Clients & Profits | Productivity Newsletter

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Productivity Tips from Real
Clients & Profits Users

These Clients & Profits users share their tips on how they've increased productivity:

Compare estimated vs. actual hours "Because we estimate our hours, each staffer knows what they're accountable for," says Ann Adams of J. Skokes. "We compare hours when a job nears completion to make sure its on track. And if it looks like an element of the work may get out of hand, we remind staff to stick to what was agreed to. It's made us work smarter."

Must be My C&P! "Use My C&P to capture production team time [and account exec time from the road] entered daily, says Roxanne Cowan of Rutherford Bolen Group. "We can close a job and bill it much earlier than before. And it's improved our cash flow, too!

Investigate consumption of billable hours "We print the Monthly Client Time Summary productivity report to show which clients are using up all of our billable hours," says Susan Ackman of Fraser Wallace Advertising. "Then we print the Client vs. Client profitability report to analyze if they are generating the revenue to back it up."

Use on-line estimating "Working with clients means many changes to estimates," says Allen Corley of WarrenCreative +. "With Clients & Profits, adding and revising estimates is quick , easy and saves time while maintaining estimate accuracy. And that's time we can and do spend producing more work."

Do more for the more profitable clients "Our clients especially like seeing how much time we've worked on their behalf and not billed them for," says Lane Newsome of The Burris Agency. "We can afford to do more for clients that are giving us a great return, and C&P shows us who those clients are. For clients that aren't, we work together deciding what to do: either increase their retainer amount or cut back on some work for the present. We use C&P documentation to back up our position, then arrive at a mutually-agreeable solution."

Q. What's the best way to ensure that everyone is adding their time throughout the week?

The best way is to first determine how many hours you wish each staffer to account for. Then, add planned hours into each staffer's Staff file. Each work day can have its own planned hours to accommodate individual work schedules. Once planned hours are added, use the General productivity reports throughout the work week to quickly determine who is up to date on time keeping and who needs some encouragement to do so.

Q. How can I track the time we spend recruiting new business?

To track time spent pursuing new business, add a generic "New Business" client to your database. Then, add a new job ticket for each pitch. Identify the potential client's name in the job's name and add their address into the job's estimate options. Add all time and outside costs as work progresses. If you don't get the client, close the job. You'll have a detailed record of each failed pitch. If you get the client, move the job and its costs (by renumbering), to the newly-added client. Perhaps you'll be able to recoup the costs.

Q. Is it important to track our overhead time?

Tracking overhead time is the only way to account for each staffer's full day. Not every minute is spent on client-related work.

A designer might redesign your shop's logo and letterhead. Your shop may move its location which means everyone will spend time helping in some way with the move. To track overhead time, add your shop into your database as a client. Then, add at least one job ticket to track lunch, sick and vacation time. You'll probably add even more job tickets for different in-house projects. When you do, you'll have all the reports you print on your clients available to be printed for your shop, as well.

Q. How can I quickly see if our shop is achieving its billable goal of 70%?

A report that summarizes billable and unbillable time is the Billable/Unbillable Time Summary. If your shop is tracking overhead time as well as client time, print this report to monitor what percentage of time is billable.

Q. How can I start charging for overtime and track overtime hours?

Each Staff file can contain an overtime cost and billing rate. Once those rates are added, any time entry can be marked as overhead by clicking the overtime checkbox. It's labeled as "OT". Instead of calculating at regular rates, the selected time entry uses the overtime rates. Overtime entries are marked with an asterisk on reports that show all time. There's also a report in General productivity devoted to overtime, providing an easy way to monitor overtime entries.