How InData Labs improved project profitability tracking and billing accuracy

InData Labs runs complex projects with diverse billing models and a global contractor network. Since adopting Beebole, they've gained reliable profitability insights, streamlined billing, and ensured accurate contractor payments—all while keeping costs under control.

#The challenge: Complex billing models and global teams

Founded in 2014, InData Labs is an AI and data science company that designs and develops intelligent solutions for startups and bigger enterprise clients, ranging from predictive analytics, computer vision, and recommendation systems to GenAI applications and end-to-end AI products, including virtual assistants and advisory systems. With around 80 employees from 20 nationalities and contractors primarily based throughout Europe, LATAM, and other regions, managing finances was becoming increasingly complex.

Their biggest pain points before Beebole included:

• Varied billing models (fixed price, time and materials, retainers, per-project, per-person rates)

• Manual contractor payments tied to hourly tracking

• Profitability blind spot without consolidating reporting

• Complex data handoffs between Jira (for projects) and finance

#The solution: One source of truth for costs and profitability

The company has tracked all project hours in Beebole since 2018, using it as the backbone for cost and billing data. Jira remains their project management tool, but Beebole mirrors the same setup—teams, projects, and tasks—so reporting is seamless.

Beebole enables them to:

• Unify billing data: Project hours and costs feed directly into finance, replacing spreadsheet reconciliation.

• Run profitability reviews: Monthly meetings rely on Beebole data to evaluate project gross margins.

• Support finance teams: Finance staff prefer Beebole over Jira, as they find Jira too complex.

• Track leave costs: Absenteeism, holidays, and bench time are measured against budgets.

• Master their billable rate: They can control their budget against actuals and monitor their billable rate. The billable rate is key because non-billable activities can quickly create overhead. If their billable rate drops below 65%, they know they're facing significant workload and some profitability issues. Conversely, a rate above 75% indicates strong performance.

#The implementation: Steady rollout and supportive onboarding

The company began using Beebole in 2018, but full implementation came in 2020. Dmitri, as a Beebole administrator, manually sets up project structures to match Jira tickets, ensuring consistency across tools on a day-to-day basis.

The onboarding was supported by Beebole's customer success team, who helped configure cost settings and permissions. Today, Dmitri manages the system with ease, relying on support only for advanced questions.

"Support is very positive and responsive. I've had help with cost settings and permission issues," says Savitski.

#The results: Smarter profitability control and accurate payments

Since adopting Beebole, the company has achieved significant improvements in cost visibility and billing accuracy. With insight from Beebole, they can pivot faster and smarter.

Key outcomes:

• Billing accuracy: Reliable data for invoices across varied client models

• Billing and profitability insights: Monthly project-level reviews with real-time budget vs. actual analysis. According to Dmitri, "It certainly allows us to quickly assess company performance, typically on a weekly basis. This helps us make timely operational decisions regarding project resources within dedicated budgets to achieve the demanded profitability levels. It's an excellent tool for managing our resource mix."

• Timely contractor payments: Beebole is the single source for rates and pay calculations.

• Operational efficiency: Finance avoids Jira complexity, relying on Beebole's clean reporting.

• Cost savings: Robust, efficient functionality at a competitive price point.

Today, Beebole is a core operational system for InData Labs, underpinning everything from project planning to financial decision-making. As InData Labs continues to grow, Beebole remains a trusted foundation for accurate reporting and confident business decisions.