How to get your studio's people to log hours

In a studio, hours usually get logged like this: at the end of the month the finance director sends a spreadsheet, and everyone fills in «about — forty, maybe forty-five». That isn't tracking, it's remembering. It can't tell you where a project went into the red.

Here is what it takes for people to log by themselves, while they're working, and not give up after two weeks.

Why people don't log

There are three reasons, and none of them is laziness.

• They don't see why. A logged hour changes nothing about their work. Nobody fills in «every little thing» for someone else's report.
• They fear the numbers will be used against them. Someone will compare who's faster and go after the slower one.
• It's awkward. A spreadsheet at the end of the month is half an hour of remembering. Logging in the moment is five seconds.

What has to change

Logging works both ways. A person sees their own benefit: their hour, their daily target, their projects. If all that's left from logging is a report for management, it will stay a formality.

An agreement on what the hours are for. To set deadlines and prices more honestly, not to compare people. Say it out loud before anyone starts logging.

A shared goal that people can see. When the studio knows how much it wants to earn and everyone sees where it stands now, the logs add up to a picture. If the studio shares everything above the goal, logging also gets an honest reason: without numbers there's nothing to share.

What to log

• Project hours per person. That's the basis of a project's margin.
• Internal work as a separate project with no rate: pitches, hiring, studio calls. Then you can see how much time earns nothing.
• A producer's small managerial actions as a separate line. Otherwise they dissolve, and they take a noticeable part of the day.

What the studio gets

• Project margin afterwards, not in the estimate. Not what you calculated at the start, but what came out.
• Load. Who can take a small task right now, and who is busy until the end of the week.
• The places where you lose: revisions beyond what was agreed, layers of approvals, work nobody sold.

A plan for the month

• Week 1. One project. Only the people on it log.
• Week 2. Add internal work as a separate project: the unpaid time becomes visible.
• Week 3. Compare with last month's spreadsheet. The gap is the most honest number of the month.
• Week 4. Talk it through together: where the time went and what to change in the next estimate.

How it works in Get Grown

Everyone has a day timer and per-project entries: an hour is logged when the work happens, not remembered at the end of the month. In the Bureau each member can have their own cost and client rate, and hours per person and partner margin are counted alongside. The rules are in money in a team.

An employee doesn't have to see the studio's money: the «hours only» role lets them keep entries without showing them the owner's rate and the calculations.

Common questions

How do we keep tracking from turning into surveillance?

Agree up front what the hours are for: price, deadlines and estimates. Not for judging people. And show each person their own numbers before management sees them — they see their own hours at once.

Do we have to log every little thing?

No. Start with project hours and add the small things once people are used to it. A log that takes longer than the work won't stick.

What if people are on salary?

Hours are still needed: they answer not «how much to pay» but «what the project cost the studio». More in design studio economics.

Next: design studio economics, money in a team and all the guides.