Project margin that includes support costs
See the true margin of each engagement, including the support work it creates after delivery.
Live in partWhat does Engagement P&L with support cost do? Stop celebrating projects quietly losing money in support, and bill the project work hiding in your support queue.
How it works
For firms that deliver a project and then support it, Kinnow combines certified revenue, delivery costs and support costs. Margin is left blank unless every cost could be read, because treating missing support costs as zero makes the worst projects look best. Rate cards, rosters and staff-utilisation tracking help services firms, and tickets can become billable work.
Utilisation isn't shown as 0% for someone missing from the roster, because an unmeasured person isn't an idle one.
Step by step: from a week of hours to a true margin
- Hours are recorded by the week. Each person files a timesheet with billable and non-billable hours, a bill rate and a cost rate per hour. The cost rate is copied onto the timesheet, so later changes to a rate card do not rewrite old margins.
- A manager approves the week. Approving posts the cost to the project. The billable value is revenue, and it travels on the running-account bill instead.
- Support tickets are attached to the engagement. Support tickets arrive before anyone knows which engagement they belong to. A person attaches each ticket to its engagement, and its support cost moves with it.
- The margin is worked out only if every part could be read. Kinnow combines revenue, delivery cost and support cost. If any one cannot be read, the margin is left blank and the page says which part is missing.
- Billable work is pulled out of support. On the Support screen, "Make this billable" turns a ticket into a deliverable on the engagement, and the ticket is parked against it. Accepting the deliverable resolves the ticket.
- The partner reviews. The services head reads the margin by engagement, the utilisation of the team and the bench, and decides what to bill, reprice or stop.
See a services engagement with its support cost included. Send us a timesheet extract and a ticket list.
What you see on screen
| Screen | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Time and deliverables | Timesheets with person, week, billable hours, non-billable hours, billable value and cost; deliverables with due date, acceptance terms and value |
| Support on this engagement | Open tickets, support cost, the billable part, and a count of tickets not costed because no work order was raised |
| Utilisation and bench | Firm utilisation, people on the bench, billable hours, and per person: billable, non-billable, capacity, idle hours and a band from bench to over-stretched |
| Engagement margin | Revenue less delivery cost and support cost. Revenue is taken as billed first, then certified, then scheduled milestones, and the basis used travels with the figure |
The bench is ranked by idle hours, not by percentage. A full-timer at 20% has three days to sell; a half-timer at 20% has one and a half.
Who uses it
- Services or delivery head: reads margin and utilisation each month.
- Project managers: approve timesheets, accept deliverables and attach tickets.
- Support lead: uses "Make this billable" when a ticket is really new project work.
Related
Part of Professional services. See also the professional services setup, IT services and projects that cannot close or dispatch on hope.
Questions
What is Engagement P&L with support cost in Kinnow?
See the true margin of each engagement, including the support work it creates after delivery.
What changes for the business?
Stop celebrating projects quietly losing money in support, and bill the project work hiding in your support queue.
Is it available today?
It is live in part: the core is built and parts are completing with early customers.
Why can the margin be blank?
Because a blank is more honest than a guess. If support cost, delivery cost or billed revenue cannot be read, Kinnow does not treat it as zero. Zero would make the engagements with the most problems look the most profitable.
Which revenue does the margin use?
Billed revenue first, then certified, then scheduled milestones. The basis used is returned with the figure, so it is not read as something else.
More in the Answers in seconds
Ask your business anything
One search box on every screen finds records instantly and answers questions from data you're allowed to see.
Answers in seconds · Code on Wages restructuring agentSee who fails the new Labour Codes
See which salary structures break India's new Labour Codes and what fixing each one will cost.
Answers in seconds · Asset operating log + Operating Efficiency WatchCatch fuel theft and failing generators
Daily generator logs reconcile fuel to the tank reading and flag a machine whose output per litre is falling.
Answers in seconds · Clause extraction → Obligation ledgerContract promises tracked before they're broken
Kinnow reads your contracts, suggests key clauses, and tracks every promise, from service levels to reports, before breach.
Answers in seconds · Reconcile against your documentsCheck a spreadsheet against your signed paperwork
Upload a spreadsheet; Kinnow checks every row against your documents and lists what disagrees.
Answers in seconds · Vault (Signals → Vault → Compose)One secure home for company documents Live in part
Every company gets a controlled document store: no duplicates, every access logged, shares you can revoke.
Tell Kinnow what slows you down.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.