As entrepreneurs, one of the biggest challenges we face is ensuring we bill for our time accurately. How often have you found yourself on the phone with the same client for 15 – 30 minutes at a time, several times a week, but when preparing the invoice, you only factor in your on-site appointments?

Unless you are a lawyer, you don’t bill by the minute. Plus, as a courtesy to your clients, there should be a time when they can contact you ‘off the clock’ to get a quick answer or discuss a minor issue.

However, when bidding for a job, or accounting for your time, factor in the phone calls. It’s only fair - to the client and yourself - to be upfront how much on-line or on-call time is included in the bid.

If you think you are not spending that much time on the phone with clients in unbillable time, get the ACT! timer going and run a simple report at the end of the month (or week):

When you get on the phone with a client or prospect, it’s natural (I hope!) to pull up their contact screen:

At the same time, start the ACT! timer: (Shift+F4 or Tools | ACT! Timer)

When the call has ended, stop the time and an ACT! dialog box opens where you can capture the essence of the call AND the duration:

At the end of the week or month, run an Activity Report to see how much time you have spent on the phone and with whom:

HINT:  Instead of clicking PREVIEW, click TEXT File as the output option – you can open this in Excel and do some financial calculations on time spent on the phone.

It can be an eye-opener!

Use the ACT! timer to ‘get real’ about ACTUAL time spent with a client or a prospect. You may find you need to adjust your bidding, therefore maximizing your billable time.