PM Time Estimate System

Location: Management Hub > STAFF (for Admin) / MISC (for Scheduler)

Navigation:

• PM Time Scheduler: From the Dashboard, click "Management" in the main menu. In the MISC section, click "PM Time Scheduler" to access the monthly planning calendar.
• PM Time Estimate Admin: From the Dashboard, click "Management" in the main menu. In the STAFF section, click "PM Time Estimate Admin" to access the administrative review and document generation interface.

Direct URLs:

• PM Time Scheduler: /Estimate/PM/Scheduler.aspx
• PM Time Estimate Admin: /Estimate/PM/Admin.aspx

Overview

The PM Time Estimate System is a comprehensive solution for planning, tracking, and billing Project Manager (PM) time on dedicated client accounts. This system addresses a specific business model where Project Managers are assigned to long-term client relationships and their time is billed on a monthly basis through professional estimate documents.

The system consists of two interconnected components:

1. PM Time Scheduler - A calendar-based planning interface where individual Project Managers enter their expected work hours for the upcoming month, day by day. The scheduler intelligently accounts for weekends, holidays, approved absences, and already-logged time to help PMs create accurate forecasts.
2. PM Time Estimate Admin - An administrative dashboard that aggregates all PM estimates, allows for adjustments, detects discrepancies between estimates and actual time logged, generates professional PDF estimate documents, and facilitates sending these documents to clients.

Together, these components create a streamlined workflow from individual time planning through client-ready billing documentation, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and professional client communication.

Business Value

Why Does This Matter to the Company?

1. Predictable Revenue Forecasting - By having Project Managers plan their monthly hours in advance, the company can forecast expected revenue from PM time billing before the month begins. This enables better financial planning and resource allocation decisions.
2. Accountability and Planning Discipline - The scheduler forces PMs to think proactively about their workload, considering upcoming absences, holidays, and project demands. This planning discipline improves time management and client service delivery.
3. Automated Billing Integration - When PMs submit their estimated hours, the system automatically creates corresponding time entries in the time tracking system. This eliminates duplicate data entry and ensures billing records align with estimates from day one.
4. Professional Client Communication - The Admin interface generates polished PDF estimate documents that present PM time costs professionally. These documents include recipient information, quote numbers, validity periods, and individual PM breakdowns—everything clients expect from formal cost estimates.
5. Discrepancy Detection - The Admin dashboard highlights when actual tracked hours differ from estimated hours, allowing administrators to identify issues before they become billing problems. This prevents both under-billing (lost revenue) and over-billing (client disputes).
6. Multi-Client Organization - PM Groups allow the company to organize Project Managers serving different clients or client segments. Each group has its own invoice recipient configuration, enabling proper billing routing without manual intervention.
7. Document Archival and Audit Trail - All generated estimate PDFs are automatically saved to cloud storage with consistent naming conventions. This creates a complete historical record for auditing, client inquiries, and dispute resolution.
8. Streamlined Communication - The ability to email estimates directly from the system with customizable messages reduces administrative overhead and ensures consistent, professional client communication.

Business Benefits

For Project Managers

• Intelligent Calendar Interface: The scheduler presents a full month calendar view where PMs can quickly see and adjust daily hours. Days are pre-populated with standard 8-hour workdays.
• Absence Integration: Approved absence requests automatically reduce the default hours for those days, so PMs don't have to manually track their PTO when planning.
• Holiday Awareness: Official company holidays are marked and excluded from work hour calculations, preventing accidental time entry on non-working days.
• Weekend Handling: Weekend days default to zero hours but can be overridden if weekend work is planned.
• Visual Indicators: Icons clearly mark holidays, absences, and days requiring attention (such as time already entered on absences or holidays).
• One-Click Submission: After planning the month, PMs submit with a single click, and the system handles all the behind-the-scenes time entry creation.
• Existing Estimate View: If an estimate was already submitted for the upcoming month, the scheduler displays the submitted values for reference.

For Finance and Billing Administrators

• Consolidated View: See all PM estimates grouped by PM Group in one interface, with totals for hours and dollars clearly displayed.
• Real-Time Rate Calculation: Dollar amounts are automatically calculated using current activity rates for each PM's client relationship.
• Adjustable Hours: Administrators can adjust individual PM hours directly in the Admin interface when corrections are needed.
• Discrepancy Alerts: Red indicators highlight when actual tracked time differs from estimates, with direct links to the relevant project for investigation.
• PDF Preview: Preview the exact estimate document that will be sent to clients before committing to save or send.
• Flexible Delivery Options: Save estimates to cloud storage for record-keeping, or send directly to clients via email with customizable subject lines and messages.
• Monthly Navigation: Easily switch between months to review historical estimates or prepare future ones.
• Status Tracking: See when estimates were last saved and sent, along with the full storage path for each document.

For Company Leadership

• Standardized Process: A consistent, repeatable workflow ensures PM time billing follows the same professional process for every client every month.
• Revenue Visibility: Early visibility into expected PM time revenue supports cash flow planning and resource decisions.
• Client Confidence: Professional estimate documents reinforce the company's attention to detail and commitment to transparent billing.
• Compliance Ready: Complete document archives support audit requirements and provide evidence for billing inquiries.

Usage Scenarios

Scenario 1: Monthly PM Time Planning

It's the 15th of the month, and Project Manager Sarah needs to plan her hours for next month. She navigates to the PM Time Scheduler and sees a calendar showing next month's dates. The system has pre-populated each weekday with 8 hours and marked her approved vacation days with reduced hours. She reviews the calendar, adjusts a few days where she knows she'll have lighter or heavier workloads, and clicks Submit. The system creates her time entries for the month and records her estimate of 152 hours totaling $15,200 based on her billing rate.

