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Use this page when you want one live consultancy or agency project to carry the whole pilot. The point is to connect delivery (who does what, when), time (what actually happened), and money (margin, billing, invoices) in a single thread, not a demo workspace. How profitability shows up from the start: on the project Finance tab, Pike combines earnings (from billable time or from invoices, depending on the view) with costs (mainly labour from logged hours × each member’s cost) to show profit. Read Project finance for the full breakdown, especially Profitability, Profit = Earnings - Costs, and how Billable time vs Revenue booked changes the numbers.

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What “good” looks like at the end

  • Everyone on the pilot can see the same tasks, assignments, and progress for that project.
  • Time is logged on real tasks and reviewed on a rhythm you can repeat.
  • Project finance shows profitability (earnings, costs, profit) you can explain, and finance can invoice from the same project record.
  • You can compare a few baseline numbers (before Pike) to the same numbers from this project.
If finance never opens Pike during the pilot, you have not tested the hardest part, including whether costs and profit reflect how you actually staff and pay the work.

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Absolutely necessary setup

These steps are the minimum so tasks, time, and money stay tied to one real project. Skipping any of them usually breaks profitability or billing later.
1

People, roles, and access

Invite everyone who will touch the pilot and assign workspace roles that match what they really do. See Getting started for sign-in and role overview.
2

Customer record

Create the customer you will bill, with real name and details, so the project and invoices stay linked to one account.
3

Cost profiles for anyone who logs billable time

For each member who will log time on the pilot project, complete the Cost profile on their member profile. Labour cost in the project (and therefore profit on Project finance) is calculated from those hourly cost figures and logged hours, not from guesses at the project level.
Treat Cost profile as the source of truth for cost in project profitability. If it is empty or wrong, Costs and Profit on Project finance will mislead you even when time and rates look correct.
4

One project, linked to that customer

Create the project with the real title, team(s), and customer selected. Add the pilot team under Resources (Project resources) with bill rates aligned to how you price the work (member rate on tasks).
5

Tasks people actually recognise

Create tasks that match how you run the engagement, assign owners and dates, and use My tasks / project Tasks as the shared execution view (Tasks overview).
6

Time logging and approval

Decide who logs time (Time entry) and who approves it (Time admin). Without approved time on tasks, billable and cost views lag what really happened.
Cost profile is not optional for a serious pilot: without it, Pike cannot attribute labour cost correctly on Project finance. Earnings from rates × hours may look fine while profit is wrong.
  1. Agree where you’ll ask questions (Slack, Teams, email). If you use Slack, connect the workspace and profiles (Slack).
  2. Skim Core concepts and Project overview so naming in Pike matches how you talk internally.

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Day 1: shape the project

  1. Refine phases and dates if you use them. Use a project template only if it mirrors real delivery.
  2. Allocate people to tasks and windows from Resources (Allocation properties, Workspace capacity).

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Collaboration

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Plan vs reality: time

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Money: profitability, billing, and accounting sync

Start from Project finance so you understand earnings, costs (labour + expenses), and profit on this project, including the Billable time vs Revenue booked toggle. Cost profile drives the labour portion of costs for people who log time.
Open Finance on the project in week one, even if invoices are not ready. That forces you to validate cost profiles, rates, and time early instead of discovering gaps at month-end.
Workspace-level money: Finance overview and Finance metrics for trends and unbilled work. Invoices: Creating invoices from the project when you bill. Accounting integrations (optional but high value for finance):
  • QuickBooks: connect from workspace integrations; sync invoices and related financial data between Pike and QuickBooks.
Integrations do not replace cost profiles or time on tasks: QuickBooks and Xero extend what you push or pull after Pike has the right operational data. Profitability on the project still comes from the rules in Project finance and Cost profile.

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Operating rhythm (suggested)

WhenDo this
WeeklyProject resources + Project time.
WeeklyApprove time (Time admin); Finance overview for unbilled hours.
WeeklyProject finance: profitability, budget vs actuals.
As neededEdit tasks; Project overview for description and status.

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Baseline and exit

Before day one, write down measurable facts for this project or your usual process (e.g. days to invoice, unbilled hours age, margin estimate). At pilot end, compare using Pike’s Project finance, Finance overview, and invoices. Decide continue, adjust, or stop from data and team feedback, not slides alone.

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Deeper reference