Today we published the latest version of the application with a significantly improved cost and time budgeting module.
Description of the change
From now on, all costs and time recorded in the application are added without the need to specify the cost category (so-called cost center). This makes everyday work with the application easier, and recording progress, expenses and time takes much less time.
At the same time, cost categories can still be assigned to individual time reports in a very simple and collective way using the tabs: Task Time and Task Cost. Due to the fact that each cost and time entry can be assigned to a different cost category (different cost center), the solution allows for infinite flexibility in qualifying the costs of task implementation.
Thanks to the introduced solution, costs can be classified into specific categories representing specific projects implemented within a working group or to specific departments responsible for the implementation of specific types of work.
The recorded cost can be seen correctly placed on a very simple budget grid. The budget grid is accessible via the Budgets command. Thanks to the innovative budget grid, all costs are visible in the appropriate months and categories on one screen, making budget utilization control very simple and intuitive.
Working with the mobile application
The TaskBeat mobile application for iPhone already allows for an accelerated work model with registration of working time and task costs. The version currently available in the AppStore allows you to enter time and costs of a task without having to specify the exact category for each entry. Thanks to this, working with the application is faster, and now also identical to the way of entering this data in the application used on laptops.
Example scenarios
For example, a team working on a project can record all expenses and work time into the budget of a specific project, and the project manager can very easily monitor whether the cost of this project does not exceed the assumed limits using a visual thermometer. In the assumed scenario, three employees: administration, transport and production departments can log their working time under project X, so their work will be settled regardless of the department in which they work, and the costs of project X will be controlled collectively for them. This is a particularly favorable scenario for settling the budget when many employees from different departments work on many different projects at the same time. In such a scenario, managers of individual projects retain full control over whether the work is carried out without exceeding the assumed budgets. By entering the revenues obtained from project implementation and having insight into the full picture of real costs, they can control how much the company earns on implemented projects.
Alternatively, different teams working on multiple projects simultaneously can record all their expenses and working time into the appropriate budgets of the relevant departments, e.g. transport costs, production costs, administration costs, and managers of these departments can independently control costs within their departments. In the assumed scenario, three employees working on product X can log time and costs in the department categories: administration, transport and production. Managers of these three departments can control costs and working time within each department independently, ensuring that costs do not exceed the established limits. The work of each of these three employees is settled depending on whether they work on matters related to administration, transport or production, and the roles of these three employees may change many times during work on the product. At the same time, the company director has insight into how many costs are generated in specific departments by various employees and can adjust budgets accordingly to meet the needs. At the same time, the director has full insight into what various employees are actually working on: does their job include more responsibilities in administration, sales or production?
Summary
Thanks to the use of a unique and original concept of the tool's operation, in which costs and time are added to tasks, TaskBeat is not only a tool for controlling projects and tasks, but also a tool that allows you to control working time and costs within entire teams. Now, thanks to a completely innovative concept of linking both individual working time entries and task implementation costs with any budget categories, it is also becoming a very effective budgeting tool. Thanks to this, TaskBeat allows you to control the profitability of the entire enterprise, as well as optimize the profitability of individual projects.