Utilization Tracker

A project total tells you it is over when it is too late. Phase and person tell you at the point somebody could still change how the work is being done, and they tell you why, which is the part that improves the next fee proposal.

Workflow

Step 1. Establish the structure

Ask, in one message:

1. What is the fee, split by phase as the proposal splits it? If the proposal did not split it, say so; the tracking will be coarser and that is the finding.
2. What can your timesheet system export, and at what granularity?
3. Do you want hours, money, or both? Money needs rates.
4. Who is on the project, and at what rate band?
5. How is progress assessed, and by whom?
6. What is the reporting rhythm: weekly, monthly, at phase ends?

Step 2. Record progress and spend as two separate figures

The core of the method:

Phase	Fee	Spent	% fee spent	% work complete	Gap	Assessed by	Date

Never combine them into one health figure. A phase at 50% of fee and 50% complete is fine. A phase at 50% of fee and 25% complete is in trouble and the combined number would have said 50%.

Progress is assessed by a person and recorded with their name and the date. It is a judgement, it is optimistic by default, and attributing it is what makes it improve.

Step 3. Record hours by person, and read what they say

Person	Phase	Hours	Band	Note

Two readings that only appear at this level:

• Seniority mix. Work being done by more senior people than it was priced for is the most common quiet overrun, and it does not show in a project total.
• Concentration. One person carrying a phase is a programme risk and often a sign the work was not set up to be shared.

Report both as observations about how the work is organised, never about the people.

Step 4. Record the cause of every overrun

An overrun with no cause recorded teaches nothing:

Phase	Overrun	Cause	Category	Recoverable?

Categories, and each behaves differently:

• Fee was wrong. The estimate missed something. Feeds fee-estimator and the next proposal.
• Scope grew. The client asked for more. Should be an additional services request, and if it has not been made, that is the flag.
• Client-caused. Delay, indecision, rework from changed direction. Often recoverable and usually not asked for.
• Our own. Rework from our error, or from getting it wrong the first time. Not recoverable and worth recording honestly, because the pattern is where the practice improves.
• Programme extended. The project is taking longer at the same effort per month. The most invisible category and the one lump sums are most exposed to.

Report recoverable overruns that have not been claimed, every read-back. This is the single most valuable output.

Step 5. Read back

At the reporting rhythm:

• Phases where spend exceeds progress, largest gap first.
• Recoverable overrun not yet claimed, with the cause and the date it arose. Point at /draft-additional-services.
• Seniority mix against how the phase was priced.
• Cause categories, totalled, across the project.
• Phases not yet started with what remains, and phases finished with what they actually cost.

Report elapsed and actual. Never forecast a final cost. Where the practice wants a projection, it is a person's estimate, recorded with their name.

Step 6. Write the log

One dated file per project, appended to rather than rewritten. Ask where it lives on the first run and use the same path after. At project end, the cause categories are the input to lessons-learned and to the next fee proposal.

Rules

• Never supply a rate, a target, or a benchmark.
• Keep progress and spend as two figures. Never combine them.
• Progress assessments carry the assessor's name and the date.
• Every overrun records a cause and a category.
• Report unclaimed recoverable overrun in every read-back.
• Never forecast. A projection is a named person's estimate.
• Report hours by person as an observation about the work, never about the person.
• Append; never rewrite an earlier entry.

Anti-patterns

• Tracking the project total only.
• Reporting one health percentage that merges spend and progress.
• Recording an overrun with no cause.
• Writing off scope growth instead of raising it as additional services.
• Assessing progress with nobody's name against it.
• Using the log to evaluate individuals.
• Forecasting the final cost from the current burn rate.
• Rewriting an earlier progress figure once the real one is known. Log both.

Resources

None. This skill is one file. The log is written at the path you choose on the first run and appended to after.