Previous Dilemma:
What are the best practices for tracking time?

We’re a busy professional services firm that needs to track billable and non-billable hours. Obviously, it’s not efficient for non-billable, salaried workers to enter data every few minutes. But it’s critical they keep accurate records of the time they work and the type of work they do. What are the best practices for tracking hours? Or should we leave employees to their own devices, even if they have to spend a lot of time recording hours?

— Department manager

Summary of Advice Received

How to Get a Handle on the Hands of Time
Time tracking tips
by Meryl K. Evans, Editor, Professional Services Journal

Employees charging by the hour often have to report two different times: one for the client and one for the company. Many of us switch between admin and core business activities multiple times throughout the day. But to stop and note the time of every switch is often more disruptive than helpful.

For those who report to multiple clients and need to track time worked on each client’s project, that’s an even bigger problem. Like time management, time tracking is one of those things where one process works great for one and lousy for another.

Readers and experts offer four options so you can determine what works best for you:

• Invest in time-tracking software.
• Create categories for tracking time.
• Track time in real-time from any device anywhere.
• Provide flexibility.

Share your experiences and tips for tracking time by joining the conversation and leaving a comment. Or ask your own question.

Invest in time-tracking software

Time-tracking software continues to advance to be more accurate and easier to use. Companies create rules, and employees adapt to those rules according to their own schedules.

For example, the company may ask staff to complete time sheets by Friday at 5 p.m. Employees can choose to record their time on an end-of-day basis with a review on Friday. Or they may do it first thing in the morning and capture the previous day’s activities. Some software incorporates time tracking and billing.

James Kelley of Kelley Consulting Company, LLC, uses an employee-developed time-tracking application for mobile devices that has a start and stop button for time, and downloads customer information and work orders. “When the job is complete, the notes and time are available to the office worker for billing,” Kelley says.

Not everyone works in a company that supplies time-tracking tools or software. This group can follow Advantage Business Concepts Owner Ellen Huxtable’s example. She relies on a spreadsheet to track billable and non-billable time. Huxtable shares her process:

1. Include column headings for the date, client, project and amount of time spent.
2. Track time in tenths of an hour (six minute increments) so the auto-sum function within Excel can easily generate totals.
3. Note non-billable time as “office” or a similar indicator in the client field.
4. Tally time spent on any specific client by sorting the spreadsheet by client name and project.
5. Catch forgotten entries at the end of each day by verifying that all entries for the day equal the hours spent.

It’s easy to keep the spreadsheet open all day and add entries whenever it’s convenient. Katalin Goencz, medical reimbursement specialist with MedBillsAssist, also uses a spreadsheet. Goencz uses column headings that include date, client name, description, time in and time out.

Some web-based applications allow employees to track their time from any computer or device. “We’ve learned that human memory is a bad resource; an online system that’s close at hand is the best solution,” says Jose Ferrer, owner of Practical Business Systems. Ferrer’s company uses an online time and billing system that tracks by project or task. Employees often keep the system open all day for easy recording whenever completing a task and moving on to another.

Create categories for tracking time

For those using applications with multiple users, Victoria Girdziunas, president of Advantura Technology Group, brings up an important point. “The chunks of billable time need to be defined or qualified, even if in the broadest sense. Each employee should not randomly define the time collected and reported. Otherwise, how do you know if what employees report is consistent?” Girdziunas says.

Companies, especially big ones, often have employees working on the same project or with the same client. If employees define their own categories, the company would have a hard time billing the client or paying from a set budget. Having company-wide defined categories ensures all the categories add up for billing and financial purposes.

Track time in real-time from any device anywhere

Like Jose Ferrer says, human memory sometimes fails us, so tracking your time in real-time helps ensure you keep accurate time-tracking records. Having instant access to a system in a variety of locations from a variety of devices simplifies tracking. Matt McInerny, CTO of Advanced Productivity Software says, “The icing on the cake is if your system has the ability to assist you in reconstructing your day by guiding and showing you a log of various interactions over a given period.”

More applications are coming out with multiple versions that employees can access from any computer and any device. So if they work from home one day, they can access the tool from their home PCs. If they’re out in the field, they can access the time-tracking app through mobile devices for easy, real-time entry.

Many time-tracking apps also come with a start and stop button. Just click start when you begin a project. Click stop when you move on to another project. Then click start again immediately.

Provide flexibility

A flexible company sets guidelines and chooses the process or application for tracking hours. Then the company lets employees figure out how to best work with the process or application.

“A system that allows for start/stop timing that will record time to a selected task during the day (with user direction) is ideal, as long as it allows for retroactive time entry and correction by the user, at least up until the end of the pay or billing period. This flexibility accommodates different personal time-keeping styles while providing a centralized tool for real-time time tracking,” says Timothy W. Cape, CTS-D, principal consultant at Technitect.

Cathy Iconis of CAPOwnerIconis Group, LLC says, “Whatever the system you use, put together a short manual of the process and your expectations to clearly communicate your needs to your employees. Then, make sure to double-check the entries.”

What time-tracking processes or applications work best for you? Facing other work challenges? Ask a question.

About the editor

Meryl K. Evans is senior editor at InternetVIZ and the content maven behind the Connected Digest, IT Solutions Journal and Professional Services Journal. Follow her on Twitter @merylkevans.