Why Timesheeting is NOT Dead!

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Yes, we all hate timesheeting. But at the end of the day it’s a necessary evil. Tracking your time against your jobs is still important. Not because your clients want to know, but because you need to make sure every job is profitable.

The real reason everyone hates the dreaded time sheet so much is because it requires you to track every single thing you do. It feels like your boss is breathing down your neck. The worst part is finding out that a project took longer than it should have. And then telling your boss! Yes, time sheets can be terrible. But believe us when we say, you NEED them.

The reason for tracking time

Timesheeting enables you to see the detail in jobs and assist team members in making the agency or department more efficient.

The advertising and creative industry is built on billable hours. Which is all well and good in theory, if people actually track their hours. Which is not always the case. For instance, let’s take a look at this Hubspot case study:

A designer estimates it will take 10 hours to complete a design. Three months later, he fills out his timesheet over a period of two weeks, accounting for 11 hours of design time. He didn’t actually track his time, but he thinks it’s in that ballpark. Besides, it looks good that he spent a lot of work on the project. The team leader reviews the timesheets and compares it to the original estimate. There are two implications: 1) The project is unprofitable. 2) Future quotes for this type of design project will be set at 15 hours.

Now, if the designer had tracked his time, he would have been able to say that it actually took him 6 hours to complete the project. This knowledge would have changed the agency’s view of that project. In addition, this miscalculation causes inflated prices moving forward. It creates the misconception that anything below 15 hours could be unprofitable for the agency.

Timesheets are a necessary evil if profitability is a concern. However, to ensure timing is tracked correctly you need effective software.

Software solution: Timesheeting with Agency in a Box

Within the Agency In A Box software is a powerful timesheeting feature. Agency In A Box enables each team member to log time but more importantly, identify where delays are occurring and what efficiencies can be improved.

 


Agency In A Box is the perfect project management software for any agency or marketing department. There are no headaches, it’s simple and easy to use. But of course, that’s easy for us to say! See for yourself how it can simplify EVERYTHING. We know you’ll fall in love with it. We sure did.

To chat more about Agency In A Box call us on 1300 10 20 33 or send us an email. We’d love to hear from you!

2021-08-26T06:50:27+00:00 September 6th, 2016|Agency Software, Project Management|