Agencies typically record timesheets to measure job profitability, recoverability and employee utilisation but there is so much more value you can get.
I’m finding that the majority of smaller and newer agencies aren’t tracking time and I get it, no one likes completing timesheets, including me! The benefits far outweigh the pain of having to complete them.
The list is probably endless but here are five additional reasons for time tracking.
Employee Welfare
With many working remotely, staff can be completely out of sight. Agency leaders might be unaware of who is regularly working overtime and is generally overcapacity.
Time tracking allows this to be viewed but only if staff are encouraged to enter time over and above their minimum daily hours. Timesheet data will let us know where we might need to bring in freelancers to increase or permanent staff to increase capacity and lighten the load on overstretched staff.
Research & Development (R&D)
Many agencies are undertaking activities which qualify for R&D tax relief and often don’t realise it.
Without time tracking, there will be no data to say how much time has been spent on qualifying activities when a claim is made.
People costs attributed to the project can be estimated without time data but with more scrutiny on R&D claims lately, there is less likely to be a challenge with reliable time data.
Internal Time
It’s not just chargeable time that should be recorded for analysis but internal time too.
Important questions can be answered when we analyse internal time. Are we investing enough time in the team’s learning and development? How much time is being spent on internal meetings, can it be reduced? Should we be working on those internal projects and initiatives or should we outsource to the experts who can deliver a better outcome in less time rather than using valuable chargeable time?
New Business and Pitching
How much time should be spent on opportunities and have we spent too long attempting to win new business in the past?
Qualifying work, then setting a budget and measuring the time spent on new business will ensure we get the effort to potential reward ratio right. Your agency shouldn’t be spending too long on new business opportunities where there is a low likelihood of winning the work and we don’t know the budget or we know the value is lower than our typical fee.
Learning for the future
Timesheet data from the past can be analysed to help make decisions about pricing, project selection, and resource allocation for the future.
It can also reveal inefficiencies and identify areas which need process improvement.
Please get in touch if you need any help understanding your agency’s commercials or help implementing processes and systems to capture and analyse time data.
