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Freelancer Discovers Time Tracking

Discovering something helpful is very satisfying. Your world opens up a little wider, and new possibilities suddenly appear. The feeling is exhilarating. The logjam is broken, and suddenly there are new answers you never considered before.

That is what’s happening in this cute fictional cartoon.

But why can’t it happen to you too? In fact, it can… and probably has happened on multiple occasions. Let this be one of them. Discover the Standard Time® time tracking app. You might be a freelance consultant with just a few clients now. But you could own a complete consultancy with engineers and technicians working for you. It all starts with a discovery that changes your way of thinking.

Consultants are using this time tracking solution every day. Large organizations of consultants and engineers enter their time daily. Organizations run on ST. Yours could too.

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Project Mgrs like Task Linking

You can’t put a roof on new construction without a foundation and walls. The same is true with many projects. One task must be done before another. Some tasks are dependent upon the completion of others, and there is no way around it. Those task dependencies are called links. Watch this video below for some ideas.

Project managers like task links because they represent reality, as illustrated above. Sometimes tasks that are linked together like this surprise you because realize your “hot” project simply cannot be completed when you first thought. There are tasks that stretch out into the hazy future because of these dependencies.

That’s when you start thinking… there has got to be a way around this.

But that thought never even occurs to you until you see the linked tasks blowing up your sweet delivery date. Sure, you can add more resources, reduce the scope, accept additional costs, all in an effort to “draw in” the ship date. But the fact is, those task dependencies, and how they stretch our your project schedule are the problem. But at least you now see the issue.

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Fixed Bid Contracts Rule the Universe

A lot of freelancers and consultants use fixed bid contracts. So much that they rule the consulting universe. (video below)

Your customers likes your work, but doesn’t quite trust the duration and cost of the project. They want assurances that the cost won’t exceed a limit they feel comfortable with. That’s natural. Once you establish a working relationship, the need for fixed bid contracts may go away. But until then, you agree to a single price for the project.

And once you have arrived at a the fixed price, you might ask for a starting payment. That discussion naturally leads to milestone payments. The conversation leads to something like this. “How about a quarter upon signing, and a quarter in the middle, and then one big payment of one-half at the end?” To which you reply, “How about one-third, one-third, and one-third.” “Done.”

This little video may inspire you to try milestone billing for yourself.

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Manufacturing Runs on Standard Time

On the odd chance your manufacturing shop is not running Standard Time® we’re suggesting this video. It’s a cute little animated job that really only serves to inspire your thoughts along those lines. (scroll down for it) But hey, you’re already running ST anyway, right?

No? Then take a look.

There’s a module in ST that lets you scan manufacturing barcodes to measure time. Find out how much time each product takes, each product line takes, and how long employees are actually spending on manufacturing the actual parts.

Follow these steps to scan a part in your shop:

  1. Begin by scanning the employee name
  2. Scan the project name
  3. Scan the part or serial number
  4. The timer starts
  5. Perform your step in the manufacturing process while the timer runs
  6. Minutes or hours go by…
  7. Scan your employee name again
  8. Scan the word STOP
  9. The timer stops, and you now have one time log with the exact time this employee spent on this single part.

Collect a few hundred of these time logs and you have a valuable asset you can use in meetings, with clients, on invoices, or in post project analysis.

How huge is that?

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Project Managers Track Time

All the modern project managers are using Standard Time®. None of this old-timey directors of organization and administration for them. Watch how they get straight to the project tasks and resource management. Tasks are linked and assigned to engineers. Resource allocation blowups are fixed. Employees have access to their tasks immediately, and time logs start rolling in. Windows desktops, web, Android, and iPhones are lighting up with a beehive of activity.

The managers now have actuals to compare with estimates. They are rearranging tasks, closing others, and consolidating. These project managers love the blending of employee timesheets with their PM tools.

This is how project managers got modern.

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Tracking Time for IT Support

IT support is a beehive. It’s crazy fire-fighting day, everyday. You don’t have a minute to waste. Which is why you should consider spending some extra time tracking your hours.

What???  Spend more time on admin tasks? I don’t think so! (video below)

Consider this line of reasoning. A small amount of time finding out where your time is spent can be used as intel. Think of it as recon work. You sneak in with black tactical gear, snap a few pictures, and get out. Now you’re the hero at the strategic briefing. You’re the one standing up front with the laser pointer looking down on everybody. You’re not the idiot watching the MI-5 briefing; you’re the one conducting it. Your the one presenting your findings to others to consume.

And what did you find? You found that a slight change in daily schedule turns firefighting into routine maintenance. You found that some training courses for employees reduces help-desk calls. You found that you’re spending most of your time on secondary priorities with no strategic upside. Oops. Time for some change.

Now go back and track time for the new routine to find out if those changes really made a difference. Measure and improve.

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What is a Project Triangle

What are project triangles? You’ve probably visited the project triangle wiki webpage. So, you probably know that project triangles graphically illustrate the tension between time, cost, and scope. Any one of these could cause trouble for your project if not properly managed. Watch the video below.

The cool thing is that these project triangles are displayed graphically in Standard Time®. That means you can check your own projects to see how they measure up. If you see a perfect triangle with all side of equal length (equilateral triangle) then you know your project is in good shape.

But if you see one side of the triangle going off the graph, then you know something is wrong. It means either your time, cost, or scope is out of whack.

What a nice way to check the health of your project!

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Bad Time Tracking Apps

Some time tracking apps just don’t cut it. The girls in this video are complaining about keeping track of their time with spreadsheets and paper time cards. But the manager can only think of new steam engines to make the machines go faster.

Ever think your boss is like that?

Or are you the boss?

Hey, it happens to everyone. We get stuck in older business paradigms, and can’t see new ways to do things. There are new apps for time tracking and employee timesheets. Don’t be like these managers; download one and give it a try.

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A New Time Tracking App is Out!

Even the newsboys know a good thing when they see one. All the news that’s fit to print! There’s a new time tracking app out!

Haha. Here’s a cute little video pitching Standard Time® from a newsboy perspective. All the boys are scrambling for their morning papers so they can make ten cents to go to the theater and eat goo goo beans and drink coke-a-cola.

That’s the kind of enthusiasm at Scoutwest, the makers of the Standard Time timesheet — eager to produce a good quality app everyone can use. It’s that American craftsmanship and mom and pop service you grew up with, or heard about from your granddad. But, with a modern time tracking solution as the flagship product. Isn’t that the kind of company you want to support?

You may find that they support you instead. Every feature you need for consulting, engineering, and manufacturing has been built in. Just ask, and they will point it out. Flexible billing rates, roles, task lists, project tracking, PTO accruals, expenses and mileage, and more. You won’t be saying, I wish it had this thing or that, because it probably already does.

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Download a Modern Timesheet

All the gas buggies in this video know how to get to stdtime.com for a modern timesheet. Look how they motor right in at 4 mph. But the old-timer has no clue. Did you catch him? He just wants a little axle grease to keep the wheels turning.

So the question is, what’s holding you back from adopting a modern timesheet with project tracking built in? Are you stuck in the old world? Still using spreadsheets and scraps of paper? Or worse: verbally communicating hours like they did it before the machine age?

We’ve computational engines for that now!

Whatever the case, drive out there and download a copy and test drive it. You might like all the trips and levers. And then you’ll wonder what you did without a modern timesheet.