The benchmarks worth measuring against
Healthy firms run billable utilization above roughly 70%, project margin above 35%, and revenue leakage below 5%, on the SPI Research maturity benchmark.
Utilization is billable hours over available hours. The gap between target and actual is the first place margin hides.
Leakage accrues quietly, mid-project
Revenue leakage is earned work that never gets billed: unrecorded hours, scope absorbed without a change order, staffing below the contracted rate.
It builds while the project is live and only shows up as a write-off at close, when it is too late to recover.
Where the ERP closes the loop
The lever is integration: real-time project margin appears where delivery meets the ledger. On Hudace, time capture, resourcing, and finance share one platform, so an overrun shows while there is still time to act, and realised revenue is visible against the standard value of the work.
Xenon AI forecasts estimate-to-complete and flags the projects trending over budget. A manager decides the response.
The numbers to watch
Set a baseline against the benchmark, then track the leak directly.
Billable utilization
Billable hours / available hours. Below roughly 70% and margin is leaking before any project even slips.
Project margin
(Project revenue - delivery cost) / project revenue. Healthy firms hold this above 35%.
Revenue leakage %
Earned work never billed, as a share of revenue. Controllable: mature firms keep it under 5%.
Realization rate
Revenue actually billed / standard value of time worked. Where rate erosion shows up.
See project margin on Hudace
Talk to our team about putting time, resourcing, and finance on one platform.