opiq TEAM › Guides

How to track time per client (as a team, not just for yourself)

Tracking your own hours per client is easy. Getting a whole team to do it consistently — so you can trust the numbers for pricing and profitability — is the hard part. Here is a practical setup for accounting firms, agencies, IT support companies, architects and law firms.

What you need at the end

For every client and every period: total hours, who worked them, and how they compare with what the client pays. Everything below is designed to produce those three numbers with the least effort for the people doing the work.

Step 1: Set up your client list first

Create one entry per client, using the names your team already uses. Merge duplicates and avoid "misc" buckets — time logged to "other" can never be priced. Keep one internal entry for non-client work (admin, training, sales) so it is visible rather than hidden inside client hours.

Step 2: Keep categories minimal

Start with client only. If you later need detail, add a short list of work types (for example: bookkeeping, payroll, advisory) — not dozens. Every extra required field lowers how often people log.

Step 3: Choose how people log

• Timer — start when you begin work for a client, switch when you change clients. Most accurate for people who switch often.
• Daily overview — review and complete your day before leaving. Good for people in meetings or on site.
• Manual entry and corrections — for forgotten timers and work done away from the computer.

Allow all three. What matters is that time is recorded the same day, not reconstructed at the end of the week.

Step 4: Make switching take one click — also on a phone

The single biggest factor in data quality is how fast it is to switch from one client to another. If it takes one click, people log calls and small tasks too — exactly the unbilled time that makes clients unprofitable. Prefer a tool that works in the browser and on phones, so nobody needs an install and field work gets logged as well.

Step 5: Explain why — and what you don't track

Tell the team the purpose: pricing clients correctly and spotting overload. Make clear you are not recording screens, keystrokes or location. People log more honestly when tracking feels like planning, not surveillance. More on this in time tracking without employee monitoring.

Step 6: Check completeness daily for the first weeks

New habits take a few weeks. Look at who has not logged today and send a friendly reminder, rather than auditing entries. A shared status view (working, on a break, absent, not logging) makes this quick.

Step 7: Review hours against revenue every month

Once a month, put hours per client next to what each client paid. Calculate the effective hourly rate per client and compare it with your target rate. Clients well below it are candidates for repricing or rescoping — see how to find unprofitable clients.

Spreadsheet or tool?

A shared spreadsheet works for one or two people (if that’s you, start with our free client timesheet template). With a team it breaks down: entries are added late, client names are spelled five ways, and nobody sees totals until someone builds a report. A dedicated tool keeps the client list consistent, timestamps entries and calculates totals for you. Whatever you choose, judge it by one question: how many seconds does it take an employee to switch clients?

Common mistakes

• Too many required fields, so people stop logging small tasks.
• Logging only billable time — the unbilled time is what you need to see.
• Filling in timesheets at the end of the week from memory.
• Collecting the data and never comparing it with revenue.

Free tools: client profitability calculator · effective hourly rate calculator · billable utilization calculator