Full Sail Partners Blog

If you’ve ever spent hours reformatting project sheets, fee proposals, or team summaries—only to realize you were using outdated data—you’re going to love this.

Deltek Vantagepoint’s new Document Automation feature is here to save you from that pain (and probably a few late nights, too).

The Magic of Document Automation ✨

You already know Vantagepoint can generate reports, dashboards, and exports—but Document Automation takes it a step further. It lets you create polished, client-ready documents directly from your browser using live data from Vantagepoint.

Think of it as your shortcut to professional-looking deliverables in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint—without ever leaving the system.

The best part? The templates pull your firm’s actual data (including custom fields and grids), so your documents stay perfectly in sync with what’s already in Vantagepoint. No more duplicate files or outdated info hiding in random network folders.

Right now, Document Automation lives in the Projects Hub, but Deltek has plans to expand it to other hubs soon. And trust me—you’ll want to be ready for that.

Real-World Use Cases You’ll See in Action

In my upcoming mini-demo, I’ll walk through three powerful (and practical) ways to put this tool to work for your firm:

1. Project Case Studies

Tired of maintaining static PDFs or Word files for every project? With Document Automation, you can instantly generate up-to-date case studies using live project data. Each page pulls data directly from your Vantagepoint records, pre-formatted with your firm’s branding, and ready to drop into a proposal or marketing package.

2. Fee Proposals

Project managers, this one’s for you.

Instead of copy-pasting from outdated templates, you can use Document Automation—plus a little workflow magic—to build fee proposals that pull directly from Vantagepoint fields and even the Boilerplates Hub. Scopes, exclusions, and terms all populate automatically. The result? A polished proposal that’s accurate, consistent, and includes your firm’s letterhead—all with one click.

3. Team Matrices

Ever need to show who’s worked on what? With Document Automation and Excel, you can create a clean, pivot-table-style Team Matrix showing which team members worked on selected projects. It’s perfect for internal reviews or proposal resumes—and it looks great, too.

Why This Matters

Document Automation does more than make things look nice (though it absolutely does that). It helps your firm:

• 🧭 Maintain Vantagepoint as a single source of truth
• 🕒 Save time spent hunting down and reformatting project info
• 📄 Eliminate outdated or duplicate document versions
• 💡 Create consistency across departments—marketing, project management, and accounting alike

Want to See It in Action?

Join me for a 15-minute mini-demo where I’ll walk through exactly how these templates are built and used inside Vantagepoint. You’ll see how to generate:

• Project case studies
• Fee proposals
• Team matrices

—all without ever leaving your browser.

👉 Register here to save your spot!

If your firm is ready to modernize how you produce proposals, reports, and project documents, our CRM experts can help you set up your own templates and workflows to get the most out of this powerful feature.

The way we work has changed and looks very different than it did even just a decade ago. Teams are no longer tied to one office or one location, and many employees are collaborating from home, on project sites, and even across the world. While this shift has opened exciting opportunities such as new levels of productivity and talent reach, it also creates unique challenges around data access, security, and system performance leading management to ask, “How can firms keep everyone connected, secure, and equipped to grow?”

That’s where cloud hosting solutions come in. By moving your firm’s systems and data to the cloud, you can give your teams the secure access they need, while ensuring your business is ready to scale as it grows.

Secure Access from Anywhere

One of the most critical requirements for today’s workforce is the ability to access information and applications from any location. In today’s business environment, flexibility is key. Cloud hosting allows employees to log in securely whether they’re in the office, on the road, or at a client site. Instead of being limited to a single computer or network, your team can access the tools and information they need whenever and wherever they’re working.

For executives, this also means more reliable visibility into project performance and financials. Leaders can access dashboards, reports, and KPIs in real time—without waiting for updates from siloed systems. That level of access supports faster decision-making, better client responsiveness, and stronger competitive positioning.

Protecting What Matters Most

Security is not optional—it’s essential. Cybersecurity threats are a concern for every business, and for good reason. Cloud hosting providers offer layers of protection that go far beyond what most firms can maintain on their own, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and continuous monitoring. By leveraging a cloud hosting solution, firms can confidently protect client data and proprietary information, meeting both internal security needs and regulatory requirements. This means peace of mind for executives and confidence for your clients.

For IT managers, cloud hosting also provides access to enterprise-grade security tools without the burden of managing them in-house. Routine patches, threat detection, and compliance audits are handled by experts, reducing risk while freeing up valuable internal resources.

Effortless Scalability

Growth brings opportunity—and technical demands. Adding new staff, projects, or locations can put strain on in-house systems. As your firm takes on new projects or adds more staff, your technology needs to grow too. With cloud hosting, scaling is simple. You can quickly add capacity or users without having to purchase new servers or go through complicated system upgrades. It’s a solution designed to grow with your business, not hold it back.

This agility is especially valuable for project-based firms that experience seasonal or project-driven fluctuations in demand. The ability to scale up or down ensures resources are used efficiently, helping to maximize profitability while supporting business expansion.

