Hi all, Has anyone gone through changing users hour rates during managing projects and that? We've had same two different rates for permanent workers and contractors. Those are assigned to every single users and haven't been changed since implementing Workfront. But it comes to this time - management have decided to change hour rates since January. For this moment what we know - we need to make sure that all billing records which are meant to be with 'old/current' hour rates, are actually billed in Workfront. As even if you create them, and then change hour rates - numbers on created billing records get adjusted. That's not as a big problem though. The biggest issue we can see - is the fact that any project which is in progress will get their budgets/planned cost/revenues hugely changed. So in fact after the change it seems like we won't have accurate finance information and won't be able to track finances figures within Workfront.. Hope that makes sense.... What is your experience with it? Any advise? Thanks, Dags Dagmara Garwell BAKKAVOR LTD
Maybe someone smarter can correct me but I thought once the hours were added to a billing record they became "locked" and would not be adjusted. If that is true, then couldn't you create a billing record prior to your new rates and then not have to worry about the projects in progress. Michael Lebowitz Marketing Analyst Michael.Lebowitz@guidewellconnect.com T 904-436-4240 | M 904-200-1364 Fax 904-565-6156 4800 Deerwood Campus Pkwy DCC 800-4-272 Jacksonville, FL 32246
Hi: That is true – the billing record is locked – and so is the timesheet entry that drove the billing record. A change in the billing rate will never change an existing billing record. This is all sound practice, I believe. On the other hand, there is no way to change a locked billing record. Eric
Hi: We have recognized a short coming in WorkFront's ability to manage hourly rate changes over time. This has been a singular reason why we don't have more use of WorkFront – we can't rely on any the finances to be accurate. WorkFront DID release time-effective Billing Rates. We struggle with Cost Per Hour, though. You can change Billing Rates and use effectivity dates. Beware, however, changing the cost per hour for any resource. It will not only recalculate the roll-up cost of that project, it will change the cost of every project that resource was assigned to – for all time. It will completely recalculate everything. It's a mess. We have not found a solution to WorkFront's lack of ability to appreciate effectivity dates on cost per hour. We ignore all project costing. We only pay attention to the hours assigned to the project. It is important to differentiate between cost per hour and project cost, and the billing rate and billing records. They aren't really related. The cost of the project is not related to the sum of all billing records because they are driven by different rates. That might not be any help, but I hope it sparks more discussion. Thanks! Eric
Eric That is a very good explanation of the differences and the limitations. It sounds like an Idea exchange – mirror the functionality of effective dates for cost per hour to that of the billing rate effective dates. Michael Lebowitz Marketing Analyst Michael.Lebowitz@guidewellconnect.com T 904-436-4240 | M 904-200-1364 Fax 904-565-6156 4800 Deerwood Campus Pkwy DCC 800-4-272 Jacksonville, FL 32246
We don't use billing records on projects. We use the Cost per Hour on the user for our reports. Earlier this year I had the need to track a rate change made during the year and needed to ensure that it was reflected correctly on the YTD reports. To do this I update the custom form for our users to include custom fields for: Cost Per Hour Effective Date (for current cost per hour), Previous Cost Per Hour, Previous Cost Per Hour Effective Date. I modified my report (that I use strictly to export data from Workfront) to have a virtual field that calculates the Cost for each hour logged based on the Effective Dates I am capturing, this give me the ability to calculate the correct cost based on when the hours were entered. It's crude, but works. I was really disappointed that on the project side, Workfront provided the ability to track historical rates, but didn't for the User side....seems like what was provided was half a solution. I would like to see the functionality extended to the user side as well along with the cost being calculated based on the date that the different rates were enforced. This way I wouldn't have to export and report outside of Workfront. This past year, I have talked to EVERYONE that I have been in contact with from Workfront about this. Keeping my fingers crossed that at least one person heard me. :) Admin Kelly-Wehrmann SSFCU
We have always housed and tracked our costs using Job Roles rather than Users. It's somewhat less precise but enables our project managers to track costs while shielding individual salaries. As long as you're willing to change all of your tasks' Cost Type from "User Hourly" to "Role Hourly," here's a possible hack to use until Workfront gets around to handling effective dates on the cost side:
When you need to change a rate, rename the Job Role that will be getting a new hourly rate (for example, change "Graphic Designer" to "Graphic Designer old rate"). Have that Job Role retain the existing rate.
Then create a new version of the original Job Role ("Graphic Designer" in this example) with the new hourly rate.
All your existing templates and projects will have tasks assigned to "Graphic Designer old rate." You will need to adjust all your templates accordingly; for projects that are currently in production, you'll want to modify any "Graphic Designer" tasks to accept either of the two Job Roles (or alternately, create a separate task for the "Graphic Designer" role).
