Appearance
Common questions
Short answers to the questions people ask most when they start using Flowstate. Each answer links to the guide with the full steps. If a word is new to you, see Flowstate words explained.
Getting started
Why is nothing showing yet?
Flowstate fills in as your tools connect and your teams use it. After you connect your project tool, check Settings → Integrations → Sync Health shows it as Healthy; the effort estimate is updated from it every day. Screens that only count submitted effort, such as R&D claims, stay empty until team leads submit their weeks, and nobody is asked to submit until an admin turns on a review cadence.
See What goes wrong when something is missing and Check sync health.
Why does a section show a holding screen or a lock?
That part of Flowstate isn't switched on for your organisation. Your Flowstate contact switches on the parts your organisation uses. If a screen opens but some figures show a lock, that feature needs an extra module, such as AI spend attribution.
See How an implementation runs.
Why are all our costs in US dollars?
Flowstate starts in US dollars until someone sets your reporting currency. Set it under Settings → Finance → Exchange Rates, then add a rate from every currency you pay people in. A currency with no rate is counted as if it were already in your reporting currency.
See Set your reporting currency.
Why does our fiscal year start in January?
Flowstate assumes January until someone saves your fiscal year. Set it under Settings → Finance → Frameworks & Fiscal Year, then select Save Configuration.
See Set your fiscal year.
Can we connect our HR system?
Yes. Flowstate syncs with Workday, ADP Workforce Now, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, BambooHR, HiBob, Personio, Rippling and Deel. Other HR systems can sync the same way. Changes arrive on a schedule Flowstate runs, or as they happen through your own integration platform. Your Flowstate contact sets it up with your technical team.
I've been invited, but I can't sign in. What should I check?
Enter exactly the email address the invitation was sent to. Invitations don't expire. If the sign-in email doesn't arrive, check your junk folder, then ask your Flowstate admin to check you're invited.
See Sign in to Flowstate.
Does it matter how well we use Jira, Linear or Azure DevOps?
Partly. A ticket only adds effort once it's assigned to someone matched in Flowstate and has moved into an in-progress status. Work on a ticket whose project isn't linked shows as Unattributed until you link it. Team leads correct the rest when they review the week.
See What makes work count as effort.
People and teams
Why is someone listed twice?
Usually an old email address created a second record. If one record was added by mistake, delete it. If both have history, don't delete either: contact Flowstate to merge them.
See Employees.
Why is someone under No team?
They logged work but aren't on a team, so their effort and cost don't count towards any team, including CapEx and R&D figures. In effort reporting, open No team and choose Assign to team….
Why is someone who moved from contractor to employee costed twice?
Their contractor and employee records cover the same dates. Open Linked record on their side panel and select End contractor on. Next time, use Convert to employee, which ends the contract the day before the employee starts.
See Convert a contractor to an employee.
What's the difference between Committed, Filled and Cancelled vacancies?
Open and Committed vacancies are in the forecast from their start date; Committed means you've committed to the hire. A Filled vacancy costs nothing, because the person who filled it is costed instead. Cancelled means you're no longer hiring: the vacancy stays in your lists for the record, but costs nothing.
See Change a vacancy's status.
Why is someone missing from next year's forecast?
They have an end date. Only set end dates for known leavers and fixed-term contracts.
See Employees.
Effort reporting
Is effort reporting a timesheet?
No. Nobody fills in a timesheet: Flowstate estimates each person's week from ticket activity in your project tool, and from GitHub if it's connected. The team lead checks the week, fixes anything wrong and submits it. Effort is always a share of each day, never hours.
See How your team's effort is estimated.
A ticket sat in progress for weeks. Does all that time count?
Not necessarily. A ticket stops counting once nothing has happened on it for a while, and no ticket keeps counting indefinitely. Each day is shared across the work the person had in progress, and on days with commits, GitHub activity shapes the split. If the split is still wrong, change the percentage before you submit.
See Ticket activity.
Most of my week is meetings, not tickets. What do I do?
Flowstate can only see work in your tools, so it can't fill in meetings. When you review the week, put time that belongs to a project on that project's row, using Add project if it isn't there. Put time that belongs to no project in Non-project work.
See Fix what's wrong.
Do I have to put people on projects before effort reporting works?
No. Effort comes from the tickets people work on, not from allocations, which are for planning and the forecast. People do need to be on a team, because that decides whose week each team manager reviews.
See How allocations affect cost.
Why can't I submit my team's week?
Usually someone still has effort in Unattributed: work Flowstate saw but couldn't tie to a project. Move each ticket onto the right project, or link its project, then submit. You also need to be the team's manager, or an approver in its review workflow.
How do I fix a week I've already submitted?
Select Withdraw Submission within 24 hours of submitting, unless your admin has changed that window. The week goes back to draft. After that, if your organisation has approval stages, an approver can send it back with Request Changes. Weeks older than your lock period, 1 month unless your admin has changed it, can't be submitted or edited.
See Undo a submission or an approval.
Should leave go against the project someone was working on?
Record it as leave. By default, leave stays out of project cost and isn't CapEx or OpEx. Your admin can turn on Carry leave forward to the last project worked on, which reports leave against the projects the person worked on just before. That raises your CapEx and R&D figures, so agree it with your Finance lead first.
See Carry leave forward.
