What is client time tracking?
Client time tracking is time tracking with the client as the first dimension. Every hour is tagged to the client before it is tagged to a project or a task, so the agency can roll the numbers up and ask the questions that matter at account level: how much of the team does this client consume, what does that cost us, and what do they pay for it. On retainers it is the basis of the monthly report; on hourly work it is the invoice itself.
It differs from project time tracking in scale. A project ends; a client relationship can run for years and across dozens of jobs, and the useful patterns only show up at that level.
Why it matters
Why client time tracking matters
Agencies lose money on clients one unbilled hour at a time. A relationship that feels healthy can be quietly absorbing the senior team's attention through quick questions, extra rounds and favors that nobody logs. Tracking by client turns that into a number, and the number is often a surprise. It also shows the opposite: the client who pays promptly, briefs well and generates exactly the hours in the plan, which is the account worth growing.
For the client, time reported against a retainer is proof of value. A monthly statement of what the hours bought is the difference between a retainer that renews and one that gets questioned at budget season.
In practice
How client time tracking works in practice
- 01
Each client gets a code in the time tracking system, and every project under them inherits it. Team members log hours against the project, which rolls up to the client automatically. Producers review by project; account leads and finance review by client, usually monthly: hours against the retainer allocation, hours against fees on fixed-price work, and the resulting margin. Anything trending wrong is raised with the client as a scope conversation, not discovered at renewal.
- 02
Good systems also separate billable and non-billable time within a client, so the agency can see how much relationship work (calls, pitches for new projects, planning) sits on top of the paid work. That is often the most revealing figure in the report.
At RIOT
Client time tracking at RIOT
More than a decade with Coach has meant campaigns, sizzle reels, Coachtopia films, holiday films and the Cannes Lions 2026 recap film, each of them its own production with its own bid, schedule and budget. Krova, our production software, keeps those things together per job, which is what lets a long relationship be read one production at a time rather than as one undifferentiated account.
Watch out
What people get wrong about client time tracking
Tracking by project only and assuming client profitability follows. It does not; the unlogged account-management hours sit between the projects. The other mistake is showing clients raw timesheets. They do not need to know an editor spent forty minutes on a render. They need to know what the month's hours delivered against the plan, which is a summary, not a spreadsheet.
