Simplifying Time Tracking for Your Crew

Time tracking accurately

Time tracking accurately and then allocating time to jobs can be a challenge for your crew. It takes leadership to embed diligent time tracking into your team culture.

But why should have time tracking to the point of allocating it to the job though? Why not just skip it?

(”I know what we worked anyway!”)

What’s wrong with my team just texting me their hours on Fridays?

Why not just use a time clock on the shop wall to mark when the employee arrived and left for the day?

Isn’t that good enough? Just need to know how many hours to run for payroll, right?

Well…

That is right, one function of time tracking is to accurately pay our people. Payroll.

But there’s another function.

One that is equally as important, maybe even more important.

Because if I don’t get this one right, it jeopardizes my ability to pay my team, or at minimum jeopardizes my ability to give them raises.

What is this other function of payroll?

Let me paint a time tracking scenario.

Let’s say you are time tracking on the time clock on the shop wall.

You are crushing it. Getting jobs done and cranking through your scheduled work that you sold.

You look up at the end of the season and check your bank account expecting to see a nice chunk of cash in there.

And you’re like “What!? 😱🥶

Where’s all my cash!?

We worked harder than we ever did before.

Processed more revenue than we ever did before.

Clients are happy, we have 5-star reviews galore.

Instagram loves our stuff.

But my bank account is feeling left out in the cold.

How am I going to make it through the winter on this?

This doesn’t make sense!

Ahem…. remember those time sheets from the time clock on the shop wall?

Those time sheets don’t signify what you were working on, they only signify that you were working.

The top reason for the problem scenario I painted out above is getting labor wrong in

1. either your estimates. Not estimating enough labor when calculating your estimates.
2. efficiency. It just straight is taking longer than it should.

You just don’t know it. And you don’t know which.

You might have a feeling where the issue is.

But gut feeling doesn’t count.

In God we trust. All others bring data.

Cold hard emotionless data is the only thing that can tell you the truth as to why that bank account isn’t keeping pace with all your hard work.

So, how do we get that data?

What good time tracking looks like

Time tracking is tied to the job, and the work area within the job.

ie Bob worked from 7 AM to 4 PM.

From 7 to 11 he worked on the patio work area. From 11 to 4 he worked in the landscaping work area.

With this level of detail, you can know exactly what took longer or less time than you had planned in your estimate.

Armed with that info, you have the power to run your business on data, not gut.

Strategically, not reactionarily.

When you run over hours on a job, the million-dollar question is “Well, why!? Where? What work area?”

When you can open up a job costing report and see exactly where you went right and where you went wrong you can do two things:

1. Look at the estimated vs actual hours with your crew and ask them their opinion on the why for each work area that went over estimated hours. (As well as why for the workareas that were under estimated hours!)
2. If you determine you simply didn’t figure enough hours in the original estimate, reality is it just takes longer than you had thought, then adjust your estimating to not repeat the same mistake on the next job.