Catalogs & Libraries
What Are Catalogs?
Organisation-Wide Definitions for Consistency
Catalogs are your organisation’s library of standard definitions. Instead of typing “Labour Cost” as free text on every engagement (and ending up with “Labour Cost,” “Labor Costs,” “Staff Cost,” and “Labour”), you select it from the catalog. One definition, consistent everywhere.
Why Catalogs Matter: Comparing Apples to Apples Across Engagements
When every engagement uses the same catalog items, you can compare and aggregate across engagements meaningfully. “What’s our total Labour Cost across all managed services engagements?” only works if every engagement uses the same catalog entry for labour costs.
Finance Catalog (P&L Line Items)
Standard Line Items
The finance catalog defines your standard P&L line items. Common examples:
- Monthly Recurring Revenue
- Project Revenue
- Labour Cost — COGS
- Software Licensing
- Subcontractor Costs
- Travel & Expenses
Categories: Revenue, Cost of Goods Sold, Operating Expenses
Each catalog item belongs to a P&L category. This categorisation drives margin calculations — revenue minus COGS gives gross margin, minus operating expenses gives net margin.
Performance Catalog (KPI Definitions)
Standard KPIs
The performance catalog defines your standard metrics. Common examples:
- Availability / Uptime (%)
- First Call Resolution (%)
- Average Response Time (hours)
- Customer Satisfaction Score
- Ticket Volume
- Mean Time to Resolution (hours)
Measurement Direction and Default Targets
Each KPI definition includes its measurement direction (higher-is-better, lower-is-better, target-is-best) and optionally a default target value that can be overridden per engagement.
Capacity Catalog (Roles)
Standard Roles
The capacity catalog (Roles & Rates) defines your organisation’s standard roles:
- Senior Consultant
- Project Manager
- Service Desk Analyst
- Developer
- Solutions Architect
Each role has an associated default hourly rate, which is used for automatic labour cost calculations when no contract-specific rate override exists.
AI Use Case Catalog
Tracking AI Usage Across Engagements
The AI use case catalog lets you define and track AI initiatives across your organisation — which engagements use AI, for what purpose, and with what economic impact.
Why This Matters
Consistent Reporting Across All Engagements
Same catalog items, same categories, same definitions. Reports and dashboards can aggregate across engagements with confidence.
Cross-Engagement Benchmarking
Because engagements reference the same catalog items, you can benchmark: “How does Labour Cost compare across my top 10 engagements?”
One Change Updates All Templates That Use It
If you rename or recategorise a catalog item, every template that references it reflects the change. No need to update 50 spreadsheets.