by Ted Needleman

Many accountants use the terms “time & billing” and “practice management” interchangeabley. These two classes of applications are related, but aren’t the same thing.

T&B is really a subset of practice management. It addresses several key and core requirements in an accounting or service firm, but often doesn’t go as far in providing detailed information as a practice management system.

Does this actually make a difference? Not for some firms, but it does for others. Picking the wrong application can lead to early dissatisfaction with the software and reluctance and resistance among staff and management to actually using it. If that happens, you’ve probably wasted your money in buying the software, and your time in installing and configuring it.

The differences between T&B and practice management are subtle, and are often focused on intent, rather than outright features. T&B applications generally focus on the cash management functions of a firm.

T&B captures billable (and unbillable) staff hours and expenses, invoices these out to the client that they are related to, and tracks the payment status of open invoices. The applications often also keep track of unbillable time, write-offs and work in process.

But these are not the main thrust of the application. Rather, cash flow and revenue generation are really the core functions of T&B.

These “other” aspects of staff productivity and utilization set practice management apart from time & billing. Practice management software also tracks accounts receivable, but extends beyond this basic practice requirement to accumulate other data that can (and should) be used to manage firm resource utilization.

In many cases, T&B will be used in a smaller firm, while practice management will be used in a larger firm.

Another popular scenario is using a T&B system as a front end in a larger firm. In this application, the T&B system acts as a data collection sub-system, feeding the data into the larger practice management system. This approach is often used when a firm is very spread out, possibly multinational, or when the core practice management system has been custom-designed and programmed.

Using a packed T&B application as the data collection front end lets this type of practice rapidly adapt to changing staff and office conditions without incurring major programming and implementation costs.

While many practices benefit from installing a full-blown practice management system, others do quite well with the more revenue-oriented T&B. One consideration is just how the application is currently handled in your firm, and what uses the output is put to.

Time & billing is designed to capture and categorize staff time. Expense capture is often, but not always, also a function provided in the application. This data is posted to the proper client, and invoices and statements are generated, sent and tracked.

Almost all of the T&B software available can perform these basic functions. It’s in the details that packages differ substantially.

Not every firm bills every one of its clients in the same way. Some clients get billed on an hourly rate, others get billed a flat or monthly fee. Some clients get billed one way for certain engagements and another way for other engagements.

Some firms require a retainer from a client, others don’t, or only require this retainer on the initial engagement. For longer-running engagements, your firm may want to accumulate work-in-process hours, and bill at certain levels of accumulated hours, on a monthly basis, or at some other standard.

The T&B system that you select must be flexible enough to accommodate the way that you want to run your firm.

How we tested

To help you with your selection, we examined nine T&B packages. These run the gamut from simple applications that accumulate hours or enhance other packaged applications, to full-blown systems that have much in common with more elaborate practice management applications.

We examined each for core features. This meant setting each package up, going through the major set-up screen for the company, staff and clients. We then entered sample data for time and, where applicable, for expenses, and printed reports and invoices. For each of the packages, we looked at how easy the software was to set up and use, as well as what features each application offered and how appropriate those features are to the intended target market.

T&B software, for the most part, really doesn’t need a super-powered PC. The applications we reviewed all have fairly modest hardware and software requirements.

We installed and tested each application on the same hardware platform. This is a compact form-factor desktop PC we built using a VIA Technologies Mini-ITX motherboard. With a Samsung combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical disk drive and an 80GB hard disk drive, and 256MB of SDRAM, the entire computer is about the size of a large shoebox.

Windows XP Professional was the operating system that we installed on the test platform. This setup is very cost effective (about $500 or so), has about the same amount of processing power as an 800-MHz Pentium III system, and breezed through the installed applications without the hint of a problem. It also has the advantage of not taking up much more desk space than many laptops, especially with the 15-inch LCD flat panel display we attached.

The packages reviewed have a lot of similarities. That comes from their having been designed to meet the same basic need. They also do have some considerable differences.

Making the right match between the application and your firm requires that you have a good understanding of the work flow in your firm, and how the software needs to handle that aspect of the application.

If the application that you chose does not dovetail with the way your firm and its staff works, there is likely to be a lot of resistance in using the application, and you won’t be meeting the goals you set in adopting a T&B application.

professionals@work 6.1
AGI Software Consultants

AGI Software Consultants, a large Canadian consulting practice, originally developed professionals@work for its own use. When the company decided to start selling the application, it quickly became a popular T&B application in the Canadian market.

