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Project Commercial Intelligence

Know where every project is going — before it gets there.

Hourline forecasts the hours, cost and margin on every contract you sell or buy by the hour. It shows which ones are heading off course and what to do about it, while there is still time to act.

Book a demo See how it works
  • Data hosted in the UK
  • Two-step login and company single sign-on
  • One-month pilot on your own contracts

Your systems record what happened. Hourline shows what happens next.

Timesheets, the sales system and the finance system each hold part of the picture. Hourline sits above them and answers the three questions they leave open.

  • Will the hours run out before the work does?

    A forecast at completion for every contract, and the week the contracted hours are due to run out.

  • Is the margin we agreed still the margin we will get?

    Forecast revenue, spend and margin against the plan, broken down by role, by phase and by supplier.

  • Which contract needs a conversation this week?

    Every project and contract ranked by risk, each with a recommended next step written in plain English.

The forecast

A forecast you can question

Hourline shows its working. Every figure can be traced back to the hours your own people recorded.

Forecast confidence: an 86% chance of exceeding the contract of 3,000 hours, with the likely range running from 2,966 to 3,291 hours and a middle forecast of 3,147.
The likely range, from 2,000 replays of the remaining weeksExample data

  • A likely range, not a single number

    Hourline replays the rest of each project 2,000 times using its own week-by-week record, then shows the range the outcome is likely to fall in.

  • It says how sure it is

    Each range is labelled low, developing or established confidence, depending on how many weeks of evidence stand behind it.

  • An early-warning score with nothing hidden

    A score from 0 to 100 for each project. Every signal shows its reading and the points it adds.

  • Insights that end with an action

    Short statements of what is likely to happen next, most urgent first. They come from clear rules applied to your own data, and nothing leaves Hourline to produce them.

A project outlook in Hourline: forecast hours of 3,033 against 3,000 contracted, an 86% chance of exceeding the contract, and four insights with recommended actions.
A project's outlook, with Hourline InsightsExample data

How it works

From contract to forecast in four steps

  1. Set up the contract

    Enter the hours, rates, roles and dates. Start from one of your own templates, or import the task list from Excel.

  2. Plan the hours

    Spread the hours by task, role and week. Hourline can fill in the plan for you from a standard pattern.

  3. Record what is used

    People log their time and managers approve it. You can also upload timesheets from a file.

  4. See where it is heading

    The forecast updates as the hours come in, for one contract, the whole portfolio and the leadership view.

For professional services

For firms that sell their time

Consultancies and services teams delivering fixed-hours and time-and-materials contracts for their clients.

  • Hours, revenue and margin

    A forecast for every project, set against what was sold.

  • Overruns caught early

    See which role is driving an overrun and the week the hours run out. Hourline drafts the change request from the project's own numbers, ready for you to edit and send.

  • Timesheets with approval

    People see only their own work. Rates, costs and revenue stay hidden from them.

  • Portfolio and leadership view

    Every project ordered by risk and by margin at risk, with a named owner against each action and a ready agenda for the weekly review.

  • Client contracts and renewals

    Know before the renewal meeting whether the hours will run out early or be left unused.

  • Works with Salesforce

    Opportunities arrive in Hourline as projects, with the roles they need.

Hourline Insights across all projects: five statements ranked high or watch, each naming the project, the size of the risk in hours and pounds, and a recommended action.
What to act on this week, across every projectExample data
The Hourline leadership headline: forecast revenue of £1.67m, £318k of unbillable effort on four projects forecast to run over, margin of 33.3% against a 30% target, and five of seven projects at risk, with five money figures beneath.
One sentence, then the money. Click a figure to see how it is worked outExample data

  • Can we take this deal?

    Enter a prospective project and see whether the team has the capacity in each role, and what it would earn.

  • What each hour really earns

    The rate on the rate card against what an hour is forecast to earn after caps and fixed fees, by project or by client.

  • Hours that run out or expire

    See which contracts will use all their hours weeks early, and which may leave paid-for hours unused.

  • A report the client can see

    A one-page status report with hours and progress by phase. It never shows rates, costs or margin.

  • Estimates checked against your history

    Compare a new estimate with how your own past projects turned out, by role and by phase.

