Barcode scanning can be used for assembly and manufacturing shops using Standard Time. You put a bar code your work orders and track them with Standard Time. How easy is that!
Imagine knowing how long it takes to assemble a product. Sure, you have a good guess. But you might be shocked to know the actual time. Or the variances. What’s the longest it takes? Or the shortest? What factors contribute to long assembly times? Or the shortest?
Knowing these things can change your business.
How barcode scanning in Standard Time works
First you scan an employee name. That tells the system who is doing the work. Then you scan a project task name. The timer in ST immediately starts. Scan the employee name with the word STOP and the timer stops. Now you know how long this employee worked on that assembly. The software totals up all the employee time for each assembly. Now you have the raw materials for your stats.
Standard Time Timesheets can import Microsoft Project MPP files. Actually, ST talks directly to MSP and brings down tasks into the ST database. Technical talk… sure, but that really just means that you can see your MSP tasks in the ST timesheet. Watch the video and scroll down to read more below.
Standard Time connects directly to MS Project. That allows it to pull down tasks and resources into it’s own database. The end-result is that you can see tasks in the Standard Time employee timesheets. Each employee sees their own tasks. They enter hours into the timesheet. And those ‘actual’ hours can then be sent back to MSP.
What value is this to project managers? It means your actual hours from employee timesheets ‘activates’ your MPP file. With actual work hours, your project comes alive. Tasks may be pushed out because employees are taking longer than expected. Or, they may be pulled in so others can begin. In either case, actual hours affect your schedule in real-world ways.
MSP Task Usage
Need to see how actual work affects task usage? Watch this video below. You’ll see the actual hours from the Standard Time timesheet overlaid on your MSP tasks.
You can use Standard Time to link with QuickBooks for invoicing your time and expenses. Track time in Standard Time, and then send it to QuickBooks. You can invoice clients, pay employees, and run reports.
QuickBooks is a great accounting package. But it’s not much of a project tracker and timesheet. You don’t get any real project management; there is no resource allocation, employee availability charts, or project revenue sales funnels. That’s only natural. QB does what it does. And it does it well.
That’s why you need a product like Standard Time. You get all the project management you need there, and you can simply send employee time and expenses over to QB. Simple!
Here is a utilization report that records the number of hours employees spent working on projects in a given date range. You see how many of those hours are billable verses non-billable. That results in a effective billing rate. I.e. the true rate you are getting.
Why is a utilization report important?
Utilization reports tell you how effective your business is. They tell you how much you are earning.
Let’s say you have ten consultants on staff. They all bill out at about the same rate. Nine of those employees have an average of 20% administrative time. The other has only 15%. Nine of them are working about 40 hours, while the tenth one is consistently working 50. Sure, not all 50 are billable hours. But still, 50 is huge.
You can easily imagine that the ‘star’ employee is pulling down a lot more dough than the other nine. But how much? Run a utilization report and you’ll see.
Here’s an example of two consulting scenarios below. Your star consultant is banking a lot more than the other nine. And the effective billing rate is higher.
180 hours
150 billable
$100 per hour
$15,000 revenue
$83 effective rate
225 hours
191 billable
$100 per hour
$19,125 revenue
$85 effective rate
But do you know the utilization and rates your consultants are working at?
It’s real easy to find out. Just run one of these reports. When you do, you must choose a date range. Try running monthly reports, and then try quarterly, and finally yearly. You’ll learn a lot about your actual track record.
There’s just one thing… people are not machines. Don’t expect to measure things like horsepower and mean-time-between-failures and such. If you want higher effective billing rates, more hours, and more revenue, you’ll have to inspire employees to want to do more. You can’t wave a utilization report in front of them and demand more. It doesn’t work; they’ll probably quit unless they really need the work.
Employees want to be inspired and be part of a cause. That cause often includes stepping stones to more responsibility and promotions by becoming an integral part of the organization. It involves fulfilling the long-term goals of the company and securing long-term viability in the marketplace.
So… utilization reports are nice. And probably a requirement for viable consulting firms. But are you using them to inspire, or just to demand more? Something to consider…
Don’t use a spreadsheet to track your projects. This video will show you a better way.
I guess every hardcore project manager knows that. But it’s worth a reminder. Watch the video.
Here’s the first point. You can’t sync Android and iOS with a spreadsheet. That means somebody is stuck entering time on a desktop. What about your employees in the field? How do they get their hours back to your project? Why not just use an app that syncs?
Second: In a spreadsheet, your billing rates will get so out of whack you’ll want to off yourself. There are tools for this sort of thing you know. Just sayin’ 🙂
Third, your spreadsheet is not likely to look for user mistakes. So you’ll be correcting them every week. Is that a good use of your time? And what if you make a mistake. 10% of those mistakes never get found. Multiply those hours times your billing rate. That’s how much you lose in human error. Uggh…
Fourth, sure, you can create some charts to show project status in a spreadsheet. But are they all encompassing? Or do you update them every time something changes.
Fifth: Can you log in with the web. Sort of… I guess. But now you have sharing issues.
And lastly, you really don’t get a lot of project management in spreadsheets. Standard Time has PM aplenty. Like that word, aplenty. Me to. 😉 PM aplenty.
This timesheet will help consulting and manufacturing business keep on budget and keep their projects on task. Here are five ways it can help you!
The five timesheet features are these:
Unique layout
Project tasks, with hierarchy and rollups
Time log list
Expense tracking
Client invoicing
Time off (vacation tracking and PTO)
You get a lot more than a timesheet with Standard Time®. There are numerous project management features that tightly integrate with the timesheet. Project managers will love the actuals entered by employees. Consultants will use client billing. And employees will find the timesheet simple and useful. Plus, you get PTO accruals and time off tracking.
Stopping the employee camp-out syndrome. This video show you how! This is an important way Standard Time can keep you on budget and your project on task.
Here’s the issue: sometimes employees camp out on tasks they feel comfortable with. They may be scared of upcoming tasks they don’t know the details of. Or they may not know how to perform those upcoming tasks. They may not know that your project must move forward to make a profit. After all, few employees truly understand profit and loss. So stay where it’s comfortable — right there on the comfy tasks.
This Standard Time feature give you a way to move employees through project tasks quickly. How? Employees get a popup when their task is nearly complete. They get an error when it’s fully complete. Little messages like this are usually enough to ensure that tasks are completed quickly, and employees move onto new tasks right away.
Want something else just as cool? There are project task rollups in Standard Time. That means you can see at-a-glance how many hours have been charged to each task. And those values roll up to the project level, so you see that too. Getting project status is easy.
The Quick Task Window makes keeping track of your time easy! All you have to do is click to start a task, and then click to stop. This starts and stops the timer. The time between clicks is automatically put into the timesheet. This is then sent to your manager automatically. This keeps your projects on task and keeps you on budget!
Any time you can collect employee hours close to the actual job, you will be ahead. The closer the better. That eliminates human error and gives you exact times. Of course, this feature is optional. You’ll have to decide if using the timer fits your corporate culture. In other words, will it spark an uprising? Will employees hate it? Sure, that can happen. But a timesheet timer is sometimes a welcomed convenience. Give it a try and see how it works for you!
You’re going to like Timesheet Favorites! You can select your favorite projects, or just the ones you are working on now. Only those will show up in the timesheet. If your company has 499 projects, you don’t have to see all those in your Timesheet. That’s a lot to scroll through. Just pick your favorites from the Favorites Menu and you’re good to go!
Project rollups in Standard Time are a welcomed feature for project managers. The Duration and Actual values show at the project level, just like MS Project. When time is added to the timesheet, values roll up and managers can see employee hours at a glance!