[jm962011]

I am coming up on 2 months as an experienced tax associate in a large firm (not big 4) after recently spending 3 years in industry. Any suggestions on ways to track your time outside of the firm’s time tracking/billing system? Excel? Something different?

As an OCD/super organized individual, I feel this is necessary for my own sanity and also to keep track of things I’ve worked on (yes, one manager has already asked me to prep a return that I had already prepped and given to her for review >.<)

I started out with an excel sheet which allowed me to put columns for the different project/billing #s I needed to fill out my time sheet so I could easily find them when needed and now I have some larger post-it notes with what I worked on every day this week. It is getting a little tedious but I can definitely tell my anxiety is going up because I have slacked off and haven’t really found a method that works for me.

Thanks!

[WaivingMyHands_ALOT]

When I started in public my counselor sent me a time recorder tool. It's a simple excel file. You can track up to 5 engagements at a time. Click a button, time starts. Click a button, time stops. When you remove the engagement it goes to a separate tab so you have a “permanent” listing of all projects you've worked on.

It's not perfect, but works good enough for me.

I'd imagine a quick google search will turn up a similar workbook/program. If not, let me know and I can email you the workbook I use.

AUD 99
BEC 96
FAR 94
REG 96

[mhueycpa]

Daily desk calendar works for quickly jotting down daily work, then I save some time on Friday evenings to record time in Excel (easy for search). My firm doesn't do hourly billing, but like you I like to keep track of my time (see year to year improvement, etc.)

THE 300 CLUB WILL DO JUST FINE!

[Stilgoin]

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/tech-review/6-mobile-apps-for-keeping-time-cards-or-tracking-billable-hours/

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[taxgeek83]

There are a lot of time tracking apps out there. Find one that lets you set up different projects, track your time as you're working on each project, and export your time to Excel. That way you have a record of each of your projects, how long it's taken you, etc. And you can put notes in your Excel file regarding what work you did, what's left, etc.

[Author]

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