[uniscaper]

What type of form or notes or whatever do you guys use to track your daily hours?
We are continually trying to streamline and we know that to proficiently bid we need actual time cost analysis.
Does anyone have a form that they use to check times on individual process' done on a daily basis?
Or how do you know how long(accurately)it takes to perform individual tasks?

[PSUscaper]

Scary, but as a smaller company that infomation is stored in my head.

I would like to track it, but the time needed just doesn't seem possibe.

As for what others do, I know daily job sheets are the start.

The problem is getting crew members to fill the sheets in. I don't care how fancy the system you have is or how perfect it may be. Unless it is getting filled out correctly, its worthless.

Before a system is even implemeted, I think you have to ask two serious questions.

first, do you have a foreman or crew leader who will take on the responsibilty. In the middle of a hot, 100 degree day, are they going to take the time to fill out a sheet, while at the same time, you are calling them to say get the job done by 5? I have heard very few contractors have much luck in getting anyone to fill the sheets out.

Second, is if you don't have the people in the field to do the work, will you be able, on top of all the other crap that happens in a day, to effectively keep track of the info yourself.

I've tried, but it always seems to get lost in the shuffle. Filling the sheets out is one thing, but then finding time at the end of a day or week to sit down and enter all the data into a spreadsheet of program becomes nearly impossible.

I think you almost have to hire someone, or assign your secretary the duty.

I'm ivolved with a larger company that has a good tracking system, but what I notice is they just can't find the time to get the numbers entered. They just end up with piles and piles of information that never gets anywhere.

Before a system is even decided, great thought must be given to who, when, and how it will be implemented.

Besides unopened boxes of design software that thousands of dollars were spent on purchasing, I would say job tracking software would be the next most popular item I see sitting on the shelves in contractors closets.

[Dale Wiley]

Our job tracking / costing sheet is the crew pay sheet as well. Not filled out correctly ?? It gets returned until it is and not entered into the payroll sheet.

We don't have any problems getting it every day.

[jwholden]

Start simple. Don't try to create a sheet that has 15 different categories of work. First strive to get your crew leaders to track perhaps time in, out, and travel. Go with that for a month or two and then add a little more.

Make darn sure you explain that you are not tracking jobs to try and rake them over the coals for working too slowly. You are tracking jobs so you have the data to use in estimating so they can be given the proper time to do the job.

I started 'tracking' my jobs last year so I could get a grip on how long they actually took. Just having the total man hours on the job was a HUGE improvement and way to track productivity, and estimating prowess, on a job by job process.

I have yet to break a job down to planting, mulching, site preparation, cleanup, materials pickup, etc. That would take the fun out of it and make it work.

On occasion measure how long it takes to spread a truckload of mulch, plant 10 5-6' arbs, or spread a tri-axle of soil with my bobcat. I am always surprised as how much slower real life production is than how I see things happening in my head when I'm hungry for the job.

[cutntrim]

I use paper log sheets for; Time In/Out and a brief description of what was done, but most of my work is maintenance. Moving from property to property throughout the day and performing the same repetitive tasks.

On landscape jobs (which I'm usually onsite) I try to track individual tasks, but I don't always stay on top of it and I'm the owner. I can just imagine trying to get employees to track all the seperate parts accurately.

Entering all the data is a major pain. Takes me two weeks solid of data entry every day in the off season to enter sheets from 6 guys over an 8 month season into QuickBooks.

[uniscaper]

Great input guys thanks. Luckily I a great foreman who is company oriented and will do a great job with those numbers.