Full Sail Partners Blog (67)

Deltek, Inc. recently announced at the Deltek Insight 2012 Conference that Full Sail Partners and its client, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE), have been selected for the Partner Award for Deltek’s 2012 Project Excellence Awards Program.  The Partner Award recognizes a Deltek partner, and customer, that together have delivered an exceptional Deltek solution implementation.

Full Sail Partners assisted Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., a prominent A/E/C firm ranked on Engineering News-Record's list of the Top 500 Design Firms in America, with the implementation of Deltek Vision across its business.  Full Sail Partners built numerous workflows in Deltek Vision such as conflict checking, project initiation, billing, and project status report.  As a result, WJE realized an annual savings of about $1.8 million and a reduction in DSOs of 45 days.  The cost to purchase and implement Deltek Vision paid for itself over 30 times in just one year. 

“As the leader in solving the world’s most challenging construction-related problems, WJE works on more than 7,000 projects a year. Our project management, time, and accounting systems must not let us down,” said WJE Associate Director of Finance and Controller, Steven Schmit.  “We are honored to receive this award recognizing the partnership between WJE and Full Sail Partners, whose expert guidance and support has been so critical to the successful implementation and ongoing operation of Deltek Vision within our firm.”

Since the awards program started in 2008, Deltek has recognized some of the most innovative, market-leading companies in the world. The Project Excellence Awards program, a key component of the annual Deltek Insight User Conference, was designed to highlight and honor unique achievement among Deltek's more than 14,500 customers worldwide.  The goal of this award program is to recognize outstanding Deltek customer and partner success in improving business processes and performance, increasing profitability and winning new business.

“We are very proud to be honored with the Project Excellence Partner Award with WJE.  We loved the challenge as presented by Steve and WJE” said Kevin O’Connor, President of Full Sail Partners. “The automation created by WJE and the FSP team brought forward a game changing level of efficiency. The implementation provided increased functionality, reduction of manual processes through automation, and timelier reporting and distribution which resulted in significant time savings. WJE has been a true partner with our firm and the close integration of the work we did is a testament to both or team’s commitment to excellence.” 

 

In my day-to-day conversations with companies I am often discussing IT support issues surrounding their firms’ backup plan for their firms’ key financial and marketing data. As I speak to these firms I inquire about steps they are taking to protect this critical data.  I often pose this simple question “How long could your firm survive without access to this critical data?” Most firms indicate that they could not afford to be without access to this data for more than a day or two. Yet most have not taken precautions to have a 1-2 day restoration plan/ disaster recovery plan. In many cases these IT support issues seem to be a direct correlation to the firms’ reduction in IT support staff (internal & external) over the last several years. In many of these discussions it is often discovered that there is no backup plan for the firm’s critical data, no testing of backups to verify the integrity of the backups and no off-site backup storage.  Two fairly typical conversations have occurred over the last couple months (names omitted to protect the guilty).

The first required assistance to move their financial database from a crippled failing server to a new server. In the process Full Sail Partners’ Consultant requested to have the firms IT support to provide a backup of the Live Date. Upon restoring the backup provided it was discovered that the firm had been backing up a sample database for over a year and had never backed up their “Live” database. Thankfully disaster was avoided when Full Sail Partners’ Consultant was able to successfully make a backup up of their “Live” database on the dying server and restore it onto the new server (before failure happened), prepare accurate backup plan and validate the backup to verify that it was actually the “Live” database. Not sure they know how lucky they were to still be in business.

The second conversation was not quite as fortunate. This conversation started after they had their production server crash in a fluke lightning storm. Full Sail Partners Consultant was able to get the firm back up and running in less than 3 hours. However, after several attempts to recover their database, it was determined that the most recent valid database backup was over 3 months old due to not having regular off-site backups.

Often times firms hear these stories and ask how can they help their firm from becoming another story. I typically tell them that they need to make sure that their IT support either internal or external need to be verifying the integrity of the their database backups and also need to be storing these backups off-site. For those firms that may not have the desired level of IT support, Full Sail Partners now has both Hosted Solutions as well as On-Premise solutions for Deltek Vision to protect your firm’s critical data.

View our past webinar to learn more about what your firm can do to protect your data and ensure you have a back-up checklist.

Year-end is always a stressful time of year, but it doesn’t have to be.  As with everything else in the world of Accounting, planning and preparation is the key to a successful and stress-free year end.

