Time tracking
Overview
The aim of time tracking is to:
- Ensure the studio is running efficiently (i.e. we're doing enough commercial work to be sustainable - we review time spent on billable work to review how well utilised the team is)
- Monitor project budgets so we can control our time on projects and take appropriate decisions
- Improve estimates and improve how we work in the future
- Monitor how much time we spend on non-billed work (e.g. learning and staff development, R&D)
The principles are:
- Everyone should log a minimum of 7 hours for a full working day (this matches our day rate in our rate card, and what we book in the schedule)
- All work that contributes towards a project should be logged against client projects as billable. This includes time spent on support and maintenance for individual clients' sites.
- All other time related to the running of the studio or learning should be logged against Studio 24 projects as non-billable
- Any general admin time, such as reading emails does not need to be logged
- If you don’t know where to track time to, ask a PM
Billable time
As an agency we charge for our time, so it's important to track that time so we can review budgets and charge clients correctly.
The general principle is we should bill for all time that contributes towards a project, this includes planning, kick-off meetings, project meetings, research, documentation, peer reviewing code, estimating, etc.
Basically, if a task is necessary to successfully deliver a project, then it should be logged as billable time.
Project Managers check timesheets on a weekly basis to check if a project is going to be delivered in budget, or is forecast to go over. If a project is forecast to go over budget, the team will have a discussion on how to best mitigate this.
Non-billable time
If a task is internal, for example sales or research, please log this to the appropriate Studio 24 Internal or Studio 24 Projects project. More details regarding the different non-billable projects can be found below.
How you should track your time
Please log your time in Tick on a regular basis, ideally daily. From experience retrospectively logging time tends to be inaccurate, so it is preferred that everyone logs time on a daily basis ideally using the timer. As a minimum we expect everyone to have logged all their time for the week by their last working day in that week.
You can use the Tickspot timer to track your time, or you can round up to the nearest 15 minutes. Please record your time as realistically as possible - we know it can be hard if you are working on more than one project in a day, but it helps us report more accurately. You should also add notes to your Tick entry to give some detail on what you were working on. This may be a JIRA or Zendesk reference or a short description of your task.
Managing tasks in Tick - PMs should add tasks for time tracking, so if something is missing, ask a PM. All project names should start with a 4 digit reference code.
A guide to non-billable projects
4923 - Sales
Purpose: To log any time spent on sales work for new clients. Each new sales job has a task setup to help track it accurately. (note: Sales work for existing clients should be logged against the client's Account Management project instead)
4925 - Marketing
Purpose: To log any time spent on marketing activities to promote Studio 24 such as blog posts, talks, organising and attending events, etc.
4926 - IT
Purpose: Managing internal Studio 24 IT services.
4928 - Process & Tools
Purpose: Meetings, design and admin around agency processes and tool integration.
4929 - Agency meetings
Purpose: To log any time spent in internal meetings which are not specifically client related (i.e. team meetings).
4930 - Hosting
Purpose: Running the Studio 24 hosting service (not client related)
5121 - Team Development
Purpose: Mentoring and 1 to 1 meetings, staff reviews and appraisals.
5154 - Business Planning
Purpose: Time spent on internal growth strategy and business planning.
5155 - Client entertainment
Purpose: To be used when taking a client out for coffee/lunch or other relationship building activities
5156 - Finance
Purpose: Meetings and work related to the finance of the business
5158 - Headspace
Purpose: time for a break after a long meeting or task
5160 - Networking
Purpose: Attending networking events (either online or in person)
5161 - Recruitment
Purpose: Managing applications, running interviews, writing job adverts
5162 - Research & Development
Purpose: Time devoted to innovation and improvement of our services. For example, this could be researching market trends to enhance our offering, or building a new tool to improve ways of working (note: this differs slightly to 4928 - Process & Tools)
5163 - Studio scheduling
Purpose: Managing the schedule, updating people's availability and meeting to plan the weeks ahead. Restricted to PM team, Simon, Emma & Kate. Note: time spent on planning projects specifically should be logged against the project as PM time.
5164 - Time Off (Non-full day)
Purpose: to capture time spent off work, for example a half day annual leave, or a doctor's appointment.
5165 - Training & Learning
Purpose: Time spent on training courses, attending conferences, and self-led learning. Note: this does not include learning whilst on a project, that time should be logged against the specific project.
5166 - Travel
Purpose: for work related travel time (note: this doesn't include usual commuting time to the office, or when it's possible to bill a client for time spent travelling to and from a specific meeting)
5167 - Volunteering
Purpose: everyone can book up to 2 days per year for time away from work to volunteer
5169 - Work Handover
Purpose: time spent planning and handing over work to another team member, e.g. before a holiday. (note: if the handover is for a specific project, this time should be logged against that project).
Account management (by client)
Purpose: to track time spent on client communications which are not directly related to a specific project or support contract (account management) and sales work on new opportunities.