Time and workload Activity report software: what it covers, and what it does not
Activity report software (known in France as CRA) produces the monthly activity report: who worked, how many days, on which assignment, validated by the client. It is a contractual document, and it does its job very well. This page says precisely who it is enough for, and who it is not enough for, because confusing the two cases is costly for both.
If you work in pure time and materials or in salary portage, stop here.
In France, the activity report is inseparable from time and materials and from salary portage (portage salarial). These two modes are explicitly outside our scope, as are technical assistance and continuous operations. The ten engagement modes are described on engagement levels.
What an activity report covers.
Three functions, and there is nothing to criticize when the engagement mode is pure time and materials.
It reports time
Per person, per day or half-day, per assignment. It is the raw material of the invoice.
It gets client validation
Signature or online approval. This is what makes the document enforceable and the invoice undisputable.
It feeds billing and payroll
A proven, regulated chain, often connected to accounting tools. Nothing to reinvent.
In time and materials, this chain is enough: time is the subject of the contract. The client buys days, validates days, pays for days. There can be no gap between what was sold and what was produced, because they are the same thing.
On a fixed price, time is no longer the subject of the contract.
The client no longer buys days: they buy a result, by a date. Time spent stops being what you invoice and becomes what you watch, and a validated activity report no longer provides the answer you need.
It tells you how many days were spent. It does not tell you whether the fixed price holds, where the scope has slipped, or what is left to do. Time spent has to be reconciled with a dated commitment, and that commitment is not in the activity report: it is in the contract and in the committee minutes.
Bringing the two together in the same data is what we call operational commitment management.
The mix of time and materials and fixed price, which is the real situation.
Few companies are pure. Most run both modes, and they do not need the same tooling.
| Mode | What the client buys | What tracking must produce | Suitable tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time and materials, portage | Days of expertise. | A validated, enforceable monthly document. | An activity report tool. |
| Technical assistance | Capacity made available. | The same, with presence tracking. | An activity report tool. |
| Fixed price, managed project | A result, by a date. | The gap between what is produced and what was promised. |  |
Practical consequence: you do not have to choose. The time and materials part stays on its tools, the commitment part is steered differently, and the invoice follows the scope that is actually equipped.
What pylotik does with time.
Time entry exists, but it serves something other than an invoice.
Time is attached to a work package
Not only to an assignment: to the part of the project it serves, with its milestone. This is what makes the gap computable.
Entry is done by the quarter-day
Where the work is produced, with no record button. See time entry software.
The gap is computed at entry
Time spent against time sold, from the first month. See fixed-price project tracking.
The invoice rests on proof
Committee minutes validated by the client, a frozen history. It is no longer a count of days, it is a shared finding.
The full tour is on the product page.
What we are asked about the activity report.
Can pylotik produce our activity reports?
No, and we do not try to. The billing activity report is a regulated document and well tooled elsewhere. We carry the link between time spent and the dated commitment, which is a different need.
What is the difference between an activity report and project tracking?
The first justifies an invoice by reporting time spent. The second establishes whether what was promised will be kept. In pure time and materials the two merge; on a fixed price, or on a project billed on time spent that you steer, they diverge from the first month.
We run a mix of time and materials and fixed price, what should we do?
Keep your activity report tool for time and materials, and equip the fixed-price or managed-project part. The two worlds do not have the same need, and there is no point in forcing a single tool.
Is double entry required?
On the equipped scope, no: entry is done once, in the tool where the project lives. On a mix, people who work on both sides enter time in the tool matching each assignment, which is still the case today in most organizations.
What about salary portage?
It is not our ground either. The need there is administrative and contractual before it is a steering need, and it is covered by specialized tools.
Can we bill on progress with pylotik?
Tracking what is produced and billable exists, and the billing tracking module is available. Issuing invoices stays with your tools. See project billing tracking.
Going further.
- Engagement levels: the ten contractual modes, and where pylotik fits.
- Fixed-price project tracking: the gap between time spent and time sold.
- Time entry: the gesture, and what it shifts.
- Operational commitment management: the definition of the category.