Here are just a few tips to make your year-end close just a little easier:

• Communication – It is vital to communicate to the rest of the firm that year end is approaching and the important dates that they should be aware of: final timesheet due date, final expense report due date, etc.
• Create a calendar – Your calendar should contain all of your year-end deadlines: final AP check run, final timesheet due, final bank rec are all dates you may want to add to your year-end calendar.
• Create a year-end manual – Given that year-end procedures change very little from year to year, create a manual.  With a manual to refer to, you no longer have to rely on your memory or cryptic notes you may have taken in years past.
• Reconcile on a monthly basis - Stay on top of your monthly reconciliations.  Nothing adds to the stress of year end more than performing several months of reconciliations that could be done monthly.
• Recurring transaction files – If there are yearly JE’s or other transactions that you only post once a year, consider creating a recurring transaction file.  Each year those files will already be in place so you don’t have to re-create them from year to year.
• Order year end forms well in advance - Why wait until the last minute to order your 1099 and W-2 forms?  By ordering your forms in advance you know they are on hand when you are ready to process.

In addition to the tips above, Deltek publishes the Year End Bulletin each year.  This is an excellent resource for year end preparation of your Deltek Vision System.

Just remember to stay focused and keep organized and along with the tips outlined above, you will be surprised at how easy and stress free year end will be!

Hurricane Sandy spreads her reach to 13 states wide and the evaluation of the damage and impact begin to be accessed. After the superstorm subsides, the ability to communicate to family, co-workers, and clients becomes vital. This is then followed by returning to a sense of normalcy. Events like this provide a new perspective that we sometimes overlook, the ability to access our data. You don't have to wait until you lose your data or don't have a quick restore to address this issue.

For nearly five years, Full Sail Partners has been responsible for our hosted Deltek Vision clients a guarantee of 99.5%.  To meet that uptime guarantee, a way to monitor, maintain, and protect our clients was mission critical.  Three services are now available to all Deltek Vision clients who maintain their own on-site server with our best of breed tools and techniques.

Bulletproof

On a monthly basis Full Sail Partners will conduct an eyes-on, comprehensive inspection based on a checklist of over 30 parameters, deploy the latest Full Sail Partners scripts and tricks to maximize uptime, install the latest hotfixes, and perform a soup-to-nuts database restore to test your backup plan to ensure your backups are something you can count on.  We’ll also set up that restored database as a hidden test database so you have the ability to try/test/play without disturbing your production data.

Overwatch

Chances are good there’s more information in your database today than yesterday, and the database isn’t getting smaller or using less resources.  Most companies only discover these conditions when it is too late and Vision is already ‘down’.  That would be unacceptable for our hosting clients, so we developed ‘Overwatch’, a real time monitoring system tailored to all of the Vision critical metrics and services.  Overwatch allows us (and now you too!) to check the health of your Vision servers via a webpage and see up to date information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Additionally, even when you’re not looking, Overwatch is.  Warning and escalating emails will be sent to your staff whenever something like memory usage thresholds are reached.  This allows IT to be aware of issues in time to react before they become showstoppers.

Catastrophe Protection

Even though Full Sail Partners utilizes multiple hosting locations and redundancy, we wanted the additional protection of an independent, standalone backup solution for our client’s database archives, logos, and custom work.  We felt so strongly about this strategy that we decided to make our solution available to our on-site clients.  If there is absolutely nothing else you do to protect your Vision data, a dependable, tested, offsite backup solution is critical.  In addition to providing anytime access to your encrypted database backups, we also include 30 days of free hosting and will have your database online and available within 24 hours of your loss of server casualty.

To learn more about implementing these solutions in your disaster prevention, protection, and recover plans view our Comprehensive IT Services to Plan, Protect, and Prevent.

Full Sail Partners, offering business consulting, technology solutions, and application hosting for Deltek Vision, is proud to unveil Vision Unleashed™, a multi-platform solution for Deltek Vision.  Vision Unleashed will allow users to access Deltek Vision from most mobile device or non-windows platform. 

This multi-platform solution is perfect for firms with business developers, executives, or project managers needing convenient access to Deltek Vision on the road. With the ability to access Deltek Vision data anywhere, anytime, Vision Unleashed allows project staff to work on the fly, independently of their standard windows-based office computer.

