Just how does your shop spend its time? Whether you're looking for overall trends or minute details, you won't have to just wonder how time is spent if you print time and productivity reports! Which ones? Read on. Productivity reports print only totals, so they are more concise and reveal trends better than detailed time reports. There are different sets of productivity reports to print depending on what you need to know. General reports are the best daily tools for monitoring who's entering time and who's not. Once each staffer's planned hours are added, these reports become even more meaningful because they show if staffers are accounting for their full work day. Using these reports each week ensures that all time spent working in your shop is tracked. On a monthly basis, reports like the Billable/Unbillable Time Summary and the Monthly Client Time Summary provide insight into how staffers are spending their time, for which clients, and the percentage of total time that is billable. The Staff Utilization (see page 4) and Client Analysis reports also monitor overtime and freelance time, two areas that should be closely watched for potential abuses. Time reports are interesting but not meaningful to management looking for trends--too many details that are fixed, e.g., cost and billing rates, work date. (Time reports are best for monitoring time to check those details.) Review time reports prior to billing as they can be sorted by job and show any notes that staffers made. Use time and productivity reports together, e.g., when you want the details of totals printed on productivity reports. Choosing the right report reveals all the time and productivity information you need.

By Donna Lynn Johnson

Every job has productivity pitfalls, from client-driven scope changes to production schedule changes, creative adjustments to missed typos after disk prep. But with each job there are underlying lessons to learn, and with each lesson learned the possibilities for improved productivity are infinite.

Start by looking at the job summary. Compare estimated hours against actual hours. If there were overages, pinpoint the department and task. Consider the dollar estimate. Was it reasonable for the original job? And if the job scope changed, did the estimate also change?

Next, look at the job cost report. Review the time entries and descriptions for each area of the job that was over budget. You'll clearly see unplanned objective changes that warranted an official change order, misinterpreted creative direction, misappropriated time entries, poorly developed schedules, and more. All of these possibilities indicate which areas of the agency need fine tuning. For busy account executives, these key elements can be seen through the job progress window for a "big picture" view of the job's productivity -- a great way to keep on-going tabs on a job's productivity.

Each month, take a small sampling of closed jobs and analyze them. (Remember to look at jobs that turned your hair gray, as well as ones that you toasted to their success.) Share your results with the staff and involve each team in the overall solution. Communicate details of each stage, both efficiencies and inefficiencies. After identifying what went right or wrong with a job, make a note in the job diary for future reference. Then, educate those who need more understanding of how front-end productivity affects back-end profitability.

By reviewing job reports, you'll see why there are unbilled hours and dollar shortages. Taking a closer look pinpoints exactly what happened and why, so you can map out the road to better productivity. With step-by-step improvements, work flow becomes more fluid and efficient -- and productivity pitfalls will be a thing of the past.