Time Tracking Has Gone Mainstream

If you’re in the consulting business, time tracking, billing, invoicing and dealing with credit and collections are big issues. In order to survive in today’s ultra-competitive business environment, consultants can no longer track their time on Post-it notes, notepads or crumpled napkins. And companies can no longer afford messy time tracking mistakes if they expect to survive in the marketplace. In order to enjoy a better overall financial position, and sleep better knowing they have greater financial control over their businesses, consultancies have gone high tech with their time tracking by utilizing state- of-the-art, web-based time tracking software combined with handheld devices.

With Time Tracking Software—Time Is Always On Your Side

During a typical workday, consultants must juggle meetings, deadlines, phone calls, e-mail, travel, field work, questions from colleagues and clients and many unforeseen interruptions; all this has lead consultancies to rely upon the time tracking wave of the future. Today, instead of keeping track of their billable hours with the chaos of Excel spreadsheets or slips of paper, consultants monitor their time on web-based timesheets or wireless handheld devices in a shared time tracking repository (an electronic database). These modern systems, combined with robust time tracking software, allow company executives and consultants to:

• Ensure time is being logged to the right projects.
• Manage their own weekly time sheet, thus allowing consultants to focus on getting the job done.
• Make certain employees are doing their jobs and completing projects.
• Make sure all billable work time is being tracked accurately.
• Line up future jobs and resources.
• Oversee multiple projects at any given time.
• Run detailed reports for clients: An audited trail lets clients see exactly how many hours were spent on each project, who the consultant was, what they did and when they did it. Detailed reports also help companies manage instances when clients contest invoices.
• Manage resources and consultants.
• And most importantly, not lose track of the company’s bottom line!

When time isn’t recorded properly, billable time is inevitably lost. A phone-call here, an e-mail there, it doesn’t seem like much, but over the course of a month, it all adds up.

“In the consulting business, there is no longer room for lost time…that’s why more and more service-orientated businesses rely on sophisticated time-tracking software,” says Ray White, President of Scoutwest Inc., a leading project management solutions company.

How to Get Time On Your Side

Good time-tracking software usually pays for itself in about a month. Standard Time Timesheet Software, for example, precisely tracks the time spent on multiple projects, lets executives bill clients and accurately manage time, resources and employees. The fact that Standard Time Tracking Software is easy to learn makes such technology even more scalable as a consultancy’s business solution. These latest time tracking systems can be run on a browser, Windows, or PDA phones, and include reporting and billing features that can ensure your company remains profitable and competitive.