subject: How An Online Time Tracking App Allows You To Hire With Confidence [print this page] Outsourcing is a common practice these days. Whether you are looking for an accountant to handle your books, a marketing guru to drive some business your way, or an attorney to handle your legal needs the odds are you have someone (or several someones) who you pay on a regular basis but who arent on your normal payroll. And chances are these vendors are billing you by the hour for their services, right?
This was exactly the case with the Illinois Department of Transportation. Just like all of us, they were in the position where they trusted another organization to take manage a task that they did not have the time or resources to handle internally. Unfortunately, the people who they trusted ended up siphoning more than $1 million dollars by falsifying time sheets.
The owner, Kamleshwar Gupta, of the Elgin-based engineering consulting firm being used directed a bookkeeper to falsify time sheets. It was probably not a coincidence that company policy was to write out paper time sheets in pencil so edits would be a snap. He then signed off on fraudulent invoices before shooting them to the Department of Transportation for payment. Fortunately, a routine audit exposed the counterfeit activity.
Is it possible the same thing is happening to you? Of course not! However, it might be worth a few minutes of your time to explore how your vendors are keeping track of their billable time. Do you currently know of the method they use to track their hours spent on your projects? Or is it possible that some or all of them have not adopted a method that is accurate and most efficient. Coffee breaks and quick phone calls for other clients can be inadvertently, or advertently, forgotten when using a pencil and paper system.
Dont be shy when it comes to asking your vendors how they track their time. Keep in mind that if theyre using manually entered time sheets there is a good chance that they are covering themselves when it comes to billing for their time. The bottom line: if their method makes you nervous, dont be afraid to ask them to implement an online time tracking system if they want your business. You are, after all, paying them for the actual time that they work for you and shouldnt have to have Starbucks runs lumped in. we all know those add up!
by: Kelsie Medel
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