flow and improve profitability. For many organisations
with primitive expense management processes, delays in the expense entry, approval and authorisation process
mean that expenses are not recharged to the customer and your organisation is left bearing the cost.
In the most extreme case, we have seen organisations missing out on revenue in excess of £1.4m per annum, by not
having a mechanism in place to pass this cost onto the client. In another example, one of our customers managed to
reduce expense costs by £500 per employee per annum, by accurately passing expense costs on to the client.
Measured across 1,000 employees this provided a significant return on investment.
Eradicate unnecessary or avoidable expense
Earlier we discussed how integrating your expense management system with your project planning and resource
scheduling software can aid compliance. It also provides significant advantages when analysing expenditure. For
example, resource scheduling can help you avoid unnecessary trips by using location as a key part of the resource
selection process. Avoiding one costly train ticket or flight through better resource selection will instantly pay for
the software and provide a positive return on investment.
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As well as these common areas where organisations can usually gain quick wins, a well configured expense
management system will provide the following benefits:
• Recover VAT on all expenses
• Real time analysis of expenditure by client, project, resource and expense type
• Pass expense costs on to clients in a timely fashion
• Reduce Billing cycles
• Help employees complete Tax Returns
Ensure projects are delivered on‐time and to budget
For many organisations, one of the key drivers for implementing a time & expense management solution is to aid the
project management process. To do this a system must provide the basics; capture time, expenses, cost and
revenue. In addition, many time and expense management applications also provide features specifically targeted at
improving the project management process. For organisations with a project focus, we recommend that your
selection criteria include the ability to manage project budgets and the ability to track project progress.
Project Budget Tracking
In order to deliver a project to budget, a mechanism needs to exist where actuals can be tracked against budget.
Advanced time and expense solutions such as Atlantic Global include the ability to create project budgets. Budgets
can be generated directly from project plans or broken down into specific roles, activities and date ranges. A simple
budget management facility will help you control budget creep by providing your project managers with a real time
assessment of budgets vs. actuals. To aid analysis, budgets can be broken down into time, cost, charge and
expenditure elements.
Project Progress Tracking
An essential element to delivering projects on time and to budget is a mechanism to provide project managers with
feedback on the progress of their project. A simple method of achieving this is to track time at task or assignment
level and provide an estimate to complete. Such data can be used by project managers to review the progress of
each task and its potential impact on the project time line and budget. Critical to the success of this functionality is
ease of use and integration with your project planning tool. To make recording time against tasks easy for the end
user the solution should allow this to be an optional setting at a project level. Also, features should exist to limit the
options presented to the end user, such as only user assigned tasks, a rolling window of tasks or only incomplete
tasks. Integration with your project planning tool will allow the project manager to make changes to the project
timeline based on the feedback from end users. Applications such as Atlantic Global OnDemand, have fully
integrated project planning functionality and dedicated project review interfaces where the project manager can
analyse actuals vs. planned vs. % complete for each individual task assignment. This provides the project manager
with a highly accurate real time picture of project progress.
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Recharging Time & Expenses to your Clients
An added benefit of time and expense management systems to professional service organisations is there integrated
billing functionality. Most basic systems will offer the functionality to carry out time and materials based invoicing,
with more complex solutions offering milestone, advanced and fixed price billing. An important point to bear in
mind when evaluating this functionality is to remember these tools are not designed to replace your company
accounts package, they are designed to enable you to effectively and efficiently bill for your time and expenses.
However, the flexibility to grow with your organisation is essential.
For highly complex billing requirements you may need to look at tight integration between your time and expense
system and accounts package.
Based on the assumption that your organisation has an established accounts package, minimum features required to
enable you to effectively bill time & expenses include:
• Quick and simple timesheet entry
• Ability to capture both billable and non billable time
• Ability to apply different charging mechanisms
• Ability to log client account details and invoice contacts
• Ability to create project based invoices by client
• Ability to view, sort and filter all billable time and expenses
• Ability to override Tax rates
• Ability to adjust invoice values
• Ability to add lines for additional items
The key benefit of handling your time and expense billing through your time and expense software is that it reduces
bottle necks. A well configured system will significantly reduce the billing cycle, which in‐turn will help cash flow and
reduce the need for any credit. Most importantly, with accurate data, your billing will be more efficient with fewer
errors, meaning you will pass more chargeable time and expenses onto your clients which will have an instant
positive effect on your bottom line.
