Freelance Designers - Are you Tracking your time?
Published on 26 September 13
William
2
No matter how creative your industry may be, it is vitally important for business development for designers to track their time. Tracking your time effectively gives you vital information on what your most demanding and time-consuming projects are, whether you are meeting the goals you are setting yourself and whether you are staying on budget during the course of the project. So if you are not currently using workflow software to manage your business, ask yourself why not?
Using workflow software can help you keep track of exactly where you time is going and what your expenditures are. You can better see and keep track of clients, projects and contracts, as well as invoices, staff timesheets, payroll and emails. Many software packages are able to be easily customised for the size of business you run, and come with consultants who visit your offices you train you and your staff on how to get the best use out of your new software.
So if you’re not already using some form of workflow software to track your time, consider the following benefits of doing so:
The Importance of Time Management for a Freelance Design Business
Keeping track of time in creative industries is particularly important, where time frames can be fluid, projects are not always delivered on time as they evolve, along with the demand of juggling multiple projects at once. Don’t assume you are completing a task in a certain time frame without recording it. Keeping accurate records is the key to staying afloat in a small business.
If you have given an estimate of the time it will take you and your staff (if you have staff) to complete a project, say between 200-400 hours, be sure to check regularly on how you are progressing so you can inform your client ahead of time if you do not expect to meet the original estimate. Keeping track of your time is the only effective way to foresee the development of projects and keeping to budget and time constraints.
Consider how your staff consult with clients throughout a project. Is this the most effective way of doing business? Should we structure in more frequent meetings to help stay on track? Using workflow software will allow you to monitor your progress through any given job and schedule meetings and set communication times. Making sure you have time to keep in touch with clients, ultimately ensures the success or failure of your project.
As your business grows, you will be able to spot trends in your time keeping records of the length of projects you undertake, their cost to the client and the hours your staff work on that project. In the long run, you will be able to extract very useful data on where you have met or missed your targets for projects, which can be used to your advantage in future project management.
Keep ahead with your project management by making use of time keeping software and the many benefits it brings to running a profitable freelance design business.
WorkflowMax is a cloud-based software tool that will take the pain out of running your business. A total solution covering all operations from prospecting to quoting, time sheeting to invoicing and everything in between. Ideal for creatives, agencies, consultants, professional services, IT, and trades - if your business is job focused then WorkflowMax is the tool you need.
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When it omes to the freelancers, the time tracking idea makes a effective sense. its not because the time management is required for the personal stuffs but from the client perspective it makes a great difference. Even I works as a free lancer and I have tend to use cloud based time tracking software from Replicon - http://www.replicon.com/time-tracking-softwares.aspx that is hassle free with calender based and user friendly interface. The so called time tracking software has made my life pretty simple and myself productive.
I'm Charlie with Hubstaff. It's a fact that time tracking app is crucial for freelancers to more accurately send reports on what they have worked on. It's also important for sending correct information when billing clients. One such app I would like to recommend is our very own at https://hubstaff.com. It's got time-tracking with screenshots, projects, and invoicing.