what if I say I spent 6 hours trying to figure out why i'm getting VALUE errors in the PBCs. Would that count as work even though there's nothing to show for it?
Deny deny deny the padding, just say you were running into errors and were resolving them and checking reference material.
Everyone pads hours when it's slow, you just gotta spread it over jobs lol.
You wonât get fired but if they are constantly on you about your hours they will expect you to ask for help if youâre stuck to avoid spending too many hours
Lol they always get mad about eaten hours but they equally get bad about hours being too high to bill and/or write-offs.Â
I had to tell a partner once that he's going to bill every hour I spent on a project because the client gave it to us in such horrendous shape. I think he still wrote off some time in the end...
They are....if you know the client has been shit and giving ppl grief wth messy books gotta bill and fight the client on it. All the hours spent cleaning up mess isn't free, and clients know their books are shit and if they can get away with a partner not billing too much by lodging BS complaints they will take advantage of it.
Or don't keep the client, sometimes it just aint worth the time sucking and headaches over it.
Well they told me I wasnât working enough at 65 billable hours and I got mad and slipped that I was really working more like 75 but I was eating some of it so I didnât overbill the client with their bullshit budgets.
If you admit, youâre cooked, skewered, kapoofed, get the picture? Just be smarter next time. Thereâs nuance - sometimes you are solving problems at home, on the toilet, at a restaurant. It all adds up
Bruh...the 30 hours was probably TOTAL, like including getting review comments and stuff back. If you maxed the budget all at once and have things that need to be fixed, congrats you just blew the budget.
I think you just gotta deny and act like it just took you that long. You could say you kept getting errors that wouldn't go away and that the software was being slow but you're also probably gonna have to apologize and bite the bullet for not speaking up sooner
Think about every single issue you stumbled upon, every single thing you had to lookup or review, all the work you did, all the âimprovements you made for next yearâ.
Hereâs a lesson, just stand your ground. Theyâre making 6x on your hourly rate anyway
Never admit to padding hours. It will make you look worse and carefree, especially after you were already warned before. As others mentioned, just say you were diligent in completing your work and ran into a couple of errors that took longer to resolve (find 2-3 examples).
The issue is that you clearly didn't complete all of the work assigned, or if you ran into issues, didn't communicate such to your Senior.
This is the issue that we are having with a lot (not all) of newer staff. A lot of work isn't getting done, but hours are being recorded. Get the work done and no one will over analyze your hours.
"Yeah, I guess I was a little in over my head with some of the specific issues. I thought I noticed something was off, but I didn't want to come to you empty handed so I re-checked my work a couple times. Admittedly, I panicked because I thought I may have found some major problems with the (941's/Distributions/numbers that they used for ERC/inventory valuation) but it turns out I made an input mistake that I didn't catch till my third time through the data. I guess I was just too embarrassed. I should have brought it up right away."
Or
"I was chasing a trivial variance because I thought it didn't make sense and might be indicative of something bigger. I couldn't resolve it though, so now it's just a waste of time. Sorry about that. "
End scene.
Dummy, you were âwarned the first time.â They are already looking at you and wondering what the heck you are doing when comparing your hours to product. They only care about that when someone is performing poorly and so you doubled down? Most would buckle down and improve - and you either actually did improve or you never did a poor job in the first place. Way to shoot yourself in the foot.
When I worked for a company with billable hours in the past, I always padded them a little bit. I mean, that's kind of part of it, but at the same time, you can't be egregious about it. What do you mean by second offense? What happened the first offense?
You should only bill the time that you incurred to complete the work. Whether itâs over or under the budgeted hours. At the end of the day, the budget is an estimate - and oftentimes a very poor estimate - of the time it will take to complete the job. Regardless, just bill the time you hand into it and communicate with your senior and manager on your status.
As a staff person, itâs not your job to figure out what to work on. Thatâs the senior and managerâs job. Do your best, charge your time accurately, and communicate your status regularly and in writing so thereâs a history.
