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One value chain across the whole business

Ask how one engagement is going and sales, delivery and finance give three different answers. Someone builds a spreadsheet to reconcile them before the meeting. Run every team on one record, from Prospect to Payment, and the question has one answer.

Count your handoffs

This pillar covers all six stages of the chain

  1. Prospect

    Customer, opportunity and proposed work

  2. Proposal

    Scope and rates for the work proposed

  3. Deliver

    Run the engagement from what was agreed

  4. Time and cost

    Capture work, review exceptions

  5. Bill

    WIP and invoice lines from the records

  6. Post

    Hand off to your accounting system

How much of your reporting is reconciliation?

Answer for your biggest live engagement. Each yes is a place where someone rebuilds the picture by hand between teams.

  1. Does someone build a spreadsheet before each leadership meeting?

    Sales, delivery and finance each bring their own figures to be merged.

  2. Do sales, delivery and finance each keep their own list of live engagements?

    Three lists, each updated by hand, each a little different.

  3. When a client changes the work, do you ask around to find what was approved?

    Someone checks email and meeting notes for the contract it became and who signed it off.

  4. Does finance go back to delivery to find out what can be billed?

    The answer lives with the people who did the work, not in the record.

  5. Does each business unit run its own steps for the same kind of work?

    Different templates, different reports, no common way to compare them.

  6. When a number is queried, does someone open several tools to trace it?

    The trail runs through a proposal, a timesheet and an invoice kept apart.

One record from the first meeting to the invoice

Sales, delivery and finance open the same engagement. Here is its Hub: the contract, its milestone and deliverables, and a task with a named owner.

Contract

  • Telephony Triage — Call Handling (000012.1)Active 24 Sep 2026 - 14 Jan 2027T&M - $280,000 (26%)
  • Phase 2 (000012.2)NewT&M - $0 (0%)
  • Phase 3 (000012.3)NewT&M - $0 (0%)

Milestone

  • Design & BuildOpen 20 Nov 2026 - 14 Jan 2027$150,000 (0%)

Deliverable

  • Build & ConfigurationIn progress 20 Nov 2026 - 17 Dec 2026$60,000 (0%)
  • Integration & MigrationIn progress 18 Dec 2026 - 14 Jan 2027$90,000 (0%)

Tasks

  • Build & Configuration — executionIn progress 20 Nov 2026 - 17 Dec 2026Tom Westbrook - High - Due in 55d
Seeded demo data. The Hub of one engagement: contract, milestone, deliverables and a task with an owner.
  1. Sell on the recordSales quote from the catalogue of services into an engagement, and delivery open the same one.
  2. Deliver on itDelivery runs the work from what was sold and logs time to the same record.
  3. Bill from itDraft invoices are built from approved time, ready milestones and approved expenses, and a person approves each invoice.

Questions sponsors ask

Can't see your question? Ask us directly.

Is this another reporting layer?

The method starts with the records behind the report. There is no single status across teams: each record keeps its own, from the engagement stage to the invoice. A summary is only useful when teams agree on the source and ownership.

Can we start with one part of the business?

Yes. Choose a representative workflow and agree the people, records and acceptance checks before widening the scope.

How do we decide what to fix first?

Find the earliest missing commercial decision in one engagement. Fixing that handover may clarify several later reports.

What does a business need to change first?

Start with one first scope, an agreed team, billing model and workflow. Widen once it runs.

Talk through one engagement

Tell us where your teams hold different versions of one engagement, and we will talk it through.

Discuss your business

A short note is enough to start. We will come back with a useful next step.

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