19 Sep Tracking Time for Billable Projects: Make Sure You’re Getting Paid.
Posted at 16:43h
in Companies
Time Tracking can be a pain. But it’s also essential to ensure that your billable hours are correct and you’re getting paid for your time. When it comes to billable projects, there are many people involved in a project who will have different tasks within the same project. That’s why it’s essential to track what time is going towards which task so that you know how much each task should take and if they are taking too much time or not enough time on a particular job. It will save you from overcharging because of wrong time tracking later on down the road when you do accounting at the end of each month, quarter, or year. Try these tips for tracking time for Billable Projects:
Create a separate project for each billable project.
When working on a billable project, make sure to create a project for each billable project. It will not only help you stay organized, but it will allow you to keep track of which people are working on what project. It will come in handy when it’s time to create your timesheets for the week. If you’re still using Microsoft Excel, you can create a template for your timesheets that you can change for each project. Having a separate project for each billable project will help you stay organized and ensure accurate time tracking for each project.
Time tracking should be at the same level as tasks.
As you track time for each task, ensure the time is tracked at the same level as the task itself. For example, if a job is to create a new website, you want to track the time at the task level, not the project level. It means that you want to track the amount of time each person spends on each sub-task that goes into creating the website. For example, you want to follow how much time each person spends creating a sales page, creating a marketing page, creating the home page, creating a contact page, creating a footer, etc. By tracking the time at the task level, you can determine how much time each sub-task takes and how much each task takes on average.
Assign one person to track time for each task.
For each task, assign one person to track the time for that task. It’s essential to have one person track time for each job to make sure all time is being tracked. If many people are following time for the same task, the times will not be consistent from person to person. It will cause inaccurate time tracking, causing you to either overcharge or undercharge for the time spent on a project. also in addition to having one person track time for each task, try to choose someone good with numbers. Having the person doing the work track time can be difficult because they are busy doing the job instead of keeping track of their time.
Don’t forget to leave room for human error.
While you want to be as accurate as possible with your time tracking, don’t forget that humans make mistakes. There is always a chance that someone will make a mistake when tracking time, so make sure you leave room for errors when it comes to time tracking. For example, let’s say you have an employee tracking time for creating a website. The employee may add 15 minutes to the total time when they only spent 10 minutes on the task. If you don’t leave room for human error, you may end up undercharging for the time spent on the project.
Tracking time is more than paying yourself.
When tracking time, it’s not only important to pay yourself for the hours you worked, but you also want to make sure you are paying your employees for the time they spent on a project. By tracking time, you will know what the average time is for each task. This will help you determine what an employee’s fair wages are for each task. For example, if the average time for creating a website is 8 hours, you know that an employee should make $100 per hour for that task.
Track which day you worked on what task.
Along with tracking the time spent on each task, you also want to track which day you worked on each job. It will allow you to sum up the total time spent on each task by day at the end of each week or month. By tracking which day you worked on which job, you can keep track of how many billable hours you’re working. Remember, if you’re a one-person shop, you only want to perform a certain amount of billable hours each week. If you work too many billable hours, you will get burnt out, and your quality of work will suffer.
Sum up your total hours at the end of each week or month.
At the end of each week or month, sum up the total hours spent on each task. It will help you determine if the amount of hours spent on each job aligns with what you expected. If the total hours spent on a mission is less than you expected, you may want to consider hiring more help on that task. If a job has taken more hours than you expected, you have a couple of options. You can either hire more services on that task, have the employee doing the job spend less time on that task, or have them spend more time on that task.
Best Time Tracking App for IT Billable Projects.
There are many different time-tracking apps out there for you to choose from. The more popular ones include Clockit, Harvest, and Time Doctor. When selecting a time tracking app, make sure it’s something you and your employees will want to use. Some apps are better than others, but if no one is using the app, it doesn’t matter how good the app is.
Conclusion
There are many benefits to tracking time for billable projects. Time tracking will help you stay organized and know how much time each task takes and how much time each employee spends on each job. Creating a separate project for each billable project is essential so you can keep track of which people are working on what project. Time tracking should be done at the same level as tasks to determine how much time each sub-task takes and how much each task takes. Also, make sure you leave room for human error. Tracking time is more than paying yourself. It also helps you determine what an employee’s fair wages are for each task. , these tips for time tracking for billable projects help you ensure you’re getting paid for your time.
