GWP Consultants (GWP), an Oxfordshire-based independent consulting partnership specialising in geology, geotechnics, mining engineering, hydrogeology, hydrology and surveying, needed a robust timesheet and project management system. As they deliver infrastructure, mining and environmental work across multiple geographies, GWP required what could be considered the best timesheet engineering solution one that captures accurate time, supports billing, and improves overall operational efficiency with minimal administrative hassle.
GWP Engineering Consultants
About GWP Consultants
GWP Consultants operates internationally in geotechnical, mining and environmental engineering projects, with diverse clients across infrastructure, quarrying, landfill, and sustainable water-resource planning. They are highly dependent on hourly billing, meaning that precise timesheet recording and cloud-based reporting is critical to their profitability and client trust.
Amanda Godwin, GWP’s Management Accountant, oversees the billing and timesheet processes and has been central to ensuring the organisation captures time accurately against work undertaken.
The Challenge
Before Coretime, GWP used a manual system to record staff timesheets: handwritten daily entries that administrative staff would later key into other systems. This process was:
- Cumbersome and slow — using paper and manual re-entry
- Risky for accuracy — duplication of data entry increased error chance
- Inefficient for billing — delays and missing detail could reduce ability to justify hours to clients
- Lacking real-time insight into how hours were spent by project or by staff
Amanda states:
“Before Coretime, GWP staff recorded time using a manual system. Every day, they had to apply pen to paper in order to write up the time that they spent on individual projects.”
This manual process limited GWP’s agility when clients queried project detail or when budgets required urgent review. Without a more integrated solution, the risk of under-billing or project overruns was growing.
The Solution
Coretime was selected as GWP’s best timesheet engineering solution, delivering a digital system built to handle both timesheets and project-cost visibility for engineers.
Key parts of the solution included:
- Web-based timesheet entry for each staff member, tied to individual projects or jobs with accurate hourly rates.
- Automatic matching of billing rates per person / per project role (graduate rate → experienced geologist), ensuring invoices reflect actual effort and role.
- Detailed activity-report capability after time is entered staff can explain work done, which is then visible to clients in reporting.
- Budget-tracking tools within Coretime: hours and third-party costs entered against a job are deducted from the project’s allocated budget so managers can monitor spend vs budget.
- Triggered alerts (e.g. email to project lead) when a budget threshold is being approached.
Amanda explains:
“Because Coretime is so easy to use compared with the manual timesheets, we find that staff are recording, and the business is recovering more billable hours.”
“Invoicing is also made much easier. … Coretime automatically assigns the correct hourly rate … while also ensuring that the total is assigned to the correct project.”
This integration means GWP now has a standardised, engineering-friendly timesheet system that supports both internal oversight and client-facing transparency.
Implementation
GWP’s rollout of Coretime followed a typical implementation path (you may need to add or tweak some internal detail later to reflect your actual process):
- Migration of historical timesheet data into Coretime.
- Configuration of project / job / role codes to match GWP’s billing structure.
- Setup of user accounts and permissions so staff and project leads access correct job-rate and role-based settings.
- Onboarding and training for staff uploading timesheets and approving them.
- Activation of budget monitoring alerts and dashboard visibility for management and finance team.
Within weeks of deployment, staff were logging their time via Coretime rather than manual forms, and project leads could instantly see hours used and compare them to their budgets.
Powerful Budget Tracking
Since adopting Coretime as their timesheet and project-management tool, GWP have seen significant operational improvements:
- Improved billing accuracy due to correct assignment of role-based hourly rates.
- Faster resolution to client queries thanks to detailed activity reports being available on demand.
- Better budget tracking and fewer surprises on project cost overruns.
- Higher staff compliance with time-entry due to easy-to-use digital timesheets.
Amanda sums up:
“Coretime has significantly changed how we track time and allocate it against jobs. … As an efficient system, our business is much more likely to accurately bill hours of work actually incurred on any job, helping us to protect profitability.”
She also mentions the vendor / implementation partner:
“We find them very helpful, and if I have any questions or queries the support team is there to help me instantly. In short … we’re delighted.”
These changes have helped GWP improve efficiency, accountability, and the ability to respond rapidly to budget pressures and client queries.
Looking Ahead
With Coretime now embedded in day-to-day operations, GWP Consultants are well positioned for future growth. They can continue to evolve the system by layering more advanced reporting dashboards, integrating further modules and extending project profitability insight. As they expand their scope of geological, mining and infrastructure projects, Coretime remains the backbone of their billing and project-time accountability.
They have turned their timesheet system into more than just a log-book it’s now a vital component of financial control and client trust.
If you’re looking for the best timesheet engineering solution one tailored to engineering consultants who bill by the hour, need accurate budgets, and want to streamline invoicing Coretime might be exactly what your organisation needs.