Simplifying IT Management

Managing IT infrastructure in-house can be expensive and time-consuming. Cloud hosting shifts that responsibility to the hosting provider. With cloud hosting, firms no longer need to budget for costly servers, hardware upgrades, or extensive onsite IT staff. The hosting provider is the one that will handle updates, maintenance, and troubleshooting, so your team can focus on serving clients and growing the business.

For executives, the predictable monthly cost structure provides budgeting clarity, while IT leaders benefit from being able to redirect their focus from “keeping the lights on” to more strategic initiatives like digital transformation and data analytics.

Making the Move with Confidence

For firms embracing remote teams and distributed project sites, cloud hosting is more than just a technology upgrade—it’s a strategic investment. By delivering secure remote access, protecting what matters most, and offering effortless scalability, hosting solutions empower the agile workforce to thrive in a fast-paced, evolving business environment.

Whether you’re an executive looking for business continuity and growth or an IT manager seeking operational efficiency and reduced risk, cloud hosting positions your firm to meet today’s demands—and tomorrow’s opportunities.

Ready to explore how Deltek Cloud hosting can support your firm’s future?

Take the first step today by filling out our Cloud Conversion Interest Form. Our team will help you evaluate your options and build a secure, scalable path forward.

At Full Sail Partners, we like to say our Blackbox Connector never sleeps. Just when you think it can’t get any better, we roll out new ways to make Deltek Vantagepoint play nice with the other systems you use every day. Because let’s be real, nobody has time for duplicate entry, manual imports, or spreadsheets running wild.

This fall, we’re dropping some exciting updates including new connectors and enhancements that bring your HR, marketing, and reporting tools into perfect sync with Vantagepoint. More connection, less clicking. Let’s dive in.

Human Capital Management (HCM) and HRIS Connectors

Biggest game-changer? Employee data finally has a single home. Our HCM and HRIS connectors are designed to make sure HR, payroll, accounting, and project teams are all working from the same, accurate records.

Here’s what’s live (and what’s coming soon):

• ADP Workforce Now – Our OG connector that set the stage for the rest.
• Paylocity – Perfect for firms running payroll and benefits through Paylocity.
• BambooHR – Keep employee records clean and consistent between BambooHR and Vantagepoint.

The beauty? These connectors are pre-built but still configurable, so they adapt to your firm’s unique data needs. No more “which system has the right info?” headaches.

📢 Want to learn more? Join our upcoming webinar: How to Successfully Integrate Your HCM and HRIS System with Deltek. We’ll show you best practices, common lessons learned, and how these connectors save serious time.

Email Marketing Connectors

Your marketing team called. They want less data wrangling and more actual marketing. That’s where our new email marketing connectors step in.

• HubSpot Connector – Build lists in Vantagepoint, sync them over to HubSpot, then pull engagement data right back in for follow-up.
• Mailchimp Connector – Same idea, different platform. Connect contacts, campaigns, and performance seamlessly.

With these connectors, your firm can finally see opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes inside Vantagepoint. Translation? Better campaign measurement and a direct tie between marketing efforts and business development results.

Heads up: these integrations work best with clean contact data. A little prep—like eliminating duplicates and organizing your contact hub—goes a long way toward smooth sailing.

📢 Want proof? Watch our webinar: How HR Green Unified Marketing with HubSpot + Deltek Vantagepoint. You’ll hear a client story plus see the connector demo in action.

Extending Vantagepoint Reporting with Informer

We didn’t stop at HR and marketing. With Informer, our Blackbox Connector brings your Vantagepoint data into a business intelligence playground.

We’ve built a library of dashboards for:

• Business development
• Finance and accounting
• Project and team management

Need something custom? No problem. Informer reporting can be tailored to show exactly what leaders need—so you can spot trends, track performance, and make decisions with confidence.

Staying Connected, Staying Competitive

At the end of the day, project-based firms need to work smarter, not harder. By connecting Vantagepoint with the tools you already use, Blackbox Connector cuts out the noise so you can focus on what matters most—serving your clients.

From HR to marketing to BI, our latest updates are built with one mission: keep you connected, efficient, and ahead of the competition. And we’re just getting started.

💡 Next Steps:

• Register for How to Successfully Integrate Your HCM and HRIS System with Deltek
• Watch the recorded session: How HR Green Unified Marketing with HubSpot + Deltek Vantagepoint
• Reach out to us at Info@Blackboxconnector.com to learn more

October is here, which means it’s officially Droptoberfest—our month-long celebration of all the new “drops” from Deltek Vantagepoint and our Blackbox Connector lineup. And let me tell you, the latest release, Vantagepoint 2025.3, has plenty of exciting new features, worth raising a stein for. From smoother timesheets to smarter dashboards, this release is packed with features that will make your daily work just a little easier (and maybe even more fun).

Past Opt-In Features Now Standard

Before diving into the shiny new stuff, here’s a quick win: all previous opt-in features from previous Vantagepoint versions are now standard in Vantagepoint 2025.3. That means no extra setup, toggling, or hunting through settings—they’re already turned on and ready for your team. Sometimes the best improvements are the ones that just quietly make life easier.

