How DigitalCore Tracks What You Plan vs. What Actually Happens
The Problem with Simple “Budget vs. Actual”
Why One-Size-Fits-All Doesn’t Work for Services
Traditional budgeting tools give you a single budget line and a single actual line. But service businesses need more nuance: each engagement has different line items, different KPIs, different roles. A consulting engagement tracks different P&L items than a managed services engagement.
What Happens When Every Engagement Needs Different Config
Without per-engagement configuration, you end up with either: (a) a bloated universal template where most fields don’t apply, or (b) dozens of custom spreadsheets, each with its own structure.
How DigitalCore Solves This
Organisation-Level Templates — Define What to Track Once
Templates define the structure: which line items, which KPIs, which roles. They’re created once at the organisation level and reused across engagements of the same type.
Engagement-Level Configuration — Override Where Needed
When a template is assigned to an engagement, DigitalCore creates engagement-level configurations that inherit the template defaults. You can override targets, thresholds, or delivery parties per engagement without changing the template.
Monthly Targets — Set Goals per Period
For each active engagement, set monthly target values (plans) for finance items, KPI targets, and planned hours. These targets become the baseline for variance analysis.
Monthly Actuals — Record What Really Happened
During monthly check-ins, enter what actually happened: real revenue, real costs, real KPI values, real hours. DigitalCore calculates the variance against plan automatically.
How It Works in Practice
Creating a Template with Standard Items from the Catalog
Go to Configuration → Templates and create a new template. Add items from the catalog — each item maps to a standard definition. For finance, add revenue and cost lines. For performance, add KPIs. For capacity, add roles.
Assigning a Template to an Engagement
Open an engagement and assign the appropriate templates. You can assign one template per domain (finance, performance, capacity) per engagement.
Setting Monthly Targets
After assigning templates, set target values per item per month. These can be set in bulk for the entire period or adjusted month by month.
Recording Monthly Actuals During Check-in
Each month, enter actual values in the Operations → Check-in tab. The grid shows plan vs. actual side by side, with variance calculated automatically.
The Same Pattern Across All Three Domains
Finance: Track Revenue and Costs
Planned revenue and cost line items per month. Actual values entered during check-in. Variance = actual − planned. Margins derived from revenue minus costs.
Performance: Track KPIs and SLA Compliance
Target KPI values set per month. Actual values entered during check-in. RAG status based on thresholds. Breach detection if contract SLA terms are defined.
Capacity: Track Hours and Utilisation
Planned hours per role per month. Actual hours entered during check-in. FTE and utilisation calculated automatically. Labour costs generated in finance.