Summary
Organisation Settings is the section of the Proteus Admin Console where your company’s internal structure is defined. This includes setting up Departments, Grades and Disciplines (collectively known as DDG), and configuring the average cost rates used to calculate labour budgets across proposals and projects.
Organisation Settings is only accessible to users with Admin role permissions. Navigate to the Admin Console from the main navigation menu and select Organisation to access these options.
Setting Up Your Organisation
Select the Office you want to configure the organisation structure for, using the office dropdown.
Select Organisation from the Admin Console menu.
WARNING: Organisation structure - Departments, Grades, Disciplines and Average Cost Rates - is configured per office. Ensure you have selected the correct office before making changes, as settings will not automatically carry across to other offices in your tenant.
Departments, Grades & Disciplines (DDG)
Department, Grade and Discipline - commonly referred to together as DDG - form the structural backbone of your organisation within Proteus. Every user profile is assigned a Department, Grade and Discipline, and this structure underpins resource cost rates, reporting, and how users are categorised across the platform.
Type | Description | Example |
Department | Represents the main functional areas within your organisation. | Engineering, Finance, HR |
Grade | Indicates the seniority or level of responsibility associated with a role. | Junior, Mid-Level, Senior |
Discipline | Defines the specific skill set or specialty within a department. | Mechanical Engineering, Project Accounting |
How to Create a New DDG Entry
From the Organisation menu, select the DDG type you want to create (Department, Grade or Discipline).
Within the selected tab, select Add New to open the creation form.
Complete the required details:
Department - Requires a Name/Description and a Code. The Code is the unique reference for this Department.
Grade - Requires a Name/Description and a Code. The Code is the unique reference for this Grade.
Discipline - Requires a Discipline Name and the Department this Discipline belongs to.
Select Save to confirm the new DDG entry.
Editing, Deactivating & Deleting a DDG
Existing DDG records can be managed via the 3 dots on the right-hand side of the record row.
The following actions are available:
Action | Description |
Edit | Opens the DDG record for editing, allowing the Name/Description, Code or associated Department (for Disciplines) to be updated. |
Deactivate | Removes the DDG from being available for future selection from the point of deactivation onward. A deactivated DDG can always be reactivated at a later date, and existing records that already use it are unaffected. |
Delete | Permanently removes the DDG record. This action can only be performed on a DDG that has never been used in the system — i.e. one that has not been added to any Proposal or Project record. |
WARNING: A DDG that has already been used within the system - for example, applied to a Proposal or Project - cannot be deleted. If a DDG is no longer relevant but has historical usage, use Deactivate instead. This preserves the integrity of existing records while preventing the DDG from being selected going forward.
Average Cost Rates
Average Cost Rates represent the standardised hourly cost to your company for each combination of Discipline and Grade. These rates are used for budgeting and forecasting labour costs at the proposal stage, before a specific individual has been assigned to a piece of work.
When a proposal is created, the labour budget is calculated using these Average Cost Rates rather than the actual cost of a named individual, since the specific resource assigned to deliver the work may not yet be confirmed.
WARNING: Average Cost Rates cannot be added until Departments, Grades and Disciplines have been created first - the Discipline/Grade Matrix is built directly from these DDG records.
Additionally, a Proposal or Contract cannot be created in Proteus until at least the required Average Cost Rates have been populated. Ensure your DDG structure and cost matrix are fully configured before attempting to create new commercial records.
How to Configure Average Cost Rates
From the Organisation menu, select Average Cost Rates.
The Discipline/Grade Matrix will display, showing every combination of Discipline and Grade configured for this office.
Select a cell within the matrix and type the average hourly cost for that Discipline/Grade combination. The value will save automatically.
Repeat for each Discipline/Grade combination required.
NOTE: A cost cell can be left empty if a particular Discipline/Grade combination does not apply to your organisation. However, any combination left without a cost will not be available for selection on a contract or proposal.
An Average Cost Rate can be updated at any time by re-typing the value in the cell. However, if the rate is already in use on an active contract, it cannot be removed entirely - only edited to a new value.
The new value WON'T apply to active projects, only newly created proposals. Existing proposals can be updated via Update Cost on the proposal details but only if the feature Project Resources and Workhour builder is active.
Actual Cost Rates
The Actual Cost Rate is the real hourly cost of a specific team member to your organisation, as opposed to the standardised Average Cost Rate applied at the Discipline/Grade level. This rate must be populated on each user’s Team Profile by an admin user before that individual can be assigned to a project as a resource and submit time against it.
How to Set a User’s Actual Cost Rate
Select the Proteus logo to navigate back to your Dashboard.
From the Dashboard, select Team from the main navigation menu.
Locate the user you want to add an hourly cost to, then select the 3 dots on the right of their profile.
Select Edit.
Scroll down to the section containing Hourly Cost.
Enter the user’s actual hourly cost in the field provided.
Save the changes to update the user’s Team Profile.
How Actual Cost Interacts with Average Cost
Average Cost Rates and Actual Cost Rates serve different purposes at different stages of the project lifecycle:
At the proposal stage - The Average Cost Rate for the relevant Discipline/Grade is used, since a named individual has not necessarily been assigned yet.
On an active project - Once a specific user has been assigned to a resource and their time has been booked and approved, that user’s Actual Cost Rate replaces the Average Cost Rate for all cost calculations relating to their booked time.
This means the labour budget on a proposal is always an estimate based on Discipline and Grade, while the actual project cost reporting reflects the true cost of the individuals who deliver the work once they are assigned and have approved time recorded against the project.