[jwholden]

I have a great sheet that I started using last year to track the time on jobs from day to day. I can keep a running total of time on the job with the numbers from this sheet.

What I don't have is a total hours spent on ALL jobs for the year. I forget to track time spent checking if a plant died, design time, bookkeeping time, etc. I can look at paystubs for the hours my employees worked, but I don't watch myself too carefully. It seems important to know the hours employees spent working at a customers house as opposed to washing company trucks.

What system do you use to track time for each job and total 'billable' hours for the year? How detailed do you get?

[cutntrim]

This area is one that I'm trying to tweak to work better for my own company. Currently we fill out individual logsheets that simply have columns for; Customer Name, Time In, Time Out, Notes/Service. At the top of the sheet is; Employee Name, Date, Start Time, End Time.

That's it. Then I log them into QB, which is what I spent yesterday and the previous day doing. I've still got 4/5 left to do, since I've only entered my own logsheets so far...

As far as logsheets go, mine seem to work o.k., it's the way I input the data into QB that I'm trying to tweak. I tend to overcomplicate things and have to many "Jobs" and subcategories of "Jobs" listed right now. I'm trying to get away from convoluted entries like, "Annual Commercial:Winter Maintenance:Snowplowing" and simply enter "Winter Maintenance" or "Snowplowing", when tracking time. Hopefully by condensing my list of "Jobs" , I can just use "Classes" to track time by customer type/job.

I'm still trying to figure out how to best use QB Contractor 2006, especially for tracking Job Profitability. What I can't grasp is how to account for my own time spent on jobs, since I'm the owner and take a draw, versus employees who are paid through payroll. I plan to have some questions ready for my accountant when I go in to check my tax return after he's prepared it.

[jwholden]

cutntrim,

I just upgraded to QB Contractor 2006 and have made it my mission to learn how to use this program CORRECTLY. I was playing with the timesheet feature today, and see possiblilities to use it to track hours on both jobs and total hours of production.

I want to check with my accountant to make sure I'm not screwing up the way QB thinks. I use an outside service for payroll, so I can't use QB to calculate the cost of my employees time. But I'm hoping to keep a running total of production, design, bookkeeping, and downtime hours.

Winter goes by so quickly...

[JohnIV]

I know that some of you don't like spending the $$$ on software but QXpress does a great job of tracking that stuff and then taking it over to QB. You might want to give it a look.

[cutntrim]

Originally posted by JohnIV
I know that some of you don't like spending the $$$ on software but QXpress does a great job of tracking that stuff and then taking it over to QB. You might want to give it a look.

Cost me $413.99CDN to upgrade from QB Pro 2003 to QB Contractor 2006.

I've checked out the QXpress website, but I'll have my hands full just figuring out how to best use the QB Contractor for this year...

JW: I use ADP payroll, but am thinking about just using QB, specifically because it CAN track job profitability including labour costs, especially when you use QB for payroll.

[JohnIV]

I understand that you are trying to learn how you are going to use QB. We use QB to do our payroll so when you post time in QX and post it over in QB it takes it to all the proper accounts including payroll. QB offers different payroll option that allow you to do payroll in house from QB the software will update automatcilly if there is tax changes it is pretty slick and easy to use. Our accountant then checks things over to make sure everything is up to speed.

[Dale Wiley]

There are any number of different things we should track, and there are several different levels of "time".

Since we all have production hours, and we all have support hours in direct relation to the production hours that must be recovered as well.

We start by tracking all time as related to job numbers. All production work on that job is tracked to the job number. All support times for that job are tracked to the job number as well.

The crews enter daily production. We bill at least 8 hours per man per day.

I enter that number every morning before the crew gets in. I know exactly where the job is at at all times.

I have a daily report where I enter all production hours, all support hours, it gives me my efficiency rating, it gives me hours billed against current labor and overhead and net profit. It also doubles as our payroll report.

Warranty or call backs are charged back against the job and bonus pool as well. In my new role as project manager, I am on the jobs 3 times each per day. The operations and support person trucks materials and supplies, does irrigation service, fueling, and repairs. We try to bill as much of his time as possible, but we have it set up in overhead to recover 1/2 his compensation package against overhead.

I have found that by heading off any problems, utilizing the QAR process, we are not going to have the amount of warranty issues, call backs and shoddy work we did last year. This reduces our administrative costs as well.

We keep it simple, track production and efficiency rates, and try not to get too complicated.

The COMPASS system requires you to set up a time bank, to hold time in reserve for unforeseen problems. If you do not utilize this time, then you are free to sell it. It is a relatively small amount, so paying attention to operations is always better than relying on the time bank to cover the problems. This IS assuming that you keep operations on track, and do not incur losses elsewhere.

[cutntrim]

"We keep it simple, track production and efficiency rates, and try not to get too complicated."

Yeah, but once you start talkin' efficiency ratios and QAR processes my eyes start to glaze over...

You must be the Obi-Wan Kenobi of tracking time...and I think I should have taken economics instead of phys. ed. at university!

[jwholden]

Dale,

How do you physically track that time?

A stack of dirty and crumpled papers in the corner of the office, an excel spreadsheet, a journal, some exciting program we all must have.

How do you KISS?

[Dale Wiley]

Each crew foreman has a time sheet.

Support time starts at the shop. Job # 600

Crew gets to site, enters start time on Job # 610.

Crew enters leave time as support , Job # 600.

Crew performs end of day chores, and prep for next day. Crew foreperson enters quitting times. Attach's any materials invoices. Turns in to office.

I get in office at 6 am. All sheets are in Excel. I totalize the sheets make sure they balance. Enter the total times (including support) to the job cost. Enter the materials to job cost.

I enter the times again in the daily report by employee and production versus support, this gives me payroll hours, gives me hours sold converted to dollars billed against labor and overhead liabilities. I know right where I am at every day. The production to support ratio gives me my check on actual job times, and monitors our support process, so that the proper percentage is always entered into the estimates for support functions.

This total process takes me less than 25 minutes per day.

We make sure we bill every hour to something , somewhere in construction jobs, so we can actually achieve efficiency above 100% in some cases.

The foreperson's and crew are only bonsued on production in excess of 100%, so they have a stake in the efficiency of the operations and support process's.

They finished up a job at 3pm yesterday. Foremen Nextels me and says they are done, and are going to the next job, which I walked him through 2 days before to start demolition. They got another hour and 15 minutes on that job done, foreman sent them back to get tools / materials ready for today, he went and moved the Vermeer, and everyone clocked out on time.

I know that the next job is already 4 hours ahead of estimate. If they hold the line, they will hit around 108% on that job, and we ALL will split up the 8% as bonus, BECAUSE I already have the company net at 100%.

The QAR (Quality Assurance Report) is a sales tool and my responsibility. It is a document we use to make sure the client is accepting of the job, that we have done everything we contracted to do, and the client can pay us NOW based upon those parameters. This particular document is part of the COMPASS system as well.

We have another internal check list the foreperson and I use at 48 clock hours, 24 hours and at job completion, before we go to the QAR with the client.

A strict division of responsibilities between myself and the operations / support foreperson, has worked well so far, and if we all do our jobs, everything comes together well.

I have all my paper work done by 7 am, which includes crew sheets. I generally don't go the job's until about 9 am and then again at 12:30 pm , and again around 2:30 pm.

If I get involved hauling materials etc, I charge the job for my time at my office rate of $ 45.00 per hour.