As a new Monograph user, you may want to include information from previous projects in your account. If so, we recommend entering this data as a single cumulative total rather than re-entering every detail.

Cumulative total refers to the overall amount of hours logged through timesheets or payments received through invoices to date.

Keep in mind, adding historical data is best used to approximate budget consumption for active projects—not for generating past reports, since it won’t include the same level of detail.

The real value begins once your team starts logging time directly in Monograph. From that point forward, Analytics will offer a much clearer view of performance—helping you identify patterns, optimize workflows, and make informed decisions moving ahead.

During onboarding, building out your active projects must be prioritized first. Once you have completed adding your active projects, you may proceed to add historical information.

For timesheets, you can enter the total hours each team member worked by role and by phase within a project.

For example, let’s look at timesheet data for the team member below:

This employee contributed to The Blanche Building project across multiple phases, serving in different roles. Rather than entering each individual time entry, you can enter cumulative totals by phase and role.

In this example, the team member's hours would be entered as:

In the Construction Admin phase, the team member worked a total of 14 hours as an Architect. This total can be entered directly under that phase and role as her cumulative time contribution

Once you’ve identified the cumulative total, you can enter this time for the employee on the final date the phase occurred. For example, if the Construction Admin phase spanned June through August, you may log the total hours on August 31.

In the example below, we've entered a total of 160 hours of previously logged time under a single date. Instead of recreating each daily entry and activity, you can simply enter the cumulative total.

​To provide additional context, you can also use custom Activities, such as Historical Hours and detailed notes when recording the entry. al Service based on your preference.

You may also want to include the total payments received for your services on an active project to date. Entering past payments follows the same steps as creating a new invoice.

Instead of recreating each individual paid invoice, you can enter a single placeholder invoice with the total amount billed to date for the project.

If you’ve collected a retainer or initial deposit, be sure to create and mark those invoices as Paid before entering any additional service fee invoices.

This ensures you can accurately track outstanding retainer balances and apply them when needed.

Now let’s look at an example of using placeholder invoices for paid service fees. The project below includes multiple paid invoices for Schematic Design and Construction Admin.

Instead of re-creating each invoice, you can create a single placeholder invoice for each phase.

These represent the total amounts paid to date for each respective phase.

Once the placeholder invoice is created, be sure to mark it as Paid to reflect accurate records. These invoices are for internal use only and do not need to be sent to clients or synced to QuickBooks Online, if applicable.

Cumulative totals for service payments do not apply to paid expenses, retainer invoices, or open invoices. These should be re-created individually within your account.

The methods outlined above are commonly used suggestions which may support your transition. Monograph is designed to provide clarity for the future, not to reconstruct the past.

While adding historical information can help set a baseline, the true value comes from consistent time tracking and invoicing moving forward.

This unlocks the full potential of Monograph to better highlight trends, identify inefficiencies, and enable firms to manage projects more intelligently and profitably.