Harvest 101 - Tracking Time & Expenses
Harvest is one of the tools we use at Vaudeville. To see info on all the tools we use, go to the VV Tools Overview article.
For those who need a refresher, as well as for new faces to Vaudeville who should be tracking time… read below:
Tracking Time
Why do we track time?
When every minute we spend has real value, tracking employee hours can have a big impact on business. In a 2015 user survey by Harvard Business Review, research showed that teams using tools like Toggl and Harvest save an average of $12,441 per year - that's without counting the profits from accurately tracked and billed employee hours.
On average across the whole team, VV is about 70%-85% billable.
When do we submit time?
All time tracked from a Monday - Friday period must be submitted by Noon on the next Monday.
EXAMPLE: Time tracked during 4/23-4/27 must be submitted by Noon on Monday 4/30. We suggest getting the week’s time in before you leave each Friday - it saves time since the week is fresh in your mind.
Also if you plan on being out of the office, please be sure you submit your time up until then before you leave, and also submit time proactively for any PTO in advance.
Project Codes
All active projects now have a project code. In addition, even projects in the new business pipeline, and internal VV initiatives also have project codes. For example, for PTO and time out of the office - you code your time to VV-PTO and select one of the tasks as holidays, vacation time, personal, sick, etc. Also, there are a list of standard tasks for every project, which you can see below:
Account Management
Definition: admin tasks and client services interaction
Graphic Design
Definition: original deck design, web design, program element design mood boards, branding and general graphic design, photo research & archiving
Project Management
Definition: team communications, project plans, timelines, Asana development, vendor & partner relations, note taking, agendas, recaps, Asana management
Strategy
Definition: consulting and strategy development in the form of documents, decks and roadmaps for success
Research
Definition: any background research that supports the overall project
Non-billable
Definition: intern time or time to a project that can’t be considered billable
General Rules of the Road!
Deadline for time tracking will be 12:00pm every Monday for the previous week. You’ll see a calendar invite in your calendar each Monday.
We suggest at the end of each day before heading home, input the day’s hours. It takes about 5-10 minutes. If you wait until the end of each week, you’ll be scrambling to remember what you spent your time on during the previous weekdays.
Be transparent! We all work hard, and we want the hours tracking to show it.
If you have a task description that is not listed in Harvest or in the project code list for a project, please alert the project lead or Kim.
Helpful Links
Time Tracking:
Tracking Expenses
Expense Report Submission Process
VV team member submits expenses by first going to Harvest>Expenses>New Expense and input the project (related to a client or general VV expenses), attach receipts and hit Save. This tracks expenses to particular projects and will show up on the team member’s time sheet.
With the Harvest for iPhone app, you can enter expenses and upload receipts by following these instructions.
All client expenses must be submitted within a week of the expense being incurred in order for them to be charged back to the client in a timely manner.
The Project Manager for each project or a Harvest administrator will review and approve time sheets on a weekly basis.
VV’s Accountant will run a consolidated expense report directly from Harvest each week that will include all project and any other expenses including receipts attached to expense reports previously entered into Harvest by staff members.
Accountant reviews and approves consolidated expense report in consultation with Management.
Accountant processes reimbursement to VV team member by setting up payment in Justworks and invoicing clients for project related expenses.
Note: for air/train/hotel reservations charged to company card by EA/Office Manager, the EA/OM provides accountant with expense report in separate approved format.
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