Stop Losing Revenue: How to prevent write-offs and missed billing in your Professional Services Firm

1. Build a culture of accurate time capture

The root cause of many write-offs is simply incomplete or inaccurate timesheets.

• Encourage frequent, real-time entry instead of end of the week guesswork
• Use intuitive, easy to use tools that make logging billable hours effortless.
• Give employees clear guidelines on how and when to record time.

Manual timesheets or spreadsheets are prone to errors; and they make it easy for billable hours to get lost or forgotten.

Solution: A professional tool like Coretime provides intuitive timesheets that users can complete quickly, on desktop or mobile, reducing guesswork and improving accuracy.

2. Automate approvals and error checking

Missing approvals or manual review bottlenecks are another common source of write-offs. If timesheets sit waiting for sign-off, valuable billable hours may never get invoiced.

• Set up clear approval workflows so managers can quickly verify and sign off time
• Use built-in validation rules to catch common errors automatically
• Automate reminders so approvers are notified without manual follow ups

Solution: Coretime includes automated alerting meaning timesheets are reviewed promptly and with fewer mistakes.

3. Connect time tracking to billing seamlessly

One of the biggest causes of missed billing is disconnects between time capture, project tracking and invoice creation.

When time tracking, and billing are siloed, staff may track time but it never translates into invoices.

To prevent this:

• Use a system that flows timesheet data straight into invoicing
• Include billable expenses alongside time entries
• Set up recurring or milestone invoices where applicable

Solution: With Coretime, tracked hours and expenses automatically feed into WIP and invoicing. You can generate accurate, professional invoices in minutes rather than hours; reducing both admin burden and potential for missed billing.

4. Monitor WIP and unbilled work in real time

Work in Progress (WIP) that isn’t invoiced promptly is a common source of revenue leakage.

If you only review WIP weekly or monthly, you’re already too late; some billable work may already have been forgotten.

Best practices include:

• Daily or weekly WIP reporting to spot unbilled time quickly
• Dashboards showing billable hours, unbilled balances and project budgets
• Alerts when thresholds are reached or deadlines approach

Real-time insight keeps unbilled work on your radar, so you can act before opportunities are lost.

Solution: Coretime provides live project and WIP visibility, giving teams complete control over their financial performance

5. Standardise billing rates and templates

Inconsistent billing rates and poorly formatted invoices can delay payment or lead to disputes; both of which can ultimately become write-offs.

To fix this:

• Standardise billing rates per role, client or project
• Use invoice templates with clear line items and professional branding
• Automate repetitive billing tasks where possible

Solution: Coretime supports flexible billing rates and professional invoice templates that pull directly from validated time entries. This streamlines the entire billing cycle and reduces the risk of errors.

6. Train your team and review regularly

Even with the best system, user adoption matters.

• Train your team on logging best practices
• Review time entry quality and billing outcomes regularly
• Hold periodic ‘billing health’ meetings to identify patterns of write-offs or missed invoices

Combining culture, training and technology creates a robust defence against revenue leakage.

Conclusion

Write-offs and missed billing are revenue drains many Professional Services firms silently tolerate; but they don’t have to be inevitable.

By combining accurate time capture, automated approval workflows, integrated billing, real-time visibility into WIP and standardised processes, you’ll dramatically reduce write-offs and improve your cash flow.

Coretime is specifically designed to support these best practices, giving you the capabilities you need to reclaim lost billable hours and streamline your entire billing process.

Discover how Coretime can help you reduce write-offs and improve cashflow by calling 01423 653800 or by emailing sales@coretime.com