Principals need a clear view of what is happening across projects, staffing, cash flow, and future work.

Some weeks, that means catching a project that is using hours faster than expected. Other times, it means spotting a staffing gap, an aging receivable, or a pipeline change that could affect the next few months.

Those are the kinds of issues Deltek Vantagepoint can help surface. The key is giving principals a consistent set of reports that makes it easier to see what changed, what needs attention, and who should take the next action.

In this blog, we’ll look at the six Deltek Vantagepoint reports principals should review each week, what each report tells you, which changes should trigger a closer look, and what to do with the output.

A Quick Snapshot of the Six Vantagepoint Reports to Run Weekly

Before we get into each report in detail, here is a quick look at the six reports principals should have in their regular weekly reporting rhythm.

Vantagepoint Report	Suggested Cadence	What It Helps You See
Project Summary	Weekly, after labor and expense posting	Which projects are moving away from budget
Project Earnings or Office Earnings	Weekly, with a deeper monthly review	Where profitability is changing
Labor Resource Forecast / Resource Utilization	Weekly, looking 4 to 8 weeks ahead	Where staffing gaps or capacity issues are forming
AR Aged	Weekly	Which receivables need follow-up
Project Forecast	Weekly	How pipeline changes may affect revenue and workload
Project Planning Performance	Weekly for major or exception projects	Which project plans need updated assumptions

Each report covers a different part of the business, and together they give principals a useful weekly snapshot of project health, people, cash, and future work.

Next, we’ll go through each report in more detail, including what to watch for and what to do when something stands out.

1. Project Summary: Which Projects Are Moving Away From Budget?

We suggest starting with the Project Summary report because it gives principals a direct view of how active projects are tracking against budget.

Use it to compare job-to-date spending with budgeted amounts across labor, overhead, direct expenses, and reimbursable expenses. For most firms, we recommend running it after current labor and expenses have been posted so the numbers are current enough to act on.

What Deserves a Closer Look

You do not need to spend time on every project in the report. We suggest focusing on projects where something has changed.

Watch for:

• Labor consumption moving ahead of percent complete
• Direct expenses running materially above budget
• A project approaching its fee or budget limit faster than expected
• A sharp week-over-week change in job-to-date cost
• A project that appears financially healthy even though the PM knows a difficult phase is ahead

Those are the projects worth pulling out for a closer review.

What to Do With the Output

Once a project is flagged, we suggest tracing the issue back to what changed underneath the number.

The PM may need to revise the estimate to complete, compare the remaining scope with the remaining fee, correct miscoded labor, or document additional services.

We also recommend filtering the report around the projects each principal actually owns. A principal responsible for 25 projects gets more value from seeing those 25 than from sorting through the full firm portfolio.

Once you know which projects are moving away from budget, the next report helps show what that movement is doing to profitability.

2. Project Earnings or Office Earnings: Where Is Profitability Changing?

We suggest using Project Earnings or Office Earnings to see how project performance is affecting profitability.

Project Earnings works well when you want detail at the project, phase, or task level. Office Earnings gives you a broader view across projects and organizations.

For a principal managing a defined portfolio, Project Earnings may be the better weekly report. For leadership looking across several offices or practice groups, we would usually start with Office Earnings and drill down when something stands out.

Focus on Movement, Not One Isolated Number

We recommend looking at how profitability is changing over time rather than treating one margin figure as the whole story.

A project holding around the same margin for several weeks may not need much attention. A project that has moved from 19% to 16% to 12% deserves a closer look.

Useful triggers include:

• Margin declining across consecutive reporting periods
• Revenue falling behind labor consumption
• A PM’s portfolio showing repeated margin pressure
• One project type consistently performing below expectations
• Senior labor being used more heavily than the fee assumed

When one of those patterns shows up, we suggest looking underneath the margin.

Has the labor mix changed? Has scope grown? Is the team doing work that was never priced? Has the estimate to complete increased? Does the remaining fee still make sense?

Firm-level metrics such as net multiplier can add useful context because they connect direct labor with net revenue and give leadership another way to assess project economics.

Profitability often points back to staffing, which makes the resource reports a natural next place to look.

3. Labor Resource Forecast and Resource Utilization: Where Are Staffing Problems Forming?

Use the Labor Resource Forecast and Resource Utilization reports to see where staffing pressure may be forming before it becomes a scheduling problem.

A PM may need a senior engineer on two projects at once. Several teams may be relying on the same specialist. Another group may be finishing a large project with very little confirmed work behind it.

These reports help principals see those situations earlier.