“For many years our clients have been asking us if they can access Deltek Vision from non-windows devices. Full Sail Partners is extremely honored and proud to be able to provide any Deltek user with a multi-platform solution for Deltek Vision that is both easy to obtain and use,” said Scott A. Seal, Director of Service Development at Full Sail Partners. “We believe that the ability to use Vision Unleashed to access Deltek Vision anywhere, on any mobile device, will allow Vision users to work more conveniently and effectively.”

Currently, Vision Unleashed is approved for compatibility with the following devices:    

• Smartphone (iPhone, Android, etc.)
• Tablets (iPad, Kindle, Galaxy, etc.)
• Non-Windows Platform (Mac or Linux)
• Many more

For more information about Vision Unleashed™, and to learn how your firm can start accessing Deltek's Vision try it for FREE.




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.

Good customer service is a rare commodity in this day and age of virtual customer support agents.   Business is done in an ultra-competitive arena where your direct competition is only a Google search away.  As a result, firms are developing customer relations management plans to help better serve their client base.  Has your firm ignored developing a plan to manage your customers?

A good customer relations management plan will act as a guideline for your firm when dealing with clients.  However, it is important to remember that there is no end-all-be-all remedy for customer support.  Some battles cannot be won, no matter how diligent and worthy your efforts.  This is why I compare having a strong plan, to a game of poker!

Much like in a game of poker, the typical customer service interaction involves some 'hidden cards' that you are not always privileged to see.  These hidden cards can be anything from possible prior negative history with your company, temperament, and maybe even personal issues that the customer is dealing with in their life.  It is because of these cards that we as customer service representatives, much like a seasoned poker player, must approach every hand as though we are playing with pocket ACES.

Pocket ACES are a poker player’s best friend.  The ACES acronym also happens to be easiest to remember four step processes for dealing with every day client interactions.

ACES stands for:

Accountability:	Take responsibility for fixing the problem.  This is the first and foremost job for any professional when dealing with clients.  We cannot change the past, so we must concentrate on moving forward and fixing the situation.  The best way to do this is by taking accountability over the situation.
Communications:	Clearly communicate the process.  Let your client or customers know how you are going to assist them, and then keep them updated throughout the process.  This breeds confidence and sets a level of expectation.
Empathy:	Acknowledge the impact that the situation has on the customer.  Letting the customer know that you understand their inconvenience can go a long way in building a personal connection.
Solution:	At the end of the day, make sure to solve the problem.  None of the above steps matter if you do not solve the problem at hand.  You owe it to your customers to provide a prompt and convenient solution.

As a professional, it is your responsibility to play like poker legend Phil Hellmuth and go ’all in’ for your customers with pocket ACES!

 

Deltek recognizes Full Sail Partners as a top-performing business partner.

Full Sail Partners, offering business consulting, technology solutions, and application hosting for Deltek Vision, is chosen as a 2012 Deltek Premier Partner. Deltek, Inc., the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for government contractors and professional services firms, offers this distinction to top-performing business partners. To achieve Premier Partner status, Full Sail Partners demonstrated continuing excellence in marketing, selling, implementing, and supporting their customers with Deltek solutions.

“Full Sail Partners continues to differentiate itself as a true industry thought leader and serves as an advocate for hundreds of clients,” said Claus Thorsgaard, Deltek’s EVP and General Manager – Professional Services.  “Our mutual clients appreciate Full Sail Partners’ ability to leverage Deltek Vision to provide insight on product enhancements, new product releases, and feature functionality.  I would like to congratulate Kevin O’Connor and everyone at Full Sail Partners. We are pleased to recognize the accomplishments and talents of the individuals of this top performing company.”

“We at Full Sail Partners are extremely honored and proud to once again be named a Deltek Premier Partner.  I am grateful to our clients who provided us the opportunity to continue to serve them in 2012,” said Kevin P. O’Connor, President of Full Sail Partners.  “The energy and professionalism the group at Full Sail Partners consistently brings speaks to their passion for providing quality services to our clients.”

The Full Sail Partner team sees that 2012 and beyond affords many opportunities to project-based clients with the release of Deltek Vision First Essentials and a host of software enhancements.  As a Deltek Premier Partner, Full Sail Partners is committed to working with clients to help strategically plan and leverage the solutions within the Vision suite of tools.  Full Sail Partners' team, collectively, brings more than 200 years of experience with Deltek products and is excited to unveil in late third quarter of 2012 unique technology solutions to assist with business needs.

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. | For more on Deltek, visit http://www.deltek.com.

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.