Why Consultants Use Standard Time®

1. Client Invoicing with Milestone Billing

Many consulting engagements are not billed by the hour. They are billed when something is delivered: the discovery report, the working system, the completed training. Milestone billing ties the invoice to the finish line instead of the calendar.

Milestones mark the moments you bill. The percentages are only an example.

How Standard Time® helps

• Milestones in the plan. A task with zero duration is a milestone. Put one at the end of each phase and it shows on the Gantt chart as a diamond, so the whole team can see the billing points. See Gantt Chart Project Tasks.
• A runway of what is coming. The Milestone Runway row pins upcoming and missed milestones above your task grid, with color for urgency. See Frozen Summary Rows.
• Hours still count. Even when you bill a fixed fee, time logs show what each phase actually cost you, so you learn whether a milestone was priced well.
• Billable rates and invoices. Client rates are kept per project and task, and billing can flow to QuickBooks Online.

An honest note: Standard Time® is not an accounting package. It plans the milestones, captures the time and costs behind them, and passes billing to your accounting system rather than replacing it.

2. Task Lists Assigned to Each Consultant

When more than one person works an engagement, the biggest risk is the question nobody can answer: who is doing that? A task list per consultant removes the guessing for the consultant and the manager.

Same engagement, three clear lists.

How Standard Time® helps

• Assign tasks to people or workgroups. Each task can be given to one or more consultants, with a percentage when someone shares their time.
• Everyone sees their own work. The Project Tasks grid can be filtered to one person, so a consultant opens it and sees only their list. See How to Set Up Users.
• Capacity before you promise. Resource Allocation colors each person and week green, yellow, or red, so you know who can take the next client. See Resource Allocation & Capacity Planning.
• Next deadlines first. A pinned strip lists tasks due in the next two days, overdue first.

3. Project Management That Fits an Engagement

A consulting project is still a project: phases, dependencies, a delivery date, and a client who asks how it is going. Standard Time® gives you the same planning tools a manufacturer uses, which is more than most time trackers offer.

Phases linked together, ending in a billing milestone.

How Standard Time® helps

• Subprojects and tasks. Break an engagement into phases and tasks, nested as deep as you need. A quick way to build the outline is the text editor.
• Gantt chart with links. Show which task must finish before the next can start, and see which ones control your delivery date (the critical path).
• Baselines. Save the plan you sold, then watch thin gray bars show where reality drifted. That makes scope-creep conversations with a client factual.
• Folders for clients. Group each client’s work into folders so reports and filters stay tidy. See What Folders Can Do for You.
• Know a project’s status fast. Hours so far, percent complete, and who is clocked in are one look away.

4. Graphical Timesheets

Consultants juggle several clients in one week, and a timesheet that is a list of cells is easy to get wrong. A graphical timesheet shows the week as a picture: which project got the hours, and which day was heavy.

Projects down the side, days across, hours as bars.

How Standard Time® helps

• Projects down, days across. Enter hours against each client project in a Monday-to-Sunday view and see totals as you go.
• Or skip typing. Start and stop timers, or scan a barcode, and the time logs record the hours for you.
• Weekly review is quick. Totals by project and day make invoice prep and utilization checks a few minutes, not an evening. See How to Run Time Reports.
• Overtime when you have employees. Overtime rules turn logged hours into regular and overtime hours. See Overtime Rules for Time Logs.

5. One Tool for Every Size of Practice

A freelancer needs something simple that will not get in the way. A full service consultancy needs rights, groups, and reports. The point is that you do not have to change tools when you grow.

The same features, used a little or a lot.

How Standard Time® helps

• Freelancer: create a project per client, track hours, mark milestones, and export to your accounting system.
• Small shop: add teammates, assign tasks, and share one project plan so nobody works from a private copy.
• Full service consultancy: workgroups, user rights, capacity planning, scheduled exports, and Power BI dashboards across every client.
• Try it risk-free. Sample data lets you explore without touching real records. See Start Here and Sample Data.

Getting Started

1. Create one project per client engagement, with a folder for each client.
2. Add phase tasks and a zero-duration milestone at the end of each billable phase.
3. Assign tasks to your consultants and let them log time or use the Timesheet.
4. Review hours against each milestone before you invoice.