This glossary will help you understand the key metrics and terminology used in ActivTrak for BI - Contractor Billing Reconciliation. Use this reference to interpret dashboard data and effectively communicate findings to your finance and operations teams.
Definition
The percentage of contractors who exhibit a specific characteristic (such as excess billing, recurring billing issues, or specific overbilling rates) relative to the total contractor population. This metric provides context about how widespread billing issues are across the contractor workforce.
Calculation
(Number of contractors with characteristic / Total number of contractors) × 100%
Example
A manufacturing company analyzes its contractor workforce of 150 contractors and finds:
- 18 contractors with excess billing in August 2025
- % of Total Users with excess billing: (18 / 150) × 100% = 12%
This percentage help executives understand the scope of billing issues and set realistic goals for improvement. For example, reducing the percentage of contractors with excess billing from 12% to 6% within six months would represent a significant achievement.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
A metric showing the percentage of contractors with billing discrepancies over multiple months. This trending view helps identify whether billing accuracy is improving or worsening across the contractor population over time.
Calculation
(Number of contractors with excess billing / Total active contractors) × 100%
Example
A professional services firm tracks this metric over six months to assess the impact of new billing oversight procedures:
- March 2025: 144 total contractors, 80 with excess billing = 55.6%
- April 2025: 150 total contractors, 75 with excess billing = 50.0%
- May 2025: 148 total contractors, 68 with excess billing = 45.9%
- June 2025: 152 total contractors, 62 with excess billing = 40.8%
- July 2025: 155 total contractors, 58 with excess billing = 37.4%
- August 2025: 158 total contractors, 54 with excess billing = 34.2%
This declining trend shows meaningful improvement, with the percentage of contractors with excess billing dropping from 55.6% to 34.2% over six months - a reduction of 21.4%. This demonstrates that the billing oversight procedures are effectively changing contractor behavior across the population.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The total number of hours that a contractor or group of contractors invoiced for payment during a specified time period. This represents the hours the organization is being charged for, regardless of actual productive work performed.
Calculation
Sum of all hours appearing on contractor invoices for the selected time period
Example
A software development contractor named Marcus submits his monthly invoice:
- March 2025: 125 hours billed
At his hourly rate of $85, the total invoice amount would be $10,625. However, this metric alone doesn't tell the full story - the organization needs to compare these billed hours against Marcus's actual productive hours to verify billing accuracy.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The number of continuous months during which a contractor has consistently exhibited excess billing (billing more hours than productively worked). This metric identifies whether billing discrepancies are isolated incidents or represent persistent patterns.
Calculation
Consecutive months are grouped into the following bands:
- Less than 2 months
- 2 to 4 months
- 4 to 8 months
- Greater than 8 months
Example
Consider three contractors working for an IT consulting firm, each with different billing patterns:
Sarah: Had excess billing in January
and February 2025, then corrected her billing practices.
Consecutive
Months = 2 months (falls into "2 - 4 Months"
category)
James: Has shown excess billing every
month from March through August 2025.
Consecutive Months
=
6 months (falls into "4 - 8 Months" category)
Taylor: Has exhibited excess billing
consistently for the past 10 months.
Consecutive Months =
10 months
(falls into "> 8 Months" category)
This metric helps finance teams prioritize their responses. Sarah may need just a reminder about accurate time tracking, James requires a formal review conversation, and Taylor represents a serious issue that may warrant contract termination or significant remediation.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The difference between the hours a contractor billed and the productive hours they actually worked during a specified period. This metric quantifies billing discrepancies and represents hours the organization was charged for but did not receive in productive work.
Calculation
Billed Hrs - Productive Hrs
Example
Consider a marketing contractor named Jennifer working on a campaign project:
- Billed Hours for the month: 160 hours
- Productive Hours tracked by ActivTrak: 142 hours
Calculation:
- Excess Billed Hrs = 160 - 142 = 18 hours
At Jennifer's hourly rate of $75, these 18 excess billed hours represent $1,350 in potential overbilling for the month, or $16,200 annualized if the pattern continues.
This discrepancy could stem from several factors: Jennifer may be including non-productive time (lunch breaks, personal activities) in her billed hours, rounding up her daily hours, or genuinely working offline in ways ActivTrak cannot track. The finance team can use this data to have an evidence-based conversation with Jennifer about billing practices and expectations.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The financial value of billing discrepancies, calculated by multiplying excess billed hours by the contractor's hourly rate. This metric translates time-based discrepancies into concrete financial impact, enabling cost-based decision making and ROI analysis of billing validation efforts.
Calculation
Excess Billed Hrs × Hourly Rate
Example
A software development team employs three contractors with different billing patterns:
Alex:
- Excess Billed Hrs: 12 hours
- Hourly Rate: $95
- Excess Billed Hrs Cost: 12 × $95 = $1,140
Morgan:
- Excess Billed Hrs: 8 hours
- Hourly Rate: $110
- Excess Billed Hrs Cost: 8 × $110 = $880
Casey:
- Excess Billed Hrs: 20 hours
- Hourly Rate: $65
- Excess Billed Hrs Cost: 20 × $65 = $1,300
Team Total Monthly Excess Cost: $1,140 + $880 + $1,300 = $3,320
Annualized Excess Cost: $3,320 × 12 = $39,840
This financial translation helps executives understand the business impact of billing discrepancies. While Casey has the most excess hours (20), their lower rate means the financial impact ($1,300) is comparable to Alex's ($1,140) despite having fewer excess hours (12). This demonstrates why financial impact, not just hours, should drive prioritization decisions.
