Getting Started with Fresh Projects - Plans (3 of 5)

Using the Simple Planner

Switch to the Plan tab. The Simple Planner should be selected by default.

The Simple Planner calculates your resource cost at a very high level : it assumes a constant, averaged labour input over the life of the project. As such it is very easy to configure as to get started you really only need to add two items of information :
  1. Set the Project Duration by typing in the duration and selecting a unit (days, weeks or months)
  2. Add the resources you wish to allocate to the project by clicking on the + icon at the top right of the Resource Box. You can select either generic resources or specific employees, or a combination of the two:














For each resource, simply drag the 'Level of Involvement' slider to change their intensity level for this specific project. For example, if the resource will spend on average 10% of his time on this job, drag the slide down to 10%. Fresh Projects will show you what this translates to in actual hours per day or hours per week as you modify your selection.

Fresh Projects automatically includes the additional costs of both the specific resource's utilisation factor and the company overheads - so the total Labour Cost for the project will be the actual, all-in costs that your company will need to pay to deliver the project. This is the cost that needs to be contrasted against your fee income in order to really know if your project will be profitable or not.

The Fresh Projects Profit Indicator will update in real time as you change the project duration or add resources and adjust their intensity to give you an instant picture of just how profitable you can expect your project to be. 

Adding Other Costs

If you have  any other project costs (e.g. sub-consultants, disbursements or material costs), you can add them to the Other Costs Box by clicking on the + icon at the top right of the Other Costs box:

Any costs added here are also included instantaneously in the Fresh Projects Profit Indicator.

Once you are comfortable that you have included all your resources and other costs, you could go ahead and adjust the discount (on the Fees tab) you feel you can offer that will cover your costs and profit a reasonable profit margin on the job.

Using the Phased Planner 

While the Simple Planner is great for quickly determining you project costs at a high level, it can be difficult to plan projects of a longer duration. The Phased Planner has the  same simple usability but allows you to  introduce different phases to the project, which may have differing resources, levels of intensity and other costs.

Simply choose the Phased Planner option from the planner dropdown, add new phases by clicking on the + icon next to the list of phases and follow the same process described above to create you cost plans.

Once your projects are in place, you are ready for your employees to start capturing time against them.