Grip on time, grip on revenue: how We Take Care uses ClockAssist

We Take Care, a progressive Eindhoven bookkeeping firm working with fixed-price agreements, ran into a growing problem: it lacked insight into the actual time spent per client. What did a client really cost in hours, and where exactly did that time go? That proved hard to answer.

Since ClockAssist was introduced, that has changed completely. Within four months the team not only saved time, but also held better-founded conversations with clients and even increased revenue. Bob Kessels, co-owner of We Take Care, talks about the collaboration.

Fixed prices, unclear time spent

Bob Kessels' firm works entirely with fixed prices. That gives clarity to the client, but internally it proved hard to measure whether those prices were in proportion to the time the team spent. Bob explains: "We can write hours for a very long time, but we invoice everything on fixed prices. At some point we wanted to see which clients took more time than we had budgeted for. And where that time went."

"We wanted insight into which clients took more time than we had budgeted for. And where that time went."

Bob Kessels, co-owner We Take Care

Because the team had no structured time registration, that insight was lost. Discussions about workload and time spent kept coming back. He continues: "There were clients where I thought: we're losing money there. But someone else said he barely spent any time on it. I couldn't put my finger on it. What was the truth?"

The CRM and practice management system Tess that the firm used offered three different ways to register hours. "In Tess you can write time, but I still have to think about everything I did that day," says Bob apologetically. "That simply doesn't work for me. I do ten things at once and then think at the end of the day: forget it."

The need for a low-threshold solution became increasingly clear, though. Excel offered temporary relief, but was far from ideal. Bob says: "I had got my employees to do it in Excel, but I didn't do it myself. Excel isn't linked to your CRM and if someone applies the wrong filter, you no longer know what's right."

In short, there was a need for an intuitive, automatic way to see where the time went, without giving the team extra work or headaches.

"We now truly have a grip on what a client costs in time. The discussions are over."

Bob Kessels, co-owner We Take Care

No more time-tracking stress with ClockAssist AI

The solution came when ClockAssist introduced an integration with Tess, developed jointly with Acuity. This so-called add-on to Tess is meant to add specialist functionality offered by best-of-breed parties like ClockAssist seamlessly to Tess. For Bob that was the missing piece of the puzzle: "The time registrations now end up in Tess automatically and the client data back in ClockAssist. One and one is two."

The firm switched straight to the premium variant with AI support. It automatically analyses which work was done and suggests time registrations based on that. He continues enthusiastically: "That AI is 99% right. We have a simple project structure, so at the end of the day I just click a few time slots, drag a few things here and there and I'm done."

The transition went smoothly too. "It actually went pretty well. They're easy to reach, they look along with you and it's all very hands-on." The solution also proved surprisingly user-friendly. Where traditional systems are slow and cumbersome, ClockAssist fits the reality of a busy firm. Bob continues: "We don't have all that clunky hassle now, this just works."

The result: insight, calm and growth

The impact of ClockAssist was immediately noticeable. The biggest gain was not only the time saved, but above all the end of internal discussions. Bob says: "We now truly have a grip on what a client costs in time."

For the first time the team had reliable data. That brought calm and delivered concrete improvements in processes and client agreements. "Time is our most important yardstick. Now that we register those hours correctly, we really know what's going on in the end," he continues. "We mainly use these insights to improve processes, not to hold people to account."

That transparency made well-founded conversations with clients about price and return possible. "I could calculate perfectly what the average hourly rate per client was. For some clients it turned out they were actually paying only €30 an hour. That's not feasible. So I say: it doesn't have to go to €150, but it does have to go to €60." In some cases this meant doubling revenue. "We immediately looked at the five biggest outliers. And we've almost all doubled the revenue on those accounts."

"I could calculate perfectly what the average hourly rate per client was; on some accounts it was far too low. Thanks to that insight we doubled the revenue on those accounts."

Bob Kessels, co-owner We Take Care

Benefits for the team

ClockAssist also brings benefits at team level. "Employees save at least three quarters of an hour a week," he heard internally. In addition, automatic registration means less mental load. Bob: "Writing hours is really, really annoying. Nobody wants it. Now I hardly have to think about it. And even if I forget a day, I still have a good basic registration."

Thanks to that simplicity the team is better able to focus on what really matters: delivering value to the client.

ClockAssist: does what it should do

Bob is positive about working with the ClockAssist team. The implementation needed some coordination at first, but it has run smoothly since. "It took a while before the Tess integration was there, but it runs well now. Sometimes I have to reinstall the plug-in, but that happens less and less. And if anything's up, they're very easy to reach." It's a tool that does exactly what it should, without fuss.

The 3 most important benefits of ClockAssist

Asked about the benefits of ClockAssist, Bob is clear: it brings ease, is reliable and offers good insight. He says: "The ease is the biggest advantage. Writing hours is annoying, but this makes it easy. And because it's so simple, the data is simply more accurate. That lets you increase revenue, improve processes and spot bottlenecks."

ClockAssist thus proved to be not just a registration tool, but a catalyst for growth and professionalisation within the firm. Bob: "We finally have the data to base decisions on. No more guesswork, but grip."

"Writing hours is really very annoying. ClockAssist AI is 99% right. That finally makes it easy."

Bob Kessels, co-owner We Take Care

Ready for automatic time tracking?

Want to find out how ClockAssist helps your firm generate more revenue and simplify time tracking? Book a demo or get in touch, we're happy to help you think it through!

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