CPA_Practice_Advisor_March_2020 - 10

REVIEW: TIME & BILLING SYSTEMS

By Mary Girsch-Bock

Don't Leave $Millions of Billable Time on the Table
DO SPREADSHEETS PLAY an important part in your timekeeping process? Do your employees still need to stop what
they're doing after each consultation or telephone call to
record the time they spend on each client? Do they then
have to log into another software application to transfer
their time to an invoice in order to accurately bill their
client? Do you feel that hours and hours of time is not being
billed properly, or worse, not billed at all?

Homebase	

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that your profitability levels are where
they need to be.
Additionally, these two highly-rated
products were reviewed last year but
did not have significant additions since
then.
■ AccountantsWorld Practice Relief
■ PracticeEngine
We also looked at Homebase,
which provides small businesses with
timesheet and mobile time clock functions for employee time tracking and
scheduling.
The features and functionality of
these applications vary, with some best
suited for smaller firms while others
are better suited to a larger firm that
has more complex billing and invoicing
needs. Throughout the review process,
we looked at a variety of features,
including the following:
■ Time tracking capability - including
the ability to track time in a variety of

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https://joinhomebase.com

If you have clients needing a timesheet application or mobile
time clock to record employee time, look no further than
Homebase.
Homebase currently offers four plans that are ideal
for small to mid-sized businesses that need a way to track
employee time accurately, and with its scheduling app,
Homebase is a particularly good fit for hospitality businesses
such as restaurants and cafés.
All plans offer an online schedule builder, open shifts,
templates and labor forecasts, complete time clock functionality, including tracking of breaks and overtime, as well as the
ability to prepare timesheets for payroll. Historical timesheets
are available for easy access, and users can factor in statespecific guidelines regarding breaks and overtime regulations
for any state.

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Time

BIGTIME IQ
BQE CORE
CHROMETA
IMAGINETIME
TPS
TSHEETS

and billing applications:
■ More detailed time tracking capability
■ Fast and easy invoicing options
■ Better invoice management capability
■ Better reporting options
■ Summarization of employee efficiency
and performance
■ Better view of project costs
It's not an exaggeration to state that
accounting and other professional firms
leave millions of dollars of billable time
on the table each year due to inaccurate

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If you regularly use spreadsheets
to track and use as a basis for invoice
preparation, you know that the process can take hours, and even days,
depending on the size of your staff. Now
imagine all of that information tracked
and managed in a single location, where
your staff and colleagues can record
their time and create an invoice, all
from the same application.
Here are some reasons why more
accounting firms are moving to time

timekeeping mechanisms, lack of
accurate tracking, or simply time spent
that never makes it way to an invoice.
Quite frankly, it's a pain to have
to access a spreadsheet after each 15
minute phone call, Others swear that
they'll remember to jot it down once
they're done with their current activity.
But in many cases, they simply jump to
another call, another project, or another
tax return and never remember that 15
minute phone call. And those phone
calls add up to a lot of unbilled time.
In this issue we reviewed a variety
of Time Management and Time & Billing applications, including:
■ TPS Time &
■ BigTime IQ
Billing
■ BQE Core
■ TSheets by
■ Chrometa
QuickBooks
■ ImagineTime
Even if your firm uses flat-rate billing for your clients, you still need to
track employee time in order to ensure

Homebase tracks total hours worked, including breaks
and overtime, with the ability to account for tips as well.
The application will automatically identify missed breaks
or accidental clock outs, with an easy fix available. Once a
timesheet is completed, it can be easily exported to a variety
of popular payroll software applications including QuickBooks
Payroll, ADP, Gusto, SurePayroll, and Square Payroll.
Time can be easily tracked on multiple devices, including
mobile phones, tablets, computers, and point-of-sale applications. The GPS Clock feature displays who is clocking it at
what location, allowing managers to verify that employees are
at the correct location. Users can clock in offline if necessary,
syncing the time to the application once back online, and
managers will receive alerts when employees clock in late. The
system is also designed to prevent early clocking in.

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

The scheduling option in Homebase allows managers to
create schedules in minutes, and it offers the ability to share
schedules to any device immediately with templates available
for easy schedule building. Employees are reminded of upcoming scheduled shifts, and employee time off is easily managed
in Homebase as well. Managers will appreciate Homebase's
ability to track labor costs, daily and weekly sales totals, as
well as scheduled versus actual hours.
Homebase's four plans include: Basic, which is free;
Essentials, which is $16 per month; Plus, which is $40 per
month; and Enterprise, with pricing available upon request.
All plans support unlimited employees. Homebase also offers
an Accountant Partner program, a nice option for accounting
firms that currently process payroll for clients.
https://www.joinhomebase.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
CPA_Practice_Advisor_March_2020

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