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Glossary
Terms you'll encounter when using VERA, explained for day-to-day use.
A
Agile project
A project type where work is broken into time-boxed sprints, each with its own fee and hours budget. Revenue is recognised when a sprint is marked active. When one sprint closes, the next opens. See Projects and tasks.
Alert threshold
The percentage of a project's budget at which VERA begins flagging it as a warning. Defaults to 80%. Once a project crosses this point it appears in burn rate alerts and the morning briefing.
B
Billable / non-billable
Whether the time you're logging generates revenue for the business. Most client work is billable. Internal projects (training, admin, R&D) are not. VERA knows which is which — you don't need to set this yourself.
Briefing
The message VERA sends each weekday morning. It summarises your recent hours, your work plan for the week, and (for managers and owners) the health of your portfolio. See The morning briefing.
Budget
The total hours a project is allowed to consume. Set by the owner; tracked by VERA against actual logged hours. Different from an envelope, which is an individual team member's share of that budget.
Burn rate
How quickly a project's hours are being used relative to what was planned. A project burning hours faster than expected will run out of budget before the deadline. Managers and owners see burn rate in their morning briefing and in retainer summaries.
C
Capacity
The total hours a team member has available in a given week, based on their standard working hours minus any approved time off. VERA shows a capacity bar for each team member in the morning briefing — how much is allocated versus how much is free. If someone is fully loaded, there's no room for additional work without removing something else first.
Client
The company or entity a project is delivered for. Every project belongs to a client. Internal projects belong to a fictional "Internal" client so they still appear in reporting without inflating client numbers.
Contractor
A freelancer or independent worker who operates inside VERA the same way a full-time employee does: they log their own time, receive envelopes, and their cost is calculated as hours × rate. The distinction between contractor and FTE is about payroll status — both use the system the same way. Different from a vendor, who delivers outcomes and does not log time at all.
Coverage gap
A project with an active hours budget but no team members allocated to it — work is planned but nobody is assigned. VERA counts these in the alert summary so managers can spot resourcing gaps before work falls behind.
D
Deadline
The date by which a project must be delivered. Visible to managers and owners — never shown to team members. Used to calculate whether a project is on pace to complete within budget.
Discipline
A team member's area of expertise, such as Design, Development, or Strategy. Used for capacity planning and team reporting.
E
Employment type
Classifies how a team member engages with the business. Three types: FTE (full-time employee), contractor (freelance, same system access as FTE), and vendor (deliverable-based, does not log time). Employment type determines how cost is calculated and whether the person appears in VERA's capacity planning.
Envelope
A work plan your manager has assigned to you on a specific project and task type. It defines how many hours you're expected to contribute. Your envelope shows up in your morning briefing as Plan / Logged / Remaining.
Envelopes are planning tools — they don't restrict you from logging time. You can log to any active project whether or not you have an envelope for it.
F
Fixed Price
A project type where the fee is agreed upfront regardless of hours spent. Revenue accrues proportionally as hours are logged (hours logged ÷ hours budget × contract value). Requires a contract value, hours budget, and deadline.
FTE
Full-time employee. Logs their own time in VERA; cost is calculated as hours × hourly rate.
H
Health
A traffic-light indicator for a project's delivery status — 🟢 on track, ⚠️ approaching the budget threshold, 🔴 over or critically underpaced. Visible in the morning briefing and portfolio summary.
I
Internal project
A project for overhead or non-client work: admin, training, R&D, business development, and absence types (PTO, Sick, Leave). Internal projects have no budget targets or financial tracking.
L
Leave
An extended absence — parental, compassionate, unpaid, and so on. Requested through VERA and approved by a manager, the same way as time off.
Linear track
The ideal burn-down line for a project — the total hours budget divided evenly across the total calendar days from start to deadline. On any given day, if your logged hours match the linear track, you're exactly on pace. If you're below it, you're behind; above it, you're ahead. VERA shows this as a progress indicator in the morning briefing, with 🟢 (ahead), ✅ (on track), ⚠️ (behind), and 🔴 (significantly behind).
Liability
A fixed payment commitment to a vendor: an agreed amount for a defined scope of work. Used in P&L calculations in place of hours × rate for vendor engagements. Visible to owners and managers.
Log / logging
The act of recording your hours in VERA. "Log 3 hours on Nike, design" is all it takes. See Logging time.
