Eureka! Software’s Time Costing & Analysis application is specifically designed for the public sector. It enables professionals and support staff to record, cost and analyse work carried out, helping them account for the services they provide and charge for them accordingly.
As work is entered onto timesheets the cost is instantly calculated based upon staff costs plus any additional overheads. Many reports are available which then allow this time and cost data to be fully analysed at any custom level. Keeping track of projects/jobs is also possible by entering target and completion dates against stages for each project. Many reports help identify out of date stages, out of date projects or projects which are uncompleted/completed etc. Staff budgets can also be allocated against projects/cost centres. These can be entered on a percentage, unit/time or cost basis and reports can then be run to help analyse actual cost versus budget predictions. Initial budget allocation can be accelerated by preparing the following year's budget using actual cost data from previous years.
A sophisticated charging mechanism is also incorporated which allows charges to be allocated in a variety of ways e.g. at actual cost, set amount each year/month/period, fixed fee, hourly/unit charge, staff rate, charge per transaction or charge upon completion of stage or project. Once charges have been raised, clients can be invoiced for the services received and, if required, a charge journal can be produced for subsequent transfer to the General Ledger or Financial Information System. Standard charge reports show charges raised and comparison reports identify any variance between actual costs and charges.
With a database structured around hierarchies and user-defined parameters, our Time Costing and Analysis application is a highly flexible system. Such flexibility makes it an ideal corporate solution for time costing but it works equally well when installed in individual departments or business units.
Below is an example of a typical database structure. Click on any box to view sample data.
The ‘Resources’ hierarchy represents the departments, sections and staff who are recording time. The ‘Work’ hierarchy holds data relating to the type of work and specific activities, tasks or stages carried out. The ‘Client’ hierarchy is where the client data is held; clients may be sub-divided into cost centres, divisions etc and subsequently projects, jobs, cases or files associated with them. All hierarchy labels can be user-defined, allowing your authority's terminology to be used.
In summary, staff record:
The hierarchies become linked as time recording takes place: members of staff record time against projects plus activities/tasks/stages relating to the detail of work carried out e.g. an inspection, a telephone call, a meeting, or a review. The ‘Work’ hierarchy is optional and may be excluded if the recording of activities, tasks or stages is not required.
A variety of time recording options and features:
Salaries and overheads can be combined to create accurate unit cost rates. The system automatically costs upon timesheet entry and allows retrospective amendments. If you need to differentiate between productive and non-Productive time (or between chargeable and non-chargeable time) that will also be taken into account when costs are calculated.
The ability to control staff budgets is crucial in any time costing system, and Eureka! offers considerable flexibility in this area. Staff budgets can be allocated to clients, cost centres, projects etc, on a percentage, unit or cost basis and there’s also a facility to model future budget years on past actuals.
Powerful report generators and standard reports enable managers and supervisors to analyse data at summary and detailed levels. Whether you need to know how much time has been spent by the whole organisation on a particular cost centre or whether you’re interested in how much it costs to perform a specific task, Eureka! will provide the information you need.
