Why use Clients & Profits to measure productivity? A recent survey asked agencies what they like about using Clients & Profits for analyzing and increasing productivity. Their answers illustrate why so many shops use it as their one, and only agency software: No more data double-entry because a C&P database contains all vital financial and production information you need to run your shop Timekeeping is fast and easy so staffers are more likely to enter their time Easily review schedules for staffers, departments, or teams, so you quickly know who's working on what Quickly copy historical information by cloning to create new jobs, POs, A/P invoices, media estimates, and journal entries to radically shorten data entry time Print year-over-year productivity and profitability reports for easy comparison of the shop's performance and trend analysis How do you compare? 100% of the shops surveyed track billable client time Overhead time is tracked by 86% of shops 78% of shops never charge clients for overtime Only 28% have the higher-paid staffers working on the higher-profit margin jobs and clients The ratio of billable-to-cost rate ranges from 2-1 to 5-1 with 3-1 being used by the most respondents Only 78% always track the cost of pursuing new business

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Time and time again

Start your investigation with the Clients & Profits productivity reports. Staff productivity and staff utilization reports are especially helpful. (Productivity reports are printed from the Snapshots menu.) The staff productivity reports show billable and unbillable hours, while profitability reports, like the task profitability report, shows gross profit margin for each task.

By looking at billable vs. unbillable time, you see how much human energy is used to get the job done, and how much of it is recoverable in client billings. Even though unrecoverable time (an overhead expense) isn't billed for, it still needs to be considered when evaluating your shop's productivity, so make sure everyone records their full day's time. That way, when you look at staff productivity reports, you see how much time is used for which task.

The overtime report is an excellent analysis tool that shows who is logging overtime hours for which client, on what task, and how much of it is billable. By studying overtime reports, you see if there is a trend for a specific employee, client, or task. Digging a little deeper, shows whether the AE didn't allow enough time to finish, whether the client didn't approve sufficient hours to complete the job, or if the staffer is underperforming. Likewise, the missed deadline report shows who missed a deadline by how many days, and which task was finished late. With this, you can evaluate your agency's performance and devise ways to improve the process of getting jobs done.

Who's doing what?

The Clients & Profits work-to-do reports show who's doing what -- and for whom. (Work-to-do reports are under the Snapshots menu and sortable by staff, client, department, due date, or task.) Sorting the report by staff shows all of the work assigned to each staffer, which client job the staffer is working on, and how much time is scheduled to do it. This at-a-glance report helps identify poor assignments so you can reassign staffers to better (and more profitably) use their talents.

Remember to take into consideration, too, professional growth of staff members, and assign work according to their developing abilities. Giving mundane assignments to gung-ho staffers decreases their enthusiasm -- and productivity. Red-flag increases in time spent on simple tasks; they may indicate waning motivation.

Room for improvement

Now that you know the areas that need attention, roll up your sleeves and go to work. In addition to analysis reports, Clients & Profits has built-in tools that help increase staffers' productivity. Since productivity is related to jobs, look to the job ticket.

In the Job Schedule window, you can quickly check a staffer's workload by clicking on the Resource's Deadline tool bar button. This tool shows how many hours a staffer is scheduled to work and when. It helps schedulers equalize work over time instead of accidentally cramming everything in just a few days. It also shows who has time to take on more work. Reassign an over-scheduled staffer's tasks to them to even things out.

To see everything that's due on a certain date, click on the Pop-up Calendar tool bar button in the Job Schedule window. Click on a date to see which jobs, tasks, and staffers have deadlines for that day. The Deadlines tool bar button shows more detailed scheduling information, which can be sorted by job, task, resource, lead time, start date, and estimated and actual hours. (Click on the column heading to sort the data.)

While you're checking how many hours a staffer has scheduled, see who they're working for to make sure the right talent is assigned to jobs. If timeliness and job profitability matter, consider shifting assignments for improved productivity.

When you need temporary or specialized help, bring in a freelancer. Freelancers are a great way to "rent" expertise, whether to round out a team or to balance the workload. (Remember that freelancers bill you at a rate higher than a regular employee's cost, so add the extra cost to your estimate.)

Scraping barnacles

David Ogilvy once said, "To keep your ship moving through the water at maximum efficiency, you have to keep scraping the barnacles off its bottom." Knowing what is dragging your productivity is half the battle; scraping barnacles is the other half. Your Clients & Profits database is a treasure-trove of information that identifies productivity drags. Use the built-in reports to dig out those productivity benchmarks and measure current performance. Then set new goals. Use the built-in tools to meet them and you will be amazed at how fast your ship starts sailing!