The Claymore Client Billing System (CCBS) is a comprehensive system which collects staff time and expense information, summarizes it by project/matter and generates client invoices as well as providing staff performance information (utilization, realization and goal reporting.) The system includes a multi-currency receivable/payables system and interfaces can be provided to interface with in-house systems for staff reimbursement and general ledger reporting.
The main focus of the system is to:
The system is based on relationships between four major components: reporting company, clients, projects and staff.
(Top)The reporting company represents a unique legal entity and has staff, clients and projects. The system can support multiple reporting companies. Each company can have multiple offices and will have a reporting currency (all clients belonging to this company will be billed in this currency, and all staff for this company will have a billing rate in this currency.)
Clients represent entities for which the reporting company will undertake projects and incur time and expense. For each client, we will capture various classification information to allow reporting. Each client will belong to a specific reporting company.
Projects represent any initiative that is undertaken for which fees and expenses are identified and accumulated. Each project will belong to a specific client (or to the reporting company in the case of internal or administrative projects).
The system tracks all staff, including partners/principals, consultants, and all administrative staff. There is no limit to the number of classifications (levels) of staff. Each level of staff can have their own standard hours per period for expected client hours, internal hours, vacation/personal hours and training hours. The staff level can also specify if time is to be billed as fees or as expenses (in the case of support staff, for example). Each staff will have a standard billing rate.
While staff belong to a specific reporting company which defines the currency in which they will be billed, they can work for any project in the system and the system will convert currency as necessary and will track imported and exported time by company.
The system monitors performance using three primary measures: Utilization, Realization and Fee Credits. In addition, simple measures such as hours distribution (providing total hours worked and total chargeable hours) are provided.
Utilization measures how the resource is utilized and is defined as the ratio of billable/chargeable hours to the 'standard' hours. Standard hours will vary depending on staff level (and can also be set at the individual staff level) and represents the expected billable hours, taking into consideration time required for holidays, vacation, training and administrative responsibilities, so that typically the higher the staff level, the lower the number of expected billable hours. Utilization is adversely impacted by billing fewer hours than expected, and is positively impacted by billing more hours than scheduled.
Realization measures how much of the fees charged to a project are actually billed to the client and is defined as the ratio of the fees billed to the client to the fees charged (standard billing rate times the hours worked). Realization is adversely impacted by marking down fees prior to billing or deferring billing, hoping to be able to bill it later, and positively impacted by premium billing or marking up fees.
Fee Credits are allocated to project manager or designated staff based on fees billed. Fee credit categories are unlimited and can be defined by the user.
All staff time is recorded and posted against assigned projects, which are divided into three major categories:
The firm's clients are categorized by industry and size.
Projects can be categorized by type of service as well as two additional user-defined classifications. Projects can be billed in a number of methods, including:
Time can be recorded against projects and then transferred to the project once the proposal is accepted and the project is booked.
Comprehensive reporting is provided on all firm activity including:
While the system provides most reports required by a consulting firm, situations may arise where the necessary information is not reported - if the data has been entered into the system, it can be retrieved in other sequences, either in total or in detail.
The system data is available directly to any Windows-based reporting tool which utilizes ODBC (Open Database Connectivity); most Windows based reporting tools support this standard. Commonly used tools to access and report on our data include Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Crystal Reports as well as most other spreadsheets and report writers.
An integrated accounts receivable and accounts payable system provides full control over receivables, collections, payables and disbursements; the system supports multiple currencies and may be used for non-project-related transactions.
The system provides all the information necessary to prepare standard summary accounting journal entries to reflect the consulting activity, along with supporting detail. The system can also generate journal entry files which may then be passed to an independent automated general ledger system.
(Top)The system is currently being used by a major consulting firm operating in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
(Top)One of the common problems reported with most systems is the lack of adequate security and/or audit trails. Our system has been designed from the beginning with a keen concern for security as well as maintaining adequate transaction files to provide the necessary audit trails to support all reports and file changes.
Each user is provided an individual user-name to access the system and an access level is assigned. This access level controls the screens the user is permitted to view or update.
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