Making Navigation Work for You

One of the most noticeable changes your firm may utilize is customizing the navigation menu. You can now rearrange your main and submenus, which means your system can finally reflect how you actually work instead of forcing you into a predefined structure. On top of that, you can even create your own custom menu items. Want a top-level menu that links directly to your HR portal, intranet, or even your favorite Full Sail Partners blog page? Now you can. It’s a small update with a big impact—your team will spend less time clicking around and more time getting work done.

A Better Timesheet Experience

We all know timesheets aren’t exactly the most-loved feature of any system, but Vantagepoint 2025.3 has made some improvements that take away a few of the daily headaches. Timesheets can now automatically open in the current period, so you’re always in the right place without extra clicks. Note – this is a user preference, so share with your staff to turn it on! If your firm tracks overtime or meal breaks, those fields now appear automatically, eliminating the extra click to show those fields.

And here’s where it gets interesting: timesheets can now trigger workflows when saved. That means you could automatically notify a manager, update a system, or kick off a review process as soon as someone hits “save.” It’s another step toward less chasing and more automation—something we can all cheer for.

More Control Over Fields and Contracts

For firms that thrive on customization, there’s even more good news. Screen Designer in now allows a “document field to be added to user defined grids and the Contract Management standard grid, which can then be tied to workflows. This opens the door for richer data collection and better automation in your processes. Additionally, on the contract side, any user-defined field can now be added to contract management, making it easier to capture the unique information your projects require.

Billing also got some attention in this release. In the Billing Terms list view, you can now select multiple projects and update columns directly from the list view. If you’ve ever had to make the same change across dozens of projects, you know how much of a time-saver this really is.

Email, Reporting, and Search Upgrades

2025.3 also brings some behind-the-scenes improvements that give you greater visibility and save you from repetitive tasks. An email log is now available under Settings, allowing you to track up to 90 days of emails sent from the system. No more wondering if that invoice notification or project update ever actually went out. Reporting also got smarter with the ability to save search and download options, so you don’t have to rebuild filters each time. And cross-hub searching is now available in the Project Hub, letting you pull in more fields and grids with ease.

Dashboards Get a Full Six-Pack of Enhancements

If your firm lives and breathes by dashboards, this release is practically a party. You can now sort and group dashparts by project open and win/loss dates, giving you sharper insights into your pipeline and performance. User-defined hubs are now available as a dashpart base, extending your dashboard capabilities even further.

There’s also a new Dashpart Health Check tool that lets you see how well your dashboards are performing—a great way to identify what’s working and what’s slowing things down. Predefined dashparts from Deltek Clarity and Accounts Payable bring industry-standard comparisons and financial visibility right to your dashboards. And finally, the system now remembers your filters by user, so you don’t have to reset them every time you log in. Taken together, these dashboard updates make your data not only more accessible but also more meaningful.

Smaller but Mighty Enhancements

Beyond the headline features, 2025.3 has plenty of thoughtful touches. You’ll now see the application name whenever you open a new browser tab, making it easier to juggle multiple sessions. Selective importing and exporting of dashparts reduces clutter. Journal entries have expanded support for user-defined fields and browser importing. And payroll users will be happy to see updated utilities for W-2 corrections and pay interface compatibility. Document Automation has also been enhanced, letting you insert text and images directly from templates or project hubs at runtime.

Why It Matters

At its core, Vantagepoint 2025.3 is about smoothing out the rough edges—fewer clicks, less repetition, more flexibility, and better visibility. These aren’t flashy changes for the sake of it. They’re practical improvements designed to save your team time and reduce frustration, which adds up to real value over the course of projects and across the firm.

Keep the Droptoberfest Fun Going 🎃🍻

We’ve only skimmed the surface here. To really see these new features in action watch my webinar where I’ll walk you through the highlights and answer your questions. You’ll leave with practical ways to take advantage of everything 2025.3 has to offer.

👉 Click here to watch

And if your firm is ready to go even deeper—whether that’s customizing workflows, designing dashboards, or exploring automation—our team at Full Sail Partners is here to help. Droptoberfest is the perfect time to drop old habits and raise a glass to smoother, smarter operations with Deltek Vantagepoint.

Happy Droptoberfest, friends!

Deltek ProjectCon 2025 is right around the corner. As the big event we all look forward to each year, Deltek’s conference offers three days of fun, networking, and of course, learning. Thousands of Deltek users come together for the opportunity to participate in hundreds of educational sessions covering a large range of topics. Are you ready to maximize your use of Deltek Vantagepoint?

This year, Deltek ProjectCon will be held in Denver at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center from November 10-12, 2025. As a Silver Sponsor, Full Sail Partners will have a kiosk booth where attendees can stop by to meet up with our crew and talk about the exciting things happening in the world of Vantagepoint.

Elevate Your CRM Strategy with our Expert

Wesley Witsken, Senior CRM Consultant with Full Sail Partners will be showcasing the possibilities of Vantagepoint CRM at his session [VPSPON-01] Elevate Your CRM Strategy: Dashboards, Connectors & AI Innovations in Vantagepoint.

