This feature (Historical Cost per Hour) is currently being developed and will be released soon. This article provides relevant information for this release.

In the future, you will be able to update the internal Cost per Hour (not external Hourly Cost Rates) for your resources, teams, and roles in the Resource Pool without overwriting any historical data. In order to enter changed Costs per Hour, simply select the correct Start Date.

How Historical Cost per Hour Works

From now on, when entering the internal Cost per Hour for a resource, team, or role in the Resource Pool, you must enter the date from which this Cost per Hour is valid.

You can enter future or past Cost per Hours. In KPIs and analyses, the Cost per Hour used is that which is valid for the relevant time frame. 

What Happens to Existing Cost per Hours?

Upon this release, all Cost per Hours that are currently in your Resource Pool will remain available and valid. When you enter new entries with new dates, they will be sorted above the old entries. If the new Cost per Hour is valid starting at a future date, the old Cost per Hour will be valid until the new Cost per Hour takes effect.

This means that you do not have to change anything upon release, and you can continue to work as you have. However, you now have the opportunity to update Cost per Hours without overwriting any previous entries.

Updating Actual Allocation Costs

All new Actual Time Worked entries will use the Cost per Hour that is valid on their respective booking dates. 

Actual Time Worked that has already been entered upon the release will use the old Cost per Hour, even if you enter new Cost per Hours. Therefore, you can be sure that Actual Time Worked that has been been imported with deviating Cost per Hours will not be overwritten.

If your newly entered Cost per Hour entry should be used to calculate your Actual Allocation Costs, you will have to import the Actual Time Worked entries again with new booking dates. Then, the relevant Cost per Hour will be used for the given entry.

Importing Different Cost per Hours Retroactively

To update calculations based upon past allocations, you can also import different Cost per Hours retroactively. For resources and roles, you can do this via the Quick Import. For teams, you can only do this manually.

What Should I Pay Attention to When Using the Quick Import?

If you want to use the Quick Import to import Cost per Hour for resources or roles, you have to take note of the following points:

• Always(!) import older Cost per Hours first: First, import the Cost per Hour with the earliest start date. The start date is "valid from" and will therefore overwrite all of the later dates that are already in your system. You can only make sure that earlier "valid from" dates do not overwrite existing ones by adding Cost per Hour rates manually.
• The new field "Starting Date of Cost per Hour": You can now enter the "valid from date" (year and month) when importing Cost per Hour rates. If you don't enter a date, the first date of the current month will be used. 
• Only use one row per resource or role: Your spreadsheet may not have more than one row per resource or role. In other words, it's not possible to import two or more Cost per Hours for the same resource or role at once. Instead, import the costs per hour per year or quarter for all resources or roles.

Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps to update the Cost per Hour rates in your system:

1. Set the time frame you want to update: Clarify internally how far back you would like to update the Cost per Hour rates in your system. If you want to update an earlier Cost per Hour rate later, you have to do so manually. Otherwise, with the Quick Import, you will overwrite all later entries.
2. Collect Cost per Hour rates: List, for all resources and roles, all of the Cost per Hour rates, including their first date of validity.
3. Prepare your data to be imported:
   • Either: Organize your data like this template per year (or your preferred time unit).
   • Or: Under Resource Pool > Resources/Roles, configure the required columns (Resource Key, Name, Cost per Hour), and export the view. Add an extra column with the heading "Starting Date of Cost per Hour" and duplicate the spreadsheet for every year you want to update information for. Then, enter the relevant Cost per Hour rates and "valid from" date.
4. Import: In the left sidebar, open Import and Export and select Resource (or Role) Import. Then, import the data in chronological order, beginning with the earliest date.

Downloadable Import Template

To help you organize all of your information, below you will find an import template with multiple Excel sheets, that you can use for your import

DOWNLOAD EXAMPLE SPREADSHEET

Result

By clicking, in the details view of role or resource, on the calendar symbol in the field Cost per Hour, you'll see a list with all of the different rates: 

If you have added rates that will take effect in the future, you will also see these in the dropdown. In the uppermost field, the current, valid, Cost per Hour rate will always be displayed.

Previous entries will remain in the table, and will be displayed at the bottom, and have no effect, unless you have only entered future Cost per Hour rates. In this case, the old Cost per Hour rate is valid until the next "Valid From" date is reached.

If there are no old or current Cost per Hour rates, the field will remain empty. To calculate allocations and Actual Time Worked, the Cost per Hour rate of the primary role will be used (if available).

Note Regarding the Excel Export

If you export your data via the Import and Export in the left sidebar, the most recently entered Cost per Hour rate will be exported with it's relevant start date, even if it is in the future. In this way, you can be sure that by importing and exporting new data, you won't accidentally delete anything.