Timesheets: Uncover their real potential
It’s a continual debate in the accountancy profession – to timesheet or not. Alastair Barlow, the co-founder of flinder, explains how some firms are missing out on the untapped potential of timesheets.
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"I liken it to the Internet of Things (IoT) where you have sensors and feedback at every stage in a process. We don’t scoff at IoT, it’s the future and we embrace the power of it."
IoT as a concept is as old as the hills - and about as useful. If you truly believe in it (and few do who aren't trying to sell technology off the back of that belief), then it's "benefits" only accrue when you replace human skills/knowledge/expertise with machine rules. Not only will that remain imperfect until the dawn of true AI (several generations away), but it sows the seeds of human anti-evolution.
As a practice the rhetoric of sitting down and following a 4 step reflection process after each job is unattainable with the number of jobs and processes conducted when operating a finance function.
We don't price on time but we track and monitor the data, as the volumes within Xero just won't yield the full picture. This helps us understand scope creep much quicker and or compromised processes.
I could understand should you have standardised jobs and client sizes but this is not the case with us. For instance firms who look after micro compliance, the need for them may be much less.
First thing I did was cull our timesheets when I took over the practice. I manage on whether we hit deadlines, client satisfaction levels and how we eventually perform v budget
I remember a restaurant client years ago who knew the precise cost of every single dish on the menu even down to the sprinkles of sauce on a starter. He had a spreadsheet that he regularly updated and I was quite surprised but remember clearly when he said;
"How on earth can any business owner sell any product or service without knowing precisely how much it costs to make".
Quite.
PS - I know lots of accountants who don't keep timesheets and that's fine by me...... we like them for the data too.
Well said Alistair, I wanted to applaud you when you said that at DAS2021 as timesheets have had such a bad rap!
Knowledge is derived from Data and that's is exactly what timesheets are - a source of internal data. What you do with it is up to you. I don't think it should act as a pricing yardstick, but that is a practice decision to make. It does, however, help us understand what our unit costs are, helps identify scope creep, helps staff focus their attention on what they have achieved, helps us identify staff development needs etc...
Sadly won't be there at the expo, but will be rooting for you on the debate!
Providing it is accurate. If it is not accurate then its very existence may distort decision making and of course timesheet pressures can have staff taking unwarranted shortcuts to the detriment of the firm.
Who has not had the five minute call client, the one that calls , very short conversation, you cannot bother recording it on your timesheet (under 15 minutes) but he/she does it 4 times a week, I certainly, back when I did timesheets that had to reach x hours a week, had a few of these, recorded admin taking the hit.
(My solution , when I had my own P/T firm, was only to record and charge for hours actually directly working on client matters, all calls and meetings were free so to speak being absorbed within the hours charged by charging a higher hourly rate than I might otherwise have done)
Absolutely, garbage in garbage out. You need to promote honest reporting, I tell my staff your timesheet is not a beauty pageant, it's a matter of fact. We also give a fair bit of slack for exactly the type of 2 minute conversations you have mentioned.
For us personally, timesheets are a MUST.
I appreciate people taking a step away but even if not used for billing directly; we don't, there is so much information that can be drawn from timesheets around efficiencies.
I do also think there is a degree of education that needs to dovetail the use of timesheets though as for us it is not about checking on staff but instead about driving improvements.