Project Management System
Integrated Client Project Management, Time Tracking & Profitability Control
A Technology-Enabled Project Management System Built on Nearly Two Decades of Operational Experience.
Unlike conventional outsourcing models, every customer engagement is converted into a structured project. Tasks are clearly defined, time is estimated, and actual performance is automatically captured to provide complete operational transparency.
This integrated approach ensures strict control over employee activities, service-level commitments, and overall project profitability.
I. Structured Project Creation and Task Management
Every client engagement is managed as a measurable project with defined tasks, estimated hours and controlled execution.
1. Project Creation & Monthly Task Planning
At the beginning of the service cycle, the Accounts Manager creates the relevant project for each customer in the integrated Project Management System.
Based on the Accounting Service Level Agreement (SLA), the project is divided into clearly defined monthly tasks.
Depending on scope and complexity, a customer project may contain:
- Minimum: 12 monthly tasks
- Maximum: 40 monthly tasks or more where required
Tasks may cover:
- Transaction processing
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Bank reconciliation
- Credit-card reconciliation
- Customer and supplier reconciliation
- Payroll accounting support
- Inventory accounting
- Job costing
- General ledger review
- Month-end closing
- Management reports, MIS and KPI reporting
This task-based approach converts a broad accounting engagement into measurable and controllable work packages.
2. Estimated Hours for Every Task
The Accounts Manager allocates an estimated number of hours to each task. This estimated time becomes the baseline against which actual performance is measured.
Estimates take into account:
- Historical workload
- Number of documents
- Transaction volume
- Complexity of transactions
- Number of bank accounts
- Number of software platforms
- Reconciliation requirements
- Inventory and job-costing requirements
- Reporting requirements
- Client-specific procedures
- SLA requirements
- Expected productivity
- Complexity of the accounting environment
This enables accounting work to be managed as a measurable project rather than as an undefined recurring activity.
3. Controlled Employee Access
When an employee logs into the Project Management System, the system requires the employee to select the customer assigned to them.
Employees cannot freely browse or access all customer projects. They can view only the customers and projects allocated to them according to their authorised access.
- Operational control
- Client-data access control
Once the assigned customer is selected, the system displays the pending projects applicable to that customer.
4. Project-Level Task Selection
Once a project is selected, the system displays all the open and pending tasks associated with that project.
The employee selects the specific task he or she is going to work on.
Customer → Project → Task → Start Work
This creates a clear relationship between the employee's working time and the actual customer activity being performed.
5. Automatic Time Capture Through Built-In Stopwatch
Once an employee selects a task, the integrated system's built-in stopwatch automatically starts recording time against that specific task.
The employee performs the actual accounting work using the customer's authorised accounting or ERP environment.
No separate manual timesheet is required for every activity.
Customer → Project → Task → Employee → Date/Time
This provides management with a detailed and objective record of resource utilisation.
II. Continuous Workflow, Supervision & Management Oversight
The project-management discipline continues from task execution through supervision, management review and final reporting.
6. Task Completion & Continuous Workflow
7. Team Leader / Supervisor Monitoring
8. Management-Level Project Oversight
9. End-to-End Visibility of Every Employee's Time
The system can associate working time with:
Customer
→ Project
→ Task
→ Employee
→ Actual Hours
→ Employee Cost
→ Project Cost
→ Revenue
→ Profitability
This enables management to move beyond simple productivity measurement and analyse the financial performance of individual customer engagements.
10. Project & Task Variance Analysis
III. Variance Analysis, Root Causes & Corrective Action
Variance is treated as a management signal requiring investigation, corrective action and follow-up.
11. Root-Cause Analysis of Negative Variances
Over time, several recurring causes of negative task and project variances have been identified.
A. Incorrect Initial Estimation / Quotation
The original estimate may be based on information supplied by the customer regarding expected workload.
Example:
1,000 accounting documents per month → actual volume becomes 1,500 or 2,000.
- Identify the variance
- Determine the reason
- Quantify the additional workload
- Discuss with the customer where appropriate
- Review commercial assumptions
- Revise resource allocation or scope where necessary
12. Customer-Related Delays
13. Data-Entry, Document Flow & Process Issues
14. Immediate Corrective Action
A variance should not simply appear in a monthly report and remain unresolved.
