Keeping Track Of Hours

Philly Dude

For the new year I am gonna start doing something I know I should have been doing all along, keeping track of my hours. For now I'm just gonna do an Excel spreadsheet and put in my hours each day. I'm thinking of having 3 categories: production hours, overhead hours, and administrative hours. Production hours would be actual work done at the jobsite including setting up and breaking down. Overhead hours would be things like organizing the truck and the shop. Things that have to be done but I can't justify billing a customer for the time. Administrative hours would be working on estimates and looking at jobs. What about picking up materials ? Should I count that in with production hours ? Or have a seperate catagorie for it ?

FarmerSpark

I would think that picking up materials would be a task directly billable to any given job. However, it may be handy to have a record of time spent doing this task. I say track it also....FWIW, I plan to do something similar this year as well...GOOD LUCK!!!!

GAK

I have been tracking my hours for 10 years now, among many other things, on Excel also. I try to break them down in 1/2 hour increments. The columns are Production- anytime spent working on a job, Bidding- any time spent out in the field measuring job, talking to homeowners, etc, Superintendant- chasing materials, cleaning truck out, etc, Office time- time spent at the desk, and Drive time.
On the same Excel file I have pages to track Billable hours for myself and each employee and also a seperate page for each employee with their times broken down each day for whatever jobs they were on along with paycheck information.
Just yesterday I make seperate page to compare billable hours per employee by hour. I plan to use this as a tool to illustrate to my employees that the amount that they make in a year is reflected in how many billable hours they put in. I also intend to use for health insurance eligability.
Tracking hours for yourself is a good idea. In time it will show you a lot. I can see how I have steadily spent less time on the job and more in the office. I am tracking suoerintendant hours to see if I will reach a point where it will be better to hire one.

parkerfairfield

GAK:

You can then begin estimating per PIECE rates for items ... allowing you to come up with 'standard pricing' - which would allow ANY employee to give a non-binding 'ball park estimate' without you needing to go initially.

PIECE rate also would mean that if you can convert your staff over, your WC and taxation changes - at least in California.


Good luck.

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superiorceiling

Philly Dude,

Seems like you and I have the same New Years resolution....

Does anyone have a downloadable time tracking form?

CBG

Tracking your time is an excellent idea. Do you record it twice a day (luchtime to record morning hours & days end to record afternoon hours) or just at the end of the day? A workable format for this would be good, but maybe good ole excel is as good as it gets. IMO a form sharing format on CT is an excellent idea as well....any takers?