Hours as Inventory

In the service industry, people think they’re selling all sorts of different things. If you’re a web designer, it’s easy to believe you’re selling designs. If you’re a software developer, you believe you’re selling code. If you’re a videographer, you’re selling films. And the list goes on.

The reality is you’re selling the same thing everyone else in the industry is. You’re selling hours. As a one man shop, you have about 8 hours to sell each day; a 4 man shop has roughly 32. Those hours are inventory.

Tracking hours is great and all, but you don't need time tracking software for that. You need inventory management.

Tick is inventory management software for people who sell hours.

Drift for a second... You're feeling great! You just sold a 10 hour project and got $200 per hour (actual rates may vary). That 10 hours was an estimate of course, now you have to get the work done within that amount of time.

A week later you deliver and get your $2,000 check. So how much did you make?

Well, if you completed the project in 10 hours, then you made $200 p/h, but if you worked 15 hours you only made $133 p/h. That could be the difference between a healthy profit and not being able to keep the lights on.

So we need to track our time right? Well that's a start, but what good is tracking your time only to run a report at the end and see you lost money? You need an easy way to see how much time (inventory) has been used and how much is left during a project. And you need this information where the whole team can see it.

This is what makes Tick valuable.

Tick doesn’t just track your time really well, and it doesn’t just help you create better estimates. Tick shows if a project is profitable by showing everyone how much inventory is left on the shelf.

If it’s getting thin, everyone knows and adjusts accordingly. If there’s extra, they know that too - high fives all around. Tick empowers teams by sharing the critical information to the people with the ability to make a difference.

This gives your team the ability to know exactly where they stand, when they have time to lend a hand or when they need to pick up the pace.

When you’re willing to view hours as inventory, and everyone has a key to the storeroom, everyone becomes equally responsible for a project’s profitability. And that’s important. For many, it’s the difference between profitability and losing money. See how Ideal Project Group used Tick to grow revenue by 300%

An important distinction

A lot of companies think they need to use time tracking software as a way to keep tabs on their employees. To babysit them. Never giving them access to the information they need to complete tasks on budget and forcing them to log a certain number of hours each day. If those are your goals you'll find Tick is not a great fit.

Tick is designed for teams who want to do great work and understand the value of their time. Tick wants to help these people raise a glass to profitable projects and happy clients at the end of the day.

See what you can do with Tick - it’s free for 30 days