Full Sail Partners Blog (65)

Anyone that knows me, knows I love music and sing karaoke.  I was learning one of Adele’s songs and listening to the lyrics: “Should I just keep chasing pavements, even if it leads nowhere?” I started thinking about the things we chase in our own life that lead nowhere. Even though this song by Adele is referring to love, it really can apply to pursuing business or ways to grow business.  Does your firm have a way to analyze if the business you chase is leading anywhere?  Better yet, do you know what efforts are paying off?  Below are things to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of your business building strategies:

Are You Chasing the Flavor?
A recent client described that each week they discuss the potential business everyone is pursuing.  However, each sequential week everyone was chasing the flavor of the week.  She had no idea what happened to the previous week’s pursuits and if anyone was even following up until she received a proposal request.  To avoid chasing the flavor and ensure your firm is following-up on all opportunities, consider these steps:

1. Document All Stages with Action Items: You don’t need a proposal to document the opportunities you are pursuing.  Even if business is in a discovery or assessment phase, documenting these efforts with actions items can remind you to follow-up. 
2. Identify Trends and Outstanding Items: Using an integrated system allows marketing and executives to track the progress of the entire company through reports to identify if there are trends or items that are outstanding.
3. Administrator and Automation: Identifying someone to administer and review your pursuits is critical to ensuring progress. Also look at ways to automate alerts to remind you when you should follow-up.
4. Win/Loss Report: It’s important to know how successful you are. Knowing the history of past pursuits can help future go/no-go decisions and improve your win rate. By developing a win/loss report and evaluating how successful you are by department, opportunity champion, and the type of project can help you make better decisions in the future.

Are You the Nurturing Type?

Many of us attend events, are a part of an organization, and are involved in business development efforts in hopes to nurture business.  However, most individuals and firms don’t know the effectiveness of their efforts.  To ensure your firm is making good use of your time, consider these steps: 

1. Network vs. Attend: Not every event you attend will result in business.  There are many reasons to network.  However, showing up to an event doesn’t equate to networking. After attending an event log who you talked with. What did you discover about the individual and what was important to them?  Think about how you might follow-up with that individual. Maybe there is a subject they are interested in, someone they want to meet, a project they are working on, or you found out something about their personal life. How can you use your knowledge or connections to follow-up?  Social media is making it easier to connect with people and stay up-to-date with their changes. Be sure to personalize your request.
2. Get Involved: If you are a member of an organization, take the plunge and be active.  Think about your audience when you chose an organization and then get involved in a committee, the board, or become a speaker. Volunteering can help you gain exposure, connect you with decision makers, and allow you to demonstrate your expertise. Joining SMPS was one of the best decisions I could have made for my company and career.
3. Return on Investment: We all tend to hear the phrase, measuring Return on Investment related to effectiveness of business efforts.  Another way to look at ROI is ask yourself, if you had to pay for the marketing or business effort out of your own money, do you think it would be worth the effort?  A great way of looking at the marketing effectiveness is to track the time you spend toward business development efforts and compare it to the business you obtained from those efforts.  When you compare the expense vs. the business you received, was it worth the effort? Sometimes efforts take months or even years to pay off. So to determine trade show ROI or events that happen on a yearly basis, allow two years to determine the effectiveness. 
4. Building Business: Most people look at clients as Existing or New.  I would challenge you to look at them as one of three categories: Prospective, Nurturing, and Maintenance. Prospective clients are those you want to do business with, maintenance clients are those you continue to do business with, while nurturing clients are those you’ve done business with or have recently received business from.  Your message and how your firm will gain business from all categories will vary. Keeping in mind that it is seven times easier to maintain an existing client than is to go out and get a new client; moving clients to the maintenance category is the goal.  So where should you spend your time and how do you know when you are effective?  First you need to define what justifies a maintenance client.  Is it the number of projects or dollar amount over a period of time?  With an integrated database system, your data can trigger when the criteria is met and send out an automated report.  This information informs “Client Champions” and executives when client business increases or decreases and provides marketing with insight for nurture campaigns.

I hope my inspiration from Adele will help your firm build business and avoid chasing pavements. Let us know what inspires you and what your firm does to ensure growth. View our webinar: Get the Most from Your Conference.

AccountingToday.com selects Full Sail Partners to join the 2012 Top VAR 100 List. Several Deltek Partners were named to the list, but Full Sail Partners was the highest ranking VAR dedicated to only Deltek products.

