Time Tracking

What is time tracking?

Time tracking is the recording of hours worked by task, project, or client. For professional service firms, time tracking provides the foundation for billing, project costing, utilization analysis, and capacity planning. Whether billing hourly or analyzing fixed-fee profitability, knowing where time goes is essential for managing a service business effectively.

Time entry best practices

Enter time daily rather than reconstructing at the weekend. Be specific about tasks performed, not just client names. Use consistent categories across the team for meaningful aggregation. Set minimum time increments appropriate to your work type. Six-minute increments are a legal standard but may be overkill for other professional services. Balance precision against administrative burden.

Compliance and cultural considerations

Time entry completion rates reflect firm culture. If people resist tracking, examine why. Overly complex systems, unclear purpose, or no visible use of data all reduce compliance. Show staff how time data improves their work life through better project planning and fair workload distribution. Tracking for its own sake breeds resentment. Tracking that visibly improves decisions earns buy-in.