Life is a Bell Curve

Ok, so you know that you are like Indiana Jones and time sheets are your snakes. But are time sheets big, scary boa constrictors for all of us, or do some of us think that time sheets are more like gardner snakes?

I have managed hundreds of consultants in my career, and I can say that we all don't feel the same amount of distain for the treaded time sheet. I haven't talked with anyone who likes time sheets, but some of us hate them less than others. Like most things in life, the level of hate falls along a continuum.

I fall along the far right...I am naturally detail oriented, long to be the A+ student, and pride myself on being thorough. While I don't enjoy time sheets, I see them as a necessary evil, and I have developed systems to help me keep accurate records of where I am spending my time throughout the week. My time sheets are submitted accurately and on time!

I have worked with a few consultants who are the exact opposite of me. They don't get it, they don't care, and they just don't do it. One of my consultants a few years ago had 6 weeks of time sheets outstanding (we didn't bill hourly). When I finally gave him the ultimatum, he had all 6 weeks submitted in 20 minutes...there is no way his time sheets were right. He made it all up.

Then there is everyone else. They get it, and they care, but so many other things take priority. They don't keep up. These folks spend on average, my market research indicates, 3-5 hours per week trying to keep track of their hours, doing the archeological dig through calendars, email, and files to recreate their week. They can't find it all and end up dumping a bunch of hours they know they worked but can't find into non-billable and billable projects without really knowing that the time is right. Its a burden, they hate it, and the data they submit, while better than the guys on the far left, is not accurate.

Where do you fit along this continuum? I'd love to hear from you. 

amulligan@sophity.com

@SophityPSA
Sophity on Faebook

The Snake in the Room...

Superman has kryptonite, Indiana Jones has snakes, and Consultants have...the dreaded time sheet.

When we left Indiana, he had just jumped into the plane, and Jacques was pulling away from the river's edge. He looks down and sees snakes slithering around the floor of the plane and up his legs. "I HATE SNAKES!" said Indie.

As I said, we consultants have snakes too. As we move through our day and week, we are bombarded with major disruptions from members sales, marketing, product management, other customers, etc. We push "send" on that email with the deliverable that was due today attached. Its 6p, and we are running late for something (dinner, kids soccer game, a flight out), so we hightail it out of the office and to our car, but its not until we are half way home that we remember that time sheets are due and we completely forgot to submit ours. "I HATE TIME SHEETS!" we say to ourselves!

Time sheet data submitted by the consultants is critical to the business owners ability to properly bill customers, evaluate service offerings, and manage resource needs and allocations. Yet, time tracking and submission is often an after thought for most consultants. In the grand scheme of things, tracking time and inputting it into the system is the last thing the consultants want to do.

You commit to getting your time sheet done once you get home, but dinner's ready and the kids need help with their home work. You completely forget. You get to work on Monday morning, and there are a handful of emails in your inbox - some reminding you to get your time sheet in on time; others nagging you because your time sheet is late.

When you open up the time sheet system to complete your time sheet - you are stuck. You don't remember what you did yesterday, let alone last week. You start what I call the archeological dig:

• First you dig through your calendar
• Next, you look at emails and phone records
• Then you search through the various documents on which you worked throughout the week.

You piece together some of the time, but you have to make up the rest. Do you add the missing time to non-billable tasks like "Admin," or do you add time to your billable projects?

We'd love to hear from you? How much time do you spend each week recreating your week for your time sheet? What do you do with all those hours you know you worked but for which you cannot find?

Contact us at amulligan@sophity.com.

How Much Are You Losing Because of Inaccurate Time Sheets?

A recent survey we conducted of IT Consultants indicates that 73% of consultants knowingly submit time sheets that do not accurately reflect the work they did.

Incorrect time sheets affect revenue in 2 ways:

• Directly for time-and-materials projects by misrepresenting hours work and, therefore, billed to clients
• Indirectly for fixed-fee projects when the data for those projects are used as the basis of estimates for future projects

Do you know how much revenue you are leaving on the table?

Sample:

Number of Billable Consultants on the team: 11
Bill Rate: $200.00
Billable Hours Missed per Time Sheet: 1
Time Sheets Submitted/Year: 48
Revenue Lost for Work Actually Performed: $105,600 (3% of available capacity)

Plug your data into this equation and do the math for yourself:

# of Consultants * Billable Rate/hour * # of hours missed each week * # of billable weeks/consultant

We want to hear from you!

• Not a problem for you? What have you done to ensure accurate time sheets each week from your consultants?
• If you are still struggling with this? What have you tried? Why have those things not worked?

Contact us at amulligan@sophity.com.

IT Consultants and Indiana Jones Have A Lot In Common

Remember the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Indiana Jones is in the cave, he has found the Idol  for which he has, presumably, been searching for some time. He replaces the Idol with a bag of sand, thinks he is out of the woods, then the drama begins. The stone platform begins to slip down, the walls start caving in, and Indiana, with the Idol in hand and his guide, run as fast as he can past shooting darts, falling stones, and floors that are opening up to get out of the building.

The guide makes if over a large crevasse first. Indiana agrees to throw him the Idol in return for the whip he needs to get across the gaping hole. Only the guide doesn't fulfill his end of the bargain. Indiana is in the cave without the Idol or an obvious way out. This is Indiana Jones, though. He leaps, jumps, runs, and makes his way out of the cave safely, retrieving the Idol from the guide before he makes it out. When he gets out, though, Belloq - his arch nemesis - and a band of native warriors are waiting for him. They take the Idol and threaten to kill Indiana.

Indiana is able to break free, running toward Jacques - his pilot - and the plane. He makes it to the plane, with 10s, if not 100s, of warriors chasing and shooting at him.

So what does this have to do with Consulting? Well, if you have ever been a consultant, you know what I mean.

Consultants are tasks with on-time / on-budget delivery of value added serves for their clients. They are often assigned to 3-5 projects, or more, at one time. Their clients have expectations about what will be delivered to them by when. So, consultants carve out time to work on tasks and deliverables to ensure project objectives are met and clients are happy.

However, like Indiana Jones, consultants rarely get to truly focus on the task at hand. Like most busy professionals, they are over worked and inundated with significant disruptions throughout the day. Each warrior chasing Indiana Jones out of the woods represents a Sales Rep that unexpectedly needs the consultants help to close a deal today, or a Client that needs something earlier or different than planned, or a manager or team member looking for time and help on another project.

Indiana makes it to the plane with Jacques, but as the plane pulls away from the river bank, Indiana is compelled to look down only to find big, ugly snakes at his feet and starting to crawl up his legs. In case you don't remember...Indiana Jones "HATES SNAKES." Consultants have a snake or 2 that we hate, too. We'll talk about them next week.

If you are an IT or Management Consultant and this story resonates with you, I'd love to chat with you, share battle scars, and learn how you reduce the disruption in your day-to-day so you can focus on getting the most important work done on-time and on-budget. Reach out to me at amulligan@sophity.com.

Oh, and if you haven't seen Raiders of the Lost Ark - you should...its awesome! #RaidersoftheLostArk #IndianaJones @SophityPSA