Hours, Keeping track of them

For those of you working in firms and companies. How closely do you track your hours.

I mean if you are really focusing on creating a that works as “hot” as it looks…RKS…type stuff. Assuming you are saleried, do you throw the intended hours out the window and focus on the design, or do you just say well this is what the budget would give them?

It depends, right?

Answer a few questions like how much business do I currently have? How many repeat customers? Can I leverage unused, rigorous design for clients in other ways such as for self promotion? I would say do the best work you can above and beyond the budget with the strategy that you will collect and promote the heck out of what you’ve produced.

Also, I work at an architecture firm where we have strong ties to several design schools. This kind of means that we worry less about going above and beyond for clients simply because we pay very little for young, fresh, and still-in-school talent. So, make some ties with schools if you feel overwhelmed. It’s seriously a win-win for everyone: you, the school, and your interns.

We used www.functionfox.com to keep track.

From what I read into the posting, I think the OP is looking more for “Do you focus on the hours you spend regardless of the project quality or do you aim for the best quality and eat the extra hours?” I am also assuming he means on non time and materials quates, and assuming all designers are saleried employies.


This is a difficult question especially when you are only working a couple of programs at a time. Personally I always focus on the product, while keeping an eye on the hours. If I can significantly improve any aspect of the product with 20-30 hours, and I forsee future products/relationship with the client, I will spend it without hesitation. Sometimes this does not play well with the owners, but in the end it allways works out for the best.

What are some others thoughts

As designers, I don’t think we’re ever really totally satisfied with the final output, and that makes deciding when to stop very tough. Should I stop when the padded budget hours are up…stop when it’s pretty ok looking…stop when I’m kind of starting to dig it…? That said, we all have real live deadlines that need to met with high quality results.

Sometimes I get good stuff early and go home on time, others I’m there till 1-2am struggling to finish. I think you have to be ready and willing to go long and overtime, but not automatically expect it.

We get hired because we can finish stuff on time.

It becomes a bigger issue when your company grows and many designers are contributiing to programs and their time is tracked and compared.

Personally I am of the mind that you do what you need to to make it great. But running a business of any scale involves tracking, adjusting, and adhering to budgets.

I agree with Mark- what time tracking can do is give you an additional tool to understand what a program may realistically take. Then, you can use this to help justify adding additional resources to important projects, even if they go over budget.

What can happen is that it becomes an all out effort in a single project that results in exceeding the budget 3-4x. Not knowing it beforehand makes it hard to plan for compensating for the shortfall with other projects, etc.

I’m guessing that you are also referring to projects that have more potential than budget. One thing to remember is there’s not a lot budget for design, there also may not be a lot of budget for engineering and tooling, with the result being that hot design may never be implemented. Just makes sure that the back-end can implement the front-end.

I’m in agreement with Mark and jimr. Where I personally find the most value in tracking time is not in constraining the resources for the project, but rather in understanding how to better estimate our efforts on the front end in the first place. I also like having the ability to look back and understand why something came in over or under budget. It let’s me assess what works really well, what processes we need to improve, etc.