Atelier Ten relies on hourly timesheets to tally work efforts for each staff member. Accurate and timely entry is critical to the efficiency of our accounting and management systems, as well as determining project profitability and overhead rates. Should you have any inquiries or uncertainties about the policy, please see your group leader or local office manager.

Procedure

Timesheets must be completed weekly and capture all time worked for the week. Entries are made in the Ajera software system for all project-related, billable work as well as, all administrative and overhead time. Time not worked should only be logged as authorized under the firm’s leave policy.

Staff members are responsible for completing their own timesheet by 5:00 pm local time each Friday. If you will not be in on a Friday, complete your timesheet prior to leaving on your last working day of the week. Complete timesheets for holidays, vacations, and other authorized leave before the leave begins.

Click the Submit button at the bottom-right corner of the Ajera timesheet window indicating to your Office Manager that you have filled out your timesheet completely and accurately. Office Managers review all staff timesheets weekly. Group leaders review all timesheets monthly.

Billable

Project Time

Any time contributed to an active project may be posted in the top section of the Ajera timesheet window as billable to that project. Project managers must authorize all time posted to a project. When assigned a project task, verify the following with the project manager: project name, project number, active phase, and number of hours authorized for task completion. Notify the project manager immediately if your task is taking longer than the pre-authorized time allotment.

Post time in increments of no smaller than 15 minutes (0.25 of an hour) with annotation in the Hours Detail section of the timesheet. For brief tasks related to a single project or phase, add a few together during a week for a 0.25 posting (such as quick coordination calls and in-house progress checks). Use the table below as a guide for posting ranges:

0 – 10 minutes = non-billable
11 – 20 minutes = 0.25 hours
21 – 35 minutes = 0.50 hours
36 – 50 minutes = 0.75 hours
51 – 65 minutes = 1.0 hours

Travel Time

Travel time for active projects is billable up to 8 hours per day for out-of-town trips within the United States that are at least 1 hour in duration. In-town travel includes all travel within your home office’s city/town and is not billable. For international travel, please review the project contract with your supervisor and/or the client to agree on the billable travel time.

Travel time begins when you depart your home or office and ends when you reach your destination (i.e., hotel, project site, client office). The reverse is true when you return to your home or office. Deduct time spent on other billable (project) or non-billable (administrative) work performed while you are in transit. Do not charge for time spent in the destination city, just for the time spent in transit.

Non-Billable

All non-billable administrative, marketing, practice management, and time off is posted in the bottom overhead section of the Ajera timesheet window. Overhead time is logged in quarter of an hour increments with annotation unless otherwise noted below:

Administrative Time

Continuing Ed: Occasions such as A10 lunch and learns, industry organization meetings (i.e. IBPSA, USGBC, NYGBC, AIA, IESNA), and professional development seminars, workshops, or conferences (with supervisor approval).

Local Admin: General local administrative activities such as weekly timesheet maintenance, library maintenance, staff and group meetings, and HR meetings (performance evaluations and professional development plans). See your office manager for further clarification of tasks in this category.

International Admin: Administrative activities performed on behalf of or in coordination with other non-US A10 offices.
Supervisor pre-authorization required for non-administrative staff.

Recruitment: Activities including candidate interviews and career fair attendance. Supervisor pre-authorization is
required.

Training: Onboarding activities such as new hire orientation, practice overviews, brand guideline meetings. Project time overages due to new employee learning curve with project manager approval.

US Admin: Administrative activities performed on behalf of or in coordination with all US A10 offices. Supervisor preauthorization is required for non-administrative staff.

Leave

Bereavement: Up to 1 week of paid leave and up to 2 additional weeks of unpaid leave for the death of an immediate family member. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Company Holiday: Holiday time is logged in 8 hour increments with an annotation indicating the observed holiday. Annual holiday schedules are issued by the Operations team each year. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Extended Medical: Job protected leave for specified immediate family-related and medical-related reasons. Supervisor, Office Manager, and Director pre-authorization required. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Jury Duty: Regular, full-time employees will receive full pay for any workweek partially interrupted by jury duty or the requirement by law to appear in court as a witness. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Military: Unpaid, job protected leave for active-duty call up and Reserves or National Guard duty. Further information
can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Paid Sick: Sick time is logged in 1 hour increments only. Sick leave may be used for the employee’s own illness or to attend to the illness of an immediate family member. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Paid Vacation: Vacation time is logged in 4 or 8 hour increments only. Supervisor and Office Manager pre-authorization is required. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Voting: Employees are allowed a maximum 2 hours of voting leave on Election Day without loss of pay.

Marketing Time

Educational Instructor: Special teaching sessions or events that have marketing value to the firm including time spent preparing and conducting the session. Supervisor and Director pre-authorization is required. Further information can be found in the Employee Handbook.

Local Biz Dev: Marketing efforts benefiting your local office including conferences/events, client lunches, office talks, and local thought leadership.

Local Sales: Time spent on a local project pursuit including calls/meetings related to the pursuit, competition support not logged under a project number, project interviews, and fee proposals and qualification packages.

US Biz Dev: US-level marketing efforts including meetings associated with the US business, conferences/events associated with A10US (Greenbuild, AIA National, etc.), and US thought leadership public relations efforts.

Practice Time

Work performed for the benefit of one of the firm’s practices including administrative tasks and tool development. Practice Leader pre-authorization is required.

Utilization

Atelier Ten tracks individual and office utilization as a percentage of billable hours worked divided by salaried hours. Each staff level has a utilization target aligned with its roles and responsibilities. As a firm, we target 55% to 60% utilization as one of our success indicators.

The table below shows the average billable and non-billable weekly hours with guidance for the usage of the nonbillable time for a regular, full-time employee:

A guideline only, the breakdown above is flexible based on workload, business development urgencies, practice activities, and training opportunities. Group Leaders are expected to coordinate closely with staff to first ensure that they are sufficiently busy with billable work to keep utilization healthy, and then make sure that non-billable time is spent productively and efficiently.