Each year a select group of 100 organizations are honored for their accomplishments as Value-Added Resellers (VAR). The top VARs are selected from organizations focused on sales and implementation of accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Criteria used to determine the winners include 2011 revenue, number of offices, and staff.  Full Sail Partners, offering business consulting, technology solutions, and application hosting for Deltek Vision, is honored by AccountingToday as a 2012 Top Value Added Reseller (VAR). The firm provides on-premise and cloud-based solutions for architects and engineers, energy and environmental consultants, and professional service firms across the country. Full Sail Partners' team, collectively, brings more than 200 years of experience with Deltek products. 

"We are honored to have Full Sail Partners named a 2012 VAR," stated Kevin O'Connor, President of Full Sail Partners. "We focus on the 'value-added' part of being a VAR. We embrace Deltek's SaaS solution and are finding clients like the flexibility of knowing they have the option of both a cloud and on-premise solution. The cloud is not new to our firm. For almost 5 years, we've offered firm's the ability to host their application instead of investing in IT infrastructure. Our firm continues to differentiate ourselves by providing unique technology solutions and most importantly working with them through the sales process to solve business issues," added Mr. O'Connor. 

"We are proud to have Full Sail Partners represent Deltek. The award is a well-deserved recognition. As one of Deltek's most successful Vision Partners, Full Sail Partners is a major player in Deltek's overall strategy and has a long track record of providing outstanding software solutions and client services. They have earned a reputation as industry leaders and this recognition is a reflection of their hard work." Claus Thorsgaard, Deltek Executive Vice President and General Manager, Professional Services. 

About Full Sail Partners
Full Sail Partners specializes in client-focused technology solutions for architects and engineers, energy and environmental consultants, and professional service firms across the country. Full Sail Partners offers business consulting, technology solutions, and application hosting for Deltek Vision. Partnering with more than 1000 clients nationwide, Full Sail Partners builds long-term relationships and seeks to identify the critical resources to create a faster, more efficient, and cohesive business infrastructure.

Full Sail Partners – Keep Your Business on Course. | For more on Full Sail Partners profile and background on the Full Sail Partners crew, visit us at http://www.fullsailpartners.com. 

About Deltek
Deltek (Nasdaq: PROJ) is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and government contractors. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. 15,000 organizations and 2 million users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, optimize resources, streamline operations, and deliver more profitable projects. Deltek – Know more. Do more.® www.deltek.com. 

About Accounting Today
AccountingToday.com is a leading provider of online business news for the tax and accounting community, offering breaking news, in-depth features, insightful editorial analysis, and a host of web-related resources and services.

The timing of when you recognize revenue for your business can be influenced by a number of factors.  In normal day-to-day business, most firms use a revenue generation model that recognizes revenue on an accrual basis – revenue hits the books and project reporting when clients are billed for services rendered.  For tax purposes, revenue is not generally recognized until the client pays for the services rendered (cash-basis accounting).                                         

In addition to standard accrual and cash basis recognition of revenue, many firms are interested in recognizing revenue at the time services are performed.  That revenue is then tracked on the project and financial statement as either unbilled or billed revenue.  This article will focus on those revenue methods that recognize the value of your qualified Work In Progress (WIP), as unbilled revenue. Additionally, the methods described, will allow unbilled revenue to be reported on project reports and on your financial statements. 

A word of caution!  Before changing your method of revenue recognition, you should meet with your tax professional to discuss the requirements for your firm and discuss industry standard revenue recognition methods to determine right method for your firm.  Also, you will want to meet with the owners of the firm, as well as, the project and divisional managers to discuss their requirements for financial and project reporting in regards to recognizing unbilled revenue.  

Enabling Revenue Generation

As revenue generation posts revenue to your financial statements, you will need to create at least two general ledger accounts: 

• Unbilled Services (asset – balance sheet)

• Unbilled Revenue (revenue – income statement) 

The unbilled services account will carry the job-to-date unbilled revenue amount for your projects.  The balance in this account will be carried over from one fiscal year to the next.  The unbilled revenue account will carry the year-to-date unbilled revenue amount for your projects and the balance will be cleared to retained earnings at the end of each fiscal year.  At all times you should be able to balance the detail on your projects to the balances in your GL accounts.  This is called file reconciliation and it is very important that you reconcile these balances on an on-going basis.  When performed properly, revenue generation will never cause a file reconciliation issue. 

