It’s not a case of saying “7 hours worked on Monday.” You need to assign your hours to a particular purpose within a client project.įor example, you could break your Monday down into the following: As a consultant, you need to be transparent about the effort spent on specific tasks. Here are a few simple steps to get you started: Step oneįirst, you need to clarify what tasks you’re actually tracking hours for. How do you do it? Is it as simple as pressing start on a stopwatch? Not exactly.
So, let’s say you’re new to the world of time tracking.
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Professional services firms might choose to invest in time and billing software for consultants to simplify the time tracking process and reap all the potential benefits it has to offer. Ultimately, when consultants track time, they save time. Rather than scrambling to retrieve new data to present on a weekly basis, they can automate these insights and share them instantly with clients or senior supervisors. Similarly, project managers won’t have to write up weekly or monthly reports as they will be automatically delivered to their inbox.Īutomated time reports are also highly useful for consultants who want to deliver regular updates to project stakeholders. With automatic time trackers, employees won’t have to waste time manually logging hours or filling in weekly timesheets.
EfficiencyĪutomating the time tracking process is an easy way for professional services firms to instantly boost efficiency. All these hours are billable and should be included on a client invoice to maximize profitability in a professional services company.
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If consultants fail to record billable activities, they essentially end up working for free and their organization will lose out.įor example, Alex might only log the hours they spent designing a client presentation and not the hours spent on research before actually writing the presentation text. As consultancy firms usually charge an hourly rate for their services, it’s vital that every hour is accounted for. ProfitabilityĬonsultant hours tracking is also important for profitability.
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Is Sarah rushing through tasks or is David taking too long to complete them? Maybe David doesn’t have access to a tool that Sarah uses to cut down on manual administrative work? This shows how a simple time record can enhance visibility in a professional services company, helping project managers to spot potential roadblocks early and address them before they escalate. Let’s look at an example: David logs 14 hours for a task that took Sarah two hours. This will naturally vary from person to person but if there is a massive discrepancy between two individuals, it may require further investigation. By tracking the working hours of each consultant using individual timesheets, managers will be able to see how long each person spends on specific tasks. If you’re a project manager overseeing a team of consultants, you need to know how each member is performing. There is more transparency between the two parties, which leads to a greater sense of trust. Timelogs and other time-related records are extremely useful for this purpose.īy showing clients a detailed breakdown of how much time is spent on each task, they can clearly see where their money is going. Sometimes, a client may have an issue with a consultant’s fee and may require more detailed information on why a service costs a certain amount. For example, if previous data shows that an initial research task for a new business usually takes five days, consultants can factor that in when creating a task list for a newly signed client. By tracking time automatically, consultants can also eliminate the possibility of forgetting to start a timelog when they begin work on a task.Īccurate time records provide real insights into consultancy activities and are a key tool for future resource planning. This data is more reliable than human memory, as people may forget how long a previous task took. When consultants track time, they get an accurate record of how much effort is being spent on a particular project or client. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of time tracking for consultants. That way, you can decide on an appropriate price for your services. Without a standard weekly timesheet, it’s vital that these employees have some way of recording their professional efforts. Time tracking for consultants is particularly important - rather than clocking in for a 9 to 5, a consultant will likely charge by the hour. Why is time tracking for consultants important?
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