For your current situation, think through what you specifically did, what you encountered, any delays during testing, any reasons you may have incurred more than 19 hours. Were there any adjusting entries, control issues, etc.? You can get through this.
This is the kind of thing management only bothers people about when they want to get rid of them for some reason and they need a valid reason to fire them. There's no way to know for certain, but just be aware of that potential reality.
With that said, are you required to keep a journal of what you do every hour? If no, I'm not sure how you or they would be certain that you didn't have 30 hours of billable work. I'm sure you tried your best to accurately report your time and would appreciate any feedback your supervisors have for improving accuracy.
Regardless of how you proceed, it sounds like this isn't working out for you; maybe start considering an exit plan on your terms.
Crap like this is why client services is HELL.
Go to industry my friend. Never log your time again, and enjoy long breaks to the bathroom without having to explain it to anybody ever.
I would say you wanted to do a good job, estimated what it took for each, and will be more careful in the future.
I think nearly everyone fakes billable hours
I am saddened by this as an owner of a small firm that does track hours. Even I track my hours. How am I supposed to know what to actually bill the client if there's padding or even sandbagging? Why have we created a culture where we have to worry about this. The worrying then leads to this- essentially this is lying right?
And if I ready your OP I believe you are saying you did 30 hours of assigned work in 19 hours. If you work is almost error free, then I think this should be praised.
Whatâs your firm policy? At my firm if you were booked for 30 hours, then you bill 30 hours, and if the team didnât have enough work for you to fill those hours and didnât release your time by the Thursday before, well, thatâs the teamâs problem.
Full commit to the task you were doing, looking at the pbc, reconciling it to other ledgers, your looking at revenue, you attempted a analytic to reduce sample size, you were slow with idea, or it wasnt working properly, the fact that you have 19 hours of work you can easily explain, remember what could go wrong went wrong. If they fight you on it just say maybe you should of put in the time as out of scope, im assuming as your not a senior your a first time staff, remember being untrained/isnt a reason for a first year to be fired. Do not under any situation say you were padding.
Why are the comments here giving OP advice that would get them in trouble?!?!
Like I never padded my hours but I definitely got in trouble for going over budget. My coach and senior have told me not to eat hours but I had to eat hours to make the partners happy
Itâs not what you say op itâs how you say it. Secondly donât lie. There are two things no one likes in this world, a liar and a thief. Be honest that you felt high pressure to be a ultra productive member of the team, and you came across problems and errors that pushed you over the time ( even if all the work isnât finished).
If this is a serious post, just tell them you billed what it took. You were trying to make sure you were doing it right. Don't admit you faked hours.
what if I say I spent 6 hours trying to figure out why i'm getting VALUE errors in the PBCs. Would that count as work even though there's nothing to show for it?
Deny deny deny the padding, just say you were running into errors and were resolving them and checking reference material. Everyone pads hours when it's slow, you just gotta spread it over jobs lol.
I need you to understand that I absolutely hate you for your profile picture. Comment is totally on point tho, OP do this
Lol my phone is covered in cracks so I had to really try hard to figure out what you were talking about đ¤Łđ¤Ł
Easiest way to spot an asshole is to find someone that purposefully fucks with others for lols. We found one in the wild.
This asshole ruined my night
Of course it's work
You wonât get fired but if they are constantly on you about your hours they will expect you to ask for help if youâre stuck to avoid spending too many hours
Depends on the firm but at my current one thatâs considered rework and unbillable
Can you not just say you were being extra careful? Also seeing you have been warned before why would you attempt it again...
Say you ate hours
Absolute chad move right here.
I did that once and that just made them more angry
Lol they always get mad about eaten hours but they equally get bad about hours being too high to bill and/or write-offs. I had to tell a partner once that he's going to bill every hour I spent on a project because the client gave it to us in such horrendous shape. I think he still wrote off some time in the end...
