Category Archives: rates

Show me the money!

When we think about a timesheet, we’re more likely to think in terms of hours and minutes rather than dollars (or Euros or Sterling) and cents.  But, in the end, time resolves to money.  For some organizations, they try not to think in terms of rates because the conversation can be so complex or so contentious.

TimeControl was designed from its inception to tackle that challenge.  The first thing to think about is what a rate on a timesheet means and the problem can be that it might mean different things to different people.  Everyone might easily agree that a person worked on a particular task for an hour yesterday.  But to Payroll, that means one thing, to Billing that means something very different and to a project management team that might mean something different again.

That same hour that Payroll says “Well, that actual cost of that hour was $55.00.” might mean to billing “That invoice-able rate of that hour was actually $110.00” or “The invoice-able rate of that hour was $0.”  For project management perhaps they work on an average basis and don’t worry about things like overtime, double overtime, unbillable time or banked time.”  But other parts of the organization do worry about those very things.

The rate structure of TimeControl just like the rest of the product is phenomenally flexible and, unlikely virtually any other timesheet product we’ve encountered, it is designed to be flexible in multiple directions at the same time.

We’ve put together materials that can make this easier to understand for new clients who are just getting their rate structure started or long time existing clients who want to extend their TimeControl to tackle other aspects of costing in the timesheet.  You can find webcasts, screen shots, slide shows and a white paper called “How to create your TimeControl Rate Structure” on the TimeControl website at: https://www.timecontrol.com/features/rates.

 

TimeControl Rates Tutorial

Sometimes here at HMS, we work with something within the TimeControl timesheet system so often, that we forget just how remarkable a feature it is. 
TimeControl and TimeControl Industrial Rates functionality falls right into that category.  There are numerous TimeControl functions that make up the Rates capabilities and we’ve now released a tutorial on how to work with those functions to solve business problems
Some clients need to price hours for invoicing.  Others need to cost the hours for job costing. Perhaps you have different rates for different clients or different rates for different projects.  The rates architecture in the TimeControl timesheet system is the most flexible in the industry and it must be because TimeControl is used for different purposes simultaneously. 
It is a key differentiator over other timesheet options.
Did you know that TimeControl supports an unlimited number of Rate Codes per employee or rates_tutorial_cover_200x258 an unlimited number of Rate Codes in the system?  And, for each and every Rate Code, you can store multiple values. Rates in TimeControl can be defined globally, at the resource or employee level and you can configure TimeControl to show only those rates that are appropriate to a particular situation.
TimeControl Rates can be used to track both internal costs and external invoicing values at the same time.
TimeControl Rates allows you to track an employee working at one rate on one project, and another rate on a different project in the same day.
TimeControl Rates allows the tracking of unpaid overtime and even though you have no extra actual cost today, you could still invoice the work recorded.
Rates play a key part of many timesheet scenarios and TimeControl responds to that challenge with its flexible rate structure.
Both current and prospective TimeControl architects can find out more about TimeControl Rates in our new tutorial at: www.timecontrol.com/timesheet/rates/rates_tutorial.pdf and on the new section of the TimeControl website at www.timecontrol.com/timesheet/rates.