Time Recording and Billing Software

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Time Recording and Billing Software

• PBCS Lecture 4

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Characteristics

• Critical to practice
• Costly in terms of time and money
• Significant benefits can be gained if useful
  information is gleaned from system

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Cost Considerations

• System cost
• Installation and data migration
• Training
• Maintenance

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Hidden Costs

• Disruption to practice
• Data entry staff opportunity costs
• Loss of client goodwill if errors occur
• New working practises

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Benefits

• Improved cost recovery
• Drill down facilities to examine costs
• By work area
• By partner
• By individual
• By client
• Controlling Productive vs. Non Productive time

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Benefits

• Billing itemisation
• Tracking student work load for professional
  bodies
• Single data set for client billing details

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Selection Criteria

• Cost
• Is cost scaled to size of practice?
• Number of users
• Add On Features

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Selection Criteria

• Capture of required data
• How many levels of activity will be recorded?
• Taxation
• Individual
• Corporate
• Tax Planning
• Return Completion
• Precision of time units
• 15 minute billing intervals? Half day?

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Selection Criteria

• Charge out rates
• What kind of flexibility is required?
• Are there different rates for different
  activities? Levels of staff?
• Interim billing
• Audit requirements for write offs
• Who can see what data

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Selection Criteria

• Integration with current and planned systems
• Does package link to accounting package for sales
  ledger update and debtor management?
• Are reports sufficient, or will a reporting tool
  need to be used? If so, is there in house
  expertise to produce reports?
• Will package run on next scheduled operating
  system or on next hardware replacement cycle?

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Selection Criteria

• Ease of use
• Training requirements
• Data capture and entry expense
• Data entry method
• Timesheets keyed in centrally
• Data entered directly by staff

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Available Packages

• Timeslips
• Sage Time and Fees
• Solution 6