Unless a firm is brand new with no active projects, an operational transition plan is required when moving to Monograph from the system or systems previously used to build and track project budgets, log timesheet entries, account for consultant bills, manage billable expenses, and issue client invoices. These activities may currently be handled across multiple tools or within a single platform.
With Monograph, they are consolidated into one integrated system, providing a single source of truth for managing projects from start to finish.
Planning Your Transition to Monograph
Managing the cutover to Monograph does take planning and effort, but can be as simple as 1-2-3:
1.Continue operating in existing system(s) while establishing a clear cutover date for Monograph
Until Monograph becomes the firm’s system of record, all work should remain in current platforms, including time tracking and invoicing. Day-to-day operations should proceed as usual up to the moment of cutover, including completing one final invoicing cycle before the transition.
2.Transition project's budget data into Monograph ahead of the cutover date
All active projects should be set up in Monograph in advance so teams can immediately begin logging time, expenses, and consultant bills once the cutover occurs. The required information includes:
Project budgets: phases, timelines, and their budgets
Consultant details: the consultants you are partnering on projects with and their budgets
Team assignments: the team members assigned to each project phase(s) and their billable rate(s)
Expense budgets: any limits on reimbursable spend you have set with your client.
3.Begin operating in Monograph on the cutover date
Record billed totals while uploading any historical files needed for reference and continuity throughout the transition.
After the cutover, all new work should be recorded and invoiced directly from Monograph. Prior activity can be documented using the Historical billed amounts workflow to ensure continuity in invoicing, with additional context optionally stored in Project Files or the File Hub if more detailed records are needed.
✏️ Learn more about how to create a project here
Frequently asked questions
What should I do with new projects that need to start during the preparation for my cutover?
If the project needs to start immediately and an invoice will need to be issued before the cutover date, you should start logging time in your old system and treat this project as another to be entered anew within Monograph.
If you do not plan to invoice until after the cutover date, then you should enter all details into Monograph with the transition of data and begin logging time directly in Monograph.
What should I do with my past timesheet data?
Only timesheet entries that correspond with work you will invoice in Monograph should be entered into Monograph.
Past timesheet data tied to existing invoices should not be re-entered into Monograph.
If you wish to save this timesheet data, you should download any files from your prior systems. These can optionally be uploaded into Monograph’s project files system to maintain a searchable record, without creating errors in Monograph’s data.
What happens to my past invoices
Past invoice values are entered into the “historical billed amounts” workflow which supports the seamless presentation of your previously invoiced amounts on the first invoice created in Monograph.
If you wish to save past invoices within Monograph, they may be optionally uploaded into the project's file management.
What should I do with invoices issued from my old system that are not yet paid by my client?
Invoices should not be created twice: once invoices are issued to your clients, you will need to maintain tracking on those external to Monograph while they remain due.
These unpaid invoice values should be included when determining the historical amounts billed that need to be reflected on future invoices.
The “Previously billed” amounts on invoices in Monograph reflects the amount charged to your client already, regardless of the status of the invoice that value was included on.
How can I measure profitability for my ongoing projects I transition?
Any phases completed or partially completed before cutting over to Monograph cannot be analyzed for historical profitability since the full picture of all activity was not logged in our system.
Monograph will help you moving forward on partially completed phases and future phases.
Monograph will help you hit your budgets on partially completed phases so long as you enter in your team’s per role budgets adjusted for how much has been invoiced so far. You would then use Staffing to ensure that no one goes over budget.
For example: if I have invoiced $2000 on a $10000 fixed fee CD phase, I know that I will have 80% of the budget left for my team to log time against. As a result, rather than entering 100% of the phase budget to my team members, I would bring that down to 80%. This then will become my targeted hours available for resource planning in Staffing.
All future phases will be able to track profitability during delivery via Staffing and after the fact without any adjustments to processes.
In summary, Monograph is limited in its ability to generate analysis on activity that occurred before you began using it, but we will tell you how you are trending and what you can do moving forward with the partial information at our disposal.