Last year, AGI established a sales office in Florida, and started selling professionals@work in the U.S. market. While there’s still a strong “flavor” of its consulting-firm origins, this latest professionals@work release will fit the needs of many midsized accounting practices just as well as consultancies.

professionals@work 6.1 actually comes in three versions, a “Small Business” version, a “Pro” version, and an “Enterprise” version. All are built on the same core software framework, but include or eliminate various bells and whistles. We reviewed the “Pro” version of the software.

We found the installation of professionals@work 6.1 to be greatly improved over the version that we reviewed last year. professionals@work is still a client/server application, but the server is automatically installed as part of a single-user installation, rather than requiring the somewhat bothersome configuration that was required in the last iteration. The server launches automatically and seamlessly when you launch the application. AGI has also done some work on the user interface. The result is very positive, with attractive and easy-to-navigate screens.

One thing that sets professionals@work 6.1 apart from many of the other T&B applications we examined is that it interfaces with Accpac International accounting software, as well as QuickBooks. This interface is an option, as is a Web client called professionals@work’s web-based module that allows you to enter data and access the collaborative date-book using a browser.

This date-book is a nice feature, and works well with another add-on, the MS Project interface. This option lets you use the professionals@work 6.1 application as a data collection front end to Microsoft’s project management software, a feature large practices will appreciate.

professionals@work 6.1 has a nice collection of reports and invoicing formats, with some degree of customization available. For more extensive ad hoc reporting, you can purchase a copy of Crystal Reports. If your practice has international offices, the “Enterprise” version of professionals@work 6.1 provides multi-currency capability.

Client Navigator 7.02
Balaboss Software Corp.

Among the products we tested, some vendors have taken unusual approaches to make their offerings a bit different from the rest of the field. Client Navigator certainly qualifies in that regard.

The core of the application is a nicely designed T&B system. BalaBoss also has a “Switchboard” launch system so that you can run related applications, such as word processing or a spreadsheet, without having to minimize or exit the T&B system.

This “Switchboard” also serves a second purpose, providing a set of click-on buttons that take you to a task group in the T&B application. These include data entry, posting, reporting and administration. Once in a task group, you are provided with a tabbed set of screens that relate to performing the particular task. T&E data can be displayed on a staff or client basis, and you can also import data from other vendors’ applications. The data entry screens are laid out nicely, and we had no trouble finding the desired task we wanted to perform.

The top-level Switchboard operates a bit differently. Some of the buttons are labeled with tasks that are germane to the time & billing application. Others are blank, so you can choose your own linkages to applications that you want to be able to link to while in BalaBoss. For example, if you have a document management application, such as PaperPort, and you want to be able to scan a document associated with the T&B system, you could label one of the blank buttons “Scan Document” and automatically link the button to launch PaperPort. Of courSe, you could just minimize the BalaBoss window and launch the other application, but being able to access other applications from within BalaBoss is still a nice feature.

Version 7 of the BalaBoss system adds a few new wrinkles. Almost all of these are new reports, though some additional functionality has also been added. For example, this version lets you transfer time and expense data from one service code to another. You can also now purge records that are at least two years old to free up space.

BalaBoss remains an unusual approach to a common application. The only significant criticism we can find with the software is the same one we’ve mentioned year after year. That’s the lack of more than a single task timer. To provide on-screen timing, BalaBoss must be running and the client must be open. Most other T&B systems let you simply run one or more timers.

At worst, this is just a minor inconvenience, though. With the Windows operating system, it’s simple enough to just leave BalaBoss minimized on your desktop, and to maximize the application when you start working on a client or take a client phone call.

Timesheet Professional v. 8.7
Best Software Inc.

Just as Best Software has a variety of accounting software applications ranging from Peachtree First Accounting all the way up to MAS 90, it also has several levels of T&B. Timesheet Professional 8.7 is Best’s high-end product.

As is common with products at this level, Timesheet Professional 8.7 is usually sold through Best Software’s reseller channel, and the sale usually includes both installation and training in the use of the software. Prices start at $125 per user.

