Team Chargeable Hours & Recovery Tracker Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet that follows an hour from your payroll to your invoice and prices every leak on the way.
Between the hour you pay for and the hour you get paid for there are four separate leaks: time off, time nobody wrote down, time you cannot bill, and time that was chargeable, was done, and never got charged. Most businesses can only see one of them. Ask anybody who sells people’s time what they charge an hour and they answer instantly; ask what an hour they pay for actually returns and the room goes quiet.
What is in it
- Setup — four numbers, and the list of what your people’s time goes on.
- People — 20 rows, four things typed per person.
- Timesheet — 900 rows, one per entry.
- By Client — the rate on your price list next to the rate you actually got.
- By Activity and By Week — where the week really goes, and utilisation as a trend rather than a number.
- Overview — the whole ladder, from hours you pay for down to hours you invoiced, on one screen.
Who it is for
Anywhere you sell people’s time: law, accountancy, architecture, engineering, surveying, translation, design, IT support, consultancy, veterinary, bookkeeping, marketing. Fixed fees work too — put the fee in as invoiced hours at your own rate and the file tells you what that fee actually earned per hour. If you do not keep timesheets, one line per person per week is enough to start.
The worked example
A worked half-year is filled in. Of 5,655.0 hours paid for, 412.5 were time off, 297.0 never reached a timesheet, 1,730.0 could not be billed and 313.0 were written off — leaving 2,902.5 hours actually invoiced. That is 61.3% utilisation against a 70% target, and 90.3% recovery.
An invoiced hour brought in $97.40. An hour on the payroll returned $49.99 and cost $33.51. Nobody in the worked studio agreed a discount, and yet $28,073 was given away one write-off at a time: one client paid $90.58 an hour against a list rate of $105. The team invoiced $282,707 in total and cost $189,500, covering itself 1.49x.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Order on WhatsApp — $9
Orders are taken on WhatsApp: message me and I’ll send the payment details, then the files as soon as the payment is confirmed.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I work out what an hour I pay for actually returns?
Take the hours you pay for and strip out the four leaks in order — time off, time nobody logged, time you cannot bill, and time that was done and then written off — to reach the hours you actually invoiced. In the worked half-year 5,655 paid hours became 2,902.5 invoiced: 61.3% utilisation against a 70% target, and 90.3% recovery. An invoiced hour brought in $97.40, an hour you pay for returned $49.99, and it cost $33.51.
Is this only for agencies, and what if we bill fixed fees rather than hours?
No — it fits anything where you sell people's time: law, accountancy, architecture, engineering, surveying, translation, design, IT support, consultancy, veterinary, bookkeeping, marketing. If you bill fixed fees, put the fee in as invoiced hours at your own rate and the file measures what the fee actually earned per hour, which is usually the more uncomfortable number.
We don't keep timesheets — can I still use it?
Start with one line per person per week: hours worked and hours billed. It is a worse file and it still answers the two questions your accounts cannot — whether somebody has a diary problem or a charging problem. If your period is not six months, put your own number of weeks in Setup and every figure in the file moves with it.
Do I need Excel, or will it run in Google Sheets?
Yes — the file is built as .xlsx, so it opens in Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, goes into Google Sheets through File → Import → Upload, and works in LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription. You download a file and it is yours. Twenty people and 900 timesheet rows, with the worked half-year filled in, a blank copy and a plain-English PDF guide.
Is it a time tracking system, and will it make somebody look bad?
No — it is not a time tracking or clock-in system, not payroll, invoicing or accounting software, not a project plan or a resource scheduler, and nothing syncs or logs in. Whoever runs the place will always look worst on the cost-versus-return line, and the file says so on the page. It will not fill in your timesheets; it tells you which of your people are doing work nobody is charging for, and which clients are getting a discount you never agreed — $28,073 given away in the worked half-year without a single negotiation.
Need it built around your business?
This one assumes people paid by the hour and billed by the hour, with one list rate per client. If yours is different — retainers that roll unused hours into next month, several offices with different cost rates, or work billed to a project rather than to a client — I can build the same ladder around how you actually invoice.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.