How timesheet entries are recorded can have a significant impact on productivity reporting, chargeable time, and staff KPIs.
A common question is whether changing time from a billable project to an Admin job – or writing time off – affects how an employee’s productivity is measured.
The following explains how Abtrac treats these different scenarios and the impact they may have on productivity and profitability reporting.
The Client Question:
If we change time that was originally entered against a billable project – how will this change affect productivity?
When we review timesheets, we sometimes need to change where time has been charged.
For example, if a chargeable timesheet line has been entered against a project, and we later change that line to an Admin job or Admin project, will that affect the employee’s productivity or chargeable time in Abtrac?
Alternatively, if the time is left on the project but written off, will that affect the employee’s chargeable or productive time?
This is important because it could affect staff KPIs.
How Abtrac Works
Yes, changing a timesheet line from a billable project to an Admin job or Admin project can affect productivity and chargeable time reporting in Abtrac.
In Abtrac, productivity is generally measured as time spent on billable projects compared with total time across a selected date range.
So, if time is moved from a billable project to a non-billable Admin job, that time will no longer be treated as billable or productive project time.
Understanding billable projects
Example
An employee enters time against a billable project.
Later, that timesheet line is changed to an Admin job, such as internal training, administration, or another non-billable activity.
Because the time is no longer sitting against a billable project, it can reduce the employee’s chargeable or productive percentage in productivity-based reports.
Read more about productivity totals
What Happens if the Time Is Written Off?
If the time remains against a billable project but is written off, it is still treated as productive time.
This is because the time was still spent working on a project.
However, while it may still count as productive time, it may affect profitability.
This means an employee could appear highly productive because they are spending a lot of time on billable projects, but the work may not be profitable if a significant amount of that time is written off.
Productivity vs Profitability
It is useful to separate these two ideas:
Productivity usually looks at whether time was spent on billable project work.
Profitability looks at whether that project work recovered its value through billing.
For example, time spent on a billable project may be productive, even if some or all of that time is later written off.
But if time is moved to an Admin job, it may no longer count as productive or chargeable project time.
Project Time, Training, and Admin Time
Abtrac’s general approach is that if time is spent working on a project, it is productive project time, even if that time is later written off.
However, if someone is training another staff member, learning something new, or doing work that management considers internal rather than project-related, then it becomes a management decision whether that time should remain as a project cost or be moved to Admin.
This decision should be made consistently, especially where staff KPIs are based on productivity or chargeable time.
At Work (an accurate measure of productive time)
Why Write Offs Happen
Write ons and write offs are a normal part of project work, particularly on quoted or fixed-fee projects.
A write off does not always mean the employee has done something wrong.
It may indicate:
- The original quote was too low.
- The scope of work changed.
- The wrong level of staff member was allocated to the task.
- Additional training or supervision was required.
- The project was not managed as expected.
- The work took longer than planned.
Because of this, productivity and profitability should be reviewed together rather than relying on one measure alone.
Which Reports Can Help?
Productivity-based reports, like Employee Productivity, can help show how much time employees are spending on billable project work.
Profitability reports, such as Fees and Costs by Employee, Client and Project, can help identify whether that productive time is also being recovered financially.
Used together, these reports can help management understand whether a staff member, project, quote, or workflow needs further review.
Summary
Changing a timesheet line from a billable project to an Admin job can affect the employee’s chargeable and productive time.
Leaving the time on a billable project and writing it off generally means the time is still treated as productive, but it may affect profitability.
For KPI reporting, it is important to be clear about whether the time should be treated as project work, admin work, training, or non-billable internal time.
If KPIs are based on productivity, chargeable time, and profitability, your team should apply these rules consistently so reporting remains fair and meaningful.
Abtrac KB# 2267