Agency Project Delivery Costs Dataset
Compare fixed project fees with recorded delivery hours and direct labor costs.
A practical workbook exercise for agency owners, project controllers and analysts. Work from the underlying records, compare the relevant totals and explain how you reached your result.
About the dataset
This original synthetic dataset contains 972 source records across three related tables. The records are fictional and designed for descriptive business analysis.
Dataset details
| Industry | Agencies and professional services |
| Formats | Excel workbook and CSV files |
| Source records | 972 |
| Related tables | 3 |
| Fields across table schemas | 17 |
| Reporting cutoff | September 30, 2026 |
| Currency | USD for monetary fields |
| Source | Original synthetic data created for Jolene.pro Workbook Studies |
What's included
- Clients: 18 records and 4 fields. One client.
- Projects: 54 records and 6 fields. One project and its full agreed scope.
- TimeEntries: 900 records and 7 fields. One employee time entry against a project.
Recommended analysis
- Which projects have exceeded budget hours?
- How much direct labor cost has been recorded?
- Which project types have the highest nonbillable share?
- What remains unknown about final profitability?
How to work with the data
Use the following relationships to connect the source tables:
- Projects.client_id → Clients.client_id
- TimeEntries.project_id → Projects.project_id
Check the row grain before joining. Aggregate repeated child records to the required level before combining totals, so parent amounts are not counted more than once.
You can explore the workbook in Excel or Jolene.pro, or use the CSV files with SQL, Power BI and other analysis tools.
Definitions and assumptions
- Only delivery labor is included. Subcontractor costs and overhead are outside scope.
- Fixed fees and hour budgets describe full projects. Logged time is through September 30; project completion is not supplied, so do not call fee minus cost-to-date final profit.
Use the field definitions and nullable-column guidance in the included data dictionary. Interpret blank values and reporting dates according to the scenario notes.
Downloads
The complete dataset ZIP includes the Excel workbook, three matching CSV files, a data dictionary, scenario notes, a source-row preview and license details.
Reuse and attribution
These are synthetic records, not customer data or industry benchmarks. Reuse is allowed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Credit Jolene.pro and identify any changes you make.