Anyone whose time is tracked is added as a staff member in the Setup > Users : Permissions window. You can add hundreds of names to the staff file. Staff reports can be printed anytime to make employee and department lists

Staff records are used by time cards and time sheets. Anyone whose time is tracked is added as a staff member. The staff window contains information about each staff member, including name, address, department, billing rates, and a personal photograph. You can add hundreds of names to the staff file. Staff reports can be printed anytime to make employee and department lists. 📍See demo data: SWW (e.g., owner), NF (e.g., AE), JL (e.g., freelancer), EV (e.g., creative), LB (e.g., accounting)

🔹To see and use staff member accounts, choose Setup > Staff Members (Freelancers)

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

• Each staff member can have his or her own set of standard and special billing rates.
• Every user has his or her own standard cost and billing rates, which are copied automatically to their time sheets.
• Special billing rates can be made for any combination of staff member, client, and task
• Staff members can restricted to certain clients in Clients > Staff Client Access
• If a staff member doesn’t have access to the client’s jobs, they can’t see its job tasks
• Staffers can add their own unavailable days
• Each staffer can have a skill set — the tasks a staffer is qualified to do — to simplify scheduling for project managers.
• Standard tasks (e.g., admin tasks such as SICK, HOL, VAC, etc.) can be set up for each staff member.
• Only supervisor or admin level users can add, edit, and delete staff files.
• A staff member with only access to their own account can’t see other staff files,
• Every staffer can change their home address, phone number, email settings, staff photo, signature, and signature text for emails.


📎 There’s no special method for calculating a cost rate -- it’s completely customizable. You can choose to use an average cost per hour, which equalizes your time accounting. Or you can make the cost rate equal to the staffer’s actual hourly salary or wage, plus benefits. Don’t include overhead (or an overhead factor) in your cost rates, since they keep the job reports from showing an accurate gross profit (labor costs are typically treated as overhead, based on your payroll expense entries).

📎 Staff members can be limited to seeing jobs for only certain clients by setting the client’s staff access privileges. If a staff member doesn’t have access to the client’s jobs, they can’t see its job tasks.

Permissions are the foundation of your database’s security system. By carefully and thoughtfully assigning Permissions, you can provide users access to the things they need to see -- and keep them from seeing and working on things they shouldn’t. Every user has his or her unique set of Permissions. This ability lets you tailor the system to a user’s special needs for information. For example, you can selectively give a user access to adding, editing, and deleting job tickets -- but prevent them from seeing costs.

⚠️ The Users table is different from Staff table Users are people who can access Clients & Profits, while Staff members are the shop’s employees. They are usually identical, since most employees typically use C&P. Everyone who works for the company should be added as a staff member, while only those people who will use Clients & Profits should be added as “users.” Staff members and Clients & Profits users may have the same initials. Changing the user’s name or initials doesn’t update the staff information, and vice versa; if you change information in one window, you should change the other as well.

✳️ Why track time? By tracking time for each staff member, you’ll get productivity reports that compare billable versus unbillable time, time by client, time by task, and more. With practice, these reports can help you see where people are working most effectively. There are different strategies for tracking time (see Time Sheets for more information), but the effort pays off in a greater awareness of your business. Generally, you should track all time, including unbillable time, meetings, administrative time, and sick/vacation/personal time. (Using an unbillable administrative job ticket works well for tracking unbillable time). Time keeping has always been a contentious issue within ad agencies and design studios. Clients & Profits doesn’t try to solve the political or cultural problems with time keeping; instead, it simply tries to make it easier, faster, and more accurate. The argument for time keeping is substantial: Clients are demanding more accountability (they want to know where and why you’re spending your time) and today’s lower profit margins don’t support unproductive work. So the only way to know if everyone is working productively is to somehow track where they spend their time.

✳️ How Clients & Profits X manages cost and billing rates The billing rate and the cost rate are not inherently related; in both cases you can enter any rate you want for any staff member. The cost rate, however, is important since it’s used for job costing. The cost rate calculates the dollar cost of your staff time on job summaries. The cost rate doesn’t affect billings -- only the job’s labor cost. Here’s how they work:Someone’s cost and billing rates are copied to the time sheet when time is added. The cost rate is based on the staffer’s salary, so it is generally unchanged. The billing rate, however, can change for many reasons: you’ve negotiated a rate with a client, etc. If the staff member has special billing rates, they will replace the standard billing rate. If the job task itself has a preferred billing rate, it is used instead. Or, the billing rate can be changed while the time sheet is being added (if the user has access to rates and costs).

✳️ Staff members and time tracking TTime keeping has always been a contentious issue within ad agencies and design studios. Clients & Profits X doesn’t try to solve the political or cultural problems with time keeping; instead, it simply tries to make it easier, faster, and more accurate. The argument for time keeping is substantial: Clients are demanding more accountability (they want to know where and why you’re spending your time) and today’s lower profit margins don’t support unproductive work. So the only way to know if everyone is working productively is to somehow track where they spend their time. By tracking time for each staff member, you’ll get productivity reports that compare billable versus unbillable time, time by client, time by task, and more. With practice, these reports can help you see where people are working most effectively. There are different strategies for tracking time (see Time Sheets for more information), but the effort pays off in a greater awareness of your business. Generally, you should track all time, including unbillable time, meetings, administrative time, and sick/vacation/personal time. (Using an unbillable administrative job ticket works well for tracking unbillable time).

✳️ Clients & Profits doesn’t provide payroll services or handle any HR functions. The information in the Staff file can be seen by any C&P user with access permissions to see other staff members.

✳️ Clients & Profits doesn’t provide payroll services or handle any HR functions. The information in the Staff file can be seen by any C&P user with access permissions to see other staff members.

📎 All about passwords: There are separate passwords for the desktop app and the web app, as well as expirations and other others. There's a link to reset the user password.

Watch the LEARN ALL ABOUT USERS & PERMISSIONS explainer video (coming soon)



TIPS

📌 You can provide access to specific menu commands, as needed. When a user doesn’t have access to a menu command, it appears dimmed and can’t be chosen. This prevents a user from working in some place they shouldn’t. For example, you can give a user access to Media, to add, change, and print media plans, but not Accounts Payable or the Checkbook.

📌 As a security feature, staff members can be restricted from seeing and working on jobs from certain clients. It's an option if you have account teams that need to kept apart from other account terms. See My > Clients > Staff Client Access.

FAQs

💬 What about freelancers? Staff records can be marked as a freelancer (non-employee). Time sheets for freelancers can be summarized on special time and productivity reports, helping you analyze the value of freelance time vs. staff time on each client.

💬 Can I change the staff member's initials? Yes, the Re-number utility will change all of a staff member's time entries, job tasks, etc. automatically. If the staff member also has a vendor account (which is used for expense report reimbursements) it will be renumbered as well.

SEE MORE
Client Staff Access
Recurring Payable Worksheet
How to add a recurring payable for a vendor

EXPLAINERS
Freelancers vs. Staffers
Owners & Principals
What To Do When a Staff Member QuitsWorking w/Freelancers