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Professional Services

Utilization & Margin Analytics

How we helped a consulting firm improve utilization by 22% and gain real-time visibility into project profitability.

22%
Utilization improvement
5 weeks
Project timeline
Real-time
Margin tracking

1The Challenge

A 35-person consulting firm specializing in organizational change management had grown rapidly but had no systematic way to track project profitability or staff utilization. Partners were making resource allocation decisions based on gut feeling rather than data.

Time tracking was spotty, project margins were unknown until months after completion, and billable utilization rates were a mystery. The firm suspected they were under-utilizing some consultants while burning out others, but had no way to prove it or fix it.

Key Pain Points:

  • ✕No visibility into real-time project profitability
  • ✕Unknown staff utilization rates by role and seniority
  • ✕Resource allocation based on guesswork, not data
  • ✕Billing compiled manually at month-end, always delayed
  • ✕No way to forecast capacity or identify staffing gaps

2The Solution

We built a comprehensive utilization and profitability analytics system that integrated time tracking data with project budgets, staff costs, and client billing information. The system calculated real-time utilization rates and project margins, enabling proactive resource management.

What We Built:

1. Data Integration

Connected Harvest (time tracking), Float (resource planning), and QuickBooks (financials) into a PostgreSQL data warehouse with automated daily syncs.

2. Utilization Engine

Built dbt models to calculate billable vs. non-billable hours, utilization rates by person and role, capacity forecasting, and bench time tracking.

3. Profitability Analytics

Created margin calculations for every project comparing actual costs (loaded staff rates + expenses) against billings, with variance analysis and trend tracking.

4. Interactive Dashboards

Built Metabase dashboards for partners (firm-wide metrics), project managers (project health), and resource managers (staffing optimization).

Tech Stack

PostgreSQLdbtMetabasePythonHarvest APIFloat APIQuickBooks API

3The Results

Within 5 weeks, the firm went from complete opacity to having real-time visibility into utilization and profitability. Partners could now make data-driven staffing decisions, identify underperforming projects early, and optimize resource allocation.

22% utilization gain
Went from 58% to 71% billable utilization
$420K revenue impact
Annual revenue increase from better utilization
Proactive staffing
Resource decisions based on real data, not gut feel
Early margin alerts
Identify unprofitable projects before it's too late

Key Outcomes:

  • Real-time utilization tracking by role, project, and individual consultant
  • Project profitability dashboards showing margin, budget burn, and variance
  • Predictive resource allocation models based on pipeline and capacity
  • Automated client invoicing reports with backup details
  • Weekly executive summaries with firm-wide utilization and margin metrics
“

This system changed how we run the business. We used to find out projects were unprofitable three months after they wrapped. Now we know in real-time and can course-correct. Our utilization is up 22% and we're actually turning away unprofitable work we would have taken before. The ROI is massive.

— Managing Partner, Organizational Change Consulting Firm

Project Details

Timeline

Week 1:Discovery & data audit
Week 2-3:Data integration & modeling
Week 4-5:Dashboards & training

Investment

$12,500

Included full system setup, 3 dashboard variants, staff training, documentation, and 6 weeks of support.

$420K annual revenue impact

Ready to optimize your firm's utilization and profitability?

Let's build a system that gives you real-time visibility into what's actually making money.