In addition to the general ledger accounts, you will need to establish and setup revenue methods to be used in the revenue generation process.  These revenue methods will be specified at the lowest level of your project setup so that the work performed on those project levels can be recognized as revenue.  We will be using two revenue methods in this discussion:

• Method “W”, which calculates Total Revenue as Job-to-Date (JTD) Billed plus WIP at billing rates

• Method “B”, which calculates total revenue as JTD Billed 

Note: the Revenue Generation Method is used to calculate Total Revenue.  Billed Revenue is then subtracted from Total Revenue to calculate Unbilled Revenue. 

To determine which revenue method to use, this decision should be made on a project by project and phase by phase basis.  You will only want to recognize revenue on those projects and phases where you expect to be able to bill and collect on your work effort.  Also, you may need to set limits on your revenue generation methods so that revenue is not calculated above and beyond your contractual limits with the client.  In some cases, Method W might be used on one or more phases in a project and Method B is used on other phases within the same project.  Additionally, the method used may need to be changed as a project reaches a fully billed status. 

Running Revenue Generation

The following should be completed, before running and managing revenue generation:

• Determine your revenue methods

• Create your GL accounts

• Create your revenue methods

• Setup these revenue methods in your projects 

We recommend starting with a small sample of projects, testing your revenue generation methods, and procedures on these projects before expanding to all billable projects.  Keep in mind that you can use Method “B” on some projects, which will keep them on an “Accrual” basis where revenue = billed. 

Part of the management of Revenue Generation is the creation of good reports to check your “baseline” prior to generating revenue.  Then check the reports again after generation of revenue and after billing.  A report should be created showing the Contract Amount, Billed Revenue, Unbilled Revenue and Total Revenue at a minimum.  This report can be run at the project level to verify overall amounts and/or at the phase level to verify individual phase level amounts.  

Revenue Generation should be run at the following times and for the following reasons:

• Each week after posting time and expense | Ensures revenue is generated and can be viewed on reports

• Month end, prior to billing | Verifies the total of unbilled revenue for the month can be viewed

• Immediately after billing | Confirm billed and written-off amounts are properly recorded and unbilled revenue is verified as total revenue less billed revenue 

Verifying and Managing Revenue Generation

As mentioned above, Revenue Generation should be run following billing and the unbilled revenue.  The remaining unbilled on reports should be compared to the general ledger balance (in the Unbilled Services asset account) and to unbilled detail and summary reports.  If there are any projects where the unbilled amount does not seem right, run a project detail report to see all individual transactions and billing statuses to determine where the discrepancy might be.  

One action that might cause unbilled to be different than expected would be where you process a fee based invoice for less than the unbilled amount of labor and do not put any of the labor on hold prior to billing.  In this type of situation, you might bill $5,000 on $6,000 worth of labor and expect there to be $1,000 of WIP remaining.  However, if you processed the invoice without putting any of the labor on hold first, then all $6,000 of labor would be cleared as having been billed against the $5,000 fee and you would not have any WIP remaining. 

Another item to keep in mind is that the billing process does not have any effect on total revenue.  The process of billing simply moves revenue from Unbilled to Billed.  When using Revenue Generation, revenue is only generated when Revenue Generation is run, not at time of billing.  

General Ledger effect when generating revenue:

• Debit to Unbilled Services

• Credit to Unbilled Revenue

   

General Ledger effect when running billing:

• Debit to Accounts Receivable

• Credit to Unbilled Services

• Credit to Billed Revenue

• Debit to Unbilled Revenue

To learn more about revenue recognition, join our webinar as we discuss the 9 key points to keep in mind regarding Revenue Generation. 

It's not a matter of if, but when a failure will happen! During a recovery effort, your firm's need to recover quickly is vital to your firm's existence. The lack of access to data can impair production. The longer the delay the more it can cost your firm and even result in failure of your company.

It recent article by Gartner, they discussed how IT failure can bring down a company and the writer, Richard Hunt, made some great points. "The interesting thing isn’t that some companies have failed when their IT failed; the interesting thing is that the risks are almost certainly increasing. Plenty of executives don’t yet understand that while IT spend only represents 5% or less (on average) of enterprise revenues, the impact of IT on revenues is far higher than that. To put it another way, many executives don’t yet realize that their businesses don’t run much, if at all, without IT, and when IT is misused or fails, the impacts can be very large indeed."

