What goes in the hours table?
The hours table has a row per task from the draft remit's owns list, in the words the people doing it use, plus a final row for everything else, and a column per working day for two weeks. Each person keeps their own copy or their own block. Cells hold hours in round quarter-hours, filled at the end of each day in about ten minutes. The everything-else row is what keeps the task rows honest; time has to go somewhere.
Verify at the mid-point: rows always empty are tasks the list overstated; hours landing in everything-else that belong to a task are a row the list missed.
- Task ______ | Mon | Tue | … | Fri | Mon | … | Fri
- Task ______ | …
- Everything else | …
What goes in the outcomes table?
The outcomes table counts, per day, what the function produced in the units the Digital FTE's Targets will use: transactions reconciled, tickets resolved at first line, applications screened, outreach sent, shortlists delivered, pages published. Choose the units now from the role's likely targets, because a baseline in different units from the after measurement cannot be compared. Count outcomes, not activities.
Verify: each row's unit matches a target in the draft Targets tab.
- Outcome ______ (unit ______) | Mon | … | Fri
- Outcome ______ (unit ______) | …
What goes in the quality measures table?
The quality measures table lists the measures that already exist for the function, the value over the baseline period, and the method used to take it, precisely enough that someone else could repeat it: days to close from the last two closes and how counted; first-line resolution from the helpdesk and which report; time to shortlist from the last two rounds and which dates; next-step coverage from the CRM and which filter; console and citation samples for target queries and the prompt set used. Where a measure does not exist, the row says none.
Verify: every row has a method; a value without a method cannot be re-measured.
- Measure ______ | value ______ | method ______
- Measure ______ | none | —
What goes in the rates table?
The rates table lists each person who logged hours and their loaded cost per hour from finance, so the hours table can be priced. The sheet never estimates a rate; it asks finance, and if finance gives a band, the band is recorded and the comparison uses its conservative end. External costs the function carries today, such as a provider fee or a tool licence attributable to these tasks, are listed here too.
Verify: every person in the hours table appears here with a rate from finance, not from memory.
- Person ______ | rate ______ (source: finance, date ______)
- External cost ______ | amount ______ | attributable to tasks ______
What goes in the caveats line?
The caveats line records what would mislead a reader later: the week that was unusual and why, the task that was hard to separate from another, the measure that does not exist, the person who was away. One line per caveat, written at the end of the fortnight while it is remembered. A baseline with honest caveats is stronger than one that pretends to be clean.
Verify: the line exists even if it says nothing unusual happened.
How are the totals produced and stored?
At the end of the fortnight, total the hours by task and price them with the rates table for the baseline cost of the work per fortnight, which scales to a month; total the outcomes for the baseline output; attach the quality measures with methods and the caveats. Store the whole sheet with the date and the names of the people who logged it, alongside the draft remit it was built from. Do not edit it afterwards; the after measurement is a new sheet in the same shape.
Verify: the stored file is dated before the Digital FTE's first proposal.
How do you use this template?
Copy the five tables into a shared sheet, fill the task rows from the draft remit with the people who do the work, set the outcome units from the draft targets, and start on a Monday. Spend ten minutes a day for two weeks, check at the mid-point, total on the last Friday, and store. After the Digital FTE's second full cycle, produce the after sheet in the same shape from Targets, usage per role, logged human hours, and the same quality methods, and set the two side by side. The comparison is arithmetic.
The sheet is the least glamorous document in the pilot and the one every honest number depends on.