Timether reports can help teams understand more than just tracked hours.
For Team and Business workspaces, reports can also show internal costs, billable vs. non-billable cost breakdowns, capacity utilization, and project profit margins.
These insights help owners and managers understand whether projects are profitable, whether team members are being used effectively, and how much internal cost is going into billable and non-billable work.
How profitability reporting works
Profitability reporting compares the money earned from billable work against the internal cost of the time spent.
Timether uses two important values for this:
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The billable rate on the time entry
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The internal hourly cost of the team member who created the entry
The billable rate represents what you charge the client.
The internal hourly cost represents what that team member’s time costs the business.
By comparing these two values, Timether can calculate project margins and show whether the tracked work is profitable.
Example of profit margin calculation
For example, if a team member tracks 2 hours of billable work at $100/hour, the billable amount is $200.
If that team member’s internal cost is $35/hour, the internal cost for that time is $70.
The estimated profit is:
$200 - $70 = $130
This helps owners and managers understand how much margin is left after accounting for internal labor cost.
Internal cost snapshots
Timether uses the internal cost rate saved on each time entry.
When a time entry is created, the member’s current internal hourly cost is snapshotted onto that entry. This keeps historical reports accurate, even if the member’s internal cost changes later.
For example, if a member’s internal cost was $35/hour last month and is updated to $45/hour this month, last month’s time entries still use the original $35/hour cost.
This prevents older profitability reports from changing unexpectedly.
Billable vs. non-billable internal costs
Reports can show the difference between billable and non-billable internal costs.
Billable internal cost is the internal cost of time spent on work that can be charged to a client.
Non-billable internal cost is the internal cost of time spent on work that is not charged to a client.
For example, billable cost may include client development, design, support, consulting, or project delivery.
Non-billable cost may include internal meetings, admin work, research, training, planning, or unpaid revisions.
This breakdown helps you understand how much team cost is going into revenue-generating work compared to internal or non-billable activity.
Why billable and non-billable cost matters
A team can be busy but still have low profitability if too much time is spent on non-billable work.
By reviewing billable and non-billable internal costs, owners and managers can see where team effort is going.
This can help answer questions such as:
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Are we spending too much time on unpaid work?
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Which projects have high internal cost but low billable return?
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Are support or admin tasks reducing team profitability?
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Are client projects priced correctly?
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Do we need to adjust rates, scope, or planning?
Project profit margins
Project profit margin shows how profitable a project is after accounting for internal cost.
Timether calculates this by comparing the billable amount from tracked time against the internal cost of the team members who worked on the project.
A healthy margin means the project is earning more than it costs to deliver.
A low or negative margin may mean the project is underpriced, taking more time than expected, or using more expensive resources than planned.
Using project profitability insights
Project profitability reports can help you make better business decisions.
For example, you can use them to:
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Review whether a project is priced correctly
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Understand which clients or projects are most profitable
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Identify projects with too much non-billable time
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Compare estimated effort against actual tracked time
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Improve future quotes and retainers
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Decide whether rates need to be adjusted
This is especially useful for agencies, consultants, and teams that sell time-based services.
Capacity utilization
Capacity utilization helps you understand how much of a team member’s expected working time has been tracked.
Timether compares a member’s tracked hours against their expected weekly capacity.
For example, if a member has an expected weekly capacity of 40 hours and tracks 32 hours, their utilization is 80%.
If they track 40 hours, their utilization is 100%.
If they track 48 hours, their utilization is 120%.
How capacity utilization is calculated
Capacity utilization is calculated by comparing tracked hours to expected weekly capacity.
The general formula is:
Tracked hours ÷ Expected weekly capacity hours × 100
For example:
30 tracked hours ÷ 40 expected hours × 100 = 75% utilization
This helps owners and managers quickly understand whether team members are under-utilized, fully utilized, or over-utilized during the selected reporting period.
Spotting under-utilized team members
A team member may be under-utilized if their tracked hours are much lower than their expected weekly capacity.
This may happen when:
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They forgot to track time
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They had less assigned work
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They were on leave
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They spent time outside tracked projects
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Work was blocked or delayed
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Their expected capacity setting is too high
Under-utilization is not always a problem, but it is a useful signal to review.
Spotting over-utilized team members
A team member may be over-utilized if their tracked hours are higher than their expected weekly capacity.
This may happen when:
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They worked overtime
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They had too much assigned work
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A project required urgent attention
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Workload was not evenly distributed
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Their expected capacity setting is too low
Over-utilization can be useful in short periods, but if it continues, it may lead to burnout, delivery risk, or planning issues.
Using capacity reports for team planning
Capacity reports help owners and managers balance workload across the team.
For example, if one member is consistently over capacity while another is under capacity, work may need to be reassigned.
Capacity utilization can also help with hiring decisions, project planning, sprint planning, and retainer management.
Combining profitability and capacity insights
Profitability and capacity are most useful when reviewed together.
A team member may be highly utilized, but if most of their time is non-billable, the business may not be getting enough revenue from that effort.
A project may have many billable hours, but if internal costs are too high, the profit margin may still be low.
By reviewing tracked time, internal cost, billable value, and capacity together, Timether gives owners and managers a clearer picture of team performance and project health.
Who can view profitability and capacity data
Profitability and capacity reports may include sensitive business information, such as internal hourly costs and team planning data.
Because of this, access may be limited based on workspace role and permissions.
Owners and Managers are typically responsible for reviewing these insights and using them for planning, pricing, and team management.