Glossary

Definitions of the terms Consult uses for leave balances, reporting lines, capacity, project roles, and work at risk.

This page defines terms that have a specific meaning inside Consult.

Actual leave balance

This is the employee’s leave balance that appears on payroll records. It does not subtract leave that has not yet been taken from the balance, meaning it gives an accurate reflection of what the employee has from a financial perspective.

Available hours

The capacity a user has left in a week, across every project. It is their maximum allowable hours less everything already committed to them: forecast hours on all projects, approved leave, and public holidays that fall on a weekday.

A user who is fully booked has zero available hours, and past weeks have none since the capacity has already been used.

Available leave balance

This is the amount of leave that an employee is currently eligible to take. This is the applicable balance when an employee wants to take time off.

Direct reports

Resources that have you as their resource manager.

Expected weekly hours

The hours the organisation expects a user to work in a week, derived from the Daily Hours Required admin setting. Public holidays, approved leave, and a start date partway through the week all reduce it.

This is not the same as the maximum allowable hours, and an allocation that goes over it is flagged rather than blocked.

Indirect reports

Resources that do not report directly to you, but who have a resource manager that reports to you.

Maximum allowable hours

The most a user may be allocated or log in a week, set by the Max Weekly Hours admin setting and reduced by public holidays that fall on a weekday and by leave.

An allocation that goes over it is a conflict and cannot be approved without moving hours, unlike one that is merely above the expected weekly hours.

Open slot

A designation on a project with nobody allocated to it and forecast hours in at least one week of the project. A designation with no user and no forecast hours is not an open slot.

Primary project manager

The one project manager on a project who receives its project manager notifications and timesheet approval requests in place of the others. They must be ticked as Project Manager with View Financials on their own row on the project. Where a project has no primary, or its primary is deactivated, every project manager receives them.

Work at risk

Any actual hours captured before the purchase order date. This will typically be the case when work is done while a project is in pipeline stage.