Billzone Blog

Get Your SME Ready to Implement Time-Tracking & Invoicing Software

So, you decided to organize your business around a time-tracking solution.  You did your cost-benefit analysis and found that there would be big gains for your small or medium-sized business.  What now?  Well, there are some proven ways to help you succeed that aren't related to the software itself, but are more focussed on getting your people ready.

Designate a champion

Think about the person in your company that knows your projects and your business.  Someone tech-savvy.  Someone who is a good teacher.  Have this person become the go-to person for the new system in your company.  They will be key to your transition, and the main liaison with your staff and the software company's own implementation team.

Manage expectations

Moving an organization onto any new computerized system can be daunting.  Raise the expectation in advance that there will be disruption to normal operations and procedures while the system is implemented.  If you help staff to expect this in advance, then the actual stress on the team is reduced during the transition. Give people a good timeline and stick to it.  If people know what to expect then they are less likely to be stressed when changes occur.  Involve them in planning.

Communicate effectively

Tell everyone the benefits of the system and how it will help to make the whole company more efficient.  Let them know that a time-tracking, billing, and invoicing system will actually help with every role in the company, be it accounting, project management, contractors, employees, customers and more.

Provide good training

Make sure that everyone has a good chance to train on putting their entries into the system, and to get questions answered by a trainer.  Even after the initial training is completed, have the champion follow up with tips and tricks every once in a while.

Create supportive business rules

Think about the cycles in your small business and how a new system will affect them.  If you create some business rules around the use of the system, it will help you get buy-in.  For example, you might have a policy to support timely invoicing that says all contractors must have their time in by the 7th day of the month for work done in the previous month.  If the business rule is that invoices go out immediately following this, then contractors have incentive to make sure they put their time in or risk having to wait for payment until the following invoice cycle.

Listen

During the transition onto a time-tracking solution, listen to those who bring up concerns or objections.  Their input is extremely important because it can show things that may have been missed, or opportunities to use the technology in places to get further benefits.  For example, you may have purchased your time tracker software simply to automate billing but then find that it can also replace a spreadsheet based project management system used by your team because of built-in project management functionality.

Keep a log

This will help you to see recurring issues with your invoicing, billing, user problems, training issues, and business rules.

Follow up

Whenever there are issues, make sure to follow up with users, first immediately following their issue or complaint resolution, then after some time passes.  This gives ample opportunity to expose any unresolved or recurring issues.

Promote best practices

Overall, you'll get the best results from an online time entry system if you provide some best practices for users to follow.  Keep in mind that because the system is new, people won't have experience in organizing their work around it.  Some companies may encourage daily or weekly reporting from individuals, or may have practices around how long or short comments have to be for each entry if descriptions are required.  Project managers may need a consistent way to set up each project in order for resource usage reports to meet certain guidelines.  If you think of your company's practices in advance and tailor the use of your system to them, you can really get the most out of it.

In the end

In the end, the new system will benefit everyone.  End-users who just put in their time every day will benefit from accurate and timely pay.  Customers benefit from accurate, timely reporting and invoicing.  The accounting side of the business benefits by slashing the time required to do billing, and the management side of things get a good view of everything that happens in the business.  If you organize and help your team through the transition, everyone benefits!