Tracking and Billing Hourly Rates as People or Roles Using Online Time Tracking Software

John Reeve | January 28th, 2013 | , , , ,

Tracking and Billing Hourly Rates as People or Roles Using Online Time Tracking SoftwareWhen using an online time and billing tool, it is important that it track your creative agency’s time in a way that aligns with your current workflow. In my experience consulting and conversing with hundreds of creative agencies, I’ve concluded that agencies will typically track and bill time using one of two methods.

Web design and development agencies, offering more digitally oriented creative services, often track time according to the type of work being performed. For example, billable time will be tracked by work types such as development/engineering, design, HTML/CSS, client-side scripting, server-side scripting, etc.

Traditional print and graphic design agencies, offering creative services more in the analog realm, will sometimes track time associated with the person doing the billable work. In this example, billable hours are tracked against people’s names or job titles. For example, senior designer, junior designer, copywriter, etc.

Setting up People / Roles as Work Types

Billable hourly rates set up as type of work.

Billable hourly rates set up as type of work.

We designed and developed our online time tracking software, Intervals, to dovetail with creative agencies tracking their time as the type of work being performed, such as programming, marketing, or design hours. This is why people are presented with the option to select any type of work when adding their time using Intervals.

However, Intervals will just as easily track billable hours according to the person doing the work, or their role. To do this, simply name the work types after each person or role. The example below shows a work type set up for each person at a creative agency.

Billable hourly rates set up as person or role.

Billable hourly rates set up as person or role.

When a member of the creative team goes online to track their time, they will select their own name from the list of work types. Now you have all the data you need to generate granular reports and invoices for your clients, with details showing the billable rate each person was billed out at.

Using Reports to Calculate Billable Time Per Person / Role

Pie chart showing online time tracking data billed by personal hourly rates.

Pie chart showing online time tracking data billed by personal hourly rates.

Tracking your agency’s billable rates as people or roles is easy when using flexible online time tracking software. To see if  Intervals might be a good fit for your task and time tracking needs, sign up for a free 30 day trial.

Photo credit: Victor1558

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John Reeve
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John Reeve

John is a co-founder, web designer and developer at Pelago. His blog posts are inspired by everyday encounters with designers, developers, creatives and small businesses in general. John is an avid reader and road cyclist.
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Jennifer Payne
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Jennifer Payne

Jennifer is the Director of Quality and Efficiency at Pelago. Her blog posts are based largely on her experience working with teams to improve harmony and productivity. Jennifer is a cat person.
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Michael Payne
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Michael Payne

Michael is a co-founder and product architect at Pelago. His contributions stem from experiences managing the development process behind web sites and web-based applications such as Intervals. Michael drives a 1990 Volkswagen Carat with a rebuilt 2.4 liter engine from GoWesty.
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