Q&A with Robin O’Sullivan, Group Product Manager at Teamwork.com, on the benefits of having native time-tracking within your project management system.
Time is the glue that binds the dynamic world of client service organizations together. If you don’t track it accurately, you won’t know if your projects are profitable, or if your staff are working to the best of their abilities.
But for an industry so dependent on good time management for success, why are so many client service organizations struggling to do it effectively? Is it down to bad tools, poor processes, or something else entirely?
According to Robin, there are some important steps you can take to make time tracking a slick (and meaningful) operation – and it starts with implementing a native time-tracking tool.
What is the most important step organizations can take to improve time management?
For me, it starts with having the right tool. But with so many options available to you, it can be difficult to know which direction to go! Some tools only offer basic time tracking functionality, while others provide a more complex solution, offering things like reporting and analytics to give you a better picture of how you are spending your time.
At a basic level, time tracking tools allow team members to start and stop a timer, and log their time against specific projects and tasks. They can also generate reports that show how much time was spent on each project, and by whom. But time tracking tools often come with additional licensing costs, training overheads, setting up integrations, and more. It can be yet another system to learn, to log in and out of, and maintain.
With this in mind, I’m a big advocate for implementing project management software that includes native time-tracking. With a tool like Teamwork.com, your teams will be able to track and evaluate their time alongside their daily workflows – making time management simple, flexible and intuitive.
So you’ve got the right tools, but what about processes?
I can’t emphasize this enough: establishing clear policies and guidelines is vital for success. If your employees aren’t all on the same page when it comes to logging their time, you’ll end up with patchy and inaccurate data that won’t be of much use to anyone.
Time tracking comes in many shapes and sizes. Some organizations like to log time down to the minute, while others log in five or 15 minute increments. Some only focus on logging billable hours, while others take account of both billable and non-billables.
Regardless of which flavor of time tracking ice cream you have in your cone, everyone needs to be aware of and follow the same policy. This should include things like:
- What activities should be tracked (client vs. internal work)
- How often time should be logged (hourly, daily, or weekly)
- What level of detail is required (task-level or project-level)
- What metadata needs to be captured (tags, description etc.)
If everyone tracks their time in the correct manner, it will save your business a ton of hassle, lower the blood pressure of your project managers, and ensure you are consistent in your billing and collecting of revenue.
Should organizations be tracking all of their time, or just billable hours?
A personal bugbear of mine is when businesses focus solely on billable time. In my opinion, understanding the incidence, frequency, and reasoning behind non-billable time is
just as important. Afterall, how can you optimize your operations without knowing the full picture?
Tracking non-billable time (such as internal meetings, training, and administrative tasks) provides a more accurate picture of how much time is being spent on each project, and also flags areas where processes can be streamlined.
Furthermore, identifying the billable / non-billable ratio of time spent across individuals, teams, and projects, provides stakeholders with rich data that directly supports key revenue and time goals.
And with the Teamwork.com Time Report, you can track the ratio automatically. This makes it easier to monitor ratio performance, quickly identify areas of the business where the ratio isn’t being met, and take corrective action before it’s too late.
Pro tip? Set a cross-company ratio of 70:30 or 60:40 for billable to non billable time. Employes will use and chase this ratio, leading to more focus, and ultimately, more time being spent on revenue generating activities.
How often should teams be reviewing time tracking data?
To ensure everything is on target, you need to be reviewing time tracking data as regularly as possible. This can include reviewing the Time Report to identify areas where the ratio isn’t being met, where too much time is being spent on non-revenue generating activities, and analyzing data to identify trends and patterns.
Regularly reviewing how time is being spent will ensure your business is operating efficiently and profitably. Teamwork.com’s Time Report and Company Timesheet provide those time insights out-of-the-box, and help you understand where you are generating the most revenue, where you are spending too much time on non-billable activities, and where any missed time logs need to be filled in for the week. We also have automated time reminders so you can keep on top of employees who aren’t logging their time according to your procedures.
These insights allow you to adjust your approach in real time, and maximize revenue generation across your organization. It also ensures your data is more accurate and complete.
You’ve touched on Teamwork.com. Can you expand on what makes it the best solution for client service teams?
I know this will sound biased, but I truly believe Teamwork.com is the best all-in-one platform for client work – and time tracking is at the heart of what makes it so valuable.
The reasoning is simple: time tracking with Teamwork.com offers the power of time-adjacent solutions like budgeting, retainers, profitability, capacity planning, and forecasting. These are all things you won’t get with a generic time tracking tool.
Additionally, by assigning estimated time to tasks and then logging the actual time, it’s easier for you to get better at estimating work, and generating revenue in the future – helping your teams become more organized, efficient, profitable, and happy!
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