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Expense Management
Monitoring and properly managing expenses is vital for any small business. Professional service firms need to be particularly diligent in expense management and cost planning, as expenses incurred on behalf of a client (project costs) as well as regular business expenses and overhead of the firm will impact profitability directly.
Project Costs are those costs incurred on behalf of a client in order to produce and deliver a final project.
Expense Management Example: A graphic designer producing a printed brochure for a client may incur significant printing costs. That cost must be accounted for so that it can be accurately billed back to the client or marked-up to cover coordination efforts.
Overhead refers to all of the expenses required to run the business, including rent, salaries, equipment, office supplies - anything needed for the business to operate that is not the result of one particular client or project.
Expense Management Example: Computers and hardware are purchased by the business in order to be able to do work for several clients or projects, and are therefore part of overhead - the cost of operating the business.
Proper expense management is critical to ensure that:
- Expenses don't fall through the cracks
- Bills are paid on time
- Employees are reimbursed for out of pocket expenses
- Clients are invoiced properly (the first time)
- Mark up revenue from project costs is realized
- Project budgets and profit margins remain intact
Expense report software / time expense management systems make it possible to account for expenses as they're incurred, as well as monitor project budgets and easily bill clients for out-of pocket expenses upon project completion.
Expense Report Software
As a fully featured time, project and expense reporting system, TimeFox makes tracking internal costs and billing outside vendor costs painless. As a web-based system, employees and contractors are able to enter expenses into the expense report software built into TimeFox from anywhere when costs are incurred. When vendor invoices arrive or a project is ready for billing, a detailed listing of all project expenses is available at the click of a button. TimeFox even makes it easy for you to track the small stuff like CD's, photocopies, mileage, or anything else you want to add a per item price to and begin tracking, whether you bill for it or not. Once you see these seemingly small everyday items add up, you'll truly begin to understand where your time and money are going!
Time Expense Management
Out of pocket expenses are only half the story for the creative professional. In a profession where time is your main inventory, managing for both time and expenses efficiently and accurately has an undeniable impact on overall cost management and profitability. Web-based time and expense management software makes it possible to capture all time and expenses in real time, and manage all project expenses against a project budget. This allows both managers and employees to make better use of project resources and focus more time on actual project work.
TimeFox Time and Expense Management Software
The TimeFox Project Cost Section allows high and low level users (you customize access levels) the ability to add internal and external costs to a project, and easily
compare against estimated costs.
Using the
TimeFox Project Report,
managers can easily produce a single document rolling up all out of pocket expenses as well as time related expenses / fees.
To see how TimeFox makes time and expense management easier than ever, try the
TimeFox online demo.
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| "Our PR and Design Agency looked diligently for a time and project tracking software application, only to find it right here in our own backyard. TimeFox paid for itself within weeks. Now we are accountable to our valued clients, we know how long we've worked on projects, and invoicing is a snap! I thank that little Fox every morning when he greets me upon log-in." Maggie Kerr-Southin Artemis Creative Communications
"TimeFox allows us to track our time more accurately by removing any/all objections my employees had to entering their time. More accurate time entries leads to better data for future project estimates because we have more accurate historical data. Better estimating leads to higher profitability and happier clients. All this leads to better profits and a happier CEO — me." Shannon Carter Cartis Group
"I needed a better time tracking system than the manual way we were doing things. I knew we weren't charging for all the "little" things and "quick" tasks like emails etc. We absolutely love your product. Learning to use it was so easy and it makes billing a snap. Thank you for developing such a functional tool. It's definitely making us more money." Allison DeFord DeFord Designs |