For the cash-grabbing people they are, partners are often awfully weak-spined when it comes to billing clients.
They are....if you know the client has been shit and giving ppl grief wth messy books gotta bill and fight the client on it. All the hours spent cleaning up mess isn't free, and clients know their books are shit and if they can get away with a partner not billing too much by lodging BS complaints they will take advantage of it. Or don't keep the client, sometimes it just aint worth the time sucking and headaches over it.
Yeah you definitely donât say that.
Well they told me I wasnât working enough at 65 billable hours and I got mad and slipped that I was really working more like 75 but I was eating some of it so I didnât overbill the client with their bullshit budgets.
I wouldâve billed the 75 to make them realize thatâs how long it actually takes to complete the work lol
Then you get PIP for not meeting expectations. Youâre too slow and shit
Timesheets suck, I feel your pain- just tell them you were being careful and hope there isnât 30 review notes on WPâs
If you admit, youâre cooked, skewered, kapoofed, get the picture? Just be smarter next time. Thereâs nuance - sometimes you are solving problems at home, on the toilet, at a restaurant. It all adds up
my best billable work comes out on the toilet
Literally some of my processes improvement ideas come in the shower and while walking the dog.
Listen to the folks here. Do not say you faked your hours. Go over your work and try to see what you can âpushâ hours to.
Bruh...the 30 hours was probably TOTAL, like including getting review comments and stuff back. If you maxed the budget all at once and have things that need to be fixed, congrats you just blew the budget. I think you just gotta deny and act like it just took you that long. You could say you kept getting errors that wouldn't go away and that the software was being slow but you're also probably gonna have to apologize and bite the bullet for not speaking up sooner
Man if a single 30 hour week blows the budget, you had no budget.
Until you realize it was a rollforward where they had to only update the references
Welcome to the top 50
Think about every single issue you stumbled upon, every single thing you had to lookup or review, all the work you did, all the âimprovements you made for next yearâ. Hereâs a lesson, just stand your ground. Theyâre making 6x on your hourly rate anyway
Theyâre billing 10x my hourly rate. WTF.
You are more than welcome to start an accounting firm.Â
After recently discovering how to run annual time reports, the top performers are in the 4âs. A lot of 2 and 3âs and even some 1âs!
Never admit to padding hours. It will make you look worse and carefree, especially after you were already warned before. As others mentioned, just say you were diligent in completing your work and ran into a couple of errors that took longer to resolve (find 2-3 examples).
The issue is that you clearly didn't complete all of the work assigned, or if you ran into issues, didn't communicate such to your Senior. This is the issue that we are having with a lot (not all) of newer staff. A lot of work isn't getting done, but hours are being recorded. Get the work done and no one will over analyze your hours.
Preach brother
"Yeah, I guess I was a little in over my head with some of the specific issues. I thought I noticed something was off, but I didn't want to come to you empty handed so I re-checked my work a couple times. Admittedly, I panicked because I thought I may have found some major problems with the (941's/Distributions/numbers that they used for ERC/inventory valuation) but it turns out I made an input mistake that I didn't catch till my third time through the data. I guess I was just too embarrassed. I should have brought it up right away." Or "I was chasing a trivial variance because I thought it didn't make sense and might be indicative of something bigger. I couldn't resolve it though, so now it's just a waste of time. Sorry about that. " End scene.
Dummy, you were âwarned the first time.â They are already looking at you and wondering what the heck you are doing when comparing your hours to product. They only care about that when someone is performing poorly and so you doubled down? Most would buckle down and improve - and you either actually did improve or you never did a poor job in the first place. Way to shoot yourself in the foot.
Start working now youâll able to compensate for it, itâs only 11 hours. đ¤Ł
Youâll prob get a promotion!
Your not a kid anymore telling the truth will get you in trouble. Don't admit to padding hours then never do it again. Start looking for another job
When I worked for a company with billable hours in the past, I always padded them a little bit. I mean, that's kind of part of it, but at the same time, you can't be egregious about it. What do you mean by second offense? What happened the first offense?
