Time tracking that fits Project Management Companies
Hours captured as work happens, mapped to the milestones, workstreams and change requests you already plan around.
Manual timesheets are reconstructions, and reconstructions lose money. Worktivity records hours automatically in the background, lets project managers, coordinators and PMO leads correct them, and turns the result into timesheets, invoices and payouts data without a second round of data entry.
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Why project management companies need time tracking
Time is the unit project management companies 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.
A project management firm sells the one thing it is worst at measuring: management attention. Schedules and status reports describe the client's project, but rarely show how much of your own team's capacity each account consumed, until two accounts collide and something slips.
Project management firms bill in a mix of fixed retainers, phased fees and mobilisation charges, and the effort curve rarely matches any of them. Mobilisation and closeout are heavy, the steady middle is light, and a change request can reset the whole shape without a corresponding change to the fee.
Worktivity's time tracking for project management companies measures the delivery side of the house. Hours land against client, project and workstream, so a PMO can see which accounts absorb disproportionate coordination effort and which managers are carrying more portfolio than the org chart suggests.
Automatic time capture against milestones, workstreams and change requests turns that shape into a chart you can show a client. Firms use it two ways: to price the next phased engagement from the real curve rather than a flat assumption, and to attach evidence to a change request the moment scope moves instead of arguing about it at closeout.
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 milestones, workstreams and change requests, 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 Project Management Companies
Seven capabilities, two of them specific to how project management companies work.
Portfolio-level capacity view
Roll hours up from task to workstream to client to portfolio, so a PMO lead can answer “who has room for the new account” with data rather than a round of instant messages.
Change-request effort tracking
Track the hours consumed by scope changes separately from baseline delivery, giving you the evidence needed to convert absorbed rework into a billable variation.
Automatic background tracking
Start once and the desktop agent handles the rest across Windows, macOS and Linux. project managers, coordinators and PMO leads 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 milestones, workstreams and change requests 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 project management companies
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 project management companies rely on tracked time
Five places project management companies put this to work in the first quarter.
Rebalancing an overloaded portfolio
When one manager quietly runs four accounts and another runs two, the symptom is a missed milestone. Hour distribution across the portfolio exposes the imbalance long before the schedule does.
Proving the cost of scope creep
Clients rarely accept that small changes are expensive. A tracked record of hours per change request converts an argument into an invoice line.
Benchmarking delivery models
Compare coordination hours per unit of delivered value across agile, waterfall and hybrid engagements to see which model your teams actually run most efficiently.
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 project management companies ask most often about time tracking.
Can we track time against change requests separately from the baseline scope?
Yes, and it is the single most valuable split for this industry. Create the change request as its own project or task; from that point the hours accumulate separately and you have a defensible number for the variation. Firms that do this consistently recover scope creep as billed work instead of absorbing it.
We already use a project tool. Why add time tracking?
Project tools record what was planned and what was marked done. They do not record what it cost. Worktivity fills that gap with effort per task, per person and per change, and the API lets you feed the result back into the board you already run.
Can we track time for clients we bill on a fixed fee?
Yes, and fixed-fee work is where it matters most. Hours are still captured and still roll up to the engagement; the difference is that they measure margin rather than revenue. Most firms find their loss-making engagement types within a quarter.
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.
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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.
Law Firms
Legal practices requiring accurate billable hour tracking, client reporting, and productivity monitoring for attorneys and paralegals.
Learn moreConsulting Firms
Management and business consulting firms needing time tracking for client engagements, project profitability analysis, and team productivity optimization.
Learn moreMarketing Agencies
Digital marketing agencies and advertising firms requiring time tracking for campaigns, client billing, and team productivity management.
Learn moreDesign Studios
Creative design agencies and studios needing time tracking for design projects, client billing, and creative team productivity monitoring.
Learn moreEngineering Companies
Engineering firms requiring time tracking for engineering projects, billable hours, and technical team productivity optimization.
Learn moreAccounting Firms
Accounting and CPA firms needing accurate time tracking for client work, billable hours, and compliance reporting.
Learn more
Ready to see where your hours actually go?
Set Worktivity up for your team this afternoon. The configuration that project management companies need is already mapped out. Fourteen days free, no card, and the data is yours either way.
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