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Is It Time for Your Accounting Firm to Restructure Its Time Tracking?

Time tracking is an essential practice for many accounting firms to manage projects, bill clients, and measure your team’s efforts. However, the traditional and often manual approaches to time tracking, such as using spreadsheets, are often counterproductive in successfully accomplishing these objectives. Learn more about why it may be time for your accounting firm to restructure its time tracking.

Some of the disadvantages of traditional time tracking include:

Reduced Productivity

A major downside of traditional time-tracking methods is how time-consuming they can be. It takes time away from accomplishing more valuable revenue generation work when the team spends billable hours recording their hours.

Inaccuracy

There is a higher risk of errors when you rely on manual input. These imprecise recordings are not only detrimental to your firm’s bookkeeping but can also potentially negatively impact its bottom line if time tracking is underreported and its reputation among clients if they get overcharged.

Insufficient Insights

Traditional time-tracking approaches inherently lack information about your team’s activities beyond the most basic details. Not having real-time data or more comprehensive metrics can cause issues monitoring progress and overall having the necessary insights for making decisions.

Lack of Adaptability

With remote and hybrid work becoming more commonplace, traditional time tracking may not be compatible with these more flexible working models. It can be cumbersome for employees to track their time manually when they are working in different locations or schedules.

Here are some ways to Improve your time tracking:

Software Tools

Implementing time-tracking software that is specifically for accounting firms can be significantly beneficial. Software generally comes with features, such as automatic recording capabilities and real-time data tracking, that solve many of the aforementioned issues of traditional time-tracking methods.

Mobile Accessibility

Ensure whichever new time-tracking software you adopt comes with mobile app accessibility. This will help facilitate ease of use and compliance with real-time input because employees can immediately use it wherever they are, even if they are at a client site or working remotely.

Reporting Capabilities

Take advantage of the real-time insights that time-tracking software offers to make the most of it for your firm. Prioritize reviewing the reports regularly to assess progress, resource allocation, and other insights that can help guide decision-making.

Attract Top Talent

Build your team by finding the best candidates with IFG. We provide accounting and finance staffing solutions to clients throughout Canada and the U.S. Our recruiting team has an expansive network of candidates and can help find high-quality employees. Contact us to learn more about our recruiting services.