Getting Started with Operating as a Consultant

A guide to finding your schedule, managing your profile, and tracking your time.

Written By Lauri Eurén

Last updated About 11 hours ago

What You’ll See When You First Log In

Operating may look different depending on which modules your organization uses. You might have access to resource planning only, or you may also have timesheets, approval flows, and invoice generation.

Your admin may also have configured permissions so that you only see what’s relevant to your role — for example, your own schedule and timesheets rather than company-wide financial data.

This guide focuses on the features most relevant to consultants:

  • Your profile

  • Your schedule

  • Your projects

  • Time tracking

Setting Up Your Profile

Click the organization name, and then My Profile in the top left corner to open your profile.

If your email is already linked to your user account, you’ll be taken directly to your profile page. If not, you’ll see a dropdown — find your name, select it, and save.

Your profile displays:

  • Name, title, role, and seniority

  • Project history

  • Employment details

  • Time balance (if enabled)

  • Contact information

Adding Your Skills

If your organization has enabled self-service skills editing, you can add skills to your profile by clicking Edit skills.

From there, you can:

  • Select skills from the available list

  • Set a proficiency level (e.g. beginner, intermediate, expert)

  • Mark skills as learning goals

Keeping your skills up to date helps staffing managers match you to the right projects. Your skill levels and preferences are visible during staffing decisions.

Viewing Your Schedule on the Timeline

Go to the People timeline to see your upcoming allocations.

If you can see other people in the list:

  1. Open the filter

  2. Select Me

  3. Apply the filter to show only your own schedule

To make this easier next time, save the filtered view and pin it to your sidebar. You can also organize pinned views into folders (for example, a Personal folder with My Schedule and My Projects).

On the timeline, you’ll see:

  • Your project allocations

  • Allocation percentages

  • Allocation status (confirmed vs. tentative)

This helps you understand both your committed workload and what may be coming next.

Working with Allocations on the Timeline

You can adjust allocations directly on the timeline:

  • Drag the start or end handles to extend or shorten an allocation

  • Split an allocation if your workload changes partway through a period

This allows you to reflect different effort levels across time accurately.

Booking Time Off

Time off is also managed on the timeline. Drag to create or extend time-off blocks as needed.

Viewing Your Projects

To see all projects you’re assigned to:

  1. Go to the Projects view

  2. Apply the filter Team member equals Me

  3. Save and pin this view for quick access

From the project list, you can open any project to:

  • See the full project team

  • Review allocations across the team

Depending on your permissions, you may also be able to edit your own allocations or view what others on the project are working on.

You can switch to the project timeline to see the same information in a visual format, organized by project instead of by person.

Comparing Planned vs. Actual Utilization

Under Reports, the Planned and Actual Utilization report shows how your planned workload compares to the hours you’ve tracked.

To use this report:

  • Filter by yourself

  • Select the relevant time period

  • Toggle between hours and percentages

The left-hand value shows what was planned for you on the timeline.
The right-hand value shows what you actually logged in timesheets.

If you consistently log more or fewer hours than planned, this is a good signal to discuss workload adjustments with your project manager.

Tracking Your Time

If your organization uses Operating’s timesheet module, go to the Hours tab to log your time.

Weekly View

In the weekly view, you’ll see:

  • Your allocated projects

  • Associated tasks

Enter your hours per day against the relevant tasks and add notes where helpful.

List View

You can also switch to the list view, which shows all time entries in a single list. This is useful if you’re logging time across multiple projects at once.

Submitting Your Timesheet

When you’re done logging hours, submit your timesheet by clicking Lock or Submit.

You can:

  • Review and submit unsubmitted weeks in bulk

  • See warnings if any days have no hours logged, and confirm whether this is intentional

Make it a habit to submit your timesheet at the end of each week. This ensures your hours are accurately reflected in project reporting and utilization metrics.

Introductory Video

Watch the video above for a full walkthrough of these features in action.