Consultancy firms lose significant revenue through unrecorded time, scope creep, and poor project visibility. MinuteDock helps you capture every billable moment, maintain project profitability, and build client trust through transparent time tracking.
Capture Interruptions and context switches
Quick client calls, impromptu questions, and switching between engagements quietly drain revenue. Brief clarification calls and urgent requests add up fast but often go untracked when you're juggling multiple client projects.
The Dock sits at the top of your screen with a running timer, making it effortless to capture work as it happens. Switch between active time entries in seconds using @ mentions for Contacts and # for Tasks, so context changes don't mean lost revenue.
💡 Tip: Track both scheduled work and interruptions as they happen. When a client calls unexpectedly, start the timer immediately rather than trying to reconstruct the conversation later—you'll capture more accurate time and better descriptions.
Monitor project budgets in real-time
Projects often expand beyond original agreements, adding significant uncompensated work. Without real-time visibility into time spent versus budget, you discover overruns only after completion—too late to adjust scope or billing.
Goals let you set hour or dollar budgets per Contact or Project, then track actual time against your targets. When you're approaching budget limits, you'll see it immediately and can have proactive scope conversations with clients before projects spiral.
Projects let you separate different engagement types under a single Contact. Create one Project for a fixed-fee strategy engagement and another for ongoing hourly advisory work, each with its own budget and billing structure.
Manage multiple concurrent engagements
Managing multiple concurrent client engagements creates constant context switching. Each client has different priorities, communication styles, and billing arrangements, making it easy for billable time to slip through the cracks when you're moving between strategy sessions, client reporting, and deliverable creation.
Short Codes act as quick reference tags for your Contacts, making client selection instant. Tasks provide global work categories that work across all Contacts, letting you see patterns in how you spend time regardless of which client you're working for.
Your timesheet shows complete time records with filtering by Contact, Project, or Task, making it simple to verify you've captured everything before invoicing.
Provide detailed billing descriptions
Clients increasingly expect detailed breakdowns showing exactly what they're paying for. Vague descriptions like "Consulting - 5 hours" trigger disputes and make it difficult to justify your fees, while transparent time logs build trust and demonstrate value.
Every time entry includes a description field where you detail the specific work. "Facilitated strategic planning workshop with executive team to define Q3 priorities" tells a much better story than "Meeting." When generating invoices, these descriptions flow through automatically, giving clients clear visibility into your work.
The rate hierarchy lets you set different billing rates at multiple levels. Task rates override Project rates, which override Contact rates, which override User rates, which override your Account default. This flexibility handles the complex rate structures common in consultancy work.
Track project profitability
Many consultancies can't report actual project margins because they lack consolidated data showing hours worked versus revenue earned. Without this visibility, you can't identify which clients, Projects, or service types generate the strongest returns or where to focus business development efforts.
Reports show time logged filtered by Contact, Project, Task, or User across any date range. See which service types consistently take more hours than estimated, or which Contacts generate strong revenue but at lower margins due to scope expansion.
The Work in Progress report shows unbilled time by Contact, preventing revenue from sitting unrecorded. Combined with invoice tracking, you'll know exactly which engagements are profitable and which need pricing or scope adjustments.
Sync seamlessly with your accounting software
Your time tracking data should flow directly into your accounting software without duplicate data entry. MinuteDock's integrations mean invoices created from your tracked time sync automatically, giving you more time for client work and less time on admin.
Accounting Integrations
After connecting your accounting software, you can create and sync invoices directly from your tracked time.
The Bottom Line
Capture billable time that slips away: Real-time tracking records work that currently goes missing through interruptions and context switching
Speed up invoicing: Descriptions are already recorded as you work, so billing becomes a quick process instead of a time-consuming reconstruction
Prevent scope creep before it happens: Real-time budget visibility stops projects from spiraling before they become a problem
Build stronger client relationships: Transparent time documentation replaces vague billing, creating trust and reducing disputes
Deliver invoices with confidence: Detailed time entries and regular delivery turn billing conversations into straightforward, data-backed discussions
Focus on what's actually profitable: Reports by Contact, Project, and Task show which services and clients drive revenue, helping you make informed decisions about where to grow your business