How Time Tracking Helped APT Training Cut Data Entry by 75% [User Story]

Business Operation: Time Tracking

Customer: APT Training

Industry: Engineering and Training (hydraulics and pneumatics)

About: Headquartered in Toronto, APT Training is a service business operating in the hydraulics and pneumatics industry. The company’s employees specialize in hydraulics, pneumatic and fluid power training, engineering, and technical writing.

Why the Switch to WorkflowMax:

APT Training’s pricing structure is generally based on billable hours. However, in order to create accurate invoices, APT Training needed a tool that easily and efficiently tracked the time that was being spent on each client.

The company originally lacked a systematic process to measure the time spent on each project, so there was no way to accurately measure the total time invested on each client or to assess pricing.

To fix this, APT Training implemented a basic time tracking system from another vendor to help organize projects. While the system did help organize, it also proved to be time consuming, and often resulted in duplicate work.

How APT Training Uses WorkflowMax for End-to-End Job Management:

Now, with WorkflowMax, APT Training has cut the time its employees spend on data entries for invoicing and quoting by 75%, and they have a much clearer picture as to the profitability of its pricing structure.   

Beyond time tracking and pricing, the company opted to implement WorkflowMax to manage its entire business workflow. Through this one, streamlined system APT Training: 

1. Uses the lead manager to keep tabs on incoming leads. 

WorkflowMax’s lead manager helps APT Training keep track of the most important information from each lead—in one easily accessible system. This feature enables the company to store lead contact information, set up reminders for follow-up communications, and keep track of how the sales team is performing. Plus, APT Training can monitor the months that generate the highest number of leads, as well as the staff member responsible for bringing in the most business.

2. Oversees communication via the collaboration manager.

APT Training can stay organized with internal staff and clients by keeping track of communications in one safe and secure location. WorkflowMax’s collaboration manager tracks and stores emails against a job—enabling APT Training to spend less time sifting through inboxes to find an email or document. 

3. Creates a quote using the quote manager, and sends it to the lead once pricing is confirmed.

With WorkflowMax, APT Training can quickly send accurate, custom quotes. Within the quote manager, the company can also monitor the status of quotes and make revisions to quotes, which makes follow up a breeze.

4. (Once the quote is accepted) converts the quote into a job. 

If the quote is accepted, APT Training turns the quote into a job within WorkflowMax with one click. This frees up employees that would normally spend their valuable time on account management processes.

5.  Allocates responsibilities to each team member who will work on the project. 

Employees can assign tasks within WorkflowMax, and monitor the progress of each project. This insight also helps APT Training identify team availability, and forecast when projects will be completed.

6. Manages time spent on each project via WorkflowMax’s six available time tracking options.

WorkflowMax has multiple time tracking options to record the time each staff member spends on each client. This insight helps APT Training with staffing decisions, price adjustments, and client assessments.

7.Finally, generates an invoice that is already within WorkflowMax and sends it to the client.

The time tracked by APT Training’s staff can then be converted into an invoice that can be customized to include details about where time was spent on each project. The streamlined flexibility of WorkflowMax helped APT Training save on administrative time needed to invoice clients.

What was once a manual, paper-based process, is now an efficient, accurate and streamlined system thanks to the flexibility and convenience of WorkflowMax. 

How has WorkflowMax’s time tracking capabilities impacted your business? Share your experiences in our comments section below.