Reports and margin
An hour has two prices: one for the client and one for the company
How much an hour is billed is decided by the rate, and the rate sits on the client, the project or the sub-project. How much that hour costs is decided by the person who worked it. Klokka keeps the two numbers apart, shows them only to those who should see them and sets one against the other in the reports: that is where the margin comes from.
The rate cascades down, the cost stays with the person
When an entry is saved, Klokka looks for the rate starting from the bottom: first the sub-project’s “Custom hourly rate”, then the project’s “Hourly rate”, finally the “Client hourly rate (€/h)”. The first one it finds multiplies the hours and gives the billable value of that entry. If the project or sub-project is not “Billable”, or if none of the three levels has a rate, the entry has no amount. The cost takes another route: every person has their own hourly cost, set by whoever holds the “Member management” privilege, and the reports multiply it by the hours worked. Two privileges, “See your own internal cost” and “See other people’s internal cost”, decide who sees what — and the filter is applied by the server, not just hidden in the page.
How it works
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Put the rate at the right level
The base rate on the client, the agreed one on the project, the exception on the sub-project. When you create a project the rate is already filled in from the client, and the sub-project’s from the project: you only change it if needed. If you later raise the client’s rate, Klokka asks “Update projects?” for the open ones still on the old rate.
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Give every person a cost
The “Internal hourly cost” can be entered as soon as you invite someone, or later, from “Users”, in their settings under “Hourly cost (€/h)”. It is set by whoever holds the “Member management” privilege, and the person does not see it unless their user type grants “See your own internal cost”.
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Read the margin
In “Reports” choose the metric: “Billable value”, “Internal cost” or “Margin”, that is the first minus the second, by client, project and period. On the project page, “Marginality” instead compares the “Project value” with the cost of the hours worked so far.
The rate says what an hour is worth, the cost what it weighs. The margin is the difference.
What you can do
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Billable is decided on the project
Whoever records does not choose entry by entry: the entry inherits “Billable” from the project. A non-billable sub-project, inside a project that is billable, produces no value.
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The amount stays as it was that day
The billable value is calculated when the entry is saved. If you change rate or billability, Klokka asks “Recalculate amounts?” only for entries not yet exported; with the Billing extension, those already marked as exported stay as they were.
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Your own cost and other people’s
“See other people’s internal cost” can only be switched on on top of “See your own internal cost”, and applies where other people’s entries are already visible. Out of the box Administrator and Manager have them; User does not; the Contributor cannot have even their own.
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Billable value goes with the catalogue
Revenue does not belong to a person but to the project: it is seen by whoever holds “Catalogue management”, that is, whoever sets rates and projects. In the entry columns and in exports, value, cost and margin follow the same rules.
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The project lead sees what you grant
On a single project, the lead can be given “Can see the project economics (billable value, cost, margin)” and, on top of that, “Can see each employee’s cost on the project”. They apply there and nowhere else.
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The client sees hours, not costs
With the Client statements extension, the client receives billable hours and amounts. Internal cost and margin do not leave Klokka.
| Level | Has its own rate | Decides if billable | Starts from the level above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | no | no | yes |
| Sub-project | yes | yes | yes |
| Project | yes | yes | yes |
| Client | yes | no | no |
The hourly cost is not on this ladder: there is one per person, and it applies on every project.
Frequently asked questions
What if a person has no cost set?
Their hours count as zero in the cost. In the project table, “N/A” appears instead of the hourly cost, and the margin looks higher than it really is: before reading it, make sure everyone has a cost.
If I change the hourly cost, what happens to past hours?
There is a single hourly cost per person and the reports read it when you open them: the hours of past months are also valued at the new figure. The billable value does not change, because it stays as calculated when the entry was saved.
Why doesn’t the project margin match the one in the reports?
Because they measure two things. On the project page the “Project value” is the estimate — the “Fixed price”, or the “Estimated hours” times the project rate — and the cost is that of the hours worked so far. In “Reports” the “Margin” is the billable value of the hours recorded in the period minus their cost.
Do the people recording hours see what they are worth?
Only if their user type allows it: the billable value with “Catalogue management”, their own cost with “See your own internal cost”. With the User type, out of the box, they see neither.
The other Klokka features
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Alex