Dashboard > Forecasting
The Bench Cost report summarizes the cost of underutilized people using the Cost Rate (hr) value from their profiles. What is the financial impact of people sitting on the bench?
Table of Contents
- Permission Groups
- Add or Edit Cost Rate (hr) Values
- Default Cost Rate
- Viewing the Report
- Filtering
- Scenario Planning
Permission Groups
Users with View Financial Fields are able to see the Bench Cost report. Only Administrators have this permission by default.
Custom permission groups can be created to let other users view the Bench Cost report and Cost Rate values.
Cost Rate (hr) values are also hidden by default. To view the Cost Rate values, toggle on the View Confidential Fields on the top navigation bar.
Add or Edit Cost Rate (hr) Values
The Bench Cost report is calculated through a person's Cost Rate (hr) value. To add or edit a person's Cost Rate, open their profile and select the Details tab. Another option for updating the Cost Rate is Default Cost Rate.
Default Cost Rate
The Default Cost Rate feature allows you to quickly define default cost rates for each of the job titles that you’re tracking. Rather than entering the Cost Rate (hr) one by one for each person, you can add a default rate to every person with a particular role.
Administrators can enter default cost rates under System Fields in the People Settings.
Under the Details tab of a person's profile, you will see “Title default” displayed next to the Cost Rate (hr) value if it is being inherited from the Cost Rate Default entered in the People Settings.
Default Cost Rate doesn't override any manually entered cost values.
Viewing the Report
Any person with a Bench Cost is displayed to the right of the report. Clicking a different month/graph bar updates the people to reflect who has a Bench Cost for the selected month.
Cost Rate values are hidden by default but can be toggled on with View confidential fields on the top right of the navigation bar.
If someone with a Bench Cost is missing a cost rate, they are displayed with “No cost rate”.
By default, the Bench Cost report assumes all pursuits are won. Scenario Planning can be used to see how the Bench Cost will change with only selected pursuits won.
Filtering
The default view shows all roles and titles. It gives the overall cost of underutilized people in the whole workforce.
People Filters
The Bench Cost report can be broken down by using People Filters. This filter consists of system and custom People fields entered in the People Settings. By leveraging these People Filters, it will allow you to filter this data for key titles, offices, divisions, etc.
Project Filters
The Bench Cost report can be further broken down by using Project Filters. This filter consists of system and custom Project fields entered in the Project Settings.
For example:
Scenario Planning
Scenario Planning allows users to track anticipated costs based on the different opportunities that are being pursued. This feature makes workforce planning for awarded projects and opportunities easier and provides a better understanding of the impact of winning various pursuits on costs.
For example, you can filter pursuits accordingly to create a “what if” scenario that will help you determine where cost issues could arise if a project is awarded.