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Time management
Spreadsheet vs. Automated Time Capture: Which Is Right for Your Team?
5 mins
June 13, 2025
Time tracking that actually protects your margins
Most timesheets just record hours. Magnetic connects every time entry to your project budgets, billing rates and invoices, so you can see profitability as it happens and bill accurately without chasing anyone.
Free for 14 days
No-credit card required
+4
Trusted by Hundreds of Professional Services firms | 98% timesheet accuracy across our customer base
4.5 stars on g2 & capterra
why magnetic is different
Your timesheets shouldn't live in a silo
Standalone time trackers record hours. Magnetic connects every time entry directly to your projects, budgets, invoices and resource plan.
Every hour hits the right budgets
Time entries link to tasks, projects and scopes automatically. Your see budget burn as it happens, not in a spreadsheet reconcilliation weeks later. When a project is going over, you know early.
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Tracked time becomes accurate invoices
Approved time entries flow directly into invoices at the correct billing rates, without exports or recapturing data between your timesheet tool and your accounting system.
Smarter resource planning
See how your teams time is actually being spent, not how you planned it. Compare allocated vs. tracked hours across the team to spot overloads and gaps before they become problems.
From tracked time to paid invoice
Turn every billable hour into revenue, automatically.
Approved time entries in Magnetic flow directly into your invoices. Every billable hour your team logs is captured, priced at the correct rate and ready to bill. No exporting spreadsheets or re-entering data.
Time Tracking That Fits How your Firm Operates
Magnetic connects time, projects, people and tools in one shared system, removing guesswork from how work gets planned, delivered and billed.
One Connected System
Magnetic brings time data together with projects, billing, resourcing and reporting in a single platform. That means fewer handoffs, fewer exports and shared source of truth
Clarity without Micromanagement
Teams stay accountable without constant follow up or system overhead, through shared visibility and smart structure. And leaders get a clear picture of what's happening across workload.
built for teams that bill by the hour
Timesheet features your team will actually use
Magnetic makes time tracking simple, helping you log hours quickly so you can focus on real work instead of time tracking. No more manual entries, no more missed hours, just accurate time tracking that fits into your workflow.
Start and stop timers
Track time as you work or log it later
Start a timer when you begin a task, stop it when you're done. Prefer to log it at the end of the day? That works too.
Auto-populate time from calendars
Connect Google Calendar or Outlook and Magnetic will pre-fill timesheet entries from calendar events. Your team reviews, adjusts and submits instead of trying to remember.
Billable vs. non billable tracking
Every time time entry is categorised as billable vs. non billable. With a live view of your teams billable utilisation you can stop guessing if your team's time is generating revenue.
Booked vs. tracked comparisons
Compare planned hours vs. actual time logged at the project, task or team member level. When someone is burning through budget faster than expected you see it straight away.
Reminders and compliance
Magnetic sends reminders to anyone with incomplete timesheets. You can set end-of-month locks so time can't be submitted late ensuring maximun compliance.
Why professional services firms switch from standalone tools
Standalone time tracking tools track hours. Magnetic tracks hours and connects them to your projects, budgets, invoices and resource plan. Here's what that looks like in practice
What Matters
Standalone tools
Magnetic
Time entry
Manual logging, basic timers
One-click logging, timers, auto populate from calendars
Connected to projects
Separate tool, manual tagging or no link at all
Every time entry is linked to a task project, scope and budget automatically.
Budget visibility
None. You need a spreadsheet to compare hours vs. budget
Live budget burn and margin tracking per project, visible as time is logged.
Billable vs. non billable
Basic categorisation
Utilisation reporting by person, project, client and department.
Invoicing
Export a CSV, reformat, re-enter into your invoicing tool.
Approved time flows into invoces at the correct billing rate. Push to Xero and Sage.
Resource planning
Not included. Need another tool.
See allocated vs. actual hours across account the team. Spot overloads and gaps.
Reminders & compliance
Basic email reminders
Reminders, end of month locks, optional system access blocking. 98% accuracy.
Reporting
Time reports only.
Time data combined with project, financial and resource data in one reporting engine.
What you end up with
A list of hours in a separate system that someone has to reconcile
One system where time, projects, budget, invoices and resources are all connected.
You don't need a better timesheet. You need timesheets that are wired into the rest of your business.
How One consulting firm connected time, budgets and invoices and reduced admin by 45%
Exonic replaced disconnected tools and manual tracking with a single system for time, billing and resource data - giving the team faster access to numbers that matter.
