In today’s tough economic times, it is important to ensure you are paying close attention to project time management in your business. When business is down, little things matter and can be the difference between profit and loss. Having a process that your team follows is important. The good news is that with a little focus and time, you can create a process for your project time management to get the most out of your projects.

The first step in creating a process around project time management begins with capturing time. You will need to decide how to record time, how often timesheets are submitted, what increments to record in, whether there is a minimum number of hours required per day, what to write in comments sections, etc. Much of this is determined by the arrangements you have with your clients around billing, as you want to make sure you capture time at the detail the client needs. One item I recommend with regard to capturing time is to require a minimum of 8 hours be recorded per day on the timesheet. This means that if the employee has non-billable time, they need to record this. I find this not only helps you understand how the employee spends their time, it is also much easier to review and spot discrepancies.

After you have determined how your employees’ will record their time, the next step in the project time management process is to determine if you will have someone review the timesheets prior to the time being approved. Whether you have a review or not is typically determined by the size of the team, the complexities of the work, and the value you will get from reviewing the timesheets. One plus of not having a review is that the process can be quicker. Additionally, if employees only work on one project at a time and time is not recorded at a task level, there may be little value to reviewing. While a review may slow the process down a bit, it can catch errors in recording time, which will save time later in the billing process. It can also be a good way for a project manager to stay on top of a project and understand what the team is working on.

The final step in the project time management process is measures and reporting. We’ll start with measures. A key component of getting where you want to go is knowing where you want to go. The measures help define your destination. When creating measures, companies typically look at things like profitability of projects, utilization of employees, and realization of projects. These are all measures that tell you if you are getting the most out of your business. After you decide on the measures to use, you will need to set a target. These can be set based on many things, including previous performance, competitive information, and industry standards. Once the measures are set, you will want to report on the measures in some defined timeframe. The timeframe will depend on the measure as well as the availability of the information. When reviewing results, focusing on the measures you are missing is a quick way to identify areas for improvement. You can then focus on what needs to be done to correct the deficiencies.

Connected to the project time management process is the billing process. After time is approved, it needs to be invoiced. Time can be manually entered into the billing system. Alternatively, there are systems available at a reasonable price, where the time will automatically flow from the timesheet to the billing system. This integration saves time as well as eliminates data entry errors. Both are important in running an efficient and profitable project business.

Setting up a process for project time management can take some time, however, once it is set up and followed, the dividends can be big. In today’s business climate, businesses need to make sure they are being efficient as possible. Creating and following a process for project time management can make the difference for your company.

Author Bio: Joe Young is President of Beyond Software, publisher of project time management and accounting software for small firms. Beyond Software brings project functionality, such as employee time tracking and billing, to lawyers in an easy-to-use way that allows you to run your business more efficiently. For more information go to beyondsoftware.com.

Category: Business Management
Keywords: project time management