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Case Study: TechConsult Group

How a 45-person consulting firm reduced time tracking overhead by 87% and improved billing accuracy with Tizz

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Executive Summary

TechConsult Group, a technology consulting firm with 45 employees across three offices, struggled with inconsistent timesheet submission, billing errors, and administrative overhead consuming 12+ hours weekly. After implementing Tizz, they achieved 98% timesheet completion rates, eliminated manual data entry, and recovered an average of 6.2 billable hours per employee monthly.

Metric	Before Tizz	After Tizz	Improvement
Timesheet Completion Rate	67%	98%	+46%
Admin Time (Weekly)	12 hours	1.5 hours	-87%
Billing Accuracy	82%	97%	+18%
Recovered Billable Hours/Month	0	279 hours	$41,850/month

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Company Background

Industry: Technology Consulting
Size: 45 employees
Locations: Toronto (HQ), Vancouver, Montreal
Services: Cloud migration, cybersecurity assessments, custom software development

TechConsult Group serves mid-market and enterprise clients across North America, billing primarily on time-and-materials contracts. Accurate time tracking is critical to their revenue model, project profitability analysis, and client transparency.

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The Challenge

1. Low Timesheet Compliance

Only 67% of consultants submitted complete timesheets by the weekly deadline. Team members often forgot to log time for internal meetings, client calls, and administrative tasks, resulting in:

• Underreporting of billable hours (estimated 15-20% loss)
• Incomplete project cost data
• Delayed client invoicing

2. Manual Data Entry Burden

Consultants spent 45-60 minutes weekly reconstructing their schedules from memory:

• Reviewing calendar events to remember what they worked on
• Manually categorizing time by project and task
• Cross-referencing email and Slack to fill gaps

3. Inconsistent Categorization

Without standardized rules, consultants categorized similar activities differently:

• "Client Meeting" vs. "Discovery Call" vs. "Requirements Gathering"
• Internal meetings logged to wrong projects
• Travel time inconsistently tracked

4. Administrative Overhead

The operations team spent 12+ hours weekly:

• Chasing missing timesheets
• Correcting categorization errors
• Reconciling calendar events with submitted time
• Manually adjusting entries for billing

"Our consultants are brilliant technologists, but timesheet submission was like pulling teeth. We were losing billable hours, delaying invoices, and our ops team was drowning in corrections."

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The Solution

Phase 1: Organization Setup (Week 1)

Sarah worked with Tizz implementation support to:

1. Grant Microsoft 365 Admin Consent: Enabled calendar access for all 45 employees in a single step using the Admin Connections interface
2. Create Organization-Wide Sync Rules: Configured 12 foundational rules covering common scenarios:
   • Client meetings (by attendee domain)
   • Internal meetings (by calendar or title keywords)
   • Training and professional development
   • Administrative time
   • Travel time rounding rules
3. Set Default Rule: Configured fallback to log unmatched events to "General/Unassigned" for review
4. Configure Billable Flags: Marked client project rules as billable with 15-minute rounding

Phase 2: Pilot Group (Weeks 2-3)

Rolled out to 8 senior consultants to validate configuration:

• Each consultant connected their Outlook calendar in under 2 minutes
• Used Standard Calendar Mode to review rule-matched events
• Created 2-3 personal rules for client-specific patterns
• Ran weekly syncs with Validation mode before committing

Phase 3: Full Rollout (Week 4)

After refining rules based on pilot feedback:

• Conducted 30-minute training session for all staff
• Distributed quick-start guide via Slack
• Enabled Premium package for AI-powered associations
• Established weekly sync deadline (Friday 4 PM)

Key Features Leveraged

Sync Rules with Conditional Logic

Created sophisticated rules matching real-world scenarios:

Rule Name	Conditions	Result
Acme Corp Work	Attendee contains "@acmecorp.com"	Project: Acme Cloud Migration Task: Consulting Billable: Yes
Internal Syncs	Title contains "Team Sync" OR "Stand-up"	Project: Internal Operations Task: Team Meetings Billable: No
Client Proposals	Title contains "Proposal" OR "SOW"	Project: Business Development Task: Event Title Billable: Yes

Advanced Calendar Mode with AI

For senior consultants managing 8+ concurrent projects:

• AI automatically suggested project associations for ad-hoc client calls
• 85% acceptance rate on AI suggestions within first month
• Confidence scores helped identify events needing manual review
• One-click acceptance streamlined weekly reviews