So, do you have a backup & recovery solution?  How quick is your data recovery? Would you lose any of your data if:

• Your computer was stolen?
• You have an IT system failure?
• You have a hardware failure?
• There was a fire?
• There was a natural disaster?
• Your backup solution didn't work?

Are you confident that you'd be back up in less than a day if any of the above items occurred? Could you be up in less than an hour? Next to hardware and software malfunctions, human error is one of the biggest reason for data loss. Doing a back-up is only half of the equation. Verification is the most important part of data back-up. Statistics show that 77% of tape backups fail.

Below are data recovery statistics that demonstrate the likely hood of failure and the impact to businesses when they are unable to recover. For firms that want to be proactive and eliminate preventable failures and learn how to recover quickly when a failure does occur, view our webinar.

 Infograph presented by Dell

While much of the country endured 100+ temperatures, the attendees at the annual Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Build Business Conference in San Francisco experienced daily highs of 72 degrees. Although the temperatures were low, the event was burning with energy as attendee's embraced this year's theme of "Take Action".  

At the conference, Deltek announced a strategic alliance with SMPS. The partnership will include identifying best practices and trends to advance technology's role in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Additionally, mySMPS added a collaborative space for Deltek Users and SMPS members to interact, ask questions, and provide feedback on improvements.

Full Sail Partners is a proud supporter of SMPS as demonstrated through active involvement of its employees and consultants. Full Sail Partners’ CRM Consultant Kevin Hebblethwaite officially took on the role of SMPS National President and announced the board’s plans for the upcoming year. A “scan” of the marketplace through a survey has been deployed to the SMPS membership. The purpose of the survey is to incorporate the feedback into the society’s long-term plans. The survey currently has a 24% response rate and is expected to continue to increase. Expected key initiatives, supported by survey responses, include marketing integration, expansion of SMPS’ education offerings, and the development of operational standards and toolkits for local chapters.

At the event, Kevin brought a chuckle to the audience as he officially announced he's "weird" and encouraged others to embody a spirit of thinking that is not limited by sticking with the norm.  Kevin explains further that “politely shaking things up a bit can often short-circuit the path to success in areas such as relationship development, process improvement and differentiation.”

Full Sail's Director of Marketing and Business Development, Sarah Gonnella, also attended the event and is entering her second year term on the SMPS National board's Technology Committee and contributes to SMPS Connection and the Marketer. At the end of August, Sarah rolls off of the SMPS Atlanta Board and joins Kevin Hebblethwaite as a Past President of the Chapter. Both are proud to be part of such a strong chapter, which received 1st place Striving for Excellence Awards for website and large chapter. “SMPS is one of the best organizations in the AEC industry. I encourage those involved in business development, marketing and strategic planning at their company to actively get involved. The organization really does advocate, educate, and connect members,” remarked Sarah Gonnella.  To find out more about the a, e, and c of SMPS view this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syHFDKAxsW4.

Scott Seal, Director of Service Development, is a new comer to the SMPS network and joins the host chapter, San Francisco.  “I’ve heard a lot of great things about the organization and I look forward to getting involved on a local level. The conference was a great way to kick-off my experience. As demonstrated by the awards, I’m excited to be associated with such a great chapter,” commented Scott Seal.   The San Francisco Chapter's President, Alethea O'Dell, was recognized as the President of the Year. Her gracious acceptance speech brought laughs and tears to the audience as she thanked her "Big, Bold, Bad A$$" board and committee members.

Full Sail Partners looks forward to “Dreaming Big” in Orlando, Florida at next year’s conference and encourages you to share your story about SMPS or your conference experience.

A Cautionary Example of Using KPIs

If a Project Manager Falls Down in the Forest and No One is Around to See It, Does the Project Manger Still Get the Quarterly Bonus?

I have been giving a great deal of thought to KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) lately.  One thought was about the idea of the unintended consequences of putting a “suite” of KPIs (KPIs are like potato chips, you can’t have just one. . .) in place, specifically for Project Managers.

How will their behavior change?  Will measuring chargeability for their project teams cause the employees to be more utilized or cause billable project to become less profitable?

Let me throw out an example.  This example is based upon a real client and provides KPI insight. The Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Company A wanted to incentivize their project managers to produce more revenue.  So, after months of discussion and planning, the partners setup revenue targets for each PM based upon past performance and a generously favorable potential revenue prediction for the next year.  The Project Managers would be paid a bonus at the end of each Quarter for any Revenue they brought in over the projected target.  This was very generous, and all the partners agreed that this would drive business revenues higher.

