Consultant capacity

An Engagement Manager can check the people who will deliver a client assignment against their practice, role, weekly capacity and rates. team members holds those attributes and the billable and total hours logged by each person. The utilization percentage gives a quick reading of the relationship between logged time and capacity. It is a management view of recorded work, so the manager should confirm the relevant period and staffing agreement when making a commitment.

The engagement itself names a manager; service lines and time entries name the consultant who did the work. That separation makes the handoff visible when a senior consultant contributes to an engagement run by another manager. The rate on a service line and the team member’s bill and cost rates support a comparison between delivery value and delivery cost.

• People. Maintain each member’s name, role, work email, rates, active flag and practice organization.
• Capacity. Keep weekly capacity beside billable and total logged hours for a grounded utilization discussion.
• Work links. Tie service lines and time entries to the person and engagement that actually received the work.

Decide who maintains member rates and weekly capacity, and when a change takes effect for new work. Agree how practice organizations will be used across regional offices and business units. Establish who checks that an active consultant is the intended person on a delivery entry. A partner may need a different view from an engagement manager: one reviews practice economics, the other needs a concrete answer about who has been logging on a client assignment.

A client asks for a principal and an analyst on an active engagement. The Engagement Manager checks the two team members records, their roles and weekly capacity. Once work begins, each consultant records time against the engagement. Compare billable hours logged with total hours logged for each person. Then review the service entries for delivered value and cost. If the principal logged internal, nonbillable time, that time remains visible without being confused with a billable service line.

This check also helps when the partner asks why margin changed. Look at who delivered, how many hours were recorded, and which bill and cost rates apply. Keep the person, engagement and service line connected while explaining the result.

• My Engagements — Find work assigned to a manager and inspect dates and ownership.
• Active Engagements — Review live assignments and their delivery position.
• Delivery Board — Follow service lines by consultant and review status.

See engagement setup and delivery review.