Overview
The Project Health Overview is a report that will allow you to check on how well your projects are doing by giving you a comprehensive view of the project as you sold it, the current state and your projections for the future.
The report allows you to compare variances on Margins, Hours, and Revenue while also looking at EAC% and effective rates.
How does it work? | |
Is there a way to look at Project Health over time? |
This isn't the only report that will be useful to you. Check out this article for info on another helpful report. |
How does it work?
There's a lot to see within the Project Health, so we've broken the page down into sections to help you navigate and understand what you're looking at. Check them out below:
(1) Filters
Like all Insights Reports, Filters will help you hone in on specific segments of data and time-windows. You can sort by Project Status, Clients, Financial Models, Stages, Project Owners and Sales Owners to hone in on specific segments. This is also where you'll find the Date Filter being applied to the report.
(2) Alerts
Alerts will summarize several of the columns below, to get you overall data. These can be broadly grouped into the following groups:
- Average Margin - You can view Averages for Sold Margin, Actual Margin and Projected Margin to compare what you're selling, what's happened so far based on Timesheets, and what that Margin currently looks like for the end of the Project.
- Total Hours - The total for Sold Hours, Actual Hours and Projected Hours across all of your Projects for easy comparison.
- Total Revenue - The overall total for Sold Revenue, Actual Revenue and Projected Revenue to get you an idea of the gap between what you're selling and where you're projected to be across all Projects.
- Average Rates - This shows the averages on Sold Rate and Effective Rate in order to give you an idea if you're billing overall at the rate you expect. Note- Average Sold Rate excludes projects without a Sold Snapshot but Effective Rate is an average of all data shown on the data table.
Overall, this section represents the big picture based on all of your Projects within the filter selections you've made.
(3) Key/Columns/Search Filter
On the right side above the Data Table, you'll find the Key - this will explain any alerts you see. If you want to look at a specific Project, use the Search function. You can also filter out Columns in the Data set that are not relevant to you using Columns - that way you can decide what's important!
You'll also find a CSV download button to save a copy of your data set.
(4) Drill Down Column
Unlike other reports, where drill downs are separate tabs - here you dive right into Variances by Offering, Role or Person to see how they relate to a Project overall - all without switching to a new view! You'll find this by clicking an arrow in the far left Column for a particular Project.
This is useful for identifying specific Offerings or People within a Project that are driving the data you're seeing without having to open a new page.
(5) Project Info Columns
These Columns show general facts about the Project; the Project Name, Project Owner, the Client, and what Billing Model is used. These columns will help you identify any Projects you want to look at.
(6) Project Progress Columns
These Columns tell you about the general progress within the Project, your current EAC%*, when the Project will Start/End, along with what percentage of time you've completed (Duration Completed). If you're using our PM Integration (Jira or Asana), you can also find Work Completed (which compares work Backlog to work Completed).
Parallax Tip: What is EAC%?
EAC is the Estimate at Completion percentage, it compares your Projected Revenue to your Target Budget, letting you know how far over or under your goal your current Projected Budget is.
(7) Margin Columns
These Columns are all about comparing Margin to show you what you Sold for, where you're currently at, and where you're going. Check these columns to see:
- Sold Margin - Margin you Planned at time of sale.
- Actual Margin - Margin to date based on Actuals from Timesheets.
- Projected Margin - What Margin will looks like based on current Actuals, if you complete all Plans.
- Margin Variance - This tells you the difference between the Margin Projected right now, and what you Sold using those columns.
You'll use these columns to track the health of Project Margins. Collectively, they'll tell you not just where your margins are right now, but also where that margin is projected to be at the end of the project and how different this is from how you sold the Project. This will help hone in on high margin projects, while identifying projects that are less profitable.
(8) Hours Columns
These Columns are much the same as Margin, but directed specifically at Hours. Check these columns to see:
- Sold Hours - Hours you Planned at time of sale.
- Actual Hours - Hours recorded to date based on Actuals from Timesheets.
- Hours Used - What percentage of hours are left (calculated as Actuals divided by Sold).
- Projected Hours - How many Hours you'll execute, based on current Actuals, if you complete all Plans.
- Hours Variance - This tells you the difference between the Hours Projected right now, and what you Sold using those columns.
Unlike Revenue and Margin, these columns come with the added bonus of telling you how much of the allocated hours you've currently burned through. Think of this as your "budget" for hours. A Project may have just started, but has already used up most of the budgeted Actual hours. This can be a great indicator of when to slow down, speed up, or spread out Allocations to help avoid going over budget.
Together these Columns help you check the health of your projects from a time-management standpoint, identifying which projects are currently projected to come in under and over budgeted hours, allowing you to shift around resources accordingly.
(9) Revenue Columns
These columns do for Revenue what the previous columns do for Hours/Margin; they tell you:
- Sold Revenue - Revenue you Planned at time of sale.
- Target Budget - The Budget that was set within your CRM for this Deal.
- Actual Revenue - Revenue to date based on Actuals from Timesheets.
- Projected Revenue - What Revenue will look like based on current Actuals, if you complete all Plans.
- Margin Revenue - This tells you the difference between the Revenue Projected right now, and what you Sold using those columns.
With these Columns you can identify the health of your projects from a standpoint of Revenue and tell you if you are meeting, missing, or exceeding the Revenue based on what you planned out when you sold the Project.
(10) Rate Comparison Columns
These Columns will get at the Sold Rate that was set at the time of Sale and the Effective Rate (which is Budgeted per the period set in Financial Settings), so they can be compared.
(11) Opportunity Cost Column
This Column will tell you the Hours Variance multiplied by Sold Rate to get you an idea of the opportunity cost represented by this Project.
Parallax Tip: What does Projected mean?
No matter what metric you're applying it to, when Parallax refers to "Projected" this generally means (Past Actual Data + Future Planned Data). To use the example of Hours, Projected Hours are calculated as Past Actual Hours (from your Timesheets) plus Future Planned Hours that you've allocated in Parallax.
Is there a way to look at Project Health over time?
The Project Health Report is a great tool because it tells you your current state of affairs, but how can you track Project Health over time? This is where our Project Health by Period Report comes in!