If you are curious about how far you can take Vantagepoint CRM, you will enjoy this learning experience. Wesley will be exploring advanced dashboards and demonstrating how to manage IDIQ and Master Agreements with a custom hub and automate marketing using the HubSpot Connector. Moreover, you will see how AI is changing the game with our InDesign-to-Vantagepoint assistant for faster implementations. Full Sail Partners strives to create innovative solutions for our clients and is thrilled to have Wesley present this year.

Get Pumped for Even More Learning from Your Peers

Interested in more educational opportunities at Deltek ProjectCon 2025? Two of Full Sail Partners’ clients will also be presenting. Cameron Hoffman, Deltek Vantagepoint Administrator, with LSA Associates and Kelly Duquette, Director of ERP Systems, with DCCM will share their expert insight with attendees. There is so much to learn about the capabilities of Deltek Vantagepoint and how your firm can benefit.

Cameron Hoffman, with LSA Associates, will be offering [VP-58] Extend Vantagepoint's Functionality: Unlock the Power of the Vantagepoint API. This hands-on session is designed for developers and technical stakeholders. Here you will learn to unlock the full potential of the Vantagepoint API. Cameron will be exploring the API’s core capabilities, best practices, and real-world use cases. He will show you how to extend Vantagepoint’s functionality, streamline data exchange, and build smarter, more connected solutions that support your organization’s workflows.

Kelly Duquette, with DCCM, will be addressing Multi-Company challenges in her session, [VP-43] Dashboards That Deliver: Transform Your Multi-Company Firm with Vantagepoint Dashboards. If you are tired of repeated report requests from project managers, supervisors, or corporate teams, here you can learn how one multi-company firm used Vantagepoint dashboards to give users instant access to project and employee data with no report running or pushing required. In this session, Kelly will cover the firm’s initial deployment challenges, why they pivoted their approach, and how their dashboard strategy evolved to meet diverse user needs.

And, if you are looking for even more interesting learning experiences at Deltek ProjectCon 2025, plan to attend these additional sessions. Gail Maldonado, CRM Database Manager, with HR Green, Inc. and Stacey Ho, Lead Operations Data Manager with Delve Underground are both experts in their fields. Full Sail Partners has had the pleasure of working with these fabulous Deltek firms and these sessions would be worth your time.

In her session, [VP-12] Drive Action: How to Create Meaningful Dashboards to Support Better Decision-Making, Gail Maldonado, with HR Green, will show attendees how to create dashboards that drive action. She will explain how Vantagepoint dashboards clarify business development (BD) by highlighting key metrics like pursuit workload, win/loss rates, and proposal deadlines. As a Vantagepoint customer, she will show you real examples of how dashboards support decisions and empower BD, marketing, and leadership teams. Moreover, Gail will also demonstrate practical tools, filtering, conditional formatting, calculated fields, and trending, to help you build dashboards that deliver measurable impact.

Stacey Ho, with Delve Underground, is presenting [VP-16] High Five! Five Days to Marketing Success with Vantagepoint. It is difficult to carve out time to manage data when you are juggling priorities, but if you are still using marked-up spreadsheets or manual forms, this session is a must. Stacey will give you five practical tips, one for each day of the workweek, to help Vantagepoint work harder for your marketing team. From campaigns to workflows to feedback, you will learn how to track progress, set reminders, update in real time, and measure results to share with your team.

Keep the Energy Moving at Deltek ProjectCon 2025

With a packed agenda, Deltek ProjectCon 2025 is designed to help clients maximize their use of their Deltek solutions. Users of Vantagepoint will glean their share of knowledge from the multitude of learning sessions by experts and networking with peers. There will be plenty of opportunities to hear case stories of how leading firms have won and delivered successful projects while boosting revenue and productivity.

Alongside all the learning and networking, there is still room for fun too. Don’t forget to stop by the Full Sail Partners’ kiosk booth. We will be past the Pro Services area back by the Modern Lounge in kiosk 23A. Our crew looks forward to speaking with you about Deltek Vantagepoint and you never know what we have up our sleeves. Also, Deltek will be closing out ProjectCon 2025 in true Colorado style, with a night at the National Western Complex. There will be a western-themed welcome and a taste of local cuisine, followed by an exclusive rodeo.

So, ready to pack your bags? We are! See you at ProjectCon 2025 in Denver!

When it comes to managing projects, the details matter—and that’s exactly where Deltek Vantagepoint Planning shines. With the right setup, you can configure, streamline, and forecast with confidence. If your firm has Resource Planning licensing, you’ll unlock even more advanced tools to make sure your team has control over project data, your way. Whether you’re already knee-deep in Vantagepoint or just starting to explore, here’s a breakdown of what’s possible.

Smarter Configuration Options

Fine-tune Job-to-Date Calculations
By default, Vantagepoint calculates Job-to-Date through today. But if your team isn’t logging time daily, this can create some surprises. The quick fix? Adjust the basis to yesterday or even last week’s end for a truer snapshot.

Plan Expenses Like Labor
Consultants and expenses don’t always fit neatly into the labor box. Now, you can plan them on a calendar period basis—giving you the same level of detail and making the Project Planning Performance report far more useful.

