Time tracking that fits IT Services & MSPs
Hours captured as work happens, mapped to the tickets: SLAs and client projects you already plan around.
Manual timesheets are reconstructions, and reconstructions lose money. Worktivity records hours automatically in the background, lets technicians, engineers and service desk staff correct them, and turns the result into timesheets, invoices and payouts data without a second round of data entry.
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Why IT service providers and MSPs need time tracking
Time is the unit IT service providers and MSPs sell, plan and pay against, yet in most organisations it is entered from memory on a Friday afternoon. The gap between what happened and what was recorded is where margin quietly disappears.
Managed service contracts are priced on assumed ticket volume and effort. When one client generates triple the expected load the contract stays the same, the technicians absorb it, and margin transfers quietly from your business to theirs.
Managed service contracts are priced on assumed ticket volume and average handling effort. Neither assumption is revisited, and when a client's environment degrades or their headcount grows the contract stays exactly where it was while the technicians absorb the difference.
Worktivity's time tracking for IT service providers measures actual effort per client and contract, including the work that never becomes a ticket. Hours across support, project delivery, internal work and travel show which agreements are underpriced long before renewal.
Tracking hours per client against tickets, SLAs and project work produces effective hourly rate by contract, updated monthly. MSPs use it at renewal, and increasingly before renewal: showing a client the effort trend three months early turns a difficult repricing conversation into a joint problem-solving one about their environment.
Worktivity closes that gap by capturing hours as they are worked, attaching them to the right project or client, and leaving a clear trail from raw activity to approved timesheet. What you bill and what you paid for finally describe the same day.
How tracked time reaches the invoice
Four steps, none of which involve a blank timesheet grid.
Hours captured, not remembered
The agent records working time in the background and separates idle stretches, so a timesheet starts from evidence instead of an empty form.
Everything mapped to work
Time attaches to the projects, clients and tasks that mirror your tickets: SLAs and client projects, which makes reporting a filter rather than a rebuild.
Approvals without chasing
Employees review and adjust, managers approve in bulk, and locked periods stop retroactive edits from reopening a closed month.
Billing and payouts in one pass
Approved hours flow into invoices and payouts exports with the breakdown clients ask for already attached.
Time tracking capabilities for IT Services & MSPs
Seven capabilities, two of them specific to how IT service providers and MSPs work.
Effort per client and contract
Attribute every hour to a client and agreement, including unticketed work, so contract profitability is measured rather than assumed.
Project versus support separation
Split project delivery from reactive support and internal work, which is the only way to see whether project margin is being consumed by service desk overflow.
Automatic background tracking
Start once and the desktop agent handles the rest across Windows, macOS and Linux. technicians, engineers and service desk staff do not stop work in order to record work, which is the only way tracking survives a busy month.
Project, client and task mapping
Structure time the way you already structure delivery, so hours roll up to the tickets: SLAs and client projects your reporting is built on without manual re-tagging.
Timesheets and approvals
Generated timesheets arrive pre-filled. Employees correct, managers approve, and every change is logged with who altered what and when.
Idle, break and offline handling
Idle thresholds, break rules and manual entry for offline work keep the recorded day honest, including the hours that happen away from a keyboard.
Billable rates and invoicing
Set rates by person, role or project, mark hours billable or internal, and export invoice-ready breakdowns into your accounting stack.
What accurate hours are worth to IT service providers and MSPs
The return shows up in six places.
Recovered billable time
Teams that move from memory-based entry to captured time routinely find hours that were previously written off, simply because nobody recorded them.
Estimates that improve
Every completed piece of work becomes historical data, so the next quote rests on what the work actually cost rather than on optimism.
Faster billing cycles
Closing a period stops being a week of chasing and becomes a review of data that is already sitting there.
Fewer client disputes
Itemised, timestamped breakdowns answer “what did we pay for” before the question turns into a credit note.
Cleaner payouts
Approved hours, overtime and leave arrive in a single export, which removes the spreadsheet stage entirely.
Audit-ready records
A complete trail from captured activity to approved timesheet stands up to internal review and external audit alike.
Where IT service providers and MSPs rely on tracked time
Five places IT service providers and MSPs put this to work in the first quarter.
Renegotiating an underpriced agreement
Renewal conversations need evidence. Twelve months of hours per client against contract value identifies the agreements to reprice and quantifies by how much.
Capturing unbilled work
The five-minute favour repeated forty times a month is real cost. Captured time makes the pattern visible and gives you the choice to bill it or stop it.
Balancing technician workloads
Effort distribution across the team exposes the engineer quietly carrying two clients' worth of escalations, before they hand in their notice.
Fixed-price work that must not overrun
Watch consumed hours against the budget on every engagement and intervene while there is still room to act.
Distributed and shift-based teams
Track across time zones, devices and locations under one set of rules, then reconcile the lot in a single view.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the questions IT service providers and MSPs ask most often about time tracking.
Can we calculate the effective hourly rate we are earning on each contract?
Yes. Total tracked hours per client against the contracted fee, refreshed monthly. That figure is the core reason MSPs adopt this. Firms that review it quarterly rather than annually catch a deteriorating contract while the trend is still small enough to fix without a confrontation.
We already track time in our PSA. Why add this?
PSA time is entered manually against tickets, and it captures what technicians remember to log. Worktivity captures the working day automatically, including work that never reaches a ticket, and the gap between the two is usually the most interesting number an MSP sees all year.
Can we track time spent on client systems remotely?
Yes. The agent records activity on the technician's own machine, including time in remote sessions and RMM consoles, and that time is attributed to whichever client the session belongs to.
Does time tracking require manual timers?
No. Tracking runs automatically once the agent is installed. Manual entry exists only for work that happens away from the computer: meetings, site visits, travel and calls.
Can employees correct their own hours?
Yes, and they should. Employees review and adjust their day before submitting it, managers approve, and every edit is recorded. That combination is what makes the data trustworthy rather than merely automatic.
Does it work offline?
Yes. The agent buffers activity locally and syncs when the connection returns, so travel, site work and outages do not leave gaps in the record.
Can we export to our accounting or payouts system?
Approved timesheets export as CSV or XLSX, and the API lets you push hours into your existing finance stack on a schedule.
Other Worktivity solutions for IT Services & MSPs
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How time tracking works in other sectors
The mechanics are shared; the reporting, policy and vocabulary are not. Compare with a neighbouring industry.
HR & Recruitment Agencies
HR consultancies and recruitment agencies needing time tracking for candidate sourcing, client work, and team productivity optimization.
Learn moreLogistics & Transportation
Logistics companies and transportation firms requiring time tracking for office staff, dispatch operations, and administrative productivity.
Learn moreSoftware Houses
Software development companies and tech firms that need to track developer productivity, manage project timelines, and optimize team performance.
Learn moreArchitecture Firms
Architecture and design firms requiring time tracking for billable hours, project management, and client reporting.
Learn moreProject Management Companies
Project management firms and consultancies that need comprehensive time tracking and productivity monitoring for multiple client projects.
Learn moreLaw Firms
Legal practices requiring accurate billable hour tracking, client reporting, and productivity monitoring for attorneys and paralegals.
Learn more
Ready to see where your hours actually go?
Set Worktivity up for your team this afternoon. The configuration that IT service providers and MSPs need is already mapped out. Fourteen days free, no card, and the data is yours either way.
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