Time tracking for billing – how to make the introduction to your team

Time tracking for billing is an essential tool for teams to:

• Ensure accurate billing or job costing
• improve project management,
• monitor productivity, and
• ensure they are meeting deadlines.

If you’re planning to implement time tracking within your organization, it’s important to have a plan in place to ensure that your team knows what to expect, understands the purpose, and has the information and training they need to effectively and confidently use the tool.

1. Team Introduction

The first step to introducing time tracking to your team is to explain the purpose. This provides an opportunity to address possible concerns upfront about time tracking being used to micromanage activities, identify underperformance, or monitor team members’ attention to deadlines. Instead, you’ll have the opportunity to highlight how it can benefit them individually. A few personal benefits to share with your team members with effective time tracking:

• Keeps work-life balance top of mind
• Aids with organization and prioritizing
• Helps identify distractions to minimize unnecessary multitasking
• Provides objective insights to identify opportunities for personal growth and improved efficiencies

2. Provide Training

While some team members may be able to jump right into time tracking, others may feel less confident. To help ensure time tracking is adopted universally and is as simple as possible for your entire team, you’ll want to offer training – ideally in two forms such as self-guided tutorials and one-on-one support from a team leader.

3. Encourage Communication

As with any new process, time tracking may not be embraced by all team members immediately. This makes it particularly important to encourage open communication and to identify employees who may be more resistant or struggling with the transition. It’s important to help your team by actively addressing any questions or concerns.

4. Convey Expectations

With growing functionality in time tracking tools, it’s beneficial to clearly outline expectations for your team. For example, you could request that they log their time by project or by client. Or, you may want to specify if you’d like to track all time or only billable time.

5. Stay Consistent

Consistency is crucial when adopting time tracking for your organization. You can help ensure consistency by monitoring reports to see that everyone is using the tool regularly and accurately.

Additionally, even after the initial introduction, it’s important to check in with your team periodically to see how the new process is working for them and to continue to highlight the personal improvement benefits.

You can only manage what you can measure. Measuring time effectively not only improves operational efficiencies, but it allows your team members to demonstrate their value and to be rewarded personally for the benefits they bring to productivity.