Simulation Panel

Before submitting timesheets, consultants used the Simulation Panel to:

• Preview weekly breakdown by project and task
• Identify over/under allocation across projects
• Verify billable vs. non-billable classification
• Catch categorization errors before submission

Time Rounding Rules

Implemented client contract requirements automatically:

• Acme Corp: Round up to nearest 15 minutes
• MegaBank: Round to nearest 30 minutes
• Internal time: Exact minutes (no rounding)

"The first week I used Tizz, I recovered 8 hours of billable time I'd completely forgotten about—client calls, ad-hoc Slack huddles, quick troubleshooting sessions. It was already in my calendar; I just never bothered to log it manually."

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Results

Quantitative Outcomes (6 Months Post-Implementation)

1. Timesheet Compliance: 67% → 98%

• Weekly completion rate increased from 67% to 98%
• Average submission time reduced from 45-60 minutes to 8-12 minutes
• Late submissions dropped from 33% to 2%

2. Recovered Billable Hours: $41,850/Month

• Average of 6.2 billable hours recovered per consultant monthly
• 279 total billable hours/month across 45 employees
• At $150/hour average rate: $41,850 additional monthly revenue
• $502,200 annualized revenue recovery

3. Administrative Time Reduction: 87%

• Operations team time reduced from 12 hours/week to 1.5 hours/week
• Eliminated chasing consultants for timesheets
• Reduced categorization corrections by 94%
• Freed ops team for higher-value financial analysis

4. Billing Accuracy: 82% → 97%

• First-pass billing accuracy improved from 82% to 97%
• Client billing disputes reduced by 76%
• Time-to-invoice decreased from 8 days to 3 days

5. ROI Analysis

Category	Annual Value
Recovered Billable Hours	$502,200
Administrative Time Savings (ops team)	$27,300
Consultant Time Savings (45 × 40 min/week)	$234,000
Total Annual Benefit	$763,500
Tizz Subscription Cost (Premium, 45 seats)	$16,200
Net Annual Benefit	$747,300
ROI	4,614%

Qualitative Benefits

Improved Client Relationships

• More accurate invoices increased client trust
• Detailed time breakdowns supported scope discussions
• Faster invoicing improved cash flow and client satisfaction

Better Project Management

• Real-time visibility into project time allocation
• Earlier identification of projects trending over budget
• Data-driven resource allocation decisions

Enhanced Employee Experience

• Reduced frustration with timesheet processes
• Less "admin tax" on consultants' time
• Increased confidence in pay accuracy

"Tizz paid for itself in the first month just from recovered billable hours. Six months in, it's transformed our operations. We have better data, happier consultants, and our clients trust our invoices. It's one of the best investments we've made."

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Conclusion

TechConsult Group's experience demonstrates how Tizz addresses fundamental challenges in professional services time tracking: compliance, accuracy, and administrative burden. By automating the synchronization between calendars and timesheets, Tizz transformed time tracking from a dreaded weekly chore into a seamless background process.

For organizations struggling with similar time tracking challenges, TechConsult's implementation roadmap provides a proven framework: secure executive sponsorship, invest in comprehensive rule configuration, pilot with power users, and maintain ongoing optimization.

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Case Study: Sarah Mitchell

How an independent IT contractor eliminated 8 hours of monthly timesheet drudgery across 4 client systems

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Executive Summary

Sarah Mitchell, an independent IT infrastructure consultant, was drowning in administrative overhead managing timesheets across four different client systems. Every two weeks, she spent 4+ hours reconstructing her work from fragmented calendars, emails, and Slack threads—time she could have been billing clients. After implementing Tizz, Sarah reduced timesheet preparation to 30 minutes bi-weekly, recovered an average of 12 billable hours monthly that she'd previously forgotten to log, and eliminated the stress of timesheet deadlines.

Metric	Before Tizz	After Tizz	Improvement
Time Spent on Timesheets (Bi-weekly)	4+ hours	30 minutes	-88%
Systems to Manage	4 different portals	1 (Tizz)	-75%
Billable Hours Recovered/Month	0	12 hours	$1,800/month
Timesheet Errors/Disputes	2-3 per month	0-1 per quarter	-92%

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Background

Role: Independent IT Infrastructure Consultant
Location: Seattle, WA
Experience: 12 years in enterprise IT
Clients: 4 concurrent clients (enterprise and mid-market)
Rate: $150/hour

Sarah specializes in cloud infrastructure migrations and DevOps transformation. She typically maintains 3-5 concurrent client engagements, billing by the hour across different timesheet systems. Her calendar is packed with client meetings, technical work sessions, documentation time, and strategic planning calls—all of which need to be accurately logged for billing.

