If you’re like most busy consultants you have multiple projects, deadlines, and priorities every day. Your priorities switch every hour with phone calls, emails, meetings, and conference calls. So, how do you track your time? If you are still using Excel, Notepad, or even a pen and paper, you need to get up to speed with technology!
Now there are many different time tracking software available on the market. Some of the top products are:
However, I’ve always used QuickBooks to manage my business finances. The largest pain of QuickBooks was entering in my time each week on multiple invoices, different billable rates, and different line items. All of this pain is gone since I started using QuickBook’s Time Tracker.
The reason I want to highlight QuickBook’s Time Tracker is the usability and integration. Some other time tracking systems do not integrate well with other accounting packages. Plus, QuickBooks is a quick, inexpensive, and easy to use software for consultants.
So what makes QuickBook’s Time Tracker so great?
Usability – The beauty of QuickBook’s Time Tracker is not the web interface. Although the web tool makes it fast and easy to input time, but most time tracking systems have those. The great thing is about QuickBook’s Time Tracker is their Gadget for Windows Vista users. The Gadget allows you to quickly track time, work descriptions, and associate them with different projects you are working on. And the best part, it’s simple to use. All you have to do is select the customer/project you are working on, start the timer, and click submit when you are finished.
Now there are many other Time Tracking systems that make it easy to input your time, so why is this one so special? …. Because it INTEGRATES!
Integration – Because this Time Tracker plugs into Quickbooks you no longer have to copy and paste your time into invoices! That’s right, when you enter yourtime from either the web, or Vista gadget it is automatically pulled into your customer’s invoices (once approved by you of course). This has saved me hours of work. which results in more time that can be productive/billable.
If you use QuickBooks in your consulting practice you should look into QuickBook’s Time Tracking system. In fact, you can try it for 30 days free and see if you like it. You learn more by following the link below:
http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/add-ons/time-tracking-software.jsp
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
