Where Did All the Money Go?

Hundreds of service-orientated companies, such as law firms, tech companies, architects and accountants, are losing money every day. So, where is all of their hard-earned money disappearing to?

The expression “time is money” has been reiterated countless times over the years, but for companies who use billable time as the foundation of all client invoices, time is money—literally. If companies are not tracking every billable hour, they are, in effect, financially bleeding themselves to death.

Top 3 Reasons Service-Oriented Businesses Lose Money

Many companies are simply not …

1.) Accounting for ALL of their work time
2.) Holding their staff accountable
3.) Justifying their work/billable time to clients

An Untracked Hour Here or There, What’s the Big Deal?

The real issue here is the company’s bottom line. Since time does equal money in the world of service providers, untracked hours can add up to thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Consider this example…

A graphic design firm is hired by a start-up company to design their website. The project takes three months to complete at a billable rate of $120 an hour. The graphic designer assigned to the project isn’t that conscientious about tracking his time. Because of this, he forgets to track a total of 35 hours over a three-month time span. The end result is that the graphic design company loses $4,100 dollars in revenue—and that loss is attributed to just one employee and one project. Just imagine if time spent was also inaccurately recorded by other members of the project team, such as the copywriter, the html coder, and the engineer.

Service-oriented businesses want to get as much money as they can for their work. But believe it or not, many of these companies are not making time-tracking their top priority—and are, consequently, paying a premium.

Holding Your Staff Accountable

Most managers do not have the luxury of knowing what their employees are doing every hour on the hour, and because of that, they could be losing substantial revenue. Holding employees accountable for their work time adds up to the equivalent of thousands of dollars worth of time that they should be billing to their clients. When employees know their work time is being tracked, they are much more likely to meet and exceed their job requirements. In addition, tracking the amount of time an employee spends with a client or on a project, allows the manager to ensure that their billable rates are appropriate in the current marketplace.

Making the Invisible Visible

Let’s face it, in business, numbers rule. More than ever, businesses are being forced to present hard data on how their efforts/services are increasing their client’s bottom line. In today’s climate of lean profits and leaner budgets, a focus on justifying one’s work can mean the difference between a highly-valued partnership and one on the brink of disintegrating. Want proof? IDC research group recently surveyed senior marketing executives in IT companies to determine their priorities. Measuring and justifying their efforts toward tangible results were at the top of their lists.

Avoid Losing Money

Good time-tracking software ultimately pays for itself. For example, Standard Time Timesheet Software allows you to precisely track the time spent on various projects, bill your clients and accurately manage your time, resources and employees more efficiently. Plus, Standard Time Tracking Software is easy to learn and use, can be run on windows, and includes reporting and billing features.

Interested in learning more about how Standard Time Timesheet Software can help your bottom line? Click Here to contact a sales agent. Or feel free to give us a call at: 719-488-8697.