Don’t Forget Units
Projects aren’t just hours and expenses. If you’re billing in units, plan for them too. Vantagepoint lets you allocate units by period, automatically rolling up costs and billing values so nothing slips through the cracks.

Utility Features That Save Time

Faster Load Times
Got monster plans with years of data? No problem. Recent updates to Deltek’ s engine significantly improve the load time of large and complex plans. Now, large plans load quickly when accessed. Plans containing multiple years of resources and hours of data such as Vacation or Multi-Discipline projects are now accessible.

Absence Auto-Entry
Approved absences can now flow directly into plans—no more manual entry or missed updates. That means better accuracy and less administrative busywork.

In-Plan Power Tools

Schedule Management That Works:

• Schedule Dependencies: The most common change to plans is date changes. Where the Schedule Dependencies feature is in use, a simple date change can cascade down to all successor rows. Advanced users can leverage unconventional relationships between plan levels or Lead and Lag days to keep the schedule aligned. Hours allocated to resources will change automatically with the movement of dates.
• Flexible Durations: Tell Vantagepoint how many days, weeks, or months a task should take, and it converts that into working days and sets the end date for you.

Critical Path Visibility

See which tasks absolutely can’t slip without impacting the entire project.

The critical path is the sequence of tasks or phases that cannot be delayed without affecting the completion date of the entire project. If any of those items slip, that would cause a risk to the project schedule.

Toggle on the Critical Path, and Vantagepoint highlights the risky ones in red.

Distribute Hours Efficiently

When schedules lengthen and scope changes, it makes sense to reset the project plan for a more realistic view of the forecast vs actuals. Use these features to adjust hours in bulk.

Redistribute Hours Like a Pro

• Change Planned Hours: When scope changes, reset the plan, baseline it, and start fresh.
• Replace or Spread Variance: Clear “trapped” hours from the past and reallocate them forward. Consider using this feature to replace unexhausted hours or push them into specified date ranges.
• Hours Fill: Many firms articulate resource hours as a percentage of an employee’s time. Control how the hours are planned by pinpointing the amount of time a resource should spend in a specific date range rather than spreading evenly over the entire date range.

Decision-Ready Dashparts

My Upcoming Assignments

Empower team members with visibility into their contributions and how they support project success. Communicate in detail by providing access to this dashpart to employees.

Upcoming Employee Availability

Project requirements and staff availability change frequently and rapidly. Finding an available resource has been made even easier with this dashpart. Identify the appropriate team members with availability to respond rapidly to changes in resource needs.

Forecasting Made Easier

Revenue Forecast Tool

Resource allocations are a major part of the story, but for Fee or Milestone based projects, the burn at reporting rates does not always equate to Revenue earned. Use the Revenue Forecast application to chart the monthly revenue expectations. For additional value, use the report in conjunction with Pipeline reporting to show the total picture.

Spread Planned Billing in Forecasts

The burn rates on Time & Material projects generally relate to Revenue earned. Use this optional feature to update the forecast with the most recent planning values and then adjust as needed.

Resource View That Works for You

Filter Smarter

Remove noise from your resource reviews. With ETC filters, you can hide projects and employees that aren’t truly active. Project filters let you zero in by attributes without messing with employee-level details.

Customize the View

Decide whether you want to see hours, percentages, or both—whatever makes it easiest to digest and act on the data.

Utilization & Scheduled View Options

Control the amount of detail needed to efficiently digest information in the Resource View. The Scheduled and Utilization views allow the user to select whether the calculations are presented in Hours, Percentages, or both.

Wrapping It Up

Vantagepoint Planning isn’t just about keeping schedules and hours neat—it’s about putting your firm in control of every moving part. From forecasting revenue to highlighting critical tasks, these tools help you anticipate risks, re-align resources, and deliver projects with fewer surprises.

Pro tip: don’t feel like you have to turn everything on at once. Start with one tweak—maybe adjust Job-to-Date, enable absence integration, or try out a new dashpart. Then build from there. Each small step sharpens visibility, streamlines workflows, and creates more confidence in your plan.

Ready to take control of the details? Dive in and see how Vantagepoint Planning can transform the way your firm plans, predicts, and delivers success.

Is your firm still using spreadsheets to plan your projects? The good news is that you’re not alone. The bad news is that using spreadsheets as an enterprise planning tool is very likely costing you time and money. Spreadsheets, while they are familiar to people and easy to customize, lack the many benefits of an integrated planning system. As I meet with Architecture and Engineering firms, we hear common complaints and challenges about their spreadsheet planning “solutions.”

Do any of these problems sound familiar? If so, this may be the year to retire your spreadsheet in favor of an enterprise resource planning system.

Here are 5 Reasons Why Spreadsheets are Challenging Your Entire Enterprise

1) Multiple Versions of the “Truth” Haunt Staffing Meetings

We find that firms that use spreadsheets to plan staffing assignments tend to end up with multiple versions of the truth. This tends to create havoc during staffing meetings as each manager has their own version of the truth, creating meeting havoc, and leading to errant meetings that lack focus. Say no to meeting havoc and refocus your staffing meetings on adjusting plans and assignments.    

