Time Tracking for Engineers & Engineering Firms
Engineering projects are billed by phase and won or lost on the accuracy of fee estimates. When time goes unlogged, you lose visibility into where hours actually go - and the next proposal repeats the same underestimate. Sandtime.io lets your team log hours against each phase from any device, compare actuals against estimates, and pull billing-ready reports without rebuilding the week from memory.
Engineers & Engineering Firms: why they choose Sandtime.io
Track time by project phase
Give each phase its own project - feasibility, design, analysis, site visits, construction admin - and log hours against it as work happens. Reports show the hours and cost each phase has used, so you can check them against the fee before you are over.
Log from office or site
Log hours from the office, a job site, or a client meeting using any device. No paper timesheets to chase down at the end of the week.
Know labor cost before billing
Know what each project is costing in labor before you invoice. Catch overruns by phase while there is still time to act on them.
One account for the whole firm
Track time across principals, engineers, technicians, and subcontractors from one shared account. No merging spreadsheets from separate tools.
How an engineering firm tracks hours against the fee
An engineering firm sets up Sandtime.io with a project per job phase, such as feasibility, design, analysis and construction support, each with its own revenue rate. Engineers and technicians log hours to the phase they are on, so the firm sees actual hours against the fee estimate while there is still time to act, and reuses them in the next proposal.
- Break each job into phasesCreate one project per phase and prefix it with the job number. Add a revenue rate per project and cost rates per engineer, so reports show both what a phase earned and what it cost.
- Assign engineers, technicians and subconsultantsPrincipals are Administrators, and project engineers can be Project Administrators for their jobs. Technicians and subconsultants join as Users who see only the phases they are assigned to.
- Track desk and field hoursUse the desktop app or Chrome extension for calculations and drawings, the phone app on site visits, and manual entries with start and end times for travel. Firms that keep their own dashboards can read entries through the REST API with a personal API key.
- Compare phase actuals with the proposalAt each invoice date, group a report by project to see hours and revenue per phase against the fee. Export it to Excel or CSV, lock the billed period, and keep the actuals to price the same phase in the next proposal.
Step by step in the help center: invite the team with the right role, approve a week from the email, and turn on auto-locking.
Common use cases
- Log hours to the right project and phase as work happens
- Track time across multiple concurrent projects without mixing hours
- Compare actual hours to fee estimates after each project phase
- Pull client billing reports without reconstructing the week
- Keep engineer, technician, and subcontractor time in one account
- Export project time data for client reporting and fee negotiations
Key features
One-click timers
Start timing the moment you switch to a new project or phase. One click logs to the right job without interrupting work.
Retroactive time entry
Add site visit hours, travel time, or review sessions after the fact. Nothing is lost because you forgot to start a timer.
Multiple projects at once
Run timers across multiple active projects simultaneously. Each project tracks independently so hours never cross over.
Export and report
Pull time reports by project, team member, or date range. Export to CSV for fee invoicing, client reporting, or internal reviews.
Where Sandtime.io stops
Better to know before you invite the team. These are the gaps people in this line of work ask about most.
- No invoicingSandtime.io does not send invoices. The Invoices report template lists time, rate, net revenue, tax, and total per project, and you export it to Excel or CSV for your billing software.
- No project budgetsThere is no budget field or budget alert. A report grouped by project shows hours, cost, and revenue so far, and you compare them with the estimate yourself.
- Reminders are a weekly emailThe fill-timesheet reminder is one email, sent on Friday at 6 PM while auto-locking is on. It is off by default, so each member switches it on in their notification settings.
Keep exploring
Continue with the most relevant Sandtime.io pages for this topic.
Track breaks and other non-billable time
Sandtime.io has no dedicated break timer. Non-billable projects with the Billable switch off keep breaks in your timesheet and out of what you bill.
Open pageBillable Hours
Work hours that can be charged to a client or project. Essential for professional services firms to track revenue.
Open pageCost, revenue, and billable reporting
Use billable flags and rates to understand project profitability without losing the self-reported workflow.
Open pageCost
The expense associated with employee work hours. Calculated by multiplying time by cost rates for profitability analysis.
Open pageCreate a project for reported time
Create projects that people can report against, mark them billable or non-billable, and keep reporting tidy.
Open pageCustom Reports
User-defined reports with flexible groupings, metrics, and filters. Custom reports answer specific business questions.
Open pageTrack your first hour today
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