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The Challenge

1. Multiple Timesheet Systems

Each client required time entry in their own system:

• Client A (Healthcare): Workday with 15-minute increments, required task codes
• Client B (Financial Services): Custom internal portal, rounds to 30 minutes
• Client C (Retail): Replicon cloud timesheet, exact minutes
• Client D (Manufacturing): Excel spreadsheet emailed bi-weekly, rounds to quarter hours

Each system had different login credentials, interfaces, project codes, task hierarchies, and rounding rules.

2. Bi-Weekly Reconstruction Marathon

Sarah preferred to complete timesheets every two weeks to minimize disruption. This meant reconstructing 80 hours of work across 10 business days:

• Reviewing Outlook calendar (3 calendars: work, personal, and one shared with a client)
• Cross-referencing Slack messages for ad-hoc troubleshooting
• Checking email threads for client communication time
• Reviewing Jira tickets for development time
• Estimating time for undocumented work

This process took 4-5 hours every two weeks—nearly half a workday of unpaid administrative labor.

3. Forgotten Billable Hours

In the chaos of reconstruction, Sarah consistently forgot to log:

• Quick 15-minute client calls between scheduled meetings
• After-hours incident response (especially over weekends)
• Documentation and knowledge transfer activities
• Email threads that evolved into substantial technical discussions
• Travel time between on-site client visits

She estimated losing 10-15 billable hours monthly—$1,500 to $2,250 in unreported income.

4. Context Switching Overhead

Logging into four different systems, each with unique interfaces and requirements, created significant cognitive load:

• Remembering which client used which codes
• Applying different rounding rules correctly
• Navigating unfamiliar interfaces
• Dealing with password resets and MFA challenges

5. Rounding Complexity

Each client had different rounding expectations:

• Client A: Round up to nearest 15 minutes
• Client B: Round to nearest 30 minutes
• Client C: Exact minutes (no rounding)
• Client D: Round up to nearest quarter hour

Applying these rules manually while reconstructing work was error-prone and time-consuming.

"Every two weeks, I'd dread 'timesheet day.' I'd block out Friday afternoon, pour myself coffee, and spend 4+ hours clicking through calendars trying to remember what I'd worked on. I knew I was forgetting things, but I had no systematic way to capture everything. It was incredibly frustrating—I'm a technical person, and I was wasting time on clerical work."

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The Solution

Discovery & Setup (Week 1)

Sarah signed up for Tizz's Individual Premium plan and completed setup in under 2 hours:

1. Connected Microsoft Outlook:
   • Linked her primary work calendar (Microsoft 365)
   • Connected in under 3 minutes via OAuth
   • Granted read-only calendar permissions
2. Created Client-Specific Sync Rules:
   • Set up 18 rules covering her four clients plus internal time
   • Used calendar-based rules (different Outlook calendars per client)
   • Added keyword-based rules for common activities
   • Configured appropriate rounding rules per client
3. Configured Zoho Projects Integration:
   • Connected her Zoho Projects account (used for personal tracking)
   • Mapped each client to a Zoho project
   • Set up task categories mirroring client requirements

Rule Configuration Strategy

Calendar-Based Rules (Primary Method)

Sarah maintains separate Outlook calendars for each client, which became her primary categorization mechanism:

Rule Name	Condition	Zoho Project	Rounding
Client A - Healthcare	Calendar = "HealthCare Co"	Client A - Infrastructure	Round up 15 min
Client B - Financial	Calendar = "FinServ Corp"	Client B - DevOps	Round nearest 30 min
Client C - Retail	Calendar = "Retail Giant"	Client C - Cloud Migration	Exact (no rounding)
Client D - Manufacturing	Calendar = "ManuCorp"	Client D - Kubernetes	Round up 15 min

Activity-Based Rules (Secondary Method)

For cross-client activities and internal time:

Rule Name	Condition	Task
Documentation	Title contains "doc" OR "document"	Documentation & Knowledge Transfer
Incident Response	Title contains "incident" OR "outage"	Incident Response & Support
Travel Time	Title contains "travel" OR "commute"	Travel & On-site
Administrative	Title contains "invoice" OR "admin"	(Do Not Log Hours)

