Tracking your time, and your employee's time, in order to be able to accurately charge for your time spent on your clients projects is an important and helpful component of many businesses, including NDIS service providers.
Luckily, with the technology available these days, this process doesn't have to be hard - or time consuming in itself! However as there are quite a few time tracking applications out there to choose from, it can sometimes be a daunting task to sit down and work out which one is right for you and your business.
To help you narrow down your choices, I’ve created this video to help you to understand important considerations to make when deciding which app to use for your own business. I cover the pros and cons of dedicated time tracking apps vs time trackers built in to multipurpose software. And of course, I will let you know which time tracking app is my favourite and why it works for Positively Sorted.
Once you've watched the video, I'd love to hear from you. Are you looking to switch to a time tracking app? Did you find some helpful tips in this video for making your choice? Or perhaps you use another time tracker that I didn't cover that you would like to share? Let me know in the comments below!
Below is the transcription of the above video:
If your business provides a service, chances are you need to keep track of how many hours you spend on your various clients or projects.
That is certainly the case for me as an owner of a virtual assistant business. I know many bookkeepers, accountants, lawyers and creatives also have to keep track of their minutes spent on customers projects. And of course, our NDIS service provider clients need to keep track of the time spent with participants, travel and report writing.
There are many apps and programs available to help you with time tracking, but I will shortly review some of the main programs my clients used, as well as my personal preferred option.
Firstly, for the NDIS service providers:
You guys might already have a program that you're using to keep track of appointments and client interactions. And that software might have a time tracking feature in it.
One such example of this is a client of ours who uses a program called Halaxy, (which used to be known as “Health Kit”). Although Halaxy doesn’t actually track time, it takes care of all the scheduling appointment bookings. So all the client face to face time is automatically tracked through Halaxy that way.
This is a good solution, as face to face time would probably be the majority of time you need to track, but it doesn’t provide a complete solution for other time tracking needs such as time spent on reports, travel and other chargeable hours.
NOTE: I’ve only just recently started using Halaxy though, so if you are using to schedule and track your non-client-facing work, do share in the comments below how you find it for that.
Secondly, let’s look at Dubsado
Now, Dubsado isn’t specifically health business related but is more broadly used by various types of service providers. Its main function is that of a CRM so you can manage client and project information, and it also automates some of the onboarding steps, like setting up contracts and forms that could be sent to customers automatically. Dubsado also has a time tracker feature in there, that can tie into and automatically populate your invoices.
I’ve started using Dubsado in my business as my preferred CRM, (and I might go into that more in another video) but I’ve actually chosen a different standalone time tracker as I found one that ticked all the boxes for my business.
My preferred time tracker app is called Toggl
Which is spelt T-O-G-G-L. I just LOVE it. I find it’s super easy to use and its main purpose is to track time so it has a few extra handy features:
You can use the Toggl app on your phone or your desktop.
You can easily add additional descriptions and choose from previously set up projects and client codes.
You can use it as you go, with a green GO button when you start something, but if you forget you can also manually add times in later.
The best part is the reports you can run. We are currently on a free plan and not only do we have multiple team members set up in it, we also have access to run any of reports we require to create invoices. We can filter to see the detail per team member or per client and choose custom dates, summary or details. We attach these reports to all our client invoices so they know exactly what they’re paying for. There is a paid plan for Toggl with more features, but as a small business owner, I’ve found the free plan to have all the functionality I need.
Lastly, T-Sheets
Another one of our NDIS service provider clients tracks time is in an app called T-sheets, which is linked to QuickBooks, but you don’t have to use Quickbooks to use this app. T-sheets has many similar features to Toggl. Our client uses it to track her time and enter additional participant details in, then we just run a report so we can claim from the NDIS for her. It makes things really easy for us, as all of the information is in one place.
To sum up, you can track your time within a CRM and practice management apps, like Halaxy and Dubsado, or you can go for a full featured, dedicated time tracking app like Toggl or T-sheets.
I’d Love to hear from you
I hope you’ve found this helpful! Do you have a favourite time tracker? I’d love to hear what you are using or have experience with, let me know in the comments below! Or, if you find it cumbersome to keep track of all the details you need for accurate billing and want some help putting a better system in place, let me know and we can help to set you up for successful stress-free tracking. I’d love to hear from you!