Why is someone's day empty?
None of their tickets was in progress that day, or their account in your project tool isn't matched to them. Work by someone who isn't matched doesn't count at all. Check Settings → Integrations → User attribution.
See If your numbers look wrong.
Budgets and the forecast
How do I lock the budget so the forecast can move on without it?
Accept the budget run, or take a snapshot of the forecast. Either way, Flowstate saves a budget version for the fiscal year that stays as it was, while the forecast keeps following your live records. Every change since then shows on the budget version's Drift tab, and on the forecast when you compare it with the budget.
See Accept the budget, Snapshot the forecast as a budget and Track the forecast against your budget.
Should we start a budget run or take a snapshot?
Start a budget run when you want each team manager to propose their own team's budget. Only a run gives each team its own budget, which shows on the Teams list and can be changed mid-year. Take a snapshot when the plan in Flowstate is already agreed and you just want something to track against.
Does accepting a budget hire people or change salaries?
No. Accepting a budget never changes your live records. Add the agreed hires, moves and pay rises in live data, or build them in a scenario and merge it.
See What accepting does and doesn't do.
Why doesn't the forecast match the budget any more?
That's expected. The budget stays as it was when it was set, while the forecast follows every pay change, hire and leaver since. Open the budget version's Drift tab to see each change.
See See what's changed.
Can I change a budget after it's been accepted?
An accepted budget can't be reopened. To change one team's budget, propose a mid-year adjustment for finance to approve. To replace the whole budget, start a new budget run or take a new snapshot.
See Change a team's budget mid-year.
I manage more than one team. Which budget am I changing?
The team chosen under Team at the top of My budget. Check it before you select Edit my budget. If you changed the wrong team, undo it with Revert change.
See Fill in your team's budget.
Is FTE in My budget an average or a year-end figure?
FTE is the average across the fiscal year, because that's the capacity that drives cost. Employees and Contractors are the people on the books at year-end, and Vacancies are the roles still open at year-end.
See Find your way around My budget.
Capitalisation and R&D
Why isn't this project being capitalised?
A project's cost is only capitalised when its cost centre is in the CapEx category. A project with no cost centre shows as Uncategorised. Check the project's cost centre on Finance → Capitalisation → Projects, and the cost centre's category under Settings → Finance → Cost Centres.
See The cost centre decides the category.
When does a project stop being capitalised?
From the day after its end date. After that, the project's effort goes to its Post-completion CC, which is usually OpEx. If the work is still going on, move the project's end date.
See After a project ends.
Will Flowstate change cost centres we've already set?
Not unless you let it. The cost-centre scan's policy is Suggest unless you change it, so every recommendation waits for someone to accept or reject it. On Auto-apply, Flowstate only fills in a missing cost centre by itself, and only when it's confident. Anything else, such as moving a project off a CapEx cost centre, stays a suggestion.
See Review cost-centre recommendations.
Who writes a project's CapEx justification?
Flowstate drafts it from the project's tickets, code, effort and cost. The project owner reviews and submits it. If the owner doesn't have a Flowstate account, their manager or team lead is asked instead. Once someone has typed in a section, Flowstate never rewrites it.
See When the project owner is asked.
Does Flowstate replace our R&D tax adviser?
No. Flowstate suggests projects that look eligible, costs each claim from the effort spent on the project, drafts the narrative and exports a claim pack for your adviser to review. The expected return is shown as a range, and isn't tax advice.
See How R&D claims work and Export an R&D claim pack.
What happens to a project's cost centre when we accept an R&D claim?
The project moves onto your R&D cost centre, so its cost shows as R&D rather than CapEx or OpEx. Flowstate remembers the previous cost centre, and moves the project back if the claim is rejected.
AI
Why does Agent insights show no AI spend?
No AI provider is connected yet. Once one is, Flowstate brings in its past spend straight away, then syncs every hour. Ask your Flowstate admin to connect every provider you pay for.
See Connect your AI providers.
Why isn't AI spend shown against people?
Flowstate matches each provider's users to your employees and contractors by email address, so add the person, or correct their email, in Flowstate. Some providers only report a total, so there's nobody to match.
See Check spend is matched to people.
Why is AI spend by project locked?
A provider's bill says how much you spent, not what it was for. Spend by project and initiative, and the Agent sessions tab, need AI spend attribution. Select Upgrade to attribute spend, or ask your Flowstate contact.
See What needs AI spend attribution.
Access and permissions
Why can a manager see other teams' salaries?
Anyone asked to approve a team's budget can see the pay in that budget. That includes the manager of the team above and anyone named as a budget approver. Outside budgets, only roles with View Detailed Financials see individual pay, and without Organization-wide Teams Plan Visibility that's limited to the teams someone manages and the teams beneath them.
See Choose who approves budgets and How roles work.
Why does Approve on a team budget say "Forbidden"?
The person's role doesn't have the Approve Budget Proposals permission. Add it to their role under Settings → Users & Access → Roles, or ask another approver. If there's no Approve button at all, they aren't that team's approver.
See Review, approve or send back a team budget.
Someone has lost their phone and can't sign in. What now?
A Flowstate admin selects Reset MFA on the person's row under Settings → Users & Access → Users. Next time the person signs in, Flowstate emails them a link and asks them to set up a second factor again.