Except it didn’t happen exactly the way they wanted it to.

Here is a graph showing how their revenue was before this particular KPI was put in place:

And here is the before and after picture:

Ouch!

This of course caused their accounting team to load up on antacids for most of the year.  Their KPI (and bonus program based on that KPI) had encouraged some behavior that was not necessarily good.  The Project Managers did not care about recognizing any revenue (and by extension, billing the client) until the end of the quarter, and when they did, they typically over-recognized and over-billed.

This problem caused a cascade through-out the organization.  Clients noticed and started to question why this month’s bill was so much larger that last month’s.  Average AR started to go up.  Cash flow went down.  Lines of credit had to be accessed to make payroll (and pay the quarterly bonus).

How could this have been prevented?  Looking back, it is obvious right?  But at the time, this sounded like a great idea and everyone was committed to making it successful.

1. Too much focus on one KPI is not a good thing.  They should have used several measurements that touched upon AR, Chargeability, and (Project Managers cover your ears!), Client Satisfaction.
2. Quantitative measurements are great, but we also need some Qualitative measurements in the mix.
3. Involve many different types of people in your KPI development.  Someone might have pointed out this scenario at the beginning if the partners had not developed this on their own.

Which brings me to my final point... KPIs only help if you review them frequently and action is taken based upon them.  A well designed KPI exists to measure performance and if adjustments are not made based upon them...then no one saw the Project Manager fall in the forest.

View webinar on KPI Insight for Project Managers.

The SMPS National Technology Committee 2012 survey revealed the top 3 technology topics professional services marketing and business developers would like more information on is communication tools, customer relationship management systems, and collaboration tools. The results of this study are probably not surprising.  People are on the go and are collaborating with multiple groups in different locations at a fast pace.  We have demands from work, family, and other organizations to keep track of.  The key ingredient needed is effective communication and collaboration.  

Social media allows people to connect and communicate, but one missing piece is still the collaboration and organization to get things done. A new collaboration software tool is looking to tackle this issue.  Kona is an online space for any group to privately connect, organize, discuss, and get things done together.  The tool is specifically for people involved with multiple groups like, project teams, volunteer organizations, membership clubs and even family events.  Kona keeps track of everything each person is responsible for and discussing across all spaces in one personalized place.  The current tool was developed by Deltek and is in beta.  Kona is FREE and available through the internet and also has a mobile app. 

As an example, let’s say that you are pursuing 3 proposals, you are director of an association committee, and you also need to organize your family activities.  Kona allows you to create five separate spaces for each of these items (separate space for each proposal, one for your committee, and one for your family).  You can invite separate people to each space. Those that are a part of the association don’t need to view you’re your family and proposal information, for example.  So you just send committee members an invite to your committee space.  However, you have the ability to view the discussions and tasks that occur over all 5 spaces.

For marketers, one of the biggest struggles when dealing with teaming arrangements is keeping communication in one location and making sure everyone is aware of decisions. Now you can quickly communicate through a discussion thread versus strings of emails which may or may not hit all of the right parties.  Since you can access Kona through an app you don’t have to be at your computer to join the conversation, which is great for those on a job site.  Agreed upon tasks are outlined with due dates.  You are able to upload files so the entire team can view.

The current capabilities continue to be tweaked so for those that would like to influence the development of this collaboration tool there is still time.  For those that need a way to communicate among disparate groups check out Kona (www.kona.com) and let us know what you think.  

Like Kona on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KonaLife
Follow Kona on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kona_life

To check out more features and compatibility requirements, visit iTunes: http://bit.ly/KY4JNd.  You can also search “Deltek” from your iPhone apps.  You can also view an introduction of the tool on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clEEzM0RZr4.

To view a presentation, join us on July 19, 2012 at 1:30pm ET.

In today's world it's important to make sure your resources are effectively allocated and outsourced expenses are doing all they can to keep you ahead of the pack. No matter whether your IT support is outsourced, dedicated, or part-time, there are expectations your firm should have to ensure your Deltek database is properly managed. We invite you to take the IT challenge to see how you can improve. 

IT Challenge 1:

IT Challenge 2:

IT Challenge 3:

Did You Pass the IT Challenge?