Integration to Finance and Accounting Packages
In order to close the loop between your time & expense system and your company accounts the ability to integrate
with your accounts package is essential. By integrating your time & expense system with your accounts package you
can gain an instant view of profitability as well as retain pure accounting functions such as credit control, journals
and year end accounts within your accounting package – where they were designed to be managed.
Depending on the complexity of your billing process and the volume of transactions, there are numerous methods of
integration from the most basic manual entry all the way up to specialised web services. Examples of common
integration methods include:
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Manual Entry
For smaller organisations with few transactions, the simplest and most cost effective way for you to pass data
between systems may be through a manual entry. In this example, a process should be implemented where all time
and expense entries are flagged as invoiced in the time & expense management solution and an invoice created in
the accounts package for the appropriate values. Should a customer query an invoice, the timesheet system can be
used to provide the supporting information.
Import/Export Routines
A more accurate method of passing data between your timesheet solution and accounts package is via an
Import/Export routine. In this example, your timesheet solution should provide a mechanism to export data, either
via reports, MS Excel or XML. This data can then be imported into your accounts package. To facilitate this, your
timesheet solution should offer predefined exports to common applications or provide the ability to configure your
own data views for export. Whichever process is provided a clear mechanism for controlling this process is required.
Common controls include only exporting invoiced data, alternatively, some systems also provide locking mechanisms
which enable bulk data to be passed. The key is that your timesheet solution allows you to export either summary
or full transactional data to allow compliance with all common accounting packages. In our experience although this
method still has a certain level of administration associated with it, for most organisations it provides the flexibility
for change in the future, enabling it to support your organisations growth and potential changes in accounting
practices or software without any major financial impact on the organisation.
Web Services
For SaaS solution providers like Atlantic Global, Web Service based integration between the timesheet and accounts
package is the far most efficient way of integration. Using third party predefined web services, connections to
common accounting packages such as Sage, QuickBooks, SAP and Microsoft can easily be configured. Generally, in a
SaaS environment your solution provider will configure these connections for you and charge a small monthly fee for
the connection. The added advantage of SaaS is that with specialist organisations offering connectors between
common applications you can easily get your timesheet solution to communicate with other applications such as ERP
and HR.
Implementing a successful Approval Mechanism
One of the most important features in any time & expense management application is the approval mechanism.
Approvals provide an auditable trail of who agreed a particular timesheet entry or expense entry. If you are using
the data to reclaim VAT or for any form of Tax credit your auditors will want to see evidence that these entries have
been checked and agreed. For this reason alone, we would always steer an organisation away from the automatic
approval of time and expenses. Although a system should offer this feature, if the system is used in a manner where
the data may be questioned approvals are essential.
For the successful implementation of a timesheet or expense approval mechanism, there are three factors that have
to be considered.
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Approval Permissions
Approval Permissions are key for ensuring your time and expense management solution can support your
organisations approval process. Starting with the basics, the application should allow you to approve time from both
a line management prospective and a project management prospective; with the ability to define exactly which
projects and resources a user has access to approve time for. More advanced features such as security groups may
be provided to easily group projects and resources. These greatly reduce administration when new resources join
the organisation or a new project comes onboard. Ideally, the solution should provide flexibility in the way you can
approve time and in its ability to accommodate future changes in organisation structure or approval processes.
Approver Visibility
Providing your approvers with clear visibility into approved, unapproved and disapproved time and expenses is
paramount to the success of the approval process. Delivering this information in a format familiar to the user’s role
in the organisation is also key. For example, a line manager may simply need to see a breakdown of his team’s hours
across weeks or months with the ability to drill down to approve time. Whereas a project manager will need to drill
into each resource who has worked on their project and understand any implication on cost or progress before
approving time. Likewise, the Head of Professional Services will want to see how much unapproved revenue is sat in
the system awaiting approval, which once approved can subsequently be invoiced. Whether, through dashboards,
views or reports it is absolutely essential that each key stakeholder is provided with focused information, as this will
continually drive compliance and the benefits your organisations receives from the software.