For most firms, we recommend looking four to eight weeks ahead. That gives you enough range to spot developing capacity issues while the planned work is still useful for decision-making.

Questions Worth Asking

Who is overcommitted?
Look for people whose planned hours consistently exceed their available capacity, especially specialists supporting several project teams.

Who is coming off work without enough behind it?
Upcoming gaps can affect assignments, hiring plans, and business-development priorities.

Where are too many projects relying on the same person?
That can create a delivery risk even when overall utilization looks acceptable.

Which likely projects could materially change the forecast?
A pursuit expected to start six weeks from now may have a major effect on future capacity.

We also suggest using utilization alerts where they make sense so employees who are materially over or under expected hours stand out quickly.

What Should Trigger Action

We recommend taking a closer look when a discipline stays over capacity, a key specialist becomes a bottleneck, or several employees have too little planned work ahead.

The response could involve reallocating work, pulling in another office, using outside support, revising a project plan, or reconsidering hiring timing.

Staffing forecasts become even more useful when you compare them with the work expected to come in next. Before getting to pipeline, though, there is one more current-state report principals should keep an eye on.

4. AR Aged: Which Receivables Need Principal Attention?

You can use AR Aged as the principal-level view of receivables.

Accounting may already review AR regularly, but principals usually need a narrower view of the balances that may require client or relationship-level follow-up.

Use the report to see the balance due by project, how long receivables have been outstanding, and when the last cash receipt came in.

Which Balances Need More Than Routine Follow-Up?

A principal does not need to get involved in every late invoice.

We suggest paying closer attention when:

• A large balance moves into an older aging bucket
• A client’s normal payment pattern changes
• Several overdue invoices are tied to the same project or client
• A project continues accumulating labor while substantial invoices remain unpaid
• A disputed amount remains unresolved across several reporting periods

Those are the balances that may need more than another standard collection email.

The next step depends on the issue. Accounting may need to provide documentation. The PM may need to contact the client’s project lead. A principal may need to call someone higher in the organization.

In a 2025 financial management discussion, PSMJ reported that firms in its Circle of Excellence averaged an accounts receivable collection rate of 52 days of gross revenue, compared with 62 days across the overall data set. PSMJ also pointed to more frequent invoicing, WIP tracking, and accurate client billing requirements as practices associated with faster payment.

We suggest keeping AR in the weekly reporting rhythm because aging receivables can point to billing, project-management, or client-relationship issues that deserve attention.

With active projects, staffing, and receivables covered, the next report looks at the work expected to come behind them.

5. Project Forecast: Is Enough Work Coming Behind the Current Backlog?

We suggest using the Project Forecast report to look beyond the headline pipeline number.

The more useful questions are how likely the work is to close, when it may start, how much revenue it represents, and what changed since the last review.

For weekly reporting, we recommend paying particular attention to movement in probability, timing, expected fee, and pursuit status.

Changes Worth Flagging

• A major pursuit moves from an expected October start to January
• A project’s probability changes materially
• A large opportunity is won or lost
• A won project still lacks a credible start date
• One discipline’s future revenue becomes dependent on a small number of pursuits
• Pipeline expectations and the resource forecast stop lining up

Those changes can affect staffing and revenue assumptions quickly.

If the structural group looks light six weeks from now, leadership needs to know whether likely pursuits could fill that capacity. If another group is already heavily booked and several major opportunities are still expected to close, the hiring conversation may move forward.

That connection is one reason Deltek Vantagepoint can be useful for project-based firms. Project planning, resource information, financial data, and CRM can sit within the same broader system.

What Should Trigger a Closer Look

We suggest flagging any material change in probability, timing, expected fee, or pursuit status that affects future workload or revenue.

We also recommend keeping opportunity data current. A stale probability or old expected start date can change the forecast considerably.

Once principals understand what may be coming, the final report brings the focus back to the projects already underway.

6. Project Planning Performance: Does the Current Project Plan Still Make Sense?

Use Project Planning Performance when you need to test whether the current project plan still reflects what the team knows today.

Project Summary shows what has happened against budget. Project Planning Performance helps you look at the assumptions carrying the project forward, including schedules, forecasts, hours, costs, and profitability.

For most firms, we would use this as a focused report for major projects and projects where something has recently changed.

Projects Worth Pulling Into the Review

Look at projects that have experienced:

• A significant budget variance
• A major scope change
• A key staffing change
• A delayed milestone
• A revised completion date
• A noticeable shift in projected profitability

Large, multi-year projects may also deserve regular attention because smaller planning changes can add up over time.

