Managing billable time is one of the core elements of any professional services business.

So how do you and your staff keep track of the hours spent against what you've estimated or quoted on?

Talking with a prospective client, a director’s big concern was they were writing off too much each month. Their initial email said “Our business is leaking time”. After some discussion I suggested they meet routinely and have staff agree on expectations of how long each piece of work should take. Things will then more likely be done within agreed times and thus agreed client budgets. This could plug the leaks and reduce their write offs.

Managing Your Business

Running a business can be hard. You always have to remember it’s your business. If you’re taking advice from anyone else, take it with a healthy bit of scepticism even if they’re a ‘Trusted Advisor’.

It’s easy to count inventory and track sales when you’re making or selling items of stock.  How do you manage in a professional services firm selling time and expertise?

The thing with professional services firms is they don’t make stuff. They don’t sell stuff either. They sell expertise. That's their business, trying month by month like all businesses, to survive in the margin between total outgoings and total receipts. Working in this ecosystem requires business practices that inventory based systems simply don't support. They're not built for it.

Heritage is always a tricky subject in modern cities, with one person’s culturally significant building being another person’s eyesore. It’s useful to think about your business systems in the same way, and the role of heritage in achieving the best result for your business.

Everybody knows where you’re most likely to be told “Say ahhhhh”. For a routine medical check-up you go to the doctor. They’ll use tools to measure your temperature, check blood pressure, listen to your heart and check your lungs. The big ice-cream stick comes out and you’ll be told “Say ahhhhh”. Doctors always start by properly checking out our body’s vital signs. Everything else depends on them working properly.


They actively go through a standard series of measurements and observations. Only then can they give feedback and advise on any actions that need to be taken.

Businesses are in need of routine check-ups just as people are. It’s part of business management. And whatever the scale of your business, getting the right stuff, the stuff your business needs to have working properly, comes down to one thing, understanding the current condition.

This means business information systems to help you measure, and thus manage, the business. So what to measure.