All your "Graphic Designer" users will now be set up with the "Graphic Designer old rate" Job Role. You will need to reassign them to the "Graphic Designer" Job Role instead.
All hours that have already been billed to a timesheet will retain the old "Graphic Designer old rate" cost. New hours moving forward will be billed according to the new "Graphic Designer" cost. Yup, it's a hack, and you're doing a bunch of admin work that Workfront probably SHOULD be doing for you. But it's something to play around with, at least... ~Eric Eric Manning Language Line Translation Solutions
The status of bulling record has to be BILLED, otherwise once you recalculate finances, amount change the same. See picture below: top one shows billing records before changing hour rate for one of the people working on the project... Dagmara Garwell BAKKAVOR LTD
Thanks, Admin Kelly. I too have a massive spreadsheet I built that calculates the daily cost of each resource assigned to each task so that the rate effective on that date is used, not the default Global Rate within WorkFront. It is unwieldy for the average PM to use. I never used it, in the end. I hope WorkFront creates effectivity dates on the Cost Per Hour...we would start trusting the cost that WorkFront produces... Thanks! Eric
I found this idea on the exchange. Only has a few votes but I know we drive that up!! "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000908347-Improvements-on-Rates"> https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000908347-Improvements-on-Rates Michael Lebowitz Marketing Analyst Michael.Lebowitz@guidewellconnect.com T 904-436-4240 | M 904-200-1364 Fax 904-565-6156 4800 Deerwood Campus Pkwy DCC 800-4-272 Jacksonville, FL 32246
So, my mistake as this idea was already delivered. I created a new idea. "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115007377313-Roles-Rates-with-specific-time-periods"> https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115007377313-Roles-Rates-with-specific-time-p... Please add comments to further support the process. Thanks!!! Michael Lebowitz Marketing Analyst Michael.Lebowitz@guidewellconnect.com T 904-436-4240 | M 904-200-1364 Fax 904-565-6156 4800 Deerwood Campus Pkwy DCC 800-4-272 Jacksonville, FL 32246
Hey all looks like we're all trying to get to very similar results here. I think we should pull all our needs together into one area and then get as much support behind it as possible. I've posted a idea in the exchange as well, but i think we'll just end up cannibalizing eachother. Clearly the rates / billing function within WF needs a lot of love, so we might as well work together to put a proposed solution together for the folks at WF. https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115006742913-Customize-Rates-by-Portfolio Ryan Carroll Integrated Marketing Services
The problem with creating new roles for new rates is over time you end up with more and more variants of rate each year. I was WF admin for an organisation that changes it's rates each year. I spent one day each year doing the rate update which involved:
Running a report for hours not on a billing record with an entry date between a given range. Include project name in the report
Open each project from that report, add a billing record and add hours between the date range. Change the billing record to billed
Run the report again just to check I got everything
Change the job role rates
Note that changing the rate does not automatically recalculate finances on projects. If another edit is made, then the new rate gets applied but the project is in limbo (showing and using the old rate, but re-doing the rate when finances are recalculated). So the final steps:
Run a new report of hours not on billing record, showing project name
Open each project on the report
Manually recalculate finances
I've upvoted the date range job role rate suggestions. Barry Buchanan Work Management Australia
I am following Barry's lead and making billable records on our projects prior to updating our cost per hour rate for 2018. The only snag I have run into is that I have to use the Additional Amount field on the Billing Record and not the Billable Hours. The reason for this is that we cost all of our project, task and issue time for our resources (really any time they spend on the project) and according to Workfront Help (
Eric or Barry I continue to work on my Billing Record entries based on this discussion thread, but by sheer coincidence I was reminded today about Expenses on a project. I wonder if the same 'permanent' record of 2017 labour costs (at the 2017 internal cost per hour) could be achieved by adding an Expense, giving it a name (2017 Actual Labour Costs) and entering the Actual Cost (hours @ 2017 cost per hour) then the Actual Expense would show up as a Cost in the Finance tab? I hope I have complicated or diluted this thread for anyone... feedback appreciated. Tracy Fox Project Manager / Workfront SysAdmin Sykes Assistance Services Corporation
Hi Tracy, If I'm following, yes, you could (manually) create an expense to represent the 2017 labor costs, but if the time was also entered with a billing rate, that would then either double-count those costs, or require another manual step to delete that (valuable) time information. Instead, to solve the changing rate over time conundrum, I recommend creating billing records to lock in the hours and finances up to a particular date, then change the rate(s) so that go forward, the new rate applies only on the new hours. Rinse and repeat as needed. Regards, Doug
Thanks Doug, I will stick with the billing record process. And my own chuckle in re-reading my post, " I hope I have complicated or diluted this thread for anyone", was supposed to say "I hope I HAVEN'T" Thanks Tracy Fox Project Manager / Workfront SysAdmin Sykes Assistance Services Corporation