Full Sail Partners can assist you with any of these concerns to ensure your IT staff is providing your data the security your firm needs. In addition to these services, our hosting division can offload the expense of servers, peripheral software, redundant back-ups and allocation of resources to address your Vision IT needs. Our hosting professionals only provide hosting services for Deltek Vision and coordinate with Deltek support on known issues. This specialized expertise comes with years of hands-on experience and provides your organization a high level of confidence that your data is secure. Outsourcing your IT Management of Vision with Full Sail Partners allows your firm to focus on your core business, while we ensure your IT landscape is fully prepared.

To find out more about how Full Sail Partners' application hosting can ease your worries and save your firm money, visit our website. To speak to someone about these services, contact Scott Seal at sseal@fullsailpartners.com or 888.552.5535 x118. We look forward to relieving your IT worries and helping your firm Reach Full Sail!

In a recent survey conducted by Full Sail Partners, 33% of clients did not understand the services provided by Deltek support vs. Full Sail Partners. Additionally, some clients don't understand what a Deltek Partner is and the value a partner can provide. So let's address these questions. 

What is a Deltek Partner? 
Deltek partners with a wide range of companies that act as an extension of their business. These partners include Infrastructure Technology Companies, Independent Software Vendors, Resellers, Consulting Partners, CPA Accountant Networks, and Hosting Companies. Full Sail Partners is an authorized software reseller, consulting partner, and application hosting partner.

As a Deltek Partner, what is your relationship to our firm?
Clients might be assigned to a Deltek Partner to help manage the relationship.  The management of that relationship includes administering your annual maintenance contract, providing you consulting services, and serving as your Deltek liaison regarding upgrades, expansions, maintenance questions, or Deltek announcements.  As a Deltek Partner, we also believe it is important to educate our clients through local user groups and our free webinars.  

When would I call Deltek Support vs. calling Full Sail Partners, my Deltek Partner?
Deltek Customer Care Support is included as a part of your annual maintenance contract or your subscription.  As a part of your maintenance, Deltek Customer Care provides a forum and a knowledge base to answer technical questions.  When answers can’t be found through those avenues, support can be contacted via phone at 1-877-HLP-PROJ (1-877-457-7765) or through the web at http://support.deltek.com.  For example, if you receive an error message while using the software, experience a software defect or need troubleshooting, or have a technical software questions, support can provide you answers.  

If your question is related to how to use the software, best practices, training, implementation, customization, or hosting services then Full Sail Partners can assist.  When in doubt we encourage you to reach out to your consultant or your Account Manager at Full Sail, we can help direct you to the right resource.

Who is our Account Manager at Full Sail Partners?
As an Account Manager at Full Sail Partners, our role is responsible for directing your firm to the proper channel and identify the most skilled resources to address your question or concern. I f you need to contact us please email sales@fullsailpartners.com or call us at 888.552.5535. 

Still need further clarification?  Add a comment to start the dialogue regarding your Deltek Vision Support needs.

Did you know you can enter your time into Deltek Vision from your iPhone or iPad?  I don’t know anyone that gets excited about filling in their timesheet, but the Deltek Vision Timesheet app allows me the ability to access my timesheet no matter where I am. For users that travel or are away from the office, it allows a convenient method to update your time on the fly.  Sorry, no more excuses for those on the road.

To set up the app, I searched “Deltek” from my iPhone app.  I clicked install and obtained my server name from my IT person to sync to my Deltek Vision database. The installation was simple.  The added security of a 4-digit pin also provides secure access to the app.  There is no syncing between my desktop and my phone. The information is automatically updated in real-time.

It’s easy to add a project to my timesheet and the favorite feature allows me to keep my frequently used projects. The project did, of course, have to be active and approved for use in processing.  With the iPhone 4s, I’m able to use the voice-to-text feature to speak my timesheet comments.  A very helpful feature when your drinking your morning coffee.  

Kudos to Deltek for this free, user-friendly app.  Now I can access my timesheet anywhere, anytime.

To check out more features and compatibility requirements, visit iTunes: http://bit.ly/Ki93E6. 

Update on 10/1/12:
For firms that need to access Deltek Vision for all applications via Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android any many other devices, check out Full Sail Partners' solution:Vision Unleashed.

Update on 2/25/13:
Deltek has a newer timesheet version available for iPhone and Android users. View this page for more information: Deltek Touch.