End User Compliance
As we have discussed earlier, the key to the success of any timesheet solution is ease of use, accuracy of data and
end user compliance. By selecting a solution focused on these 3 criteria your end users should enter time in a timely
fashion, the data entered should be accurate meaning that approvals become easier and less time consuming, which
ultimately results in improved billing cycles and accurate real time management reporting. To enable this successful
process, the user interface is key, users should be provided with comprehensive compliance information as to the
approval status of their time with the ability to drill in and update any disapproved/incorrect time. In Atlantic
Global, any time or expense disapproved is automatically routed from the approver to the end user’s login
dashboard and is highlighted in red to visually notify the user that action is required.
Our guidelines for implementing a successful approval mechanism include:
• Quick and easy timesheet and expense entry
• Ability to enforce an approval mechanism
• Ability to automatically approve time and/or expense at an individual user level
• Ability to edit approved time definable at the user level
• Ability to define approval permissions at the project and resource level
• Permissions to support both line management and project based approvals
• Tie approvals to the billing process – ensure only approved time can be invoiced in the system
• Automatically route disapproved time from the approver to the end user
• Provide each user with approvals data relevant to their role in the organisation
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Measuring Organisational Performance
A well configured time and expense management solution should provide your organisation with comprehensive
management information on the state of your organisations performance, common metrics which you can analyse
include:
Utilisation
For organisations that charge for their resources time, understanding Chargeable Utilisation is an essential metric for
measuring the health of the organisation. By focusing on the utilisation of resources by project, you can assess
whether resources are achieving chargeable targets or identify any trends where a disproportionate amount of time
has been allocated to non revenue earning activities.
For non fee earning organisations, you may still use Utilisation to simply analyse the target weekly hours vs. actuals,
running this type of analysis over a substantial time period will enable you to identify working patterns or repeat
offenders who do not enter their timesheets regularly.
Productivity
With systems like Atlantic Global you can easily flag activities as productive or non productive, enabling you to
analyse the productivity and effectiveness of your employees. Analysing the proportion of administration work on
projects may point to a project which will struggle to deliver a return on investment or a resourcing issue where a
highly paid/high fee earning individual is spending a disproportionate amount of time on administrative tasks.
Profitability
By capturing and comparing cost and revenue in your system, you can easily analyse the profitability of your teams,
departments, clients, projects and activities. Focusing on your resources, you can ensure you have your highest fee
earners focused on your most profitable projects. By focusing on your projects, you can re‐evaluate the planning
process to improve future project profitability. By focusing on your clients, you can ensure you dedicate adequate
time to developing your most profitable relationships.
Progress
Tracking time against task and assignments will provide your organisation with an accurate method of tracking
project progress. By comparing planned effort vs. actual effort project managers can make informed decisions on
project progress and potential changes to the project plan. Tracking planned cost against actual cost and budgeted
cost, will enable your project managers to gain a comprehensive insight into the financial health of the project.
Tracking planned revenue vs. actual revenue will enable project managers to understand earned value and project
profitability.
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Real Time Management Reporting
An essential part of any time & expense management solution is that it provides a comprehensive set of standard
management reports based on real time data. These reports should be focused on the key metrics you use to
manage your business, such as:
• Detailed, Summary, Cross Tab & Graphical Reports
• Timesheet Exception Reports detailing missing and incomplete timesheets
• Project Cost Reports broken down by resource, activity, cost rate, role, department, task or
any user defined variable
• Revenue Reports broken down by client, project, resource, activity, department, charge
rate, role or any user defined variable
• Budget Reports detailing budget vs. actuals broken down by time, cost, charge and
expenditure
• Time Off reports detailing holiday and sickness
• Billable Time reports comparing chargeable vs. non chargeable effort by project and
resource
• Invoice Reports detailing invoiced vs. chargeable vs. non chargeable work
As well as offering access to reports via a menu system, more advanced time and expense management solutions
like Atlantic Global OnDemand allow you to gain access to reports from specific screens and dashboards.
