2010 review of Tenrox Project Workforce Management Spring Bloom 2010

Tenrox Project Workforce Management Spring Bloom 2010
877-4-TENROX
www.tenrox.com

From the August 2010 Review of Time & Billing Systems.

 Tenrox offers a very powerful, web-based system for advanced management of time and expenses, and is suitable for firms of any kind that can make use of the powerful management and reporting features. The system is designed to support multiple currencies, types of clients and project billing scenarios.

BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS:
Tenrox includes modules for Project Planning, Resource Management & Scheduling, Time & Expense Tracking, Project Cost & Billing, Work Process Management, and Analytics. Based on the permissions defined for each user, and the customizable time entry form (if any), users should be able to navigate and enter time and expenses with only a little orientation. As the user acquires more rights, the options become ever more powerful, and thus more detailed. Even at the administrator level, navigation is easy to grasp, and the screens present an intuitive interface, which can be customized by the firm to suit the needs of different types of users. One caveat is that the only browser fully supported at this time is Internet Explorer.

Although this Tenrox product is designed to be applicable to various types of industries, it can be easily customized to meet the needs of the accounting firm. Proper system setup is crucial to realizing the full capabilities of the Tenrox system; time and thought devoted to this stage of implementation will be rewarded with time savings later on. With a large number of users, a designated system administrator, even if part-time, will be able to manage the data input and output to reveal the depths of data analysis possible.

TIME TRACKING CAPABILITIES:
The system is designed to be able to account for all time, whether billable or not, from any pay type including support for overtime and leave time accrual rules. Even salaried and administrative staff can use a simplified time entry, with default hours populating into the timesheet, and only exceptions such as leave time needing to be entered.

Tenrox has designed this product to feature a graphical workflow interface, which controls the entry, approval and disposition of time and expense entries. Workflows are enforced, and supervisors may receive messages or reminders when actions need to be taken. The system administrator may modify workflows graphically, inserting, changing or deleting process flows. These changes then take effect immediately throughout the system. For example, another level of approval, based on roles or projects can be added, which will then be enforced with reminders and actions.

INVOICING FUNCTIONS:
Almost any kind of invoicing scenario is well supported, with the billing manager in complete control of what to include, exclude or adjust. Invoicing data populates to the AR features, which can present the status of a client or project in either a table or graphical form. For example, a project manager can see at a glance how time and expense entries compare to budgeted amounts.

Reporting options are very flexible, allowing drilldown to the finest level of detail that exists. With appropriate rights, the user can drag-and-drop data elements onto a cube view designer, then view the report with the correct levels of sorting and grouping. Any report can be easily filtered to meet the user’s needs.

Support for multiple currencies includes real-time conversion rates, either from Tenrox or the firm’s own rate system. A user may enter expenses in one currency, and the client is then billed in their preferred currency.

As a web-based system, Tenrox supports remote access from any location with Internet access. As well, the vendor offers Tenrox Mobile, which allows project contributors to quickly and easily submit and track project time and expense reports with full mobile access directly from an iPhone or BlackBerry.