Reporting at the Level of Actual Services Rendered - with Target Items

Billing logic vs. performance analysis

In many companies, time is booked to high-level items such as Consulting, Support or Project Work. For billing purposes this is sufficient, but for a well-founded evaluation it is often too imprecise. Billing items are primarily conceived commercially - not analytically. Anyone who wants to understand after the fact which specific services were actually rendered needs a more differentiated basis. Often a single perspective is not enough: while the invoice states Consulting for example, the aim internally is to analyse which activities were behind it, which areas of focus have developed or where effort was actually incurred. This transparency requires an evaluation that functions independently of pure billing logic.

The target item as an analytical assignment

This is precisely where the target item comes in. It is not oriented towards the quotation or subsequent invoicing, but towards the service actually rendered within a project. In this way, a generally booked activity can be assigned in the background to a clearly defined type of service - for example an analysis, a technical implementation, a training session or a product. Billing remains flexible, while the content-based evaluation becomes more precise.

This clear assignment creates transparency regarding the actual service activities in the company. This transparency creates an understanding of efforts, focus areas and resource distribution - and from this understanding, robust insights emerge. Insights that not only improve project controlling, but also make strategic decisions better-informed.

When is the target item useful - and when is it not?

A typical example: support is billed uniformly, but internally the hours are assigned to different software products. Only through this differentiation does it become visible which product generates how much support effort. The target item is not a replacement for existing, well-functioning reporting models. Where current structures already provide the desired transparency, there is no need for adjustment. In scenarios, however, in which detailed service analyses are only possible with additional effort or more complex constructs, the target item offers a structured and systemically clear alternative. Precisely such insights not only improve project controlling, but also enable well-founded strategic decisions - for example in product development or resource planning.