Skip to content

Planio: Terminology and Concepts

We have configured Planio to support our development process. This document describes how we use it.

This is useful to all Delivery Team members, but especially to Project Managers and Account Managers.

Invoicing

In short:

  • The Invoicing Company defines which company sends the invoice. In a nutshell: Do you need to select "Power Partners BV" or "Power Partners AG" in bexio?
  • The Channel defines how we invoice.
  • The Company defines the end client, the beneficiary of the task.

Invoicing Company

We have two invoicing companies:

  • Power Partners AG (Switzerland)
  • Power Partners BV (Belgium)

The invoicing company is the company that invoices the client.
It is also the company that hires employees and pays employees and contractors.

Channel

A Channel represents how we market our services, how and whom we charge for them, what rate we charge, and more.
A channel is always assigned to a unique Invoicing Company.

We currently have the following channels:

  • Invoicing Company: Power Partners AG (Switzerland)
    • pwrp zh: This is the direct channel for the DACH region.
    • internal: This is for internal projects, e.g. to improve our internal processes.
  • Invoicing Company: Power Partners BV (Belgium)
    • pwrp wf: This is the direct channel for the Benelux region.
    • sonical: This is for projects that are done in cooperation with sonical, and where we invoice sonical.

Contract Type

We currently have the following contract types:

  • Time & Material: We charge by the hour.
  • Fixed Price: We charge a fixed price for the project, as agreed with the client.
  • Retainer: We charge a fixed price per month, as agreed with the client. However, we keep track of the hours spent, and we accrue hours that are under- or overspent.
  • Pro Bono: These are projects we do for free, for example for non-profit organisations.
  • Internal Project: These are projects we do for ourselves, for example to improve our internal processes. They are not invoiced directly, but the sub-companies bear the costs.

Order

An Order is a contract with a client. It contains a contract type, a time estimate, and a budget.

Typically, all issues are linked to an order, and a corresponding order exists in bexio. They are linked implicitly via the order number.

Depending on the Invoicing Company, the order number has a different format:

  • Power Partners AG: AU-00000
  • Power Partners BV: OR-00000

With some clients, we have an agreement to work on a time-and-material basis. In this case, we do not create an order.
Instead, all issues will be reported to the DEFAULT order. The Account Manager becomes the Project Manager.

In case we do not have an order in bexio, we can still create an internal order in planio. This allows us to track time and budget for specific topics.
In this case, we use a different order number format: IN00000.

Billable

By default, all time spent on a project is billable. Sometimes, the Project Manager or the Account Manager decides that some time is not billable.
This can be set on the issue level, or on the time log level.

Time that is not billed still appears on the timesheets, but it is marked as not billable.

Typically, internal time and issues are also billable (this is important for internal invoicing).

Client Company

An Order and its issues are always linked to a Client Company. This is the company that we are working for, and that ultimately pays for our services.

In planio, it is important that we link both the issues, but also the orders to the company.

The orders need to be linked for proper timelog generation.

The issues (tasks, meetings, questions) need to be linked for daily work, e.g. to have proper swim lanes in the agile board.

The Client Company is called Company in planio.

Invoicing Method

We invoice with two different methods:

  • Last Week Ending in Month: We invoice weekly timesheets for weeks whose Sunday falls in a calendar month. This is the default. The advantage is that we invoice only entire weeks.
  • Calendar Month: We invoice all days of the calendar month.

The invoicing method is defined on the channel.

Employee Of

Each user in planio is assigned to an Invoicing Company. This is the company that pays the employee.
We can then use this information to calculate inter-company invoices.

Planio Entity Mapping

We use the following structure in Planio:

Pwrp Planio
Invoicing Company Project -> Invoicing Company (custom field)
Invoicing Method Project -> Invoicing Method (custom field)
Channel Project
Contract Type (Time & Material, Fixed Price, etc.) Issues of Tracker Order -> Contract Type (customer field)
Issue (Task, Meeting, Question) Issue
Order Issue of Tracker Order
Billable (Issue) Issue -> Billable (custom field)
Billable (Timelog) Timelog -> Billable (custom field)
Client Company Issue -> Company
Employee Of User -> Employee Of (Custom Field)