2) Inability to Show Real-time and Accurate Actuals

Spreadsheets are great to start planning a project, but once the project starts evolving, updating the spreadsheet becomes a tedious process that PMs quickly give up on. As the project progresses, spreadsheets struggle to show actual hours and costs spent to date. Even worse, a firm will devote manual hours requiring employees to track this information by hand – rather than investing in an integrated planning system that streamlines this process.

3) Disconnected Month End Processes

During the month end process, spreadsheets create chaos for accounting. The root cause of all this chaos stems from the duplicate and manual labor spawned from disconnected spreadsheets. Firms that use an integrated planning system eliminate the burden of spreadsheets to allow accounting to focus on financial performance, freeing up PMs to focus on project success.  

4) Project Managers and Management at Odds

Project Managers often find themselves at odds with management when it comes to staffing decisions – PMs need new resources; management thinks there is too much overhead. Firms without a way to plan staffing assignments are left with only their best ‘guesstimates’ when it comes time to validate new hires. Successful firms justify new hires by utilizing a single project management system to look at current staffing capacity compared to future assignments.

5) Adjustment Failure

Firms utilizing spreadsheets to identify project profitability goals at the beginning of the project often fail to adjust throughout the project lifecycle. Those that do try to adjust their spreadsheets work with outdated information. This lag in data creates the inability to make real-time decisions about staffing and scheduling that can impact the success of a project. By investing in a project management system connected to financials provides firms the ability to view up-to-date-billing, resource and revenue forecasts.

There is a Better Way with an Integrated Planning System

Imagine if you were able to standardize your planning process across the entire firm. Standardization allows your firm to strengthen communication amongst project managers, accounting and management, providing insight for the firm as a whole. Ready to ditch the spreadsheet? Check out the ways your firm can handle project planning and staffing with Deltek Vantagepoint!

We hear it all the time:

“We just don’t have the time right now.”
“I know we need to upgrade, but I can’t handle learning all the new stuff.”
“They say we should update our processes as part of the upgrade—it's just too overwhelming.”
“The consulting costs sound like more than we can budget for this year.”

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to wait. You don’t have to overhaul everything. And you definitely don’t need to put your upgrade off any longer.

Say hello to our Accelerated Vision to Vantagepoint Upgrade—a focused, 4-week upgrade path built specifically for firms like yours.

Why This Works (Especially When You Think It Won’t)

If your firm is already on Vision 7.6, doesn’t use CRM, and has a relatively simple setup—this is the fastest, least disruptive way to get to Vantagepoint.

Here's how we make it manageable:

• You get a preview environment
• We configure your system to work like your current Vision setup
• You receive targeted training on just what you need to complete your regular processing including project setup, timesheets, and billing
• We don’t ask for your whole team—just a couple of key players
• You get post-live support to help you ease into new features on your timeline
• No big-budget consulting proposal—just a focused, guided experience

How the 4-Week Process Works

This isn’t a traditional long-haul upgrade. It’s an express lane designed for firms who want to get up and running—then explore new features later.

• Before You Begin:
  We hold an Orientation Meeting to assess your readiness, schedule your program, and help you to ensure you have a preview.
• Weeks 1–4:
  Our consultant team sets up your Vantagepoint environment, provides training, and walks you through essential testing.
  • Week 1: We configure your database—security roles, screen designs, timesheet approvals, reports, and more.
  • Week 2: You get hands-on training and begin testing the system.
  • Week 3: We fine-tune roles and reports, set up dashboards, and prep for go-live.
  • Week 4: Go live! We walk through your final checklist and provide Q&A support.
• Go Live:
  Your team transitions with confidence, armed with checklists, meeting support, and everything you need to hit the ground running.
• After Go-Live:
  We don’t disappear. You’ll have scheduled Q&A sessions and a chance to outline what new features you’d like to explore over the next year. We document it and work with your account manager to make it happen.

Why This Approach Is a Game-Changer

The Accelerated Upgrade saves time, reduces cost, and avoids the scope creep that often comes with traditional upgrades. It’s perfect for firms who want to:

• Migrate fast without compromising quality
• Minimize disruption to day-to-day operations
• Focus on learning the essentials now and advanced features later

If you want more later or right away, we've got you covered. 

Don’t Overthink It—Just Get Started

Here’s what this upgrade approach doesn’t require:

• Rewriting every process in your firm
• Training every single employee at once
• A six-month budget for consultants
• Waiting until you have “everything perfect"

Let’s face it—if you’re waiting for the perfect time, it’ll never come. But this Accelerated Path is purpose-built to get you upgraded with minimal lift, and maximum clarity.

The Vantagepoint Preparation Questionnaire – Your First Step

Before you commit to any upgrade path, start with a quick self-assessment.

What is it?

• A tool to evaluate your current Vision setup and readiness
• Pinpoints key areas like cleanup, system configuration, and training needs
• Helps us determine if you’re a fit for the Accelerated track—or another path

Why complete it?

• Identifies potential roadblocks early
• Streamlines your planning process
• Helps us tailor our recommendations to your firm

What happens next?

