Architekwiki
  • Home
  • WIKI
  • Start Here
  • Resources
  • Other
    • Reading List
    • Ochre >
      • Ochre
      • Ochre KB
      • Ochre FAQs
      • Ochre Help
    • Details
    • The 3 Aspects
    • About
    • Subscription FAQs
    • Terms of Use
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • WIKI
  • Start Here
  • Resources
  • Other
    • Reading List
    • Ochre >
      • Ochre
      • Ochre KB
      • Ochre FAQs
      • Ochre Help
    • Details
    • The 3 Aspects
    • About
    • Subscription FAQs
    • Terms of Use
  • Subscribe

Architekwiki

A Resource For Architects
Click here to get good stuff in your inbox

Categories

All
Business Development
Business Management
Design
Detail
Miscellaneous
Project Management
Resources

Archives

January 2023
November 2022
October 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
June 2021
May 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012

Daily Time Sheets? Yep, Daily!

1/19/2015

 
Time Sheets


You have probably heard it before, and it is true. You need to fill out, and submit, time sheets daily. Why? I suspect that you know, but I'll recap for you.

The Benefits Of Daily Time Sheets
  • More income – virtually nothing falls through the cracks so you can get paid for everything you do.
  • More honest reporting – we all know that some people ‘game’ the system. When the reporting time frame is a week, two weeks, a month (horrors!), the time sheet exercise becomes more about either what should have happened or what you want ‘the boss’ to think happened. It’s a lie that hurts somebody – the client, the firm, co-workers.
  • More accurate reporting – a more realistic view of what is going on is a really good thing for everyone. You can’t fix problems that you don’t know about. Daily time sheets give you information about who’s working on what, and how much time has been spent for the results you can deliver. Knowing this, either kudos or corrective action can happen.
  • Faster invoicing – when all the data is already in, invoicing can be done in a snap. Monthly invoicing means you have some billable time that you have already paid out through payroll. Don’t wait another week or more before your client even sees the invoice, and the meter starts ticking on getting paid.

My advice: Take a businesslike approach to getting paid. I started out acting like the money was no big thing. Unsurprisingly some clients saw that as a green light to pay when it was convenient for them. When I had to skip my own paycheck, I found the motivation to get a businesslike process into place. That process got invoices out quickly, stated a due date, charged interest, and included emails from me asking for overdue payments. The key to the whole process was daily time sheets.

The How To 
When we first introduced daily time sheets, we were accustomed to twice monthly time sheets due on the 1st and the 16th. The bitching was magnificent! The problems! The extra time! The disruptions! In less than one month everyone was on board and the world didn’t end as predicted. Make the new rule clear, set an example and dun any slackers until they decide compliance is the lesser of two evils and they get with the program. Use embarrassment if needed. We sent a daily group email reminder to everyone listing who was missing time sheets.

The timekeeping methods in use by our colleagues are predominantly:
  • Network-based software
  • Electronic spreadsheets
  • Paper forms
 
Network-based software 
Those using network-based software usually report that they are using QuickBooks. Two other sizable minorities are Axium by Ajera and Vision by Deltek. ArchiOffice is a distant third minority. A surprising number of QuickBooks users volunteer that they dislike this solution for time sheets, often describing spreadsheet or paper work-arounds. See Spreadsheets and Paper below for how time-consuming those solutions are. Deltek, Ajera and ArchiOffice do have integrated time sheets, although satisfaction with those systems runs low.

By the way you can download the results from the second survey to review this yourself.

 
Electronic spreadsheets 
You can use a homemade spreadsheet for collecting time, but it takes a lot of management. The best method we found with this system is for one person to manage a time sheet folder containing each person’s time sheet, which is a separate XLS workbook. By each XLS workbook referencing a ‘summary’ workbook you can add projects just once and get all the totals added up automatically. Using one shared workbook is a mess because no one remembers to close it when they are finished updating.

Spreadsheets require lots of management by someone to keep the projects/phases/tasks up to date – and to publish new spreadsheets each pay period.

I think spreadsheet-based timesheet management can take at least an hour per month per staff member. This has a cost that is often ignored. We had an architect doing this and not doing billable work. You might be paying a bookkeeper for those hours. Or perhaps you are using a clerical staff member who could be using those hours to improve your marketing. However you keep time, it is not a free process.

 
Paper forms 
Paper time sheets have the warmth of tradition to recommend them, but they lead to two problems – inefficient time use and inaccuracy. First, although filling out the form itself is efficient, you must transcribe it in order to use the data. Once compiled, you now embark on the time-wasting chores described above for spreadsheets.

The second problem is that you don’t want to face this chore very often, so bi-monthly time sheets are the norm. My guess is that 3/4 of these time sheets are more fiction than fact – intentionally or not.

 
The Ideal 
Here is the ideal. Once or more a day, you open a program in the browser you already use. This means you can be anywhere and using your phone, tablet or computer. You click on TIME to open a list of the projects/phases/tasks you worked on recently. You enter time. DONE. A few times a week you open a new project or phase. Until your G-glasses can record all this for you as you work, this is as simple as time sheets get.

The time sheet page might look like this. Take a look at how MyCorbu  handles time sheets.


Picture


Of course, the fact that your time is stored simultaneously in your payroll record, the pending invoice for the project, and the project accounting record is a time savings of an entirely different magnitude.
Rick

Comments are closed.
    Resources

    Start Here

    YouTube Channel

    Join The Mailing List

    Terms of Use
    Your use of Architekwiki is implicit agreement with the 
    ​
    Terms of Use.
    Thank You for your donation

    x
    Get Good Stuff in Your Inbox
    Picture
    Subscribe

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    Business Development
    Business Management
    Design
    Detail
    Miscellaneous
    Project Management
    Resources

Picture

Picture
VISIT ARCHITEKWIKI'S RESOURCES
​
START HERE
ABOUT
SIGN UP
TERMS OF USE
Architekwiki | Architect's Resource | Greater Cincinnati 
© 2012-2022   Architekwiki​