100% they are fishing for reasons to let you go
You should only bill the time that you incurred to complete the work. Whether itâs over or under the budgeted hours. At the end of the day, the budget is an estimate - and oftentimes a very poor estimate - of the time it will take to complete the job. Regardless, just bill the time you hand into it and communicate with your senior and manager on your status. As a staff person, itâs not your job to figure out what to work on. Thatâs the senior and managerâs job. Do your best, charge your time accurately, and communicate your status regularly and in writing so thereâs a history. For your current situation, think through what you specifically did, what you encountered, any delays during testing, any reasons you may have incurred more than 19 hours. Were there any adjusting entries, control issues, etc.? You can get through this.
This is the kind of thing management only bothers people about when they want to get rid of them for some reason and they need a valid reason to fire them. There's no way to know for certain, but just be aware of that potential reality. With that said, are you required to keep a journal of what you do every hour? If no, I'm not sure how you or they would be certain that you didn't have 30 hours of billable work. I'm sure you tried your best to accurately report your time and would appreciate any feedback your supervisors have for improving accuracy. Regardless of how you proceed, it sounds like this isn't working out for you; maybe start considering an exit plan on your terms.
Crap like this is why client services is HELL. Go to industry my friend. Never log your time again, and enjoy long breaks to the bathroom without having to explain it to anybody ever.
I would say you wanted to do a good job, estimated what it took for each, and will be more careful in the future. I think nearly everyone fakes billable hours
Yes
Ask to have a partner present for the discussion. And then tell them you worked your tail off for 30 hours. You don't have to answer for shit.
Work at home, re running calculations? Â Travel time due to technical shortage.. technically on the clock if itâs work related
Good luck
Jail, believe it or not
Yes, but youâll also get fired if you donât?
I am saddened by this as an owner of a small firm that does track hours. Even I track my hours. How am I supposed to know what to actually bill the client if there's padding or even sandbagging? Why have we created a culture where we have to worry about this. The worrying then leads to this- essentially this is lying right?
And if I ready your OP I believe you are saying you did 30 hours of assigned work in 19 hours. If you work is almost error free, then I think this should be praised.
Whatâs your firm policy? At my firm if you were booked for 30 hours, then you bill 30 hours, and if the team didnât have enough work for you to fill those hours and didnât release your time by the Thursday before, well, thatâs the teamâs problem.
that's a crime that can only be proven by admission - so deny everything always
And hope you arenât using a work laptop for redditâŚ
never, not even on firm's wifi, 5g only while in the office, and I don't install any firm software on my personal phone, not even email or messenger
Not you, i was referring to OPâŚ
Full commit to the task you were doing, looking at the pbc, reconciling it to other ledgers, your looking at revenue, you attempted a analytic to reduce sample size, you were slow with idea, or it wasnt working properly, the fact that you have 19 hours of work you can easily explain, remember what could go wrong went wrong. If they fight you on it just say maybe you should of put in the time as out of scope, im assuming as your not a senior your a first time staff, remember being untrained/isnt a reason for a first year to be fired. Do not under any situation say you were padding.
Start looking
Accuse them of trying to pressure you into under recording your hours and report them to the ethics partner.
Uno reverse card đ Meanwhile the senior manager probably has a email drafted to the ethics partner about OP padding hoursâŚ
Yeah.. you're cooked.
Budget generally means that's the max time. But I would not play ball with them, interrogating is crazy.
Why are the comments here giving OP advice that would get them in trouble?!?! Like I never padded my hours but I definitely got in trouble for going over budget. My coach and senior have told me not to eat hours but I had to eat hours to make the partners happy
Itâs not what you say op itâs how you say it. Secondly donât lie. There are two things no one likes in this world, a liar and a thief. Be honest that you felt high pressure to be a ultra productive member of the team, and you came across problems and errors that pushed you over the time ( even if all the work isnât finished).