Could the system lock a task at its budgeted hours, so that resources can’t book time beyond the allocated budget?
At the moment, overruns only show up after the hours have already been booked. By then the time is spent, it has gone through timesheets, and it’s often too late to recover it within the fee or raise a variation with the client. PMs end up explaining overruns after the fact when they should be managing them as they develop.
A hard stop at the budgeted hours would mean that when a resource reaches the limit, they have to raise it with the PM before booking any more time. That prompt gives the PM a chance to find out why the task needs more effort. It could be a scope change that should go to the client as a variation, an underestimate that needs re-forecasting, or work being booked to the wrong task code. Each of those calls for a different response, and all of them are easier to handle while the work is still underway.
The lock would also make our reporting more accurate. Budget-to-actual figures would show genuine overruns that have been reviewed and approved, rather than hours that slipped through unnoticed. Over time we’d get better data for estimating similar tasks on future projects.
Could the system lock a task at its budgeted hours, so that resources can’t book time beyond the allocated budget?
At the moment, overruns only show up after the hours have already been booked. By then the time is spent, it has gone through timesheets, and it’s often too late to recover it within the fee or raise a variation with the client. PMs end up explaining overruns after the fact when they should be managing them as they develop.
A hard stop at the budgeted hours would mean that when a resource reaches the limit, they have to raise it with the PM before booking any more time. That prompt gives the PM a chance to find out why the task needs more effort. It could be a scope change that should go to the client as a variation, an underestimate that needs re-forecasting, or work being booked to the wrong task code. Each of those calls for a different response, and all of them are easier to handle while the work is still underway.
The lock would also make our reporting more accurate. Budget-to-actual figures would show genuine overruns that have been reviewed and approved, rather than hours that slipped through unnoticed. Over time we’d get better data for estimating similar tasks on future projects.
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