Note: Project Estimation is a deprecated feature that is only available to paying organizations that utilized the before it was deprecated. If you do not see the options, but believe you should have access to them, please contact our Support Team.
If you are interested in using our Estimation features, ClickTime offers Resource Management for organizations that need to create monthly budgets and allocations. See here for more details.
Organizations that do not need budgets and allocations on a monthly basis can use our Project Insights feature - see here for more details.
Please contact ClickTime Support if you are interested in a trial of either feature. Insights and Resource Management require activating a Premier or Enterprise feature set.
ClickTime accounts that opted into using Project Estimation (sometimes referred to as "Basic Estimation") can use the feature to enter the estimated number of hours, or expected Billings, a Project will take to complete and track progress towards that estimate.
Access to Project Estimation
Adding an Estimated Budget from Project Details
Using the Project Estimation Grid
"Projects To Watch" Dashboard Panel Report
To use the Project Estimation options, you will need to "enable project estimation features" from the Company --> Preferences page. Here you can also determine if you estimate using "time in hours" or "amount billed".
If you wish to create estimates by Billable Amount, you will also need to "enable time billing features" as well. More details on Billing Rates can be found in this guide.
After adding the "project estimation features" option, you will see a "Project Estimation" section of the Company --> Preferences page. Expand this to confirm that it is set to "each Project". Here you can also indicate if you estimate using "time in hours" or "amount billed".
After saving these changes, you will see the Company --> Estimates tab appear.
All Administrators will see this, as will Managers who have "Add & Edit Project List" permissions:
Click on this tab to load your Estimation grid. Next, we will go over adding an Estimate from the Project Details page.
Adding an Estimated Budget from Project Details
You can add estimates from the Project Details page at any time. First, go to Company --> Projects and then click the "edit" pencil icon.
Then click "Edit Section" and enter your estimate into the "Estimated" field (in this example we will estimate by the number of hours needed to complete the Project). Click "Update" to save the estimate.
You can change the estimate at any time from the Project --> Details page, or using the Estimation grid, which will be discussed in the next section of the guide.
Using the Project Estimation grid
Your estimates and progress made towards the estimate can be viewed from the Project Estimation grid, available from the Company --> Estimates page. The grid can be set up to meet your needs and then exported to Excel. Use the links below to learn more about each option.
The Estimation grid has a few options you can use to customize your view.
When you load the Project Estimation page, the first thing you will probably want to do is choose which Projects to display. Click the first option to choose between all "Active Projects", only those where the "Actual Exceeds Estimate, or select "Specific Projects".
If you choose "Specific Projects", a pop-up will appear allowing you choose which Projects you'd like to display. Use the options if you wish to "show inactive projects" or "show non-billable projects".
Please note: The Estimations grid will show a maximum of 500 rows (Projects).
Next, you can determine if you'd like to only show Estimates (which will allow you add/edit Estimates for any Projects that are displayed), only show Actual values, or to show both Estimates & Actual values.
If you've chosen "Estimate View", you will have an option to "Allow Editing" within the grid. See below for more information.
ClickTime will highlight fields in red when the Projects have been overworked. Projects within their estimate will be in blue:
Your colors may appear slightly different depending on browser and computer settings.
If you click on the name of the Project, that will highlight the row in gray.
The "gear" icon will give you options to "Auto Save" any changes you may make when in Edit mode, and to highlight those situations where the actual amount exceeds your estimates
To edit estimates from the Estimation grid, set the worksheet view to "Estimate View (Editable)" and choose to "Allow editing." You will then be able to click into any cells and change the current estimate.
You can use the "Save" option in the top-right, or enable "Auto Save", which will automatically save any changes to your grid after 7 seconds of being idle. You will see a notification countdown for three seconds before your worksheet automatically saves itself.
Any changes that are not yet saved will have a red flag in the cell to indicate an edit was made that has not yet been saved.
If you would like to export your current view to an Excel worksheet, from any Estimates view, click "Export to Excel" in the upper right corner.
Only the current worksheet view will be exported:
"Projects To Watch" Dashboard Panel Report
The "Projects to Watch" Dashboard will be available to ClickTime Administrators (and Managers with permissions to edit Project details) if you are using Project Estimation or Resource Management.
You can use the "gear" icon to select which Projects to include in the Dashboard and choose your sort order.
The Dashboard panel will display the first 10 Projects depending your sort order. To see more than 10 Projects you can create multiple versions of the Dashboard panel.
Estimates will display in gray until there is worked time. As your company approaches the estimate the bar turns green. A green bar with no gray has reached the estimate, and a red bar means your time or amount billed exceeded your estimate.
If you scroll your mouse over a Project you will see a pop-up with more details. Click "see in worksheet" to be taken to the Estimates worksheet.
For more information on Dashboard Reports, please see this guide.
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