New Workflow (Bi-Weekly)

Sarah's new timesheet process takes 30 minutes every two weeks:

1. Navigate to Tizz Calendar View (5 minutes):
   • Review the Standard Calendar Mode for the past two weeks
   • Verify events are categorized correctly by color coding
   • Check for any gray (unassociated) events
2. Review Simulation Panel (10 minutes):
   • Open Simulation Panel to see breakdown by client and task
   • Verify hourly totals match expectations (40 hours/week)
   • Check that rounding rules were applied correctly
   • Identify any anomalies or missing time
3. Sync to Zoho Projects (2 minutes):
   • Click "Validate" to preview sync
   • Review validation results
   • Click "Sync" to commit time entries to Zoho
4. Export to Client Systems (13 minutes):
   • Export Client A report (CSV filtered by project)
   • Copy/paste into Workday (3 minutes)
   • Export Client B report, enter into portal (4 minutes)
   • Export Client C report, enter into Replicon (3 minutes)
   • Export Client D report, populate Excel template (3 minutes)

Key Features Leveraged

Multiple Calendar Support

• Sarah's 4 client calendars are all connected to Tizz
• Toggle visibility in the sidebar to focus on one client at a time
• Color coding helps quickly identify which calendar an event belongs to

Flexible Rounding Rules

• Different rounding rules configured per client automatically
• Eliminates manual calculation errors
• Ensures compliance with each client's billing requirements

Custom Task Naming

• Uses "Event Title" dynamic task option for client-specific work
• Provides detailed task names in client timesheets
• Improves transparency and reduces questions from clients

Simulation Panel

• Weekly breakdown by client and task type
• Quickly spot over/under allocation
• Verify totals before exporting to client systems

CSV Export

• Export filtered by date range and project
• Import into Excel for Client D's spreadsheet template
• Copy/paste into web-based portals for other clients

"The first time I used Tizz, I was shocked. What used to take me 4+ hours now takes 30 minutes. Everything is already categorized correctly, rounding is automatic, and I can see my entire two weeks in one place. I exported the reports and filled out my four client timesheets in less time than it used to take me just to log into all the systems."

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Results

Quantitative Outcomes (3 Months Post-Implementation)

1. Time Savings: 88% Reduction

• Bi-weekly timesheet time reduced from 4+ hours to 30 minutes
• Annual time savings: 84 hours (equivalent to 2+ work weeks)
• Value of time saved: $12,600/year at $150/hour

2. Recovered Billable Hours: $1,800/Month

• Average of 12 billable hours recovered monthly
• Previously forgotten work now systematically captured:
  • Quick client calls between meetings (4 hrs/month)
  • After-hours incident response (3 hrs/month)
  • Email-based technical discussions (2 hrs/month)
  • Documentation and knowledge transfer (2 hrs/month)
  • Travel time (1 hr/month)
• Monthly revenue increase: $1,800
• Annual revenue increase: $21,600

3. Error Reduction: 92% Fewer Disputes

• Timesheet errors/disputes reduced from 2-3 per month to 0-1 per quarter
• Elimination of rounding errors through automation
• Accurate time capture eliminates "estimation" errors

4. System Complexity: 75% Reduction

• From managing 4 separate timesheet systems to 1 unified interface
• Single source of truth (Outlook calendar)
• Export to client systems rather than manual entry

5. ROI Analysis

Category	Annual Value
Recovered Billable Hours (12/month × $150)	$21,600
Time Savings (84 hours × $150)	$12,600
Reduced Client Disputes (opportunity cost)	$3,000
Total Annual Benefit	$37,200
Tizz Subscription Cost (Individual Premium)	$360
Net Annual Benefit	$36,840
ROI	10,233%

Qualitative Benefits

Reduced Stress & Cognitive Load

• No more dreading "timesheet day"
• Confidence that all work is captured
• Elimination of context switching between systems
• Better work-life balance (less weekend work on timesheets)

Improved Client Relationships

• More accurate and detailed time entries
• Faster timesheet submission (no more extension requests)
• Reduced back-and-forth on billing questions
• Professional appearance with detailed task descriptions

Better Business Insights

• Clear visibility into time allocation across clients
• Data to support rate negotiations ("I spent 15 hours on after-hours support")
• Identification of unprofitable activities
• Historical data for future project estimates

Scalability for Growth

• Can easily add new clients without additional complexity
• System supports future expansion to 5-10 clients
• No additional administrative burden per client

"I recovered $1,800 in billable hours in my first month—that's 5 years of Tizz subscription costs. But the real value is getting my Friday afternoons back. I'm no longer stressed about timesheets, and I have confidence that I'm capturing everything. It's been transformative for my business."

