1.1. Understanding the importance of Time Tracking

Time is our most important asset, and it is the one that once lost, you cannot ever get back. Frank wants to help you to deliver projects efficiently, all while building a sustainable and profitable studio.

Time tracking is not a problem; it is not a pointless, life controlling process either. Conversely, time tracking is essential to understanding how you use your and your team’s time.

When clients ay for your time, you establish a contract with them; with this contract comes the commitment of providing a quality and timely service. Wasting time is wasting money, and you are legally bound to your client to use your time responsibly.

Your organization could learn many things from the results of your time tracking. You could know if your project’s been done in accordance with the budget and the schedule. You can also know which projects are more profitable than others, or which clients are the ones that suit you best. You can also establish budgets for new projects and be the first to answer a proposal. Each member of the team is ultimately responsible for the time they invest in each activity and you will find in this document a combination of definition, procedures, and practicalities.

1.2. Real-Time Questions and Answers

We have invested on this system to allow your team to register hours each day so your organization can access those registries in real time. For that reason, it is also important that you can give your clients answers without having to pester your team.

2.1. Registering Project's Hours

Clients want you to help them with their projects, and they have probably set a budget for that. Remember that getting, finishing, and profiting from your projects is what keeps your studio floating. If that does not happen, your firm sinks.

2.2. Time Tracking includes:

2.2.1. Sales Support

• Potencial clients: teleconferences, meeting, development of strategies.
• Help with the way you set up your proposals and contract details.

2.2.2. Projects

• Every activity related to the project and based on your workflow and your time tracking standard.
• Registered variations in the project (confirm with your PM), even those that are not billable, as they still are part of your project.
• “Help” to other projects or staff training that, when related, have to be tracked as part of the project overhead.

2.2.3. Trips

• Every trip or relocation related to the project.

2.3. ATT- Administrative Time Registry (support area)

The administrative staff is a huge part of every studio. They make sure everything works, and you can concentrate on both clients and projects. They support each business unit and need to be efficient so your studio can prosper in the market.

Knowing the costs and the way the studio works is fundamental to take adequate decisions. Therefore, precision and a keen eye are essential to keep a close eye on each business unit so you make sure every project runs smoothly and costs are evenly distributed.

We created a table so you could know how to register many possible activities in your company.

2.4. Office Time Tracking

Projects are important, but there are other important things such as:

• Technical Training
• Institutional Training
• PM Training
• Work Standars Training
• Workshops
• Corporate Lunch

• Meetings
• Business Units Meetings
• Meetings with the PM
• Events
• Job Performance Meetings

• These depend on the manager

2.5. Leaves

Sometimes, things happen, and thes things are important for your studio.

You are legally compelled to keep track of some events; and others, you need to track them to be well-organized. Thus, you need to follow every occurrence and give PMs all the information they need to manage and handle the business.

2.5.1. Don't Register Free Time

If you have something to do and you need a couple of hours, don’t worry, those things happen, and you can do them. Just don’t register those hours and try to complete your day’s objectives to keep everything on schedule.

2.6. Hours Allocation

As a rule of thumb, we have assigned an annual expectative of hours allocated to projects and other important tasks you can see in the following charts.

Frank offers two alternatives for invoicing when integrated with QB:

2.7. Basic Responsibilities Related to Time tracking

2.7.1. Operations Manager

Once the client set the Project, the Opeartions Manager must:

1. Prepare the Work Order with a defined budget and timeframe for the project’s execution.
2. Collaborate with the PM to create Time Tracking Standards as a part of the Workflow.
3. Ensure the project’s correct implementation and beginning.

Similarly, as a part of its function, the Operations Manager must:

1. Control the project’s monthly budget.
2. Take preventive –and corrective– actions if the project diverges from the estimations.
3. Evaluate the causes of any problem and solve it with the PM.
4. For activities not related to the project, instruct the team to register their hours as other activities.
5. Keep an eye on the non-project hours (meetings, continuing education, special assignments.)

Also, the Operations Manager has to work in:

1. Templates fot the project's hour registry, if applicable.
2. Optimizing tools and processes to make operations more efficient.

2.7.2. PMs

The Project Manager is the main responsible for the project’s results –which are a combination of quality, costs, and time–

Once the PM has an assigned Project, it must:

1. Define the Time Tracking Registry Standars.
2. Share those standards with the team.
3. Configure Frank and have all the team members register their hours.

During the project, the PM has to:

1. Teach the team how to track their hours.
2. Check the teams’ tracked and allocated hours.
3. Make sure everything stays on budget.
4. If the scope creeps or the budget slips, it must identify the cause and take corrective actions immediately.
5. If necessary, renegotiate with the client or take actions related to the team’s performance.

As the main responsible for the project’s execution, the PM needs to:

1. Oversee how hours are being tracked
2. Measure the team’s efficiency
3. Make sure everything stays on budget.
4. Approve or disapprove hours.

2.7.3. Team Members

Every member is responsible for honestly tracking and registering their project hours. Likewise, they all must register their work every day without delay.

Team members are reponsible for:

1. Understanding and following Time Tracking.
2. Read about the Time Tracking Standards before they start working on a project.
3. Know the budget and the maximum amount of hours for each project.
4. Propose the PM different strategies to face the project if it is not going as planned.
5. Proactively seek solutions to streamline its job.

2.8. Types of Contract

2.8.1. Fixed Price

In these kind of contracts, you and your team's main commitments are:

1. Deliver a project

In these projects is crucial to compare the project's progress with the amount of time and money spent.

2.8.2. Hourly

These are the projects in which you agree with the client to register the hours spent in the task they hire you for and charge them some hours it took you to finish the project In this particular case, there is not a budget per se. Just try to be efficient and keep costs to the minimum. Don’t overcharge. Remember, if you do not take care of your client, it will not hire you again.

2.8.3. Variations

If there is scope creep in a Fixed Price Project, you should negotiate a change with your client. You need to ask for:

• Additional Time
• More Budget
• Both

The PM should instruct the team on how to register hours un case of any variation; that way, the team knows how to understand the new expectations and results.