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FAQ
Overview
Recording time in Actionstep is important not only for billing purposes, but also to generate meaningful reports. For example, in fixed fee arrangements, tracking time allows for creation of a “Client Profitability” report. This article will explain the difference between Actual Time and Billable Time.
Actual Time
Actual time is a record of how much time was spent on an activity and is tracked for productivity reporting. The actual time recorded in a time entry has no effect on the amount billed to the client and will not appear on an invoice. This can be used in situations where a member of your firm spent two hours on a billable activity, but the activity should have only taken one hour, and you would like to only bill one hour. It can also be used in fixed fee situations where you want to track the amount of time spent on an activity that you are billing at a predetermined amount. Actual time is recorded in the “Hrs worked” field of a time entry.
Billable Time
Billable time is literally the number of hours you would like to bill for an activity. In the first example of actual time, the billable time is one hour, as that is the number of hours that will appear on the invoice to the client. To record billable time, first check the box in a time entry labeled “Billable”, then enter the billable time in the “Hrs to bill” field. By default, this field will be automatically populated with the same value as the “Hrs worked” field, but the value can be changed if desired.
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