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Industry pack: Professional Services ​

Professional Services adds what a professional services organisation needs on top of HCM Core: engagement, time entry, write-off, cpd record. Every screen carries charts, and the Overview answers the questions this industry asks first. It works with the people already in HCM Core and Employee; it changes nothing there.

Overview

1. Who uses it ​

RoleWhat they do
Practice / engagement partnerReads utilization and realization by practice.
Resource managerPlaces people on engagements and watches the bench.
Finance partnerChecks write-offs and billing against budget.

2. Before you start ​

  • Installed plugin: hcm-industry-professional-services (free tier; needs HCM Foundation and Employee). No licence feature has to be granted.
  • Access: tenant administrators can use every screen; the Overview needs a tenant administrator or Report.View.
  • Trial data: in a trial tenant, generate the Professional Services industry pack in Demo Data: 8 engagement, 12 time entry, 6 write-off, 10 cpd record.

3. Set up ​

  1. Open Professional Services > Engagements and add each client engagement with practice, budget and dates.
  2. Record Time Entries per person per week (billable and non-billable hours).
  3. Record Write-offs when time is not billed to the client.
  4. Record Certifications and CPD hours that clients and regulators require.

4. Daily use ​

4.1 Engagement ​

A client engagement with its practice, fee budget and amount billed. Open Engagement in the sidebar under Industry Pack, Professional Services. Choose Add engagement to add a record, click a row to change or delete it. The fields are: engagement, client, practice, status, fee budget, billed to date, start date.

Engagement

4.2 Time entry ​

Hours a person worked in a week, billable and not. Utilization is billable hours over available hours. Open Time entry in the sidebar under Industry Pack, Professional Services. Choose Add time entry to add a record, click a row to change or delete it. The fields are: person, practice, week starting, billable hours, non-billable hours.

Time entry

4.3 Write-off ​

Time or fees written off rather than billed, with the reason. Open Write-off in the sidebar under Industry Pack, Professional Services. Choose Add write-off to add a record, click a row to change or delete it. The fields are: write-off, practice, reason, amount, written off on.

Write-off

4.4 CPD record ​

Continuing professional development hours and professional certifications held. Open CPD record in the sidebar under Industry Pack, Professional Services. Choose Add cpd record to add a record, click a row to change or delete it. The fields are: person, professional body, cpd hours this year, required hours, status.

CPD record

5. Charts, reports and exports ​

FigureWhat it counts
Utilization %
Billed to date
Fees billed vs budget %
Written off
CPD at risk
Utilization by practiceBillable share of total hours
Billed by practiceFees billed to date
Write-offs by reasonAmount written off
CPD statusOn track, at risk, complete

Every list page also has charts of its own records (by status or category, and a trend), and the platform grid offers search, paging, column choice and export.

6. On a phone or tablet ​

Every screen works on a phone: tiles, charts and lists stack one per row, and the add and edit dialogs fit the screen.

Overview on a phone

7. Rules and limits ​

  • Realization (billed over standard value) needs standard rates; this pack shows write-offs beside billing instead. The IT pack computes realization for software projects.
  • Utilization is billable hours over all recorded hours, not over contractual available hours.
  • The figures are only as good as the records entered. Benchmarks differ between sources, so none is hard-coded as a target: read the figures against your own history.

8. Troubleshooting ​

SymptomCause and fix
A chart says "Nothing to show yet"No records yet, or none with the date or category the chart needs. Add records or generate the demo pack.
The Overview says forbiddenYour login is not a tenant administrator and lacks Report.View.
A screen is missing from the sidebarThe plugin is not installed for this tenant. Ask a platform administrator to install hcm-industry-professional-services.

9. Related guides ​