M
Manager
A project manager role. Managers see percentages (not dollar amounts) for the projects they own. They can approve time off, assign envelopes, and see burn rate and team capacity for their projects. See Your role in VERA.
Morning briefing
See Briefing.
O
Out of Office (OOO)
A catch-all term for PTO, sick days, and leave. All three are recorded against protected internal projects. Team members submit a request; a manager approves and the hours are logged. Owners log their own time off directly without needing approval.
Out-of-envelope time
Hours logged to a project by someone who has no active envelope for it. This isn't blocked — envelopes are planning tools, not gates — but VERA flags it in the morning briefing so managers can see where unplanned work is happening and decide whether to formalise it with an envelope or adjust the plan.
Overbooking
When a team member has more hours allocated across projects than they have available in the week. Flagged with ⚠️ in the team capacity block of the morning briefing, with the number of hours over capacity shown. Overbooking doesn't stop anyone logging time — it's a signal to the manager to either adjust allocations or have a conversation about priorities.
Owner
Full access. Owners see everything — dollar amounts, all projects, rates, and liabilities. They set project budgets, manage users, and control rates. See Your role in VERA.
P
Pace
The rolling burn trend for a project — how quickly hours are being used compared to the same period last week. VERA compares this week's hours against the previous two weeks to determine whether a project is accelerating, steady, or slowing down. Critical and warning pace signals appear in the morning briefing so managers can intervene before a project runs out of budget or falls dangerously behind.
Period
A single billing cycle within a retainer — typically one month. Each period has its own hours budget and contract value. When a period closes, a new one opens. You log time against the current period, not the retainer as a whole.
PM (Project Manager)
The team member assigned responsibility for a project. PMs are notified when someone logs time to their project and are responsible for managing envelopes and monitoring burn rate.
Pro Bono
A project type for client work delivered at no charge. No revenue is tracked — only hours. Requires an hours budget and deadline.
Project
The thing you're working on. Every hour you log goes to a project. Projects belong to clients (or to your own company, for internal work). Your manager or owner sets up projects — you just log to them.
PTO
Paid time off. Requested through VERA and approved by your manager before being recorded. You can't log PTO directly — it has to go through the approval process. See Time off.
R
Rate
The hourly cost for a team member — what their time costs the business. Rates are versioned: a new rate takes effect from a given date without overwriting history. Visible to owners only.
Retainer
An ongoing client engagement with a fixed fee per period (usually monthly). The client pays a set amount; the team delivers a set number of hours. VERA tracks how much of the current period has been used. See Projects and tasks.
Role
Your permission level in VERA: Owner, Manager, or Team Member. Roles determine what data you can see and what actions you can take. See Your role in VERA.
S
Sick day
A day off due to illness. Unlike PTO, sick days don't require a formal request — your manager logs them on your behalf. See Time off.
Sprint
A time-boxed delivery unit in an Agile project. Like a retainer period, each sprint has its own hours and contract value. When one sprint closes, the next opens.
Stale item
An unresolved item that's been open longer than expected without being addressed. VERA counts stale items separately in the alert summary so managers can see when something has been sitting unresolved for too long and needs a decision.
Status
For projects: active, completed, or cancelled. For retainer and Agile periods: planned (no revenue yet) or active (hours begin accruing revenue).
T
T&M (Time & Materials)
A project type where the client is billed for hours worked at a set rate. Revenue equals hours logged × billing rate. Requires an hours budget and deadline.
Task
The type of work you're doing within a project — Design, Development, Strategy, Admin, and so on. Each project has a specific set of tasks enabled for it. If you have a single task planned on a project, VERA applies it automatically when you log time. If you have multiple, they'll ask. To see which tasks are available: "What tasks are on the Nike project?"
Team member
The default role in VERA. Team members log their own time and see their own data. See Your role in VERA.
Time entry
A single record of work: a date, a project, a number of hours, and usually a task. Created when you log time. Can be edited or deleted if something's wrong.
U
Unresolved item
A flag VERA raises when something needs attention — a time-off conflict with an active envelope, a scheduling issue, or another situation that can't be resolved automatically. Visible in the morning briefing as a 🔴 block. Managers can ask VERA what the options are and choose how to resolve it.
V
Vendor
A third party who delivers outcomes — a finished design, a developed feature — rather than selling their time by the hour. Vendors do not log time in VERA; the PM logs on their behalf. Their cost is governed by a fixed payment agreement, not hours × rate. Different from a contractor, who does operate inside the system.
W
Work plan
See Envelope.