  • Questions answered from your numbers

    Ask which projects will lose money, or who owns the red projects. Answers are worked out in your browser from your own figures with fixed rules. It is not an AI service.

  • Start from a spreadsheet

    Create many projects at once from a CSV or Excel export, with a preview before anything is created.

  • Targets you set

    Your own target margin and your own definition of at risk, with revenue shown against your quarterly targets.

  • A summary every Monday

    Optionally, an email to the leadership team with five numbers and the top three actions.

  • Posts to Teams or Slack

    Optionally, send each project's hours and progress to a team channel, and the money figures to a separate leadership channel. The team channel never carries rates, costs or margin. Works with Teams and Slack incoming webhooks, or any address that accepts JSON.

  • A feed for Power BI and Excel

    Optionally, an administrator can create a read-only link for Power BI or Excel to read project and weekly-hours tables. Keys can be revoked at any time. The figures are as fresh as the last time an administrator or project manager opened Hourline.

The Can we take this deal check: a prospective 1,800-hour project over 20 weeks, the answer that four roles would be over capacity in one week, an estimated margin of £90,000, and a table of load by role.
Test a new deal against the team's capacity before you commitExample data

For procurement

For teams that buy time from suppliers

Procurement teams looking after supplier contracts that are used up in hours: consultancies, contractors and managed services.

  • Spend and exposure in one view

    Budget, spend to date and forecast spend, grouped by supplier, category, cost centre or budget holder.

  • Renewals you see coming

    Reminder emails ahead of every end date and notice deadline, so no contract renews by accident.

  • A forecast for each supplier

    Hours contracted, used and remaining, and the week the hours or the purchase order will run out.

  • Requests and approvals

    Purchase requests move through clear approval stages. Every step records who made it and when.

  • Purchase orders kept in step

    Orders are checked against forecast spend. Approved requests export in the layout NetSuite imports.

  • Signature status in view

    Record where each contract is in DocuSign and who it is waiting on.

The procurement dashboard: budget of £1,225,000, £692,530 spent to date, forecast at completion £1,237,496, three contracts renewing within 90 days, and a list of what needs attention.
The procurement dashboardExample data
Renewals ahead: a twelve-month timeline of supplier contracts showing each end date and notice deadline, with the most urgent in red.
Renewals ahead, with notice deadlinesExample data

Other teams

Set up for the way your organisation works

Each workspace has its own modules, wording and fields, so people see only what applies to them. The user guide is written for your workspace too.

  • Internal IT and project offices

    IT departments and project offices running internal projects against budgeted hours.

  • HR and contingent workforce

    HR and resourcing teams managing contractor and agency assignments.

  • Something else

    If your organisation agrees work in hours, Hourline can be set up for it. Tell us how you work when you book a demo.

Security

Ready for your security review

Rates, costs and margins are sensitive. Hourline is built to keep them inside your organisation.

A security overview, data processing agreement and completed security questionnaire are available on request. Contact [email protected].

Stored in the UK
Your data is held in London, encrypted in transit and at rest, and backed up every day.
Kept separate
Each customer's data is isolated by the database itself, not only by the screens.
Strong sign-in
Two-step login, and single sign-on through Microsoft Entra ID, Okta or Google Workspace.
Invitation only
Nobody gets in without an invitation. Four roles control who sees rates, costs and revenue.
A record of changes
Membership, settings, project and timesheet events are logged, and your administrators can export the log.
Your data stays yours
Export everything at any time. No trackers, analytics or advertising in the app.

Pilot

Try it for a month on your own contracts

A pilot shows you what Hourline says about work you already know well, before you decide anything.

Book a demo

  1. We set up your workspace

    With the modules and wording that fit your organisation.

  2. You load a few live contracts

    Type them in, import them from Excel, or start from a template.

  3. You record a few weeks of hours

    Through timesheets or a file upload.

  4. You see where each one is heading

    And judge the forecast against what you know.

Book a demo

See Hourline with examples that match your work

Tell us a little about your organisation and we will arrange a 30-minute walkthrough.

  1. You send this form.
  2. We reply by email to agree a time.
  3. We walk you through Hourline, set up for your kind of organisation.

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