time tracking Archives - Number Nerd Bookkeeping Solutions

Top 5 Questions Time Tracking will Answer

Here are some ways time tracking can help you make decisions to get your company back in the black:

How much time are your salaried employees working? Without a time-tracking system in place, you ‘can’t properly analyze if your employees are working well beyond the expected 40 hour work week or how they are spending their time. Time tracking might reveal that it is time to hire another full or part-time employee to alleviate the load. It can also help predict how many more projects your team can handle before needing to expand.

What are your true project costs? It’s so easy to underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete a task. By tracking time per project, your team can compare a job’s projected or estimated costs to their actual costs. Without time tracking, companies will continually underbid work without even knowing!

Is it time to increase your retainer rates? By tracking time by each client, you can compare your resource investment into each account. If you are doing retainer work, you can identify if the number of transactions each month has increased and when it is time to raise the retainer rate!

Is it time to expand your team? When you analyze how much time each person spends on various tasks, you might be surprised! Could you increase your billable time if you outsourced your marketing or to hired an assistant? How many more projects can your team handle before working at max capacity?

Can your team handle additional work? By providing more accurate estimates, you can closer predict your team’s ability to take on new work. Make more accurate delivery date predictions when you can visualize everything on the schedule.

Which time tracking apps do I recommend?

ClockShark and Harvest are my two go-to apps for time tracking. If you use QBO and are in the construction industry, I recommend Clockshark; if you need to manage several projects and retainers, I recommend Harvest.

ClockShark is a simple time tracking app designed for the service-based industry. Users can easily switch projects while in the field. I love how ClockShark uses GPS location to let you schedule people based on their GPS location. There are a ton of other great features, too! For example, users can manually take a break or choose to have their breaks automatically scheduled for them.

Harvest is another great time tracking application and is designed for managing projects, expenses, retainers, invoices, and more! I love how Harvest integrates with so many different applications, including QuickBooks, to generate custom reports. Read more about Harvest in my recent Harvest review article.

When it comes to tracking time, Harvest and Clock Shark are my go-to apps for automating timesheets. I typically recommend Harvest to clients that need to manage several projects and retainers; I recommend Clock Shark to my clients within the construction industry or general small businesses.

This week, we’ll take a deep-dive into Harvest.

To start, what is Harvest?

Harvest is time tracking software designed for tracking both billable and non-billable time, expenses, projects, and invoices.

When do I recommend Harvest?

I recommend Harvest to clients that need to:

Track retainers
Track an unlimited amount of projects
Provide estimates
Integrate with other software systems that they are using
Save time and money through the automation and integrations

What are the main features in Harvest?

- Time Tracking. Track time spent and by task. You can really see where you are spending time.
- Estimates. You can create and send estimates to clients.
- Retainer Management. Your team can track their time against multiple retainers. Your clients can login to their portal and see how much time is left on their retainers.
- Expenses. You can track expenses on the project and client level.
- All-in-One Invoice Management. Harvest is an all-in-one billing and invoicing program! You can create Invoices for your billable time or setup recurring invoices for clients. The system also allows you to collect payment and send preset or scheduled payment reminders. All Harvest invoices and payments automatically sync with QuickBooks Online and Xero.
- Integrations. Harvest connects with over 70 other popular tools. The accounting and project management software integrations save me the most time but Harvest also connects with CRMs, customer tracking systems, proposal tools, and other apps my clients use every day.
- Automation. Harvest takes what used to be a very manual process and completely automates it. Between time reporting, cost analysis, reporting, invoicing, and seamless integration with other projects, the automation saves time and provides useful stats that can shape future business decisions.

Why I love Harvest:

Where do I start? Harvest is one of my favorite apps for several reasons:

1. Simple, Easy Setup. Setting up new accounts, new projects and new retainers is a very simple process. The easy-to-use interface allows you to effortlessly create and maintain accounts.
2. Comprehensive Invoice Management – You can create Invoices for your billable time directly from your Harvest timesheets. In addition, the system allows you to send Invoice payment reminders, export invoices and set up recurring invoices.
3. It Talks to QuickBooks Online (and a lot of other accounting programs). You can export your billable time or invoices into Excel or directly into QuickBooks. What a time saver! I love that Harvest recognizes the difference between billable and non-billable time and only imports what you select. The automated integration between timesheets and accounting saves a tremendous amount of time each month.
4. Custom reporting. Harvest’s report engine is very easy to use and completely customizable. You can quickly get a visual of your billable and non-billable time, identify which projects take the most time, and how much time you have spent on each retainer. You can also use the reports to answer questions like: Did I price the project correctly? Are we burning through retainer hours too quickly? How long does it usually take to complete this task?
5. Mobile app. The mobile app is so handy! You can start a timer from literally anywhere. It also allows you to snap a pic of an expense or invoice clients on the go.

Harvest has completely changed the way so many of my clients work. If you’re looking for an easier way to track your billable time or get a handle on your retainers, I’d love to show you more about this easy to use tool! Contact me with questions about time-tracking or other bookkeeping needs.

Help! I’m Not Making Money and I Don’t Know Why!