Time is one of your firm's greatest assets. But how much of it is actually being recovered?
For architects, engineers, surveyors and consultants, time drives revenue. Yet even when teams are busy and projects are progressing, valuable hours can quietly disappear through poor planning, inefficient processes, missed time entries and work that cannot be invoiced.
The challenge is not simply getting people to work harder. It is making better use of the time available, planning resources effectively and ensuring valuable work is captured.
So where is your time going, and what can you do about it?
Time leakage does not always involve employees wasting time. Often, it happens because the business lacks clear processes or forward planning.
Common causes include:
These problems can be difficult to identify when time recording, project budgets and scheduling are managed separately.
For more about improving time capture, see No More Timesheet Chasing – Here's What Works.
Consider a professional services firm with 10 employees.
If each person loses just 15 minutes of potentially billable time each working day, that represents:
Not every lost hour could necessarily have been invoiced, but the example illustrates how small inefficiencies can accumulate across a business.
And lost time is only part of the problem. If work is completed but invoiced below its value, profitability can suffer further.
Our article Too Many Write-Offs? Here's the Fix explores how poor visibility and delayed project reviews can contribute to unrecovered revenue.
One of the most effective ways to improve time management is to plan ahead.
In the video accompanying this article, Abtrac founder Ed O'Leary discusses why planning time weeks and months in advance can help businesses increase the value of their resources.
Rather than reacting to deadlines as they approach, firms can look ahead at upcoming projects, expected workloads and employee availability.
Effective resource planning helps managers:
Planning ahead also gives managers an opportunity to identify problems before they affect project delivery or profitability.
You do not necessarily need to change everything about the way your business operates.
Start with a few practical improvements.
Review upcoming projects, deadlines and employee availability regularly. Use realistic estimates of the time required rather than relying only on previous experience.
Encourage staff to record time throughout the day while work is fresh in their minds. Accurate timesheets provide a more reliable basis for project reporting and invoicing.
Regularly review how much time has been allocated to each project or stage and how much has actually been used.
This helps identify projects that may need attention before their budgets are exceeded.
Do not wait until invoice preparation to identify unbilled work or unexpected additional hours.
Regular WIP reviews and clear scope management can help protect recoverable revenue.
Compare estimated hours, actual time and invoiced value. Understanding where time was lost or written off can improve future estimates and resource planning.
Recording more hours does not automatically mean greater profitability.
Firms also need to understand how effectively those hours translate into revenue.
Useful measures include:
Reviewing these measures together helps directors and project managers understand where improvements are needed.
Abtrac Project Management Software is designed for project-based professional services firms.
It brings together time tracking, resource scheduling, project budgets, WIP, invoicing and reporting, helping teams work from connected project information.
With Abtrac, managers can plan employee workloads, track time against jobs and stages, monitor project progress and identify issues before they become expensive.
The goal is not simply to record more information. It is to use that information to make better decisions.
Time already lost cannot be recovered. But better planning, consistent time tracking and clearer project visibility can help prevent the same problems from happening again.
For professional services firms, even small improvements in the way time is managed can make a meaningful difference to productivity and profitability.
Take a 10-minute tour of Abtrac to see how better project planning, time tracking and reporting can support your business.