Time management is critical for any consulting firm. When your business relies on daily billing, every misallocated hour is a lost opportunity. A well-integrated timesheet tool becomes a strategic lever to structure project management and increase productivity, provided it’s used correctly.
Why is the timesheet a priority in time management?
In a consulting firm, time is not just a resource: it’s the raw material. Every minute invested by an employee should ideally contribute to the value delivered to the client, business growth, and improved profitability. Poorly managed, this time turns into hidden costs or missed opportunities.
Let’s take a simple example: a digital transformation project estimated at 25 days that ends up taking 35 due to unclear task distribution. The result? Reduced profitability, a team under pressure, and a potentially dissatisfied client. This “is where the implementation of” a timesheet proves crucial.
Without clear visibility into actual workload and deviations, it’s impossible to anticipate or adjust to increase productivity. In short, no data-driven management without time control — and no control without a suitable timesheet.
Consulting Firm: How an Effective Timesheet Works
A timesheet tool is first and foremost a system through which an employee logs their work time per project or task. It can take the form of a well-structured Excel spreadsheet. Better yet, it can be software integrated with your ERP or project management tool.
The principle is simple:
The employee logs their hours daily or weekly.
They allocate these hours to predefined projects or activity codes (client, internal, training, inter-contract, etc.).
The manager or project lead validates the time entries.
The data is consolidated to produce useful reports for management, HR, and accounting.
The timesheet becomes a tool that is at once operational (for consultants), tactical (for managers), and strategic (for executives). This database will allow for adjusting assignments and tasks for better tracking, as well as facilitating project planning and management.
Productivity Optimization: Structure Consultants' Daily Work
Some fear that the timesheet might be perceived as a surveillance tool. In reality, it structures autonomy. It’s a mirror of time spent, giving consultants themselves better visibility into their actions.
“Why did I spend 10 hours on a task estimated at 4 hours”
“What can I delegate or automate next time?”
The timesheet encourages stepping back, prioritizing, and ultimately, the upskilling of employees within the consulting firm. It’s a regular, precise, and formative professional development tool. And a bonus: no more racking your brain on Friday evening trying to remember Tuesday morning’s client or already completed assignments. The timesheet becomes indispensable when it comes to structuring and implementation.
Timesheet in Consulting Firms: 5 Concrete Benefits
Here’s what you gain by structuring your time management with a suitable timesheet tool:
– Better invoicing management: every hour is logged. It’s possible to bill the client for the exact time spent.
– Real-time monitoring: immediate visibility into project progress and upcoming workloads.
– Resource optimization: agile reallocation of profiles according to needs, without overload or underutilization.
– Profitability analysis: comparison of billable time vs. time spent for each project, to adjust billing margins and offers.
– Transparent client justification: clear and dated reports, which avoids unnecessary discussions in steering committees.
A good timesheet is not for surveillance, but to streamline task planning and increase clarity or efficiency while allowing for a more serene approach to assignments.
A Tool for Strategic Planning
The timesheet also allows for intelligent anticipation. Thanks to consolidated data, you can detect upcoming slow periods, plan internal training, or adjust your staffing plan. This allows for better assignment allocation according to schedule and available resources.
Modern tools also offer alerts, personalized dashboards, and integrations with project schedules. In short: you gain agility without losing structure.
Better Project Management, Increased Client Credibility
When a client asks you why a deliverable took five days instead of three, you have two options: improvise an answer or produce a detailed report of hours allocated to each task.
With a good timesheet, you can demonstrate the unforeseen complexity of a technical component, late client validations, or multiple revisions on a deliverable.
This doesn’t resolve all disputes that may arise within the consulting firm, but it avoids many misunderstandings. And in an environment where trust is paramount, it’s a discreet but formidable competitive advantage.
The Timesheet: A Performance Lever for Executives
From a management perspective, the timesheet offers a comprehensive view. You can track key indicators such as:
– the average utilization rate per consultant (ideally > 85%),
– the ratio of billable vs. non-billable time,
– profitability per project or department.
This data is valuable for reviewing commercial offers, rebalancing teams, or identifying low-margin clients. And let’s be honest: it also saves time in management meetings, where everyone has concrete figures rather than vague perceptions.
Furious: Better Time and Project Management
Furious is a next-generation ERP designed specifically for consulting firms, agencies, and IT service companies (DSC). By centralizing time, planning, invoicing, and management data, it saves valuable time on time-consuming tasks.
Furious saved us 10% of the agency's overall time. This may seem small, but as the company grows, it becomes significant. There are many things we've automated thanks to Furious. And most importantly, automation and regular metrics have made a big difference.
Its strength lies in its ability to automatically cross-reference logged time with profitability, team workload, and project budgets. The result of implementing an ERP: clear vision, quick decisions, and smooth execution.
A true all-in-one tool, Furious replaces up to five traditional software solutions and integrates seamlessly into your daily operations.
You might be Asking Yourself these Questions?
01 What is Automatic Transaction Categorization?
This is an AI-based feature that automatically categorizes your expenses according to their nature, for simplified and more reliable financial tracking.
02 how Does Furious AI Work to Categorize Transactions?
With each import or bank synchronization, the AI analyzes the label, amount, and context to suggest a relevant category and tags. You validate, adjust if necessary, and the tool learns from your choices.
03 What are the Benefits of Automatic Categorization for Financial Teams?
Less manual entry, better accounting consistency, reduced human errors, and significant time savings on recurring tasks.
04 Can You Maintain Control over the Categories Suggested by the AI?
Yes, you remain in control of the suggestions: each classification can be accepted, modified, or refined. Automation supports, not replaces.
05 Does the AI Improve its Suggestions over Time?
Absolutely. The more you use the feature, the more the AI learns from your corrections and offers categorizations tailored to your habits.
06 who is this Feature for?
For financial managers, executives, or anyone looking to automate accounting processing, optimize cash flow, and focus on analysis rather than data entry.