The annualized figure of $39,840 for just three contractors helps build the business case for systematic billing validation and provides a clear ROI metric for improvement efforts.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
A percentage that represents how much more a contractor billed compared to their productive hours worked. This metric provides a normalized way to assess billing discrepancy severity across contractors with different work volumes and rates.
Calculation
(Excess Billed Hrs / Productive Hrs) x 100%
Excess Billed Hrs = Billed Hrs - Productive Hrs
Overbilling rates are categorized into severity levels:
- Greater than 10%
- Greater than 25%
- Greater than 40%
- Greater than 60%
- Greater than 75%
- Greater than 100%
Example
Consider three contractors with different billing patterns:
Riley:
- Productive Hrs: 140 hours
- Billed Hrs: 160 hours
- Excess Billed Hrs: 20 hours
- Overbilling Rate: (20 / 140) × 100% = 14.3%
Riley falls into the "> 10%" severity band. This moderate discrepancy suggests the need for clarification about billing expectations but doesn't represent a severe issue.
Jordan:
- Productive Hrs: 98 hours
- Billed Hrs: 160 hours
- Excess Billed Hrs: 62 hours
- Overbilling Rate: (62 / 98) × 100% = 63.3%
Jordan falls into the "> 60%" severity band. This severe discrepancy represents a serious billing issue requiring immediate investigation and likely contract review.
Cameron
- Productive Hrs: 75 hours
- Billed Hrs: 160 hours
- Excess Billed Hrs: 85 hours
- Overbilling Rate: (85 / 75) × 100% = 113.3%
Cameron falls into the "> 100%" category, meaning they billed more than double their productive hours. This critical issue likely warrants immediate contract suspension pending investigation.
The overbilling rate enables fair comparison across contractors with different work volumes. A contractor working 80 productive hours with 20 excess hours (25% rate) represents a more severe issue than one working 140 productive hours with 20 excess hours (14% rate), even though both have the same absolute excess hours.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The total hours during which a contractor was actively engaged in productive work activities as measured by ActivTrak. This represents actual computer-based work time and excludes breaks, personal time, and periods of inactivity. Productive hours serve as the baseline for validating contractor billing accuracy.
Example
A data analyst contractor named Devon works throughout the month of August 2025:
- 142 productive hours tracked by ActivTrak
- Devon submited an invoice for 160 hours, representing a standard full-time schedule.
Important Considerations:
- Productive hours reflect computer-based work and may not capture all legitimate work activities
- Organizations should establish clear policies about acceptable variance levels
- Contractors should understand what activities are tracked and how billing accuracy will be assessed
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
An organizational unit in ActivTrak used to organize contractors based on shared characteristics such as vendor/staffing agency, project assignment, department, functional area, or contract type. Contractor teams enable comparative analysis of billing patterns across different segments of the contractor workforce.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The total number of contractors in a specified group, team, or category during the selected time period. This metric provides the denominator for calculating percentages and helps contextualize the scope of billing issues within contractor populations.
Calculation
Count of unique contractors who were active (had at least some tracked activity) during the selected time period within the specified filter criteria
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)
Definition
The number of contractors who billed more hours than they productively worked during a specified time period. This metric quantifies how many individual contractors exhibit billing discrepancies, providing insight into whether issues are isolated to a few individuals or widespread across the contractor population.
Calculation
Count of contractors where Billed Hrs are greater than Productive Hrs during the selected time period
Example
A financial services firm examines contractor billing for August 2025 across its various departments:
Engineering Team:
- Total Contractors (User Count): 25
- Users w/ Excess Billed Hrs: 8
- % of Total Users: 32%
Marketing Team:
- Total Contractors (User Count): 12
- Users w/ Excess Billed Hrs: 9
- % of Total Users: 75%
Operations Team:
- Total Contractors (User Count): 15
- Users w/ Excess Billed Hrs: 3
- % of Total Users: 20%
Company-Wide Total:
- Total Contractors (User Count): 52
- Users w/ Excess Billed Hrs: 20
- % of Total Users: 38.5%
This analysis reveals important patterns. While Engineering has the highest number of contractors with excess billing (8), Marketing has the highest percentage (75%), suggesting a department-wide issue rather than isolated individual problems. Operations shows the best billing accuracy with only 20% of contractors affected.
These insights enable targeted interventions. Marketing may need department-level policy clarification or enhanced oversight, while Operations' approach could serve as a model for other teams. The overall statistic that 38.5% of contractors have billing discrepancies indicates a significant organizational issue requiring systematic attention rather than individual contractor management.
Plan availability
All plans with ActivConnect API (Add-on)