Scenario 2: Reviewing Submitted Estimates

The billing administrator opens the PM Time Estimate Admin on the 20th to review all submitted estimates for next month. She selects "Acme Corp" PM Group and sees three PMs with their estimated hours: John (160 hours), Maria (144 hours), and Tom (168 hours). The system shows Maria's entry in red with "(140 hours)" - indicating that Maria's actual tracked time for the current month is different from her estimate. The administrator clicks the link to investigate and discovers Maria adjusted some entries. She updates Maria's estimate to match the actual tracked hours using the inline editor and saves the changes.

Scenario 3: Generating and Previewing Estimate Document

After reviewing all estimates for the Acme Corp PM Group, the administrator clicks "Preview" to see the PDF that will be sent to the client. The preview displays a professional document showing the quote number, billing period, recipient contact information, services description ("Acme Corp PM time October 2024"), individual PM hour breakdowns, and total estimated amount. She notices a typo in the contact name that needs to be fixed in the system configuration and makes a note to update it before sending the final document.

Scenario 4: Sending Estimate to Client

With all estimates verified and the preview looking correct, the administrator clicks "Send." A dialog appears with the client's invoice recipient email pre-filled, along with a default subject line ("Estimation for Acme Corp PM time October 2024") and a professional message template. She customizes the message slightly to mention an upcoming project and clicks Send. The system generates the PDF, saves it to cloud storage, attaches it to the email, and sends it to the client. The interface updates to show the sent timestamp.

Scenario 5: Saving Without Sending

For a new client relationship where billing approval processes are still being established, the administrator wants to generate and save the estimate document without sending it yet. She clicks "Save to FTP" which generates the PDF and uploads it to cloud storage. The system confirms the save with the full file path. Later, the account manager can download the PDF from storage and deliver it through their preferred channel.

Scenario 6: Handling Late Estimate Submission

A Project Manager forgot to submit their estimate by the usual deadline. The administrator sees their hours showing as zero in the Admin interface. She contacts the PM, who provides their expected hours. The administrator can either have the PM go to the Scheduler page to submit properly, or she can adjust the hours directly in the Admin interface for this exceptional case.

Scenario 7: Checking Previously Submitted Estimate

A Project Manager wants to confirm what they submitted last month. They navigate to the PM Time Scheduler and see a message showing their estimate was submitted on the 18th, with their total hours (160) and dollars ($16,000) displayed. The calendar shows their day-by-day breakdown in read-only mode since the estimate was already submitted.

Business Logic Details

PM Time Scheduler Workflow

Timing Logic
The system determines which month to display based on the current date:

• If today is the 15th or later, the scheduler shows next month for planning
• If today is before the 15th, the scheduler shows the current month

This ensures PMs always plan ahead while giving time for month-end billing activities.

Pre-Population Logic
For each day of the month, the scheduler determines estimated hours:

1. Already Entered Time: If the PM has already logged time for a day, those hours are displayed and used as the estimate
2. Weekends and Holidays: These days default to 0 hours
3. Absence Days: Days with approved absence requests are reduced by the absence hours (e.g., 8-hour vacation leaves 0 estimated work hours)
4. Standard Days: Regular workdays default to 8 hours

Submission Process
When the PM clicks Submit:

1. The system creates time entry records for each week of the month
2. Dollar amounts are calculated using the PM's activity rate for the client
3. An estimate record is created summarizing total hours and dollars
4. A notification is sent confirming the submission
5. PTO time entries are automatically created for days where estimated hours fall below a threshold

PM Time Estimate Admin Workflow

Month Selection
The admin interface defaults to the same month logic as the scheduler (next month if after the 15th, current month otherwise). Administrators can navigate to any month using the date selector.

Data Aggregation
For each PM Group, the system:

1. Retrieves all submitted estimates for the selected month
2. Looks up PM personal information (names)
3. Retrieves actual tracked time from the time tracking system
4. Compares estimated vs. actual hours to detect discrepancies
5. Calculates totals for hours and dollars

PDF Generation
The estimate document includes:

• Document date and quote number
• Invoice recipient contact information (Bill To address, contact name)
• Services description (e.g., "Acme Corp PM time October 2024")
• Period covered (first day through last day of month)
• Individual PM breakdowns (name, hours)
• Total hours
• Estimated dollar amount
• Validity statement (valid for one month from generation)
• Creator's name and email

Rate Calculation

Dollar amounts are calculated by:

1. Looking up the activity rate for the PM's assigned activity and client
2. Multiplying the rate by estimated hours
3. Storing both original and current amounts (in case rates change)

Key Features

PM Time Scheduler Page

PM Time Estimate Admin Page

Summary

The PM Time Estimate System provides a complete workflow for managing Project Manager time billing on dedicated client accounts. The system addresses the full lifecycle from individual PM planning through client-ready estimate documents.

Key capabilities include:

• Calendar-Based Planning: PMs enter daily hour estimates in an intuitive calendar interface that accounts for weekends, holidays, and approved absences
• Automatic Time Entry Creation: Submitted estimates automatically create time tracking records, eliminating duplicate data entry
• Multi-Group Organization: PM Groups enable separate billing configurations for different client relationships
• Discrepancy Detection: Automatic comparison of estimated vs. actual hours catches variances before they become billing issues
• Professional Documentation: Polished PDF estimates include all information clients expect: quote numbers, recipient details, individual breakdowns, and validity periods
• Flexible Delivery: Save documents to cloud storage for records, or send directly to clients with customizable email messages
• Complete Audit Trail: All estimates are timestamped, stored, and tracked for when they were generated and sent

The system transforms PM time billing from a manual, error-prone process into a streamlined workflow that ensures accuracy, professionalism, and complete documentation of client billing communications.