Tracking billable hours with complete accuracy is a key accounting practice that is essential to your firm’s financial success. When time spent on client tasks isn’t reported as billable – even if it’s just a few minutes here and there – it can add up quickly and leave you wondering why your revenue is falling short of expectations.
While it may seem as simple as recording time stamps, time-tracking errors remain common, especially in small firms. Whether it’s forgetting to log minutes or inconsistently tracking work across different platforms, these mistakes can have a major financial impact. This article points to common challenges that stand in the way of billing accuracy and specific steps you can take to improve the integrity of your billable data.
Challenges of Tracking Billable Hours in Accounting Firms
The accuracy of your billable hours starts with the employees who are tracking them. Employees may struggle to do this correctly due to factors like:
- Frequent context switching: Employees may be switching back and forth between billable and non-billable tasks so frequently that they aren’t sure how to label their time or find it too tedious to track.
- Lack of technical knowledge: If you use digital timesheets, the employee may feel they didn’t receive adequate training or that they don’t know how to use the system, which can lead to avoidance or errors.
- Filling out timesheets in hindsight: Some employees prefer to enter their hours at the end of their day instead of throughout the day, which means they’re relying on their memory to discern how many minutes they spent on everything they did that day. This is unlikely to be 100% correct.
- Lack of down time: Your employees may feel so busy with client work that they simply don’t have time to track their hours.
How to Maximize Your Firm’s Time Tracking with Workforce Management Tools
Even if you think you’ve got time tracking figured out, are you using it in a way that can maximize your firm’s billable hours?
Using technology in the form of workforce management software is a great way to ensure you’re not leaving money on the table. Here are a few ways you can increase the accuracy of your billing with the help of digital tools.
Enhance Productivity with Time-Tracking Tools
Use digital timesheets to track billable and non-billable hours in real time. When you do this using workforce management software, it also opens doors to a whole other set of features that can change the way you allocate resources, make staffing decisions, and forecast your profitability. These features include:
- Viewing real-time employee availability and workloads
- Avoiding legal trouble by tailoring each employee’s timesheet to their time zone and applicable laws and regulations
- Enhancing your accounts receivable turnover ratio
- Receiving tailored business intelligence
Plus, timesheets can be connected with billing and invoicing features to generate a pre-bill of billable tasks for your review. Simply make any necessary adjustments before submitting them for payment.
Cut Down on Admin Work with Automation
Reducing admin work with automation enables employees to spend more time on billable tasks, leading to increased revenue opportunities. With workforce automation software, you can automate tasks like project management, payroll processing, time tracking, business data collection, and more to turn projects around faster and with greater accuracy.
This may include staying on top of client deadlines with automated alerts, instantly generating reports that give you insights into your business, and enforcing compliance with automated reminders for employees to take their required meal breaks.
Build Client Trust with Detailed Timekeeping
Transparency is important for maintaining client relationships. Clients want to know how their money is being spent so they can ensure the cost is worth the outcome. With the help of workforce management software, you can easily generate a detailed record of the billable tasks that were completed during a specific time period. This eliminates questions, prevents disputes, and creates complete visibility.
Track and Maximize Billable Hours with coAmplifi
Don’t just track your billable hours – maximize them. Implementing the right tools can lead to improved employee productivity, the elimination of time-consuming manual tasks, and opportunities for additional revenue.
Designed with accounting firms in mind, coAmplifi can do all of this and more – all in one platform. Schedule your demo now!