For any project that gets flagged, we suggest asking a few practical questions.

How much work is left? Who will perform it? How many hours will it take? Has the expected completion date changed? Is the remaining fee enough for the remaining effort?

When to Update the Plan

If the estimate to complete, staffing requirement, finish date, or projected profitability changes materially, we recommend updating the plan to reflect the latest expectation.

That may mean revising hours, changing assignments, adjusting schedules, or updating the financial forecast.

Taken together, the six reports give principals a recurring view of active project performance, profitability, staffing, receivables, future work, and the assumptions behind current plans.

How to Use the Six Reports in a Weekly Principal Review

Once the reports are running consistently, we suggest reviewing them around a short set of questions:

1. Which projects changed materially this week?
2. Where is profitability moving enough to deserve attention?
3. Where are people overcommitted or short on work?
4. Which receivables need someone to step in?
5. What changed in the pipeline or expected revenue?
6. Which project plans need updated assumptions?

The answers will often connect across reports.

Project Summary may flag a project consuming labor faster than expected. Project Earnings may show the margin impact. Project Planning Performance can show whether the current estimate to complete reflects what the team now knows, while the Labor Resource Forecast can show whether the staffing plan can be changed.

We recommend ending each review with a clear next action. A PM updates the ETC. Someone follows up on an aging invoice. A resource assignment changes. A pipeline assumption gets revised.

Principals who prefer a more visual view can also use dashboards alongside the standard reports. BCS ProSoft’s guide to the Deltek Vantagepoint Enhanched Dashboard covers dashboard views for project management, business development, and company financial information.

When Your Vantagepoint Reports Still Require Too Much Manual Work

Vantagepoint gives AEC firms a lot to work with from a reporting standpoint, but the day-to-day experience can still feel more manual than it should.

You may have the right data in the system and still find that principals are checking side spreadsheets, PMs are keeping their own forecasts, and accounting is cleaning up reports before anyone else can use them.

That usually means the reporting setup needs a closer look.

Signs Your Reporting Process Needs a Closer Look

• Principals are looking at different versions of the same KPI.
• PMs keep separate forecasts because the Vantagepoint view does not match how they manage their projects.
• Accounting exports reports to Excel every week before leadership can use them.
• Pipeline numbers and staffing forecasts do not line up.
• A weekly reporting packet takes hours to put together even though most of the data already lives in Vantagepoint.
• Leadership has to compare several reports before they feel comfortable with a number.
• The same report gets rebuilt every week with slightly different filters.
• Principals still ask for side spreadsheets because the standard reports do not answer the questions they care about.

If several of these sound familiar, the issue may be less about the reports themselves and more about how the reporting structure, saved views, project planning setup, dashboards, filters, security roles, or surrounding workflow have been configured.

For firms looking at a broader ERP change, BCS ProSoft’s guide to Deltek Vantagepoin AEC ERP explains how Vantagepoint brings together project management, financial management, and resource planning for architecture and engineering firms.

If you are already using Vantagepoint, the need may be more targeted. You may already have the right data in place and simply need reporting, dashboards, planning practices, or recurring reviews set up in a way that better matches how your principals actually run the business.

BCS ProSoft helps AEC firms with both situations, from Vantagepoint implementation to improving reporting and operational workflows in an existing environment.

Build a Reporting Rhythm Principals Can Actually Use

The best Vantagepoint reports are the ones that lead to a decision.

If principals can quickly see which projects are slipping, where margins are changing, where staffing is getting tight, and which receivables need attention, the weekly reporting process becomes far more useful.

Start with these six reports, tailor the filters to how your firm operates, and focus on the exceptions that deserve action.

If your current setup still depends on side spreadsheets, manual exports, or too much interpretation, BCS ProSoft can help you get more from Vantagepoint reporting. You can request a demo to see how the system can support a more useful reporting rhythm for your firm.

Key Takeaways

• Principals should review six core Vantagepoint reports each week: Project Summary, Project Earnings or Office Earnings, Labor Resource Forecast, AR Aged, Project Forecast, and Project Planning Performance.
• Each report should have a clear trigger for closer review, such as margin decline, budget drift, staffing pressure, aging receivables, or pipeline changes.
• The value comes from using the reports together to connect project performance, profitability, staffing, cash flow, and future workload.
• Weekly reporting should focus on exceptions and decisions, not every line of data.
• If reporting still depends heavily on Excel, side forecasts, or manual cleanup, the Vantagepoint setup may need refinement.

Frequently Asked Questions