Coretime study finds UK small and mid-tier practices losing equivalent to cost of two extra fee earners through poor time recording - "a sorry waste in lean times" comments Coretime CEO

Small and mid-tier accountancy firms in the UK are losing up to £100,000 a year because their time recording practices are not up to scratch, says a study by leading software solutions company Coretime. Losses are being run up through a common situation of as little as one or two hours a week going unrecorded on timesheets - with cumulative costs amounting to as much as the salaries of two extra fee earners.

The study outlines how on a total of 37 hours worked in a week, with 4 hours allowed for administration, the fee earner can bill 33 hours. Over 10 fee earners charging £120 an hour, just two lost hours each per week would amount to a loss of £2,400 per week - or £115,200 per 48week working year.

"Our study is based on information and statistics we've received from potential and existing clients" commented Ray Nolan, CEO of Coretime. "It seems that to lose an hour or two a week is a common and simple mistake to make when an accountant is under pressure to resolve or forward cases.

"The missing hours are often lost because the fee earner cannot remember who he had worked on earlier in the week because he was filling out his timesheet on Friday instead of completing them at the time of carrying out the work. We call it admin padding - where the time recorded assigns a missing hour to Administration because he/she cannot recall what they were actually doing for that hour.

"The pressure is on the fee earner to complete and submit timesheets and it is as a result of this pressure that the billable hours are missed. It is our experience that as much as 5-10% of billable hours are missed as a result of poor timesheet practices.

"No firm should allow such practices to continue - it's a shoddy waste in such lean times," he concluded.

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