• Our team reviews your responses
• You get expert guidance on a scheduled consultation
• You walk away with a clear, customized roadmap

👉 Complete your questionnaire today by clicking here or the image below.

What are the options for my firm to apply labor costs to regular, revenue-producing projects? In Vantagepoint, there are two ways to charge labor cost to your projects. Some firms prefer to load an hourly rate for both hourly and salaried employees. And some firms prefer to load a salary rate for salaried employees and an hourly rate for hourly employees and use the Adjust Salary Job Cost utility (ASJC) in Vantagepoint.

The Adjust Salary Job Cost utility is Vantagepoint's way of taking the employee’s salary rate and calculating a cost rate based on the hours worked (instead of standard hours in a period). The ASJC utility is run after timesheets are posted and adjusts the posting so that the costs posted agrees to what is being paid to the employee.

What does this mean?

First, let’s discuss firms that load an hourly rate for salaried employees. Assume that the firm Mike Jones works for has bi-weekly timesheet and pay periods. Below is an example of postings where ASJC is not enabled:

Example: Mike Jones is a salaried employee and is paid $3,000.00 bi-weekly, and he has an hourly cost rate in the Employee Info center of $37.50/hour ($3,000.00/80 hours). When timesheets are posted, Vantagepoint multiplies the actual number of hours worked by the hourly rate from the employee info center record. Vantagepoint will post a debit to the direct and/or indirect labor account and credit the Job Cost Variance (JCV) account. Mike’s hours are applied at a cost rate of $37.50 for every hour he works regardless of how many hours he works.

When payroll is posted, we would see a debit to the JCV account for Mike’s bi-weekly salary - $3,000.00. If Mike had worked 85 hours in an 80-hour timesheet period, the JCV account would be -$187.50 because the credit posted to JCV was $3,187.50 at the time of timesheet posting and the debit posted for payroll is $3,000.00. If Mike had only worked 75 hours during the timesheet period, the JCV account would be a positive $187.00.

Now let’s talk about those firms that load a salary amount in the Employee Hub. We will use the same bi-weekly timesheet and pay period frequencies as in the first example.

When a salaried employee works more or less than 80 hours, Vantagepoint handles the cost exactly the same way it does as if an hourly rate were loaded in the Employee Info Center at the time of time sheet posting. To calculate the cost rate, Vantagepoint uses the salary rate in the employee info center, divided by the frequency (in this case 80 hours) and multiplies the result by the number of hours recorded on the timesheet.

This is where Adjust Salary Job Cost comes into play. Once run, AJSC takes the salary rate and divides it by actual number of hours worked and recalculates the number of hours worked.

Example: Mary Smith has a bi-weekly salary of $3,000.00 and she has 85 hours on her timesheet. When timesheets are posted, Vantagepoint takes her salary rate and divides it by 80 (bi-weekly frequency) and multiplies the result by the actual number of hours on her timesheet. You would see a debit to direct/indirect labor account and a credit to the JCV account for $3,187.50. Just like the firm using an hourly rate in the employee info center.

Now when ASJC is run, Vantagepoint takes the salary rate, divides it by the actual number of hours worked ($3,000.00/85 = $35.29411) and applies the result to the actual number of hours worked ($35.29411 * 85 = $3,000.00). Vantagepoint makes an adjustment to the original timesheet posting to credit the direct/indirect labor account and to debit the JCV account in the amount of $187.50. Since Mary is paid $3,000.00 per pay period, the JCV account would not show a balance when payroll is posted.

How cost rates are loaded in Vantagepoint affects the way labor costs are reported on the projects and the General Ledger. Here are some of the differences:

• Load Hourly Rate in the Employee Hub:
  • Time posts to projects at hours worked at standard hourly rate.
  • No additional steps by accounting.
  • Costs posted to direct projects are not consistent with actual payroll paid when employees work more/less than standard hours. Over/Under balances are carried in the JCV project.
  • Project managers have stable costs to track project performance.
  • General Ledger carries a balance in the JCV account that is reflective of the amount paid to employees over/under the actual hours worked.
• Load Salary Rate in the Employee Hub and use ASJC:
  • Time posts to projects at hours worked at variable hourly rates for Salaried employees (hourly rate changes on hours worked in any given period).
  • Accounting must run the ASJC utility after time sheet postings for salary job costing to occur.
  • Costs posted to direct projects are consistent with actual payroll paid when employees work more/less than standard hours. No balances are carried on the JCV project.
  • Project managers must manage variable costs over which they have no control.
  • The JCV general ledger account does not carry a balance when the ASJC utility is used.

As you can see, both choices have pros and cons, but having a clear understanding of how the ASJC utility works in Vantagepoint will help you make the right choice for your firm.

Final Thoughts: What's Best for Your Firm?

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to labor cost strategies in Deltek Vantagepoint. Whether you stick with standard hourly rates or leverage the Adjust Salary Job Cost utility, the right path depends on your firm’s structure, goals, and how you want costs reflected in your projects and your books.

If you’re scratching your head or wondering which option makes the most sense for your team, you’re not alone—and we’ve got your back. Let’s take a deep dive together.