Many Accounting Today readers won’t have all that much difficulty setting up Timesheet Professional, though we did find the need to generate a license key and e-mail it to Best for an unlock key to be a bit of a pain. You can use the software in “Trial” mode until this registration process is completed, however, so it won’t really slow anything down.

Timeslips Professional has a comprehensive pre-installation checklist that helps you nail down everything you’ll need to get together before you start the installation. That’s a thoughtful feature, though not one you’ll need if you have the reseller from whom you purchased the software perform the install.

From a feature set point of view, Timesheet Professional 8.7 gives nothing away to the other applications we tested.

It is easy to navigate through and use, but has lots of useful features. You can use a Web browser to navigate through Timesheet Professional if it is configured for remote access, and Crystal Reports Professional lets you generate any ad hoc reports your management may request. For offices with mobile professional, a TimeReporter module is available for Palm OS-based PDAs as an option.

It might seem somewhat frivolous to spend a lot of money on what is, after all, a T&B application rather than a true practice management system. The target market that this application is intended for won’t find this true, however. Rather, Timesheet Professional 8.7 is a well-thought-out and implemented front end to a variety of enterprise applications, including payroll and especially project management. Many practices with complex engagement use project management software, such as Microsoft Project, to keep track of the complex tasks such as due dates and resource management in these engagements.

Timesheet Professional 8.7 works very nicely as the input mechanism for staff time and expenses in these applications, which also serve the practice management function in many large firms. You can also easily integrate Timesheet Professional with accounting software, including MAS 90, Peachtree Accounting, and even high-end accounting systems such as SAP and PeopleSoft. Smaller practices, however, may find one of the other applications we looked at more appropriate to their needs.

Timeslips 11
Best Software Inc.

Timeslips can certainly be considered to have “legs.” It’s been available since 1985, and is now in its 11th release. This is a new release since we looked at the software last year, and it’s the first release that’s actually certified to run under Windows XP (though we had no trouble running the last version, 10.5, under WinXP). New with this release is Timeslips for Sole Practitioners, a $199 version that cuts out a few of the bells and whistles, eliminates the networking capabilities, and restricts the use of the software to two timekeepers. This version will greatly appeal to the sole practitioner who wants Timeslips, but has been put off by the $400 sticker on the standard version.

This release gets mostly maintenance updates Ñ it was already pretty polished and loaded with features to begin with. Setup is quick and easy, and there are startup wizards to help you along. There are lots of places that Timeslips can be customized to your particular needs and requirements, right down to the look of the statements and invoices.

New in this release are the ability to create templates for your customized statements and bills, and to print these in Adobe PDF format. The last release added the ability to export reports, invoices and statements in text format, so you now have a wide variety of formats that you can use. This gives you the ability to edit these reports and statements in a word processor, or to e-mail them to clients.

Best added some other neat new features into this release as well. The application gets a front data panel window, “Timeslips Today,” which presents a comprehensive single-window view of the status of work, billings and receivables. You can drill-down into detail in any area that you are interested in. The familiar Timer is still available, but there’s also a new Time Sheet Slip entry that uses a traditional spreadsheet-like interface. Many accountants will find this an easier way to enter their time. Version 11 also lets you set alerts, or points where the application gives you a heads-up on a client or situation. These alerts can be an invoice going over a set amount, a client going past a certain amount of days, or when a staff member has logged too many hours over a certain period (such as a 1,000 hour month!).

Timeslips is a mature product, and the refresh that comes with this release is gladly welcomed. That maturity, however, is a benefit as well. Over the years, ancillary products have been developed, and are still available to let you extend the usefulness of Timeslips. These include a Timeslips Reporter for Palm (but none for PocketPC), the TAL accounting link, a split billing module, and the Timeslips eCenter, a Web-based server application that lets you upload T&B information while you are on the road that can be downloaded to the central Timeslips installation.

ImageTime 3.05
Both Worlds Software Inc.

ImagineTime is a recent entry into the time & billing application arena, having been introduced only a few years ago. Sometimes, being late to the ball is an advantage, since you know what everyone else is wearing. In the case of ImagineTime, it let Both Worlds Software see what worked in time & billing, and what they wanted to change to make their offering a bit different.

One feature Both Worlds focused on was an easy-to-use central menu. This groups major functions into four subgroups, each with its own set of menus and levels. It’s not quite as fancy as some of the more iconic menus used by other vendors, but quite attractive and easy to understand and use. Other screens are thoughtfully and logically laid out, so you shouldn’t have much, if any, difficulty coming up to speed.

