Short term or long term Standard Time® can handle all billing rates easily. Whether you’re an engineer, developer, road warrior or a project manager you can get the correct billing rate.
Employee Utilization Report
If you’re in a consulting organization, it’s important to know how many hours each employee works. It’s also important to know if those hours are billable or non-billable. You can likely paying employees whether they are bringing in billable hours or not. So it’s important to maximize billable hours, if you can.
Let’s show a few extreme examples to illustrate the point.
Example #1: Pay period of 168 hours. And only one billable hour. Billing rate $100.
That is only 0.6% utilization, and an effective billing rate of $0.60 per scheduled hour. You can’t live on sixty cents an hour. 🙂
Example: 2 Pay period of 168 hours. All 168 are billable. Billing rate $100.
That is 100% utilization (which is nearly impossible), and an effective billing rate of $100 per scheduled hour. Pretty nice! But also pretty unrealistic.
Future Project Billing Rates
With Standard Time® an administrator can predict how much a project will cost. The dates for the project are sometimes far enough into the future that you must set future rates. You can create date ranges that contain future billing rates.
For example, suppose you needed to predict project costs into 2017 and 2018. (still future at the time of the article)
The salary and billing rates are likely different for those future years. You may not know exactly what they will be, but you have an idea. The software lets you enter your predictions, and uses them for tasks that are scheduled to begin then.
So, back to our 2017 and 2018 example… your future rates will be used for tasks that are scheduled on those future dates. Each task has a starting date. Each task is assigned to users. So, the user rates for those dates are incorporated into the cost of each task.
A task in 2018 may cost more than a task in 2017. The software knows this.
Watch the video for details.
Mileage Tracking for Consultants
Traveling consultants can keep track of their mileage easily with Standard Time®. This timesheet records your mileage and vehicle. Just enter your odometer reading, beginning and end. Tax deduction! Whoohoo, those blood sucking IRS bots won’t know what hit them!
Mileage is recorded just like any other expense. That means you can get mileage and expense reports along with your time.
Customer Login and App
Customers can now see the status of their projects without bugging you! They just log-in to Standard Time® and get an update. Or use Android app called ProjectBot.
Customers want project status. And they sometimes want it frequently… like every day!
Fortunately, there is a simple solution. Standard Time has a simple client login page where your customers can log in to get their status. All their projects are listed. They can see how many hours were allocated, and how many hours were logged. Simple.
Android ProjectBot
Plus, there’s even a simpler way. There’s an Android app called ProjectBot that does the same thing. Except that it does it automatically. Every 15 minutes, ProjectBot syncs with the cloud and pulls down all the project information for that client. The client can simply look at the app for the status. That makes things pretty simple!
DCAA Timesheet Compliance
There is a timesheet specially made for the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). It’s Standard Time®; it has everything you need for your project.
And just to go above an beyond… this timesheet has support for Option Year contracts and contract MOD’s. What are they? Well… if you don’t know, then you probably don’t need them! Option Year contacts are a government thing. Each year you get a new contract that specifies the scope of the projects. It lists the manpower and rates the government will accept. You assign actual employees and countersign the contract. Then you own it. ST supports that whole process. But still… if you don’t use OY contacts, then it’s more than you need.
So maybe you just need a simple timesheet that is DCAA compliant.
ST has that too.
DCAA compliance is not hard. There are some simple rules you must follow. Do that, and you’re find. The link below shows how ST complies with DCAA regulations.
http://www.stdtime.com/dcaa.htm
Want more information. Try this DCAA compliance video.
Zombie gets consulting gig
Even Zombies can get consulting gigs. You just have to be smarter than the competition. Check this out.
But when you do get that awesome consulting gig, use Standard Time to track your hours. So many consultants use it that you’ll find plenty of support. Plus, you’ll find every feature you need. How about these apples?
- Windows, Web, Android, and iOS apps
- Billing rates for each project
- Billing rates for each employee
- Billing rates for each kind of work
- And several other billing methods like roles, categories, or option year contracts
See http://www.stdtime.com to download a copy.
Customize Client Invoices
Consultants can customize invoices sent out to their clients. Standard Time makes it easy.
Client invoice templates in ST are simple RTF documents you can open in MS Word. That means you can customize them anyway you like. Put in a company logo… add extra text… move things around… change fonts… anything you like!
Plus, you can create your own invoice templates to choose from. Check out these videos.
http://www.stdtime.com/videos/customizinginvoices.htm
http://www.stdtime.com/videos/newinvoice.htm
Consultant Billing Rates
Different consultants can use different clients billing rates. For instance, a project manager can bill differently than an engineer. Makes sense, huh? This video makes it look simple.
Actually, it is simple. Standard Time lets you assign unique project rates to each consultant. And, those rates can vary by project. Project A is not the same as Project B. So the billing rates for each consultant can be unique.
This video may also help. It describes exactly how to set up client billing rates for each consultant.
http://www.stdtime.com/videos/clientbilling.htm
How to verify client billing rates
You may also wonder how to verify that the rates are correct. Of course, you can look at the invoice itself. That’s the final check. But the techniques below will also help. They involve using the Time Log rate and cost columns to display the values you expect from each employee and project.
http://www.stdtime.com/videos/verifybillingrates.htm
Future billing rates
Consulting rates may be different in future years. For instance, the year 2020 will likely have different rates than today. That means you can set those rates for future years (if you know them). Standard Time uses those future rates for project costing and revenue predictions. Check out this video!
http://www.stdtime.com/videos/futurebillingrates.htm
Blocks of Support Time
Many consultants sell blocks of support time to their clients. He/she could sell hours for supporting networks, etc. Watch this video for help managing this area of your business.
How blocks of support works
Your consulting firm has a relationship with many companies. Some small, some big. Anytime a consultant goes onsite for a job, ask the manager if they want to purchase a block of support time. Offer some choices. 100 hours, 200 hours, 250, 500, 1000. Anytime the client needs help, you jump in and fix things. That’s because you have a contract for a set number of hours.
Watch another video here:
http://www.stdtime.com/videos/blocksoftime.htm
It’s just a project task
Blocks of support time show up in Standard Time® as project tasks. You enter a name and the number of hours for the block of time. Then assign it to a client and project. That’s it. It now shows up in your timesheet and on the smartphone apps.
Getting the software
Put the Standard Time app on your phone. Android or iOS. Each block of time shows up as a Quick Task. Tap a checkbox to start the timer. Tap again to stop. You just charged some time to that block of support time. Your phone will sync with the cloud or desktop. The hours your logged will be charged against the block of time. (It will appear as a task in ST.)
Selling new blocks of time
Standard Time will tell you when a block of time is nearly finished. You simply approach the client with this information. “Would you like to buy another block of time?” The answer will be Yes!
When the client agrees, simply add a new task to ST to represent the new block. The new task will sync with all your Android and iOS devices in the field. Support engineers will see it and begin logging time to it. And the whole process starts over!