Step 5: Ensure efficient time and skill usage

In this article, we'll look at five reports you can view in Scoro to evaluate if your team uses their time and skill set efficiently.

Watch the video for a brief summary of the benefits of each report. Then, use the guide below to learn how to set up each relevant report in just four steps.

Get a high-level overview of internal vs client work

This report can help you evaluate if your team is using their time and skill set efficiently, if they spend spending enough time on client work (billable) or are internal (admin) activities stealing too much of their time.

How to generate this report?

1. In order for you to categorize your team's work, so that it can be easily compared and analyzed, we recommend using Activity type groups to track internal and client work. You can set these up in Settings > Work and projects > Activity types. 
2. Add as many corresponding activity types under each group as required and instruct your team to link all events and tasks to one of the predefined activity types.
3. To see this data in the Detailed Work Report, group the tasks and events by the Activity type groups.
4. Then use Overview as the secondary grouping option to get a high-level summary of the client and admin work split.

Evaluate if your expectations match actual time usage

This report provides a general overview of the planned versus actual time usage across projects and employees. These insights can help you understand what activities take more or less time than expected through the delivery process. As a result, you can make informed decisions when scoping projects going forward. Likewise, you can use it to ensure everyone spends time on the most relevant activities.

How to generate this report?

1. To see this data, add the Planned column to your view.
2. Filter out the completed activities and past events.
3. Group the results by Activity types and Overview and look for any discrepancies.
4. Change the secondary grouping to Users and spot who on the team takes longer to complete certain activities and may need support.

Explore the revenue client work generates

This report lets you assess how profitable your team's efforts are to your business and helps you understand which services you should continue providing and which ones you should reconsider. 

The selling price column shows you how much revenue you have earned from each service (hours spent * selling rate). The labor cost column represents the internal delivery cost for providing the service (hours logged * labor cost).

How to generate this report?

1. Group the detailed work report by Activity types and use Overview as the secondary grouping option.
2. To focus on the time your team spends on client work, filter out only the client-related activity types.
3. Then, use the View menu to add both the labor cost and selling price columns to your view.
4. Compare how valuable or costly each activity is. 

Improve team utilization

This report helps you evaluate if your team's workload is balanced so you can quickly spot who's overworked and who's been sitting idle. Likewise, you can use this report to evaluate if your billable utilization is high enough to generate profit. Low rates can signal a shortage of incoming work or that employees spend too much time on non-billable activities.

How to generate this report?

1. First, add the utilization percentage data column using the View menu.
2. The utilization percentage automatically considers each team member's availability and compares it with the time they've logged. 
3. Next, group the activity list by Days, Weeks or Months and use Users for the secondary grouping option. 
4. To better understand the billable utilization, filter out the activity types related to client work.

Spot trends and set goals

This report lets you see trends over time and check if your team is moving in the right direction. For example, you could track how much time your team spends on internal activities and set a realistic goal to reduce this number.

How to generate this report?

1. Use the date filter to include data about a specific period.
2. To focus on time spent on admin work, filter out only internal work using the Activity type filter.
3. Group the list by Months and choose Overview as the secondary grouping option.
4. This way, you can see trends and check if your team is moving in the right direction.

These are some key reports our most successful customers use to track their performance. Next, look at four reports you can use to analyze project profitability in Scoro.