ImagineTime also has just about all the features you’ll need in a useable T&B system. You can have multiple timers, and the reports are nicely laid-out and very useable. One area where we think Both Worlds has done an outstanding job is in the Due Date Monitor. This feature, while not all that uncommon in higher-end practice management systems, is a terrific addition to the T&B application, especially at tax prep time and at the end of the quarter.

Many accountants use PDAs, so having a time and expense capability for this device is an attractive feature. ImagineTime offers a module for Palm OS-based PDAs, though not for the increasingly popular PocketPC models. This module costs an additional $125 for the first user, and $99 for each additional user. That might seem like a lot at first glance, but the entry-level version of ImagineTime only costs $399, which is not a lot of money to start out with.

ImagineTime is a very useable and credible T&B system. You can import client data from Microsoft Outlook, if you use it. The only minor criticism that we have of the application is that it does not seem to have quite as much flexibility in the customization area as some of the other applications we examined. On the other hand, many practices don’t really need to be able to tweak every report and statement. You can download a demo from Both Worlds’ Web site, so it’s easy to check out ImagineTime before you make any decision.

BillQuick 2003
BQE Software Inc.

BQE Software has taken a rather unusual route in marketing its software. Many of the initial users of BillQuick were first exposed to the application as a shareware download available over the Internet. This is still a major sales channel for the application, and a shareware or trial version is still available both from BQE and many download software sites. Don’t write off BillQuick 2003 because of its unorthodox sales channel. The application is well designed, and many practices will find BillQuick 2003 a good choice for implementing T&B.

BillQuick 2003 is available in several versions. The version we tested has a five-user license, but you can purchase additional user licenses, with per-user fees ranging from $55 to $35 per user, depending on the number of users. There is also an Enterprise version of Bill-Quick 2003 that we didn’t look at, with five-user pricing starting at $1,195.

The original BillQuick was written for use by consultants, and that legacy is still a bit visible in the current version. One of the major icons in the central navigation panel is labeled Projects, and a second, at the bottom of the screen, is labeled Project Control. The software allows you to substitute the term Engagement for Project, if you wish. Terminology aside, both of these icons refer to more complex forms of engagements, and which staff members will be allowed access to data (the Project Control icon).

Time and expense entry is straightforward, and multiple timers are usable so that you can switch back and forth between client tasks and keep accurate track of time spent. We found setup easy, and if you are using QuickBooks, Bill-Quick 2003 can serve as a front-end for time and expense entry.

BillQuick provides a nice array of reports and invoices, but there’s really not all that much customization capability beyond minor formatting. If you need the ability to generate ad hoc or truly custom reports, Crystal Reports 9.0 Standard is available as a $190 option. Another useful option is BillQuick, a $125 (single-user) module for the Palm or Windows CE-based PDAs.

For the price, BillQuick 2003 lives up to its name. You can e-mail invoices, and use a variety of hourly, daily, percentage of completion, or flat-fee billing options.

Caseware Time 2003
Caseware International Inc.

Although the information box provides a California sales office, Caseware is a Canadian company that specializes in applications for accountants. It is now the source for the excellent IDEA auditing package, and also offers a highly regarded Working Papers package.

Caseware Time 2003 is an unusually designed T&B application in several respects. The most obvious of these, at least at first glance, is the user interface. Rather than tabbed screens, Caseware emulates the Windows Explorer paradigm. A window provides a vertical set of tasks such as data entry, reports, and document management. Clicking on the plus sign in a small box next to the task expands the task list, and re-clicking on the expanded list rolls the list up. This approach is a bit different than the more common tabbed screen or drop-down menu, but it works very well, and lets you see multiple levels of tasks in a single view.

This task window can be moved anywhere on the screen, and you can have as many additional open windows as your screen size (and concentration level) will support. This is handy when you take advantage of the tight integration that Time 2003 provides with other Windows-based applications such as word processing or your contact manager. Caseware provides a lot of nicely designed reports with Time 2003, and there are filters that let you do a fair amount of customization. Should you need more flexibility, it’s easy to pop a report into Word or Excel and massage it to whatever you require. An optional Caseware Reporter module provides even more flexibility in creating custom and ad hoc reports.