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Unexpected Benefits

1. Workload Balancing

The Simulation Panel revealed Sarah was over-allocating time to Client B (40% instead of contracted 30%). She used this data to:

• Negotiate a rate increase with Client B
• Set clearer boundaries around scope
• Allocate more time to higher-margin Client C

2. Tax Preparation

Comprehensive time tracking provided valuable data for tax purposes:

• Accurate business vs. personal time allocation
• Documentation of home office hours
• Travel time and expenses correlated with calendar

3. Rate Justification

Historical data supported rate increase requests:

• Demonstrated true time investment in client success
• Quantified after-hours support and incident response
• Showed value of documentation and knowledge transfer work

4. Client Acquisition

Professional, detailed time tracking impressed prospective clients:

• Transparency in billing builds trust
• Detailed task descriptions demonstrate value
• Ability to provide historical data for proposals

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Lessons Learned

Setup Tips

1. Use Calendar Separation: Maintaining separate Outlook calendars per client is the simplest way to categorize work automatically
2. Start with Broad Rules: Begin with 4-5 rules per client, then refine based on actual usage
3. Test Rounding Rules: Validate rounding calculations with a few manual spot-checks initially
4. Document Client Requirements: Keep notes on each client's specific timesheet requirements in Tizz project descriptions

Workflow Optimization

1. Weekly Mini-Reviews: Sarah now does a 5-minute review each Friday to catch any miscategorizations early
2. Calendar Hygiene: Consistent event naming in Outlook improves automatic categorization
3. Template Exports: Saved export configurations for each client's specific format
4. Backup Strategy: Exports monthly reports to CSV for long-term archival

Challenges Overcome

1. Initial Setup Time: Configuring 18 rules took 2 hours, but paid back in the first timesheet cycle
2. Calendar Discipline: Had to be more consistent about which calendar to use for events
3. Client Onboarding: Explaining new timesheet detail to clients required brief conversations

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Future Plans

Expansion to Google Calendar

Sarah recently added a fifth client who uses Google Workspace:

• Connected Google Calendar to Tizz in addition to Outlook
• Created client-specific calendar in Google
• Applied same rule-based approach

Advanced Analytics

Now that comprehensive data is available, Sarah plans to:

• Analyze profitability by client and engagement type
• Identify high-value vs. low-value activities
• Make data-driven decisions about client mix
• Optimize scheduling to maximize billable hours

Subcontracting

Sarah is considering bringing on a junior contractor to handle overflow:

• Tizz's multi-user support would allow time tracking for both
• Unified visibility into team utilization
• Consistent time categorization across the team

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Conclusion

Sarah Mitchell's experience illustrates how Tizz solves the unique challenges faced by independent contractors and freelancers managing multiple client relationships. By centralizing time tracking from calendar data, Tizz eliminated the bi-weekly reconstruction marathon, recovered thousands in lost billable hours, and reduced system complexity by 75%.

For independent professionals juggling multiple clients and timesheet systems, Sarah's approach provides a proven blueprint: leverage calendar separation, configure client-specific rules with appropriate rounding, and use the Simulation Panel for final validation before exporting to client systems.

The ROI speaks for itself: $36,840 in net annual benefit from a $360 investment—a 10,233% return. But perhaps more importantly, Sarah reclaimed her Friday afternoons and eliminated the stress of timesheet management.

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About Tizz

Tizz is a productivity and synchronization platform that connects calendars, timesheets, and task management across multiple ecosystems. The platform enables individuals and organizations to automate the flow of scheduling and work tracking data between tools such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and business systems like Zoho Projects.

Tizz provides intelligent synchronization rules, AI-powered event associations, and multi-tenant account management to simplify daily time tracking, improve accuracy in reporting, and reduce administrative overhead. The system supports both individual users and organizational accounts, offering secure integrations, dark/light user interface themes, and compliance with modern data protection standards.

Learn more: https://tizz.app
Start free trial: https://tizz.app/register
Contact sales: sales@tizz.app