Effort arises spread across many projects: hours, incoming invoices, travel expenses, receipts. teamspace checks every receipt before it is paid, brings the cost together on the cost object and makes plan, actual and margin visible to the day, not only at the year-end close.
The difference
The flow
The cost control process is the ongoing control loop of planning, capturing, checking, plan/actual, forecast and action. It runs across several modules; what matters is that every cost reaches the project without a detour and runs against the plan.
Budgets, internal hourly rates and expected external cost are set per project, as the frame for the later plan/actual comparison.
Hours, incoming invoices, travel expenses and receipts are booked on the project, ideally daily, weekly at the latest.
Incoming invoices and receipts run through an approval workflow. The assigned reviewer approves, anything unclear goes back. Every approved receipt gets a cost type, cost centre and cost object.
Planned against actual cost per project, to the day rather than only at quarter-end.
Revenue minus cost gives the contribution margin; warning levels flag deviations early through green, amber and red.
The earned value analysis projects the remaining project. The deviation leads to concrete steps, from replanning to a follow-up claim.
The core
This is the core of cost control: hours, incoming invoices, travel expenses and receipts converge on one cost object. There the cost runs against the plan, and the margin falls out.
33 h logged
Project time
248 €
Supplier
312 €
approved
captured via OCR
assigned
Contribution margin
3.860 €
Four sources, one cost object: every hour and every receipt lands on the project. Only then is the margin right.
Inbound control
Most unnecessary cost arises not from wrong prices, but from invoices no one has checked. teamspace ties incoming invoices and receipts to an approval workflow: whoever creates a receipt cannot wave it through themselves, but submits it for review.
The handover
At a service firm, its own time is the largest cost type. teamspace values every booked hour at the internal rate and carries it straight as labour cost, without anyone recalculating.
Maturity
Maturity shows not in the scope of the accounting, but in the degree of automation. The decisive jump lies between a manual spreadsheet analysis and a plan/actual that is current to the day.
No cost planning. Profitability becomes visible once a year at the accountant.
Cost plan in a spreadsheet, plan/actual only after the year-end close.
Cost types, cost centres and plan/actual are defined. Data from accounting and spreadsheets is merged manually.
Controlling with monthly plan/actual, a first contribution margin calculation per project.
Plan/actual current to the day, contribution margin automatic per project and client, status light per project.
Forecast through the earned value analysis, early warning through warning levels, receipts go automatically to accounting.
Early warning
A project rarely loses its margin in a day. It slips over weeks, and no one notices, because the figures only arrive at quarter-end. teamspace scores the deviation continuously and flags it across three levels.
Forecast
Whoever only learns at the project end whether the calculation held, learns it too late. The earned value analysis brings together planned cost, completion and actual cost so far, and from that projects where the project will land.
“We mostly work with the budget column.”
Where you stand
In a short first call we look at your process and show where the margin is leaking most quietly today.
The bridge
Cost control does not replace accounting, it feeds it. Checked receipts, invoices and travel expenses go through the certified interface straight into the DATEV cloud, with cost centres, without anyone sending files back and forth.
Steering
Revenue minus direct cost per project, summed per period. Shows what is left after the direct effort.
Contribution margin divided by the number of projects. Shows the quality of the project portfolio.
Planned against actual cost per project, with a status light and its own threshold per undertaking.
Incoming invoices still waiting for a check, with amount and time on hold. Shows where approvals are stuck.
Projected total cost against the plan, from the earned value analysis per project.
Open items by due date show how much money is still waiting for payment.
Cost control is not a single module, but the interplay of several. Each building block supplies a part of the effort or the analysis.
Plan/actual, contribution margin and warning levels per project and client.
Learn morePosting batches with cost centres into the DATEV cloud, without CSV.
The target picture
A mature cost control makes effort and margin everyday figures. Every hour is valued, every receipt is assigned, plan and actual sit side by side, and the forecast shows where a project will land while it can still be steered.
The way there does not call for a second accounting. It calls for a flow in which effort is captured where it arises, assigned cleanly and set against the plan without delay. So the question of margin is no surprise at the end, but a figure that is right every day.
Cost control is one of seven core processes. Here are the other six:
How do we consistently win the right work?
How do we deliver projects reliably and profitably?
How do we turn work into revenue quickly and in full?
How do we serve clients fast and by value?
How do we deploy people sensibly and well utilised?
How do we run the firm on current data?
In a 15 to 30 minute first call we place your cost control at a maturity level and show the biggest concrete lever, from capturing effort to the forecast.
