Time to keep track of time?

Posted by on October 11, 2015 · Leave a Comment 

When running your small business it is important to keep track of time.hand-clock

Tracking time serves several purposes. It can help you at the end of a day/week/month when you reflect on what you’ve actually done with your time. If you charge for your work on a time spent basis, it’s essential to keep records so you can accurately bill your clients.

For those just starting out, tracking your time will help you calculate the cost of doing business.  You can see how much time you need to spend with prospects before they purchase (helping you price your services more easily). You will also see the amount of time you spend doing your business administration (accounts, paying bills, BAS returns and so forth). And knowing the time you spend in marketing/business development activities will help you to judge the value of those activities in context of the results you get from them.

I’ve been using time recording apps for quite some time now – and it is one of the best time management tools I have.  When you see how much time you spend on thinking (procrastinating, if you are truthful), watching TV, shopping and coffee meetings, you will soon see how much time you have to re-purpose on other activities.

There are a number of time recording apps available. I find the easiest way is to have one on my mobile phone as I always have this with me. It’s important that you make sure whichever app you choose, it has the capability to upload/save your information (eg. to another computer, to the cloud, Dropbox) so that you don’t risk losing it. If you’re using it for charging clients you don’t want to be double entering your billable information, so choose an app that will export to a spreadsheet or your accounting system and/or create invoices for you.

Most apps will have a free version which may be fine for personal time-keeping, but if keeping track of billable time you will need to pay for a full version. I have found these apps effective and reasonably priced:

Filed under All Tips · Tagged with

About Michelle

Speak Your Mind

Tell us what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!