How to Track Billable Hours in a CA Firm and Stop Write-offs

Short answer: Record time daily against a client engagement, value it with one rate card, have a manager approve it every week, lock approved periods so nobody can edit them later, and raise invoices only from approved, unbilled time. Then measure utilisation and realisation separately, and give every write-off a reason so you can fix what caused it.

Last updated 13 October 2026. This guide is vendor-neutral; where we mention MyPract, every claim comes from our facts page.

Write-offs rarely come from one bad engagement. They come from small habits: time recorded on Friday from memory, a junior's hours logged against the wrong client, a fixed fee nobody compared with the budget until the invoice was due. Each habit has a simple fix, and most of the fixes are about the order in which things happen.

What is the difference between utilisation and realisation?

These are the two numbers that tell you whether time is turning into revenue. They measure different failures, so track both.

A worked example, with made-up numbers: an article assistant has 40 available hours a week and records 30 billable hours, so utilisation is 75%. At a rate card of ₹1,000 an hour that's ₹30,000 of standard value. If the partner invoices ₹24,000 for that work, billing realisation is 80%, and ₹6,000 was written off.

High utilisation with low realisation is the expensive combination: the team is working hard on time you don't bill. Set your own targets from your own history; don't borrow someone else's benchmark.

How should staff record time?

Timesheet discipline decides everything downstream. The rules that work:

1. Record daily, not weekly. Use a start-stop timer for long tasks and fill the timesheet before leaving. Reconstructed time is short time.
2. Record against an engagement, not just a client. "ABC Ltd" tells you nothing at billing; "ABC Ltd, statutory audit FY 2025-26" tells you which fee it eats into.
3. Mark billable or non-billable at entry. Training, internal meetings and practice development are non-billable. Deciding later invites arguments.
4. Write a description a client could read. "Vouching of purchase invoices, Q3" survives a fee query; "work" doesn't.
5. Record all time, including over-budget time. Hidden hours make the next year's quote wrong too.

How do you set up a rate card?

A rate card turns hours into value. Keep it simple and written down:

• A default rate per person or grade (partner, manager, senior, article assistant).
• Client or engagement overrides only where a fee was agreed differently, for example a discounted rate for a long-standing client.
• One place for the rates, owned by a manager, so the same hour is valued the same way in the timesheet, the report and the invoice.

Review the card once a year, and date every change so old time keeps its old value.

Why do approvals and period locks matter?

Approvals catch errors while they are still cheap: the wrong client, a billable flag on internal work, a description that won't survive a fee query. A manager reviewing each week's time on Monday spends minutes. Reviewing a quarter's time before invoicing takes days and turns into write-offs.

Period locks stop approved time from changing. Once a week or month is approved and locked, nobody can quietly edit hours that have already been reviewed or invoiced, so the timesheet, the invoice and the utilisation report keep agreeing.

A workable rhythm: staff submit by Friday, managers approve by Monday, and the previous month locks on the fifth working day.

How do you invoice from approved time?

Only invoice what has been approved and not yet billed. That one rule prevents double billing and missed billing at the same time. Then:

• Link each time entry to the invoice that billed it, so a fee query can be answered from the invoice line down to the hours.
• Compare billed value with the standard value of the linked time. The difference is your write-off for that invoice.
• Invoice promptly. For GST-registered firms there is a legal clock as well as a cash one: rule 47 of the CGST Rules requires a tax invoice for a taxable service within 30 days of the date of supply.^[1]
• For fixed fees, still record time. Compare the hours against the budget during the job, not after it. That comparison is how you set next year's fee.

Why do CA firms write off time, and how do you fix it?

Record a reason with every write-off. After one season the pattern is usually obvious.

Which reports should partners review?

• Weekly: unapproved time, and engagements whose actual hours are near or over budget.
• Monthly: utilisation by person against capacity, and approved but unbilled time.
• After each engagement: billed value against standard value, with the write-off reasons.

Where does MyPract fit?

MyPract is built around this workflow. Staff record time in a weekly timesheet or with a start-stop timer, billable or non-billable, against clients and engagements. Rate rules can be set for the workspace, a member, a client or an engagement. Managers approve time and lock past periods so approved hours can't change. Managers then create invoices from approved, unbilled, billable time, and the time entries are linked to the invoice. Each client can be invoiced in its own currency. Reports cover utilisation against each person's weekly capacity and engagement burndown against budget hours, each exportable to CSV. See features and pricing.

Its limits, stated plainly: MyPract reports utilisation but not realisation, so you work that out from invoices and time exports. It doesn't collect payments from clients, send recurring invoices automatically or track attendance. For how it compares with other tools, see MyPract vs Zoho Practice, MyPract vs Karbon, our comparison hub and the best practice management software for CA firms.

How we checked

The utilisation and realisation definitions are the standard working definitions used in professional-services firms; the numbers in the worked example are illustrative, not benchmarks. We checked rule 47 of the CGST Rules on CBIC's tax information portal on 13 October 2026. MyPract features come from our facts page, checked against the product on the same date. No prices or exchange rates are used in this guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between utilisation and realisation?

Utilisation measures how much of a person's available time went on billable work. Realisation measures how much of the standard value of that billable time you actually billed (or collected). A firm can be busy and still lose money if utilisation is high and realisation is low.

How often should staff fill timesheets?

Daily. Time recorded at the end of the week or month is reconstructed from memory, and the hours that get forgotten are almost always billable ones.

Why lock timesheet periods?

So approved hours can't change after a manager has signed them off or after they have been invoiced. A lock keeps the invoice, the approved timesheet and your utilisation reports in agreement.

How soon should a CA firm invoice after the work is done?

As soon as approved time is ready, and for GST-registered firms within the legal limit. Rule 47 of the CGST Rules requires a tax invoice for a taxable service within 30 days of the supply.

Can MyPract invoice from timesheets?

Yes. Managers create invoices from approved, unbilled, billable time and the entries are linked to the invoice. MyPract does not collect payments or send recurring invoices automatically, and it reports utilisation but not realisation, which you work out from your invoices and time exports.

Bill from approved time with MyPract

Timesheets, approvals, period locks and invoices from approved hours in one workspace. Three months free, no card, and the trial never converts automatically.

Sources

[1] Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, "CGST Rules, 2017: Rule 47, Time limit for issuing tax invoice", checked 13 October 2026.