Identify → Investigate → Correct → Monitor
Where a process change is required, the revised procedure is communicated to the relevant team and implemented with immediate effect, subject to the required approval.
The affected project or task is then monitored closely to determine whether the corrective action has actually resolved the problem.
This creates a continuous improvement cycle rather than a retrospective reporting exercise.
IV. Daily Monitoring, Multi-Employee Management & Profitability
Operational data is connected to resource cost, revenue and project profitability.
15. Daily Project Monitoring
Although accounting is frequently reviewed on a monthly basis, the project-management methodology provides management with the ability to monitor project and task performance daily.
- Tasks approaching their estimated hours
- Tasks exceeding estimated hours
- Pending tasks
- Delayed tasks
- Employee utilisation
- Project workload
- Resource requirements
- Customer-related delays
- Reconciliation bottlenecks
- Quality-control workload
- Projects requiring management intervention
This enables problems to be addressed before they become month-end problems.
16. Multi-Employee Task Management
Many accounting tasks cannot always be completed by a single employee. Multiple employees may work on the same project or even the same task depending on complexity and workload.
The system provides visibility of:
- Employee
- Task
- Actual time
- Estimated time
- Employee cost
- Project allocation
Senior Accountant ≠ Accountant ≠ Junior Accountant
Measuring only total hours is therefore not sufficient. Management must also understand the cost of the resources utilised.
17. Customer-Level Profitability
The integrated system enables management to analyse profitability at the customer level.
This helps answer:
- Is the customer engagement commercially viable?
- Are actual service costs consistent with the quotation?
- Is the allocated manpower appropriate?
- Is the workload increasing?
- Is the engagement becoming more complex?
- Are additional resources required?
- Is the pricing still appropriate?
This allows management to make informed decisions based on actual operational data.
18. Invoice-Level Profitability
Where the commercial structure permits, profitability can also be analysed at the invoice level.
Revenue → Resource Cost → Other Allocated Cost → Contribution / Profitability
Such analysis is particularly useful where customers have multiple service invoices, projects or service categories.
19. Project-Level Profitability
At project level, management compares:
Project Revenue
versus
Actual Employee Cost + Allocated Project Cost
This helps identify projects that are:
- Highly profitable
- Within expected margins
- Marginal
- Under-performing
- Consistently generating negative variances
20. Task-Level Profitability
Task A – Bank Reconciliation
Estimated: 3 hours
Actual: 2.5 hours
Employee Cost: ₹X
Status: Within estimate
Task B – Accounts Payable Processing
Estimated: 5 hours
Actual: 9 hours
Employee Cost: ₹Y
Status: Significant adverse variance
This level of visibility helps management understand where profitability is being created or lost within a client engagement.
V. From Time Tracking to Business Intelligence
The objective is not simply to monitor employees, but to generate meaningful management intelligence.
21. From Time Tracking to Business Intelligence
The larger objective is to generate meaningful management intelligence from operational data.
Workload
→ Time
→ Resource
→ Cost
→ Revenue
→ Variance
→ Profitability
→ Management Decision
This enables continuous improvement in:
- Pricing
- Resource allocation
- Employee productivity
- Process efficiency
- Customer communication
- SOPs
- Service levels
- Project profitability
22. A Continuous Management Control Cycle
PLAN
Define projects, tasks, estimated hours and resources.
EXECUTE
Employees perform the assigned accounting activities.
CAPTURE
Actual time is automatically recorded against the relevant customer, project and task.
REVIEW
Team Leaders and Accounts Managers review work and exceptions.
MEASURE
Estimated hours are compared with actual hours.
ANALYSE
Variances and cost implications are identified.
INVESTIGATE
Root causes are determined.
CORRECT
Operational, resource, process or commercial corrective action is implemented.
MONITOR
The affected task or project is monitored to confirm improvement.
REPORT
MIS, KPI and profitability reports are generated.
IMPROVE
Lessons learned are incorporated into future planning and estimation.
23. Why This Model Is Valuable to Our Outsourcing Partners
Our Project Management Philosophy
From Projects to Performance
A Process-Driven, Technology-Enabled Approach
Our integrated Project Management System is designed to provide management with structured data and measurable processes, connecting operational activity with cost, revenue, variance and profitability.
Build a more measurable, transparent and accountable outsourcing operation with structured project management, time tracking and profitability control.