For a professional services organization, meeting client expectations, managing budgets and deadlines, and optimizing resources to drive profitability are top priorities. The common thread that ties these goals together? Time and expense tracking software.
With the right software in place, you can effectively monitor how time and project expenses are being allocated, gaining a complete view of your resources. This not only helps keep projects on schedule and under budget but also enables smarter decisions for resource allocation and profitability through accurate billing and reporting.
Since accurate tracking of time and expenses is the backbone of a thriving firm, choosing the right tools is crucial. Keep reading to discover how the right software can transform your processes and why it’s time to move beyond spreadsheets for good.
Why Proper Time and Expense Management is Vital for Professional Services Organizations
Time and expense tracking becomes the foundation of how professional services organizations build their operational efficiency and financial health. Precise time and expense tracking are crucial for a multitude of reasons, shaping everything from client relationships to project profitability.
Time Tracking
Accurate time tracking provides a comprehensive understanding of where employees’ efforts are invested. This data offers insights into project progress, workload distribution, and project management efficiency, aiding managers in making informed decisions. It allows them to identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, and ensure that projects stay on track, ultimately enhancing productivity and client satisfaction. Furthermore, transparent time tracking fosters accountability among team members, encouraging a culture of responsibility and diligence that aligns with real-time decision-making.
Expense Tracking
Expense tracking, on the other hand, is instrumental in maintaining the financial stability of professional services organizations. By accurately recording and categorizing expenses related to projects, such as travel and meals, these businesses gain a clear picture of their cost structure. This visibility empowers organizations to accurately assess project profitability, set competitive pricing, and identify areas for improvement. Effective expense tracking ensures that projects are not only executed successfully but also contribute to the bottom line, safeguarding the financial viability of the organization.
The Problem with Using Spreadsheets to Track Company Expenses
1. Version Control Nightmares
It’s not uncommon to have multiple versions of a spreadsheet circulating within your team — one person’s local version may not match the latest shared version, causing confusion. This inconsistency can lead to errors, data duplication, and even missing billable hours, resulting in revenue loss. Additionally, tracking down the “correct” version often wastes time that could be better spent on valuable tasks, and crucial data could be inadvertently left out, leading to inaccurate reporting and expense time tracking.
2. Burdensome Maintenance
Appointing an individual to oversee the upkeep of a makeshift time and expense tracking spreadsheet can quickly become a burdensome, time-consuming, and inefficient process. As project scopes change, employee details are updated, or expenses need to be logged, the manual adjustments required can pile up. This administrative load detracts from more valuable contributions your team could be making, not to mention that one mistake can lead to cascading errors in client billing or expense management, further harming your firm’s operations.
3. Generic and Inflexible
While tools like Excel or Google Sheets can serve a range of purposes, they lack the adaptability required to meet the unique needs of consultants, accountants, or other professional services firms. Unlike dedicated time and expense software that can be tailored to diverse business models — whether that’s tracking project management for fixed-fee contracts or tracking of time and expenses for time and materials work — spreadsheets often fall short. This rigidity means they can’t automatically calculate varied bill rates, handle complex expense categorization, or adapt to different workflows as your firm grows and evolves.
4. Cluttered and Unintuitive
Spreadsheets are notorious for being cumbersome, cluttered, and difficult to manage as data sets grow. With multiple tabs, rows, and columns to navigate, it becomes challenging to get a clear picture of your firm’s time and expenses in a single view. This disorganization leads to confusion, errors, and inefficiencies when you’re trying to make informed business decisions. In contrast, dedicated expense management software is designed to provide clear insights, visual dashboards, and a streamlined view of your time and expenses, simplifying decision-making and reducing administrative overhead.
5. Lack of Automation and Reporting
Spreadsheets and many time and expense tracking templates are limited when it comes to automation and robust reporting capabilities. Professional services organizations often need real-time updates, customizable reports, and automated workflows to make informed decisions quickly. Relying on manual data entry to generate reports, Gantt charts, and time and expense reports takes considerable time and effort, often requiring advanced spreadsheet skills. A dedicated solution, however, can provide instant access to detailed reports on resource allocation, project budgets, and performance without the manual hassle — allowing your team to focus on what matters most.
What is Time and Expense Management Software?
Time and expense tracking software is a core component of a complete Professional Services Automation (PSA) system. While standalone time tracker apps focus on logging when employees start and end their work—whether it’s daily or for specific tasks—time and expense tracking within a comprehensive PSA platform like BigTime takes it further.
Rather than just recording hours, PSA expense and Time Tracking software transforms into a powerful tool that streamlines your entire business. It manages everything from project management and client invoicing to expense tracking, detailed reporting, and the ability to upload receipts. This all-in-one approach provides businesses with real-time insights into how employees use their time, track costs effectively, predict future expenses, and make better decisions to optimize resources—all contributing to improved efficiency and profitability.
