It’s important for freelance accounting businesses to have in place a time tracking system. That’s the only way you’re going to know if you’re properly setting your billing rates and giving your team enough time to get the work done.
There are so many really good time tracking systems out on the market that it comes down to finding an affordable one that you prefer to use for your accounting business. To help you decide, here are some questions to consider in choosing which software program you’ll use to track time.
Is the software program easily customizable for your freelance accounting business?
You’re going to want to use a system that is easy to use, flexible and has some adaptability to the way you track time.
Does the software program have the proper security settings for your freelance accounting business?
As an example, when I was a solo-practioner I used the QuickBooks time function to track my time, not the QB Timer, which is the actual timesheet function. I thought it was great because it was right on my accounting file, easy to customize and use.
When I added my first employee, I realized that this gave my employee access to my entire customer list, which was something I was not comfortable with! Then, when I added my next employee, they were able to see each other’s hours. That led to a small issue that had to be handled as you can well imagine. So when making your selection, make sure that the program has the security requirements you’re comfortable with for all situations.
Does it allow your freelance accounting business to track actual time against time estimates or budgets?
Choosing a program that has this function integrated is a huge time saver. For years I used QuickBooks to track time and then we used an Excel spreadsheet to measure it against the time budgets. Doing it this way really took a lot time to prepare those reports on a monthly basis. It’s much easier to find a program that provides the function of comparing actual time with time estimates.
As in everything, it pays to do your homework so you can purchase software that supports the system that’s best for your freelance accounting business. Would you like to join us at the Bookkeeper’s Club and talk to other freelance accountants and bookkeepers about what works for them? We’ve got a lot to share with you there.
