How you simplify the administration of resource loans between companies in the same group
Is your group is devoting inordinate amounts of time and money to administrating resource loans between companies? If so - this is what you can do about it
Running projects with the best people is excellent. And if you're in a group of companies, the chances are that you have access to a broad range of expertise across the companies.
What is not so great for many companies working in groups is the administration - getting and maintaining an overview of who borrowed which resource for which projects. And how many hours you have to charge between the companies.
In this article, we examine some of the issues related to borrowing resources from each other along with enterprise expert, Fredrik Mörkeberg.
And we take a look at a solution that lets you spend less time on the administration of resources between companies.
Do any of these three scenarios seem familiar?
- The different companies in our group are tracking time in different time tracking solutions.
- Our group handles the administration of resource loans in our shared finance system.
- We use Excel to handle the administration of loaned staff between group companies.
1. The different companies in our group use different time tracking systems
“The first scenario is incredibly common,” relates Fredrik Mörkeberg, who has years of experience helping large companies take control of their business and become more efficient and profitable.
When the different companies in a group work with different time tracking solutions, any resources loaned out between companies need login details for two different systems and find themselves having to make duplicate entries.
“And despite the parallel data entries, the company that has loaned out its employee still doesn’t have full control over the situation, so the company loaning the person has to report back. It’s a complicated process that naturally takes up time,” adds Fredrik.
Learn more about how TimeLog saves you from logging in to multiple systems and duplicate work
2. Our group handles the administration of resource loans in our shared finance system
“This is also a common scenario in group set-ups. You have a giant system that deals with resource loans between group companies – but it’s still hard to work with because the system was designed for the finance department and the CFO, without taking into account the people who actually have to report their hours,” says Fredrik Mörkeberg.
It takes time to set up the rules that are to apply to loaning out resources, and registering the time worked by the person who was loaned out is often a less than user-friendly process.
“This was previously accepted as the norm, but more and more people are beginning to ask why they have to work in such an awful system. Moreover, it costs the company a lot of administrative time,” adds Fredrik.
3. We use Excel to handle the administration of staff on loan between group companies
“This scenario isn’t overly common in large groups, but it’s not unknown either. And it goes without saying that it’s hugely inconvenient and time-consuming to administrate resource loans between companies in Excel,” comments Fredrik Mörkeberg.
There is a simpler solution – with guaranteed ROI
If you recognise your situation in any of these three scenarios, here comes the good news: there is a way to cut down on the administration, and the solution even comes with a guaranteed return on investment (ROI).
“TimeLog presents a versatile system that can handle processes such as time registration, project management and invoice processing. And the really smart aspect is that all companies in your group can use the same system, even if you work with different finance and payroll systems. This makes it incredibly easy to handle the administration associated with resource loans within the group,” says Fredrik Mörkeberg.
You – or one of TimeLog’s consultants – can set up some simple rules for how to deal with resource loans in the system, and there are even a number of pre-set rules to choose from.
Automatic calculation of income booking
“Once the rules have been defined, the system takes care of everything else. For example, TimeLog automatically calculates how much income you can book to the loaned resources.”
Exactly how much time you can save by using TimeLog to administrate resource loans varies from one group to the next.
“That said, all our major customers state that they have more than covered the cost of investing in TimeLog through saved working hours. The reason why they didn’t start using TimeLog earlier is often quite simply that they weren’t aware that there was a better, more straightforward solution available,” says Fredrik Mörkeberg.
Take control of your group with performance measurements (KPI) in real-time
TimeLog also helps with much more than “just” the administration resource loans between companies. For example, it provides a complete project management toolbox, and you can automate the preparation of invoices and salary payments.
“Moreover, you can track your business in real-time and at different levels. How are things going for company A, company B and company C – and for the group as a whole? And how about for the individual projects? The insight and control that TimeLog offers can help you develop your group and make it even more profitable,” concludes Fredrik Mörkeberg.
Would you like to find out precisely what TimeLog can do for your group? Then book a meeting with one of our experts.
