Do you know which clients are truly profitable and which are bleeding agency margins? Learn how to execute a 14-day time audit to uncover hidden operational waste.
Agencies rarely fail from lack of work; they fail from doing massive amounts of work they cannot bill for.
A $10,000/month retainer client looks lucrative until a time audit proves your team spends 120 hours/month on their account ($83/hr effective rate), while a $4,000/month client takes only 15 hours ($266/hr effective rate).
Employees hide time when they fear time tracking is a punitive measure.
Announce a 14-day operational audit. Explicitly guarantee that no one will be penalized for logging high non-billable hours or unbilled revisions; the goal is measuring organizational reality.
Synthesizing audit data into clear financial metrics.
EHR = Total Monthly Revenue from Client ÷ Total Actual Hours Logged on Client Account. Compare this against your agency’s target card rate.
An audit is useless without decisive leadership follow-through.
(1) Restructure: Cap hours on demanding clients and enforce overage fees. (2) Re-quote: Increase rates on high-friction accounts by 25%. (3) Fire: Graciously terminate toxic accounts that refuse to pay for excessive revisions.
Execute your 4-phase organizational audit.
TimeAxis automates timesheet enforcement, billable rate calculations, project budget tracking, and client approvals with zero administrative friction.
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