Log Book Timesheet Blog

Understanding who does what and where, is the key to run any parts and labour business successfully. Here comes the internet and the incredible connectivity it brings.

There is no longer any excuse for not accounting where your people are located, what they did and how long they spent to complete the task.

Some companies feel they are obliged to charge the same rates in their industry no matter who executed the task. Customers also have some idea as to how long it should take to do a given job. So why bother to account for everything you may ask?

The issue is that unless you have some history of where the company hours have disappeared, you will never find out what is profitable and what is not. Furthermore in a competitive world the last thing you want is to be drawn into a competition war where people undercut one another to gain a market advantage. This game of bluff will kill all participants until the biggest loser is found.

You need to differentiate what your business does, how it does it and create value for the customer. Once the benefits are clearly spelled out, a fair price is your reward.

Have you ever realised that your invoice might turn out to be your best piece of marketing for repeat business?

What about if customers could access online and check the progress of a job in terms of billable hours? Is it better to work at the client's premises to pacify a nosy customer or in your office where you can allocate junior staff and train them at the same time?

So we have 3 players here: the company manager, the employees and the customers who are no longer kept in the dark... All these people can enter the same online system with different access levels to see only what they ought to see or type the time spent as soon as a task is done - even away from the office just using a smartphone!

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