Context Sensitive Reports
Vital to the adoption of any system is that you make the system as easy to use and as relevant to the end user as
possible. Tools like Atlantic Global OnDemand achieve this by offering context sensitive reports. Context sensitive
reports enable users to run a report with a single click from any screen in the application without having to specify
any filter criteria. For example, a user can easily run a timesheet detail or utilisation report directly from the
timesheet entry screen. This functionality enables us to provide each user with access to their most commonly used
reports directly from the views they use the most.
Dashboard Reports
Another example of improving the ease of use and access to data is Atlantic Global OnDemand’s ability to provide
access to reports directly from dashboards, for example, a project manager can quickly access all project
management based reports directly from their project status dashboard. Working in this manner means you can
provide a user with a single point of entry to the system via a dashboard, where they can access all of the status
information, views and reports they required for their role in the organisation. By hiding them from any non
relevant functionality it becomes far easier to train people on the use of the system and to provide them with clear
focus on the data they should be maintaining and updating.
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Another key aspect of Atlantic Global OnDemand is that it allows each user to print selected dashboard elements,
meaning status reports can easily be produced with a single click.
Custom Report Writer
To support all of your reporting needs it is essential that your time and expense management solution provides you
with the ability to generate your own ad hoc reports to cover any additional reporting requirements which are not
met by the standard reports provided with the application. For ease of use, the report writer should provide the
user with a graphical user interface that does not require the use of any coding languages. The report writer should
also provide the ability to generate text, column, cross‐tab and graphical reports. Solutions like Atlantic Global
OnDemand also offer the ability to clone and manipulate the standard reports in order to add additional fields or
filtering options to meet your individual reporting needs. With SaaS solutions, a strong user community and product
road map also means that these type of systems offer the ability to load or import additional report definitions
enabling you to constantly extend your system reporting capabilities.
Export reports
The final aspect of reporting that your solution should offer, is the ability to export data so that you can use and
manipulate it in other systems. In order to do this, you should be able to export data directly from reports in
common data formats such as MS Excel, XML, PDF and HTML.
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Top 10 Implementation Tips
In order to ensure a successful time and expense management implementation, our top tips are:
1. Quick & Easy to Use
One of your initial obstacles when implementing a system will be to get users to use the system. Ensuring the
system is quick and easy to use and is focused on the end user experience should be your top priority. This will
greatly aid the adoption of the system and will significantly reduce implementation costs as little or no training will
be required.
2. Promotes End User Compliance
There is little point investing in a solution and focusing your efforts on getting users to input time only for the usage
to tail off over time. Implementing a system which focuses users on compliance will ensure the longevity of the
solution and that your organisation receives continual benefits.
3. Focus on Data Quality
Make certain that the system you select provides features such as, data restrictions and access control to ensure
users can only use specific functions and access specific data. This will provide users with focus and ensure you limit
data entry errors and increase the overall data quality in the system.
4. Ability to track Time, Cost, Expenditure and Revenue
Your initial requirement may only be to record time, however, making sure your system is future proofed and will
allow you to additionally track cost, charge and expenditure will ensure you can extend the usage of the system in
future to measure project performance and profitability.
5. Comprehensive Real Time Management Reporting
For many organisations one of the key drivers for moving to a web based time and expense management solution is
to improve the quality of reporting and remove the delays associated with consolidating data from MS Excel
Spreadsheets or Paper Based Systems. Implementing a solution with “Real Time” management reporting will greatly
improve your ability to make informed decisions and provide a more accurate insight into the health of your
organisation.
6. Simple to Implement
Ensuring the system is simple to implement without a large investment in consultancy effort will ensure you receive
a quicker return on investment. Unlike traditional on‐premise installations where your supplier will charge for
implementation, configuration and training, SaaS solutions like Atlantic Global OnDemand provide all of these
services as part of the initial setup. By registering for a 30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand you will receive full
access to the solution within minutes and be provided with the opportunity to register for free daily training sessions
and a full data load.
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6. Cost Effective and will deliver a Positive Return on Investment
To ensure your solution delivers a positive return on investment you need to calculate the full extent of the
investment. With on‐premise software you will require database servers, web servers, database licenses, web server
licenses, software licenses along with the appropriate security and remote access. There are also hidden costs in the
people required to maintain the infrastructure as well as annual support and maintenance charges. In many
organisations this can be a significant cost. By selecting or moving to a SaaS solution there are no hidden costs, you
receive the infrastructure, security, software and support for one low cost monthly fee.