Most of the changes in this 2003 release are small or cosmetic improvements. You can dock open windows, customize the invoice numbering, and set up the system to require approval on time or expense entries.

Some users will want a more traditional approach to time & billing. We found Caseware’s Time 2003 a very refreshing change.

Time Matters 4.0
Data.Txt Corp.

Strictly speaking, Data.Txt’s Time Matters is not a time & billing application. It has some of the attributes of this application, including time entry screens and multiple timers. It even has what Data.Txt calls “Basic Billing,” in that you can generate a useable, though not very fancy, invoice. Time Matters is really intended to be used with a program such as QuickBooks or Timeslips for invoicing and generating statements.

Where Time Matters really shines, though, is in the additional features that it brings to other applications, including a T&B program such as Timeslips. These adjunct features include a very comprehensive set of calendars, communications and document management, and a nicely implemented set of information management functions. It’s sort of a hybrid of a personal information manager and a customer relationship manager/contact manager, with a touch of the best of Outlook or Lotus Organizer thrown in for good measure.

These features break out into a terrific calendar that can be used collaboratively, along with customizable alarms, which can be used to monitor due dates and other important deadlines. Built-in Palm or Pocket PC synchronization lets you easily keep track of the details even while you are on the road. Time Matters is one of only a few applications that we looked at that goes beyond Palm OS support to include support for the ever-more-popular line of PocketPCs.

We really like the way that Time Matters handles information. Documents and e-mails can be attached to time and expenses, so that you have the supporting information handy. The reports can all be exported to a word processor, so customization is a snap.

If you don’t want to have to use a second vendor’s package to actually bill and track receivables, Data.Txt is bringing out an adjunct package, Billing Matters, that will enhance and supplement Time Matters. This application should be available about the time that this review appears, and together with Time Matters, will provide a complete and comprehensive T&B solution. If Billing Matters is as nicely designed and implemented as Time Matters, the combination should be impressive.

TABS III
Software Technology Inc.

Software Technology’s TABS (Time And Billing System) has been around since the initial development of microcomputing. First released for the CP/M operating system in 1979, TABS (now TABS III) was eagerly embraced by the legal market, and is now almost as popular among accountants. TABS III is available in several versions, including a very affordable TABS III Jr., the single-user version of TABS III that we reviewed, and a client/server version for use in very large practices.

Of course, today’s TABS doesn’t look anything like the TABS of the old CP/M days. It’s a clean design, with an easy-to-navigate tabbed window displaying appropriate icons for the task groups that you need to access. Software Technology provides a large and comprehensive manual, but after setup and configuration, you probably won’t need to refer to it much.

You will, however, need to consult the documentation to properly set up and configure TABS III before its first use. We didn’t find the setup/configuration beyond the capabilities of most users, but there is definitely a fair amount of work involved.

That’s true as well if you decide to customize reports. Again, the process is not overly difficult, but it is more elaborate than that required by several of the other vendors’ T&B applications we tested. The documentation does a good job of walking you through both processes. There’s a multimedia tutorial that can help you understand what’s required.

Once you have everything set up and configured, using the software is a breeze. The data entry screen can be configured so that you don’t have to click through all of the fields to enter a basic time or expense slip, and there are multiple timers so that you can easily jump back and forth between different tasks for different clients. TABS III is very flexible when it comes to how you can bill a client. An optional Palm module lets you perform time and expense entry on your PDA, and a remote entry feature lets network users enter time and expenses even if they do not have the TABS III application installed.

At first glance, the reports look a little old fashioned. We’ve gotten used to seeing very fancy reports with logos, lots of fonts, and elaborate formatting. In comparison, many of the reports in TABS III look somewhat stark. The information presented in these reports, however, is very germane to the process of tracking receivables and even managing staff resources.

STI tells us that they will address this issue in the upcoming summer release of TABS III, which will support the use of proportional fonts, and provide the option to add a footer with user initials, data and time. This new release will also have many of the core reports redesigned for improved readability (though we didn’t have any real problems reading the current reports).

A new Statement Designer will let users customize the statements to a much more extensive degree, and additional custom fields will be available in the client record so that the firm can add specialized information to client and management reports.

In the interim, the current version of TABS III provides the same solid time & billing solution that STI has delivered for more than 20 years.