Time tracking
Logging the hours team members spend on each client and task, so an agency can bill accurately, measure utilisation and price future work.
For example, the team logs time against clients and projects as they work, and a weekly review flags a client absorbing far more hours than budgeted. The agency catches the overrun early instead of discovering it at invoice time.
Why it matters to agencies: time tracking is the raw data behind almost every agency metric that matters - billable hours, utilisation, realization and effective rate all start here. Without it, pricing and profitability are guesswork; with it, you can see exactly where time and margin go.
billable client work (coral) vs non-billable time - what utilisation measures
- Tracking so granularly the team rebels.
- Tracking from memory at the end of the week.
- Tracking but never reviewing the data.
What is time tracking?
Logging the hours team members spend on each client and task, so an agency can bill accurately, measure utilisation and price future work.
Why is time tracking important for agencies?
It underpins billing, utilisation, realization and pricing - without accurate hours, profitability is guesswork.
Should non-billable time be tracked too?
Yes - tracking both billable and non-billable time is what makes utilisation and realization meaningful.
How do agencies make time tracking stick?
Keep it lightweight, log as you go rather than from memory, and show the team how the data improves pricing and protects margin.