👉 Reach out to schedule a Navigational Analysis with our experts. We’ll help you uncover the most effective setup for your firm and make sure your Vantagepoint system is working for you—not the other way around.

Client connectivity is a vital part of business. Firms may not be in business without connecting with their clients and contacts regularly. Whether its executives meeting on strategic efforts, project managers working closely with clients and potential clients, or business developers drumming up strategic partnerships, having relevant information at your fingertips encourages timely communication.

Firms may track client and contact information in a formal CRM software, in spreadsheets, or across many platforms. When there’s no single source of truth, employees at any level can be disconnected and not trust the data that they try to use.

Create a space where CRM data is critical to the business. It actually is critical, but it’s not always perceived that way. It’s never too early to clean up data and start using technology to keep it tidy. So when should data be reviewed?

Spoiler alert: The answer is NOT an annual data review when a firm is preparing a holiday card list.

Assess Your CRM Data and Create a Game Plan

If you or your team are on the journey to clean and reliable data, you first need to identify the integrity of the current data. This will take pulling data from multiple sources, if applicable, and viewing as one dataset. This may include reviewing client and contact lists, running searches and for both datasets, and researching and identifying duplicates or conflicting data.

Depending on the amount of work ahead, the cleanup efforts can be done by one or two people. However, for greater efforts, this is best done with a team. The team doesn’t have to consist of marketing only. Once there’s a game plan, admins or interns can be a part of the solution, too! The list can be divided by sections of the alphabet, or by group at the firm. Giving the team a timeline can help ensure it is completed timely.

Scrub the Data

This cleanup effort can be a moving target. One example is clients moving addresses, or contacts moving companies. LinkedIn and client websites can be great resources when researching the details. You want clean data, but don’t let perfection slow you down. You’re aiming for better data – not perfect data.

Tricks such as V-lookup, bulk update, and sorting by client name are just a few ways to increase efficiency. Making updates in real time shave time off the process as well.

Keep It Clean

Now that there’s been a great effort to get the data into a trust-worthy state, let’s keep it tidy… year-round. There are many ways to streamline the effort of data integrity, especially for Deltek users.

• Monthly dashboard: If you’re a Deltek Vantagepoint user, a monthly dashboard can be created to show you all Firm records created or modified in the last 30 days. A recurring activity can be set as a reminder to review those new and modified records. We often recommend limiting who can create new Firm records to a limited group of people including accounting and marketing departments.
• Scheduled Reports: Frequency is up to you, but consistency is key. Weekly, monthly or quarterly reports can be created, saved, and scheduled to hit select inboxes regularly for another review. The report can also show any data gaps that may need attention. Our clients have been successful in scheduling reports that show new contacts created last week, month, etc. along with key pieces of information included in that report. Key info includes first name, last name, company name, email address, contact owner, and contact record creator. This way a quality check can be done routinely. Also, by adding who created the contact record, if there is missing information, your CRM administrator can reach out to that person to do continual training.
• Contact History Tracking: While we are talking about automation, let’s take it even further. Contacts can move between companies regularly and that can be hard to keep up with. As we know about employment changes, we want to keep the data true. However, the history should be maintained to understand the relationship with a contact. A solution such as a contact history grid can easily help us see when a contact changed companies and who made that change in the database. Reach out to Full Sail Partners with help creating a custom solution for Vantagepoint.
• Market Sync: The Firm hub can capture a company’s market, which can be helpful when segmenting. It’s often helpful to see market on the contact side as well. A quick workflow can help you accomplish this capture seamlessly, pushing the market selection on the Firm record to the contact record as well. This segmentation makes it easier for creating target and mailing lists.

Help Them Help You

Give the staff with the knowledge the power to update. No need to gate keep the data or bottleneck the process. Data integrity can be a team effort moving forward, with some oversight of course.

• Share the Workload: While one group of people may drive the data management, the data is a shared company resource. Train users on your one source of truth and give them to the tools to maintain the integrity of the data. For the Deltek Vantagepoint users, there are some key elements that make data entry and modification easier:
• Vantagepoint CRM mobile app
• Outlook Connect integration
• Make It Easy: Giving guidance on naming conventions, such as legal entity name for the firm record, or full name for contacts along with nicknames and credentials, can decrease the guesswork. Website URLs can be helpful as well. Having a field for an easy click to a LinkedIn profile can be an easy add.

Make Data Trustworthy—Then Make It Work for You

Your firm’s CRM data shouldn’t be something you hope is accurate or something you only touch when it’s time to send out holiday cards. It should be a trusted, go-to resource that empowers everyone—from project managers to executives—to make confident decisions and build stronger client relationships.

Building that trust starts with a cleanup plan, continues with ongoing processes, and thrives when your entire team is equipped to contribute. With tools like dashboards, scheduled reports, and automation in Deltek Vantagepoint, keeping your data clean isn’t just possible—it’s scalable. The goal? A CRM system that’s not just a place to store contact info, but a powerful business asset. And when your team trusts the data, they’ll use it. When they use it, the firm wins. Need help getting there? We’re here for that. Let’s turn your CRM into a system your whole firm can believe in. 💪