Agency delivery operations workshop / 5 MIN READ
Record the work that happened before deciding what is billable
Keep accurate project time records while separating actual work, authorization and client billing decisions.
AI-assisted research and analysis for the SNS Creative Fieldbook
Sources checked 2026-11-06
Time records should describe work performed, not a target the team wishes it had met. Clear project and task assignment helps reviewers understand the work, while billing and scope decisions remain with the people authorized to make them.
What you will leave with: A project time-entry standard and a correction route.
Use this when
- An agency records time across several client projects.
- Staff are unsure how to record rework, internal support or work awaiting scope approval.
This is not employment-law advice, a productivity ranking or permission to change pay, bill a client or erase time that was actually worked.
Define the project and task categories clearly
Harvest documents assigning time entries to projects and tasks. Whatever tool you use, explain the categories well enough that contributors can choose them without guessing what makes a report look best.
Separate client delivery, internal coordination and other relevant work according to the organization’s approved scheme. Make ambiguous cases easy to ask about. Do not create so many categories that people spend more effort interpreting the system than recording the work. If a new activity does not fit, identify an owner who can clarify the category rather than encouraging everyone to invent a different workaround.
Capture actual work with proportionate detail
Record work close enough to the activity that the account is reliable. Use the permitted timing method and an intelligible description of the task. A concise note should help a reviewer understand the work without exposing unnecessary client or personal information.
Check for obvious mistakes such as a timer left running, overlapping entries or work assigned to the wrong project. Correct them transparently under the approved process. Do not inflate time to match a budget, reduce it to hide an overrun or allocate one period fully to several clients. Where a reconstruction is necessary, use available records honestly and flag material uncertainty instead of inventing false precision.
Keep authorization and billing decisions separate
Record work that actually occurred even when its scope or chargeability is unresolved, using the appropriate status or exception route. Ask the project and commercial owners to decide how the issue should be handled. Omitting the work makes both delivery learning and financial review less reliable.
A billable setting in a tool does not itself establish contractual entitlement to charge the client. Check the approved scope, rate and relevant billing rules through their owners. Rework may need a specific decision rather than an automatic classification. Never ask contributors to move time to an unrelated project because its budget has room or to use an internal code to conceal work from a required review.
Review and correct before records drive commitments
Have the appropriate reviewer check entries for intelligibility, assignment and unresolved exceptions. Use questions to resolve gaps rather than silently rewriting another person’s account. Preserve the required change history and respect restrictions on locked or invoiced records.
If a correction affects billing, reporting or another downstream process, alert the owner so the related record can be addressed properly. Keep timesheet approval separate from claims about individual worth or performance. The practical objective is a trustworthy account of work and a clear path for authorized decisions, not a perfectly smooth time report that hides what the project actually required.
Make the reasoning concrete.
A fictional designer spends extra time repairing an agency error. The project budget is nearly used, and a manager suggests logging the repair against another client’s open project.
Move the time to the available budget
Opening: Make the original project appear within plan.
Hypothesis: The immediate report looks better.
Risk: Both client records become inaccurate and later billing may be misleading.
Record the real work and route chargeability
Opening: Assign the time to the correct project with the appropriate explanation and review status.
Hypothesis: The record remains truthful.
Risk: The accountable owner must address the overrun and billing treatment.
The designer records the actual repair work. The project and commercial owners decide the authorized billing treatment without falsifying the time history or transferring the cost to an unrelated client.
Take the questions into your next brief.
Use these prompts in your own notes. Nothing is submitted from this page.
Activity
What work actually occurred?
Assignment
Which project and task does it belong to?
Accuracy
What timing or description needs correction?
Authority
Who decides scope and client chargeability?
Downstream
Which records need review if the entry changes?
Watch for the wrong conclusion.
- Editing time to fit a budget rather than the work.
- Treating a billable checkbox as contractual approval.
- Hiding unapproved work by leaving it out entirely.
Your next action
Review a small set of recent entries for accurate assignment and route one ambiguous billing case without altering the underlying work record.
Sources & scope
The workflow, worksheets and hypothetical examples are original editorial analysis. Sources support only the identified principles. No measured business results or named human reviewer are claimed.
- Harvest Help Center: Tracking time, Day view →Primary product documentation · Supports: Time entries can be associated with projects and tasks; the factual-work and billing-approval distinctions are original editorial analysis.