Great answer Tes. I agree completely.

Given the date of the original post I am sure the original poster has arrived at a solution that best suits her and her client(s).

But, here is my 2 cents for anyone else experiencing this issue. I would talk with your client about their expectations about reporting, if you have adopted a reporting system such as weekly progress reports as I have. I think it is also important to find out why she/he is requesting daily reports? are they formal reports or just a summary of your time for the purpose of her budgeting.

We have to manage the expectations of our clients, and if they are requesting something from us these taks should be billed to the client.

Hope this was helpful information.

__________________
Kimberly, CEO / Administrator Streamatic Solutions
Streamlining tasks and optimizing productivity

I thought this was a great topic because I can see it from the other side of the tracks.

I have very detailed time sheets that my employees fill out daily. It tracks every minute of their day along with every mile they put on my vehicles. If they stop at Burger King to grab a burger it goes on the time sheet.

The reason I do this is because I know how long it takes me to do the jobs I pay my guys to do. So if I can do the job in 15 minutes but they are there for 45 I know they are either struggling with the task or are real talkative with the customers. Each night I go through the time sheets and I can see what my guys did all day long. If I have a guy who spends more time at locations than he should be I can investigate why. While I encourage my guys to be friendly with customers I do not want them spending a half hour at their house just talking about the weather. If it is just that they are struggling I can set them up with more training.

I know my control issues stem from my time in the military, but I use it to my advantage.

Billing in 15 minute increments...thank you for that, I was wondering how to handle that. Do you round up to the next hour or divide it to the next 15 minites? Does anyone else round up to the next hour? I figured that the first hour would be a one hour minimum regardless. but wasn't sure after that?

__________________
Girl Friday Results
www.girlfridayresults.com

I understand that, I wouldn't want to feel as if I was in an employee/boss situation, not when you're running your own business. I have clients on retainer for a set amount of hours per month so I use a time-tracking system to monitor that. I use Paymo which is an internet based software so you don't need to download anything. You can set up the various projects you're working on and assign smaller tasks within the project until the whole thing is complete. You can use a timer to track your time and there is also a manual option if like me you sometimes forget to turn the timer on. It also provides detailed reports of time spent on your projects and the smaller tasks as well which can be emailed to your client if necessary. Up until now I haven't sent any reports and my clients haven't asked for them. Any time I haven't used during the month I simply pass over to the following so they know they're getting their monies worth and the results are there.

I bill for anything I do that is related to my client's projects so if I were you I would include the time it takes you to create the reports your client requests as well as the emails. You'll probably find that with time she'll see for herself that the work is being done and she'll back off (hopefully!).

__________________
Sabrina L. Williams
For a bird's eye view of your business

I haven't run into this specifically for me I track my time using Toggl and send my clients a report on the 15th, the 25th (with invoice for next month) and on the last day of the month. I work on retainer so the 15th gives the client an idea of where we are at, the 25th also shows them where we're at and also gives them an idea if they might want to increase hours the next month. Then on the last day of the month so they get a final copy of how many hours were used and on what projects. I title each task with what I'm working on and then they know what I'm spending time doing and how much per month.

I prefer to be open and clear with timing of tasks, but I'm also not one to charge 30 seconds for replying to an email with a simple question. That's just my preferece. I also wouldn't be comfortable with a client that wanted me to map out my time for them down to the second on a daily basis. That's a lot of time spent, remember you're a business owner not her employee. Your time is valuable.

__________________
Stacey Harris
On Demand Virtual Assistant

I think your client is confused on how your relationship is supposed to work. Micromanaging is not productive for either of you.

__________________
Rhonda