Compared to Excel, time and expense tracking that’s part of a complete PSA software like BigTime offers several advantages:
Automate manual tasks such as calculating totals, generating reports, creating invoices, and even managing approval workflows. In Excel, these tasks require manual data entry, formula setup, and tracking approvals, making the process time-consuming and error-prone.
Centralized data in one place makes it easy to access, update, and analyze all time and expenses in a single view. In Excel, data might be scattered across different sheets or files, creating confusion and difficulty in maintaining a clear overview.
Real-time recording and monitoring of hours and expenses allow you to track projects as they happen. Excel lacks this capability, requiring constant manual updates and synchronization to keep data current.
Customizable templates and fields tailored to specific industries or needs allow for tracking time and expenses in a way that aligns with your business model. Excel requires users to build these templates from scratch, a process that can be both complex and time-consuming.
Advanced reporting and analytics features give insights into employee productivity, project progress, and financial health—all at the click of a button. Excel’s reporting capabilities are more limited, often requiring manual data manipulation and calculations.
Easy receipt management and expense categorization are made possible through features like snapping and attaching receipts directly within the software. With Excel, linking receipts and categorizing expenses (e.g., travel, materials) require separate storage and manual effort.
Built-in compliance and audit-ready records ensure that time and expense data are logged securely with audit trails for easy compliance. In Excel, tracking versions, maintaining change histories, and ensuring audit readiness are far more complex.
Integrations with other software like CRMs, accounting systems, and project management tools help streamline workflows and reduce duplicate data entry. In Excel, data exports and imports between tools are often manual, which increases the potential for errors.
User-friendly features designed for easy use by employees at all levels mean that entering time and expenses in BigTime is simple, promoting consistent usage. Excel’s interface may be less approachable, especially for those without advanced spreadsheet skills.
Cloud-based access and mobile apps enable employees to record hours and expenses from anywhere, whether they’re in the office, traveling, or working remotely. Excel files might be restricted to specific devices or networks, limiting accessibility and real-time collaboration.
Scalability as your business grows, allowing PSA software to easily handle more users, projects, and expenses without losing functionality. Excel, however, can become cumbersome and harder to manage as your data volume increases and business complexity grows.
Effortlessly Boost Efficiency with BigTime’s Time and Expense Software
Designed to meet the unique needs of professional services organizations, BigTime provides a user-friendly interface for effortless time and expense logging while staying sneaky powerful behind the scenes for time and expense reports. Say goodbye to complex spreadsheets and manual methods —BigTime simplifies the process, empowering you to focus on what truly matters.
BigTime makes tracking time and expenses easy:
- Speedy entry with automation: Quickly log time and expenses with auto-fill for repetitive data, auto-save, and smart lookups using user-specific presets, cutting down on entry time and reducing errors.
- Controlled access to information: Limit what employees can see, protecting sensitive information and minimizing errors while providing the data each user needs to complete their tasks.
- Required fields for accuracy: Ensure all necessary details are entered by setting required fields that must be completed before saving entries, improving data accuracy and completeness.
- Flexible submission times: Set optional lockout periods for time and expense submissions, allowing flexibility or firm deadlines as needed for approvals and payroll cycles.
- Comprehensive expense tracking: Mark expenses as reimbursable, non-reimbursable, billable, non-billable, or service fees, allowing for easy categorization and accurate billing.
- Seamless QuickBooks integration for streamlined expense management: Easily post time entries, project costs, and expenses from BigTime to QuickBooks. Keep your accounting up-to-date with automatic syncing, eliminating the need for manual data entry and ensuring accurate financials.
- Mobile app for on-the-go tracking: With BigTime’s mobile app, employees can log time and expenses anytime, anywhere—whether they’re working remotely, traveling, or on-site with a client. The app syncs instantly with the platform, ensuring all data is up-to-date and easily accessible.
Beyond its intuitive time and expense tracking capabilities, BigTime’s professional services automation (PSA) software offers comprehensive resource management, project management, real-time analytics, client invoicing, payments, helpful integrations, and more. With BigTime, professional services organizations can elevate their efficiency, gain actionable insights, and keep projects profitable.
Frequently Asked Questions About Time and Expense Tracking Software
What is the best software for tracking expenses?
BigTime is one of the best options for tracking expenses, offering comprehensive features for logging, categorizing, and reporting expenses, with seamless integrations and a user-friendly interface.
What is time and expense tracking software?
Time and expense tracking software is a tool that enables businesses to log employee work hours and related costs, providing real-time insights into project expenses, billing, and overall financial health.
Is Excel good for tracking expenses?
While Excel can be used for basic expense tracking, it often requires manual data entry and lacks automation, integrations, and real-time reporting, making it less efficient than dedicated tracking software.
Can employees track time and expenses from their mobile devices?
Yes, many time and expense tracking solutions, like BigTime, offer mobile apps that allow employees to log hours and expenses on the go, ensuring accurate and up-to-date records wherever they are.
How does time and expense tracking software help with budgeting?
Time and expense tracking software provides real-time visibility into costs and time spent, allowing for more accurate budget forecasting, tracking against estimates, and adjustments to stay within budget.
