Deliver on time, without burning out your teams. Finding the right balance between workload, availability and profitability. That’s the sinews of war for any agency.
But between shifting schedules, unforeseen customer needs and partial tracking of time spent, staffing often turns into a headache. And the same pitfalls keep cropping up… silent, but costly.
Here are the 5 mistakes that (still) plague your resource management – and how to avoid them now.
Mistake #1: Not tracking all beats
In many agencies, only “visible” time is recorded: that spent on billable production. The rest? Forgotten. And yet, this is often where much of the problem lies.
- L’pre-salespre-sales, scoping phases or calls for tender mobilize teams… without ever being traced.
- The freelancers are sometimes managed separately, with no integration into staffing tools. As a result, you have the impression of having availability… when it’s already taken.
- Some in-house time, such as R&D, support or training, is simply not allocated.
This vagueness generates major discrepancies between the actual load and the load you believe you have. And on the scale of a month or a quarter, it’s the whole story. your margin takes a hit.
Without global tracking, you underestimate your projects, overload your teams and lose track of profitability.
Mistake no. 2: Not tracking 100% of teams' actual availability
Many agencies think they have good visibility of their schedules. In reality, they work with partial data. And partial data means shaky decisions.
- When an employee only captures what he deems “useful” (customer prod, key meetings), he leaves a whole part of his activity in the shadows.
- As a result, you see him as 40% available, even though he’s already absorbed by pre-sales, support or in-house work.
- This under-reporting completely distorts real capacity of the teams. You think you can staff, but you unintentionally overload.
To manage effectively, you need to aim for 100% charging, including for non-billable tasks. This is the only way to align workload, availability and mental workload.
Mistake #3: Not establishing a common rhythm or deadline for imputation
In some agencies, everyone charges “when they have time”… In other words: never at the right time, never in the same way.
- Without collective frameworkWithout a collective framework, allocations become unusable: some are made on a day-to-day basis, while others are done hastily at the end of the month.
- This variability makes the data inconsistent and unusable for real-time control.
- To avoid this, a clear clear ritual a weekly deadline, automatic reminders, and managerial responsibility.
The aim is not to monitor, but to guarantee reliable data. Because without a common rhythm, your staffing is built on sand.
Mistake No. 4: Not checking what is entered
Getting times captured is good. But making sure they’re consistent is even better. Too many agencies overlook inaccuracies without batting an eyelid.
- A classic example: a task scheduled for 1 hour is charged to 5 hours… without justification.
- Without managerial validationthese deviations fly under the radar, distorting schedules and blurring load analysis.
- It’s also a warning signal: if an employee spends too much time on a task, it could be a problem with the brief, scope or skills development.
Implement regular controlThis is not policing: it’s sound management. That’s what makes it possible to adjust, train and optimize without waiting for things to go wrong.
Mistake #5: Staffing more than you sell
In their desire to do the right thing, some agencies fall into a common trap: adding resources to “insure”, without checking whether the budget allows it.
- You’ve sold for 10 days, but it takes you 12 to finish on time. Result: the marginto negative.
- This discrepancy between actual staffing and the sold scope is difficult to detect without a dedicated tool.
- Worse: without clear alerts, you normalize the overrun and create a loss-making operation.
Staffing must never be disconnected from sales. Without precise management, you’ll give more than you expect… and pay dearly for it.
How can you avoid these mistakes with a tool like Furious?
These mistakes are common, but they don’t have to be. With the right tool, you’ll gain in visibility, rigor and profitability. That’s what Furious is all about: helping you to regain control of your staffing without unnecessary complexity.
- 100% of traced timesincluding pre-sales, support, freelance and in-house staff.
- Automatic reminders for imputation, configurable deadlines, and integrated validation workflow.
- Real-time comparison between time sold and time actually used.
- Centralized view on availabilities and expenses, for clear staffing.
- And above all: a 80% pre-built scheduleall you have to do is adjust it.
With Furious, you’re always one step ahead. No more fuzziness. No more unexpected overload. Just clear, fluid, cost-effective management.
Want to see how it works? Book your free demo now.