7. The Supplier can add value to the Business
A successful implementation should be more like a partnership than a simple customer/supplier relationship. Ideally
your selected partner should continually review the system with you and be able to provide advice on how you can
improve your return on investment or use the software to make additional cost savings. Regular user groups,
workshops and forums will enable you to share in the experiences and cost savings of other users.
8. Provides additional functionality with minimal impact on cost
As your system usage and maturity increases so will your requirements. Implementing a solution that will grow with
your business is vital. Systems that offer client billing and budget tracking as part of the time and expense
management functionality will allow you to easily extend your functionality by turning on additional features.
Solutions like Atlantic Global OnDemand also provide fully integrated project costing, project planning, resource
scheduling, risk management and customer relationship management functionality. Administrators can simply
activate the appropriate module and allocate existing licenses to extend the functionality without any additional
activation fees, consultancy services or impact on existing users.
9. Dashboard Driven Approach
Presenting data to the end user in a clear and consistent method is essential to the success of a solution. Solutions
which offer role based dashboards improve the visibility and usage of the system throughout your organisation and
enable you to focus users on progress, performance and status. Solutions like Atlantic Global OnDemand provide
dashboards designed for Basic Users, Line Managers, Resource Managers, Project Managers, Finance and Executives
to ensure all stake holders have clear visibility into relevant performance and status data associated with their role in
the organisation.
10. Clear Upgrade Path and Product Road Map
Understanding the future cost of ownership of any solution is vital. Whether there are any license costs or
consultancy services required to upgrade are essential questions to be asked of any supplier. Also understanding
your supplier’s product road map will enable you to assess the value of the software to the business now and any
potential added value in the future. It will also enable you to assess the longevity of the solution. With Atlantic
Global OnDemand all upgrade costs are included as part of your subscription, regular product releases are posted on
the service website and regular user groups provide a clear insight into the future product road map.
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30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand
Sign up today for your 30 Day Trial of Atlantic Global OnDemand to see how your organisation can benefit, visit –
http://www.atlantic‐ec.com/contact.html?from=30_day_trial and complete the online form. As part of your Trial we
can provide:
• A full data load of all your people, project and reference data
• A free configuration consultation with a dedicated Solution Expert
• Free User Guides
• Daily Online Training Sessions
• Weekly Configuration Workshops
About Atlantic Global OnDemand
Atlantic Global OnDemand is a comprehensive suite of business software designed to manage every aspect of your
business. Built around role based dashboards, Atlantic Global OnDemand provides a cost effective, easy to use
solution to all of your organisations people, project and customer relationship management processes.
Atlantic Global OnDemand is delivered via 4 core modules. Users can purchase individual or multiple modules to
fulfil their solution requirements. Modules include:
Timesheet & Expense Management
Atlantic Global OnDemand includes comprehensive time sheet tracking and expense management functionality. The
solution is highly flexible, quick and easy to use and offers a rapid return on investment regardless of your business
model, sector or size.
Project Management
Atlantic Global OnDemand provides your organisation with a consistent toolset for the planning of projects and the
organisation and management of resources to ensure the successful completion of project tasks, goals and
objectives. Coupled with an intuitive project dashboard which provides users with a real time view of the health of
projects, Atlantic Global OnDemand provides a comprehensive, easy to use project management tool.
Project Portfolio Management
Atlantic Global OnDemand is a powerful Project Portfolio Management software tool that provides you with a
controlled and predictable method for planning, managing and executing your portfolio of projects and programmes
as well as enabling you to manage the resource capability of your business more effectively.
Customer Relationship Management
Atlantic Global OnDemand is a highly configurable, powerful, customer relationship management software
application that allows the definition, tracking and management of all external and internal information streams.
More than a conventional CRM solution, Atlantic Global OnDemand allows you to define business dashboards and
processes in the system.
For further details visit http://www.atlantic‐ec.com. Alternatively contact a Solution Expert on +44 (0)1274 863300.
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