Track the hours, budget and margin behind every engineering project
Are your engineering projects using more hours than they are worth?
Track engineering hours against the actual project and task, plan work on a Kanban board and a Gantt, keep clients informed, and see when a project is consuming more time than its budget can support.
1-month free trial
Why engineering projects lose margin quietly
An engineering studio often quotes a project at a fixed price or against an expected number of hours. The engineers then spend time on CAD modelling, drawings, revisions, meetings, calculations, documentation, client changes and manufacturing support. If that work takes longer than planned, the project loses margin even when the deliverable is a success.
TimeMagick is time tracking and project management software that engineering firms can use to keep the operational and commercial data on the same project: tracked hours, budgets, the board and Gantt, project communication, client visibility, expenses, billable-time approval, invoicing and profitability. A typical engineering workflow looks like this:
Client project created. With its client, budget and due date.
Tasks created. For example CAD design, drawings, calculations, revisions and meetings.
Engineers track time. Against the project and the specific task.
Budget burn is visible. The manager sees hours used against the project budget.
Work is planned. On the Projects board and the Gantt.
Billable time is reviewed. Tracked work is approved with a billable percentage.
Project Billing. Shows billable hours against billed hours.
Invoice created. From the approved project hours.
Profitability. Shows the commercial outcome by project and client.
Task names are examples; you create your own tasks in each project.
Track engineering time against the actual work
In TimeMagick, time is recorded against a project and a task, and each entry carries its client and member. For engineers moving between several jobs in a day, that is the difference between knowing a total and knowing where the hours went:
A generic timer
Project X — 7 h
You know the total, not where it went.
Project and task
- Project X → CAD Design → 3.5 h
- Project X → Drawings → 2 h
- Project X → Revision → 1.5 h
Each entry also carries its client and member.
Those entries become the engineering timesheet, the budget burn, the billable hours and the margin, without anyone re-keying them. The desktop app also records the active application, so time spent in CAD applications such as SolidWorks, Inventor or Revit appears in app usage. TimeMagick does not open or read CAD files, and it takes no screenshots.
How time tracking worksSee budget burn before the project is finished
A quotation usually has an expected number of engineering hours behind it. A project manager should not find out that the project went past those hours when the invoice is being prepared.
TimeMagick shows each project's budget against time spent while the work is still happening, in the places a manager already looks:
- Project cards: budget hours against allocated, with a bar that turns red past 100%
- Project overview: a time-spent ring against the budget, red when over
- Gantt rows: budget and spent for the project and each task
- Tracked-time approval: the project budget beside the billable total
- Admin dashboard: a Project Budgets table and budget-versus-spent charts
- Profitability: Projects Over Budget as a headline KPI
Manage many engineering projects on one board
Engineering teams usually run many client jobs in parallel. The Projects board shows them as cards you drag between your own statuses, with two columns that update automatically: TimeMagick moves a project into In Progress or Inactive based on whether time is being tracked.
- Drag-and-drop board with custom statuses
- Due date, tasks done, completion % and allocated-hours % on every card
- Budget hours against allocated, with assigned members and the client
- Filters for status, client and member; Active, Archived and Completed tabs
Plan engineering tasks on the Gantt
Each project has an interactive Gantt with the project as the parent bar and its tasks beneath it. An engineering manager might lay out design, review, drawings, prototype and production support, then drag a bar to reschedule or resize it to change the duration. The dates are written back to the task.
- Project and task hierarchy
- Drag to reschedule, resize to change duration
- Day, Week and Month views, with progress in each bar
- Assignees, budget, spent and status beside the timeline
- Add tasks from the chart, plus a portfolio Gantt across clients
Keep project communication attached to the project
Revision questions, design decisions, file exchanges and status questions belong with the project, not in a separate inbox. Every TimeMagick project has its own channel, next to its tasks, tracked time and budget, with file attachments. Your team also has direct messages and groups.
Client Members use Message Channels too, with project channels and groups. TimeMagick is not a CAD file-versioning or document-approval system; files shared in a channel are attachments to the conversation.
How project communication worksGive clients visibility into their projects
Engineering clients ask the same questions: what stage the project is in, how many tasks are complete, how many hours have been logged, what is overdue and what is happening this week. Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients, with their own workspace: Dashboard, Timesheets, Projects, Report, Message Channels and Sensai.
The Client Dashboard shows Total Projects, Total Tasks, Completed, Weekly Hours Logged and Overdue Tasks, with Project Status, a Task Status Breakdown, a weekly hours chart and Overall Due Tasks. It is for visibility and collaboration; your team keeps control of the projects.
How the client portal worksControl what engineers, managers and clients can access
Different people in an engineering consultancy need different information. For example:
- Engineer
- Assigned projects and tasks, and their own time tracking.
- Project manager
- Broader project visibility, reports and approvals.
- Finance / admin
- Billing, invoices and financial data.
- Contractor
- Limited access to the projects they work on.
- Client
- The client-facing workspace, through the locked CLIENT role.
These are example set-ups you would build yourself, not roles TimeMagick ships. You create custom roles in a matrix of 40 permission modules with View, Create, Update and Delete where they apply. Report export, Projects and All Projects, and Project Channel and All Project Channels are separate modules.
How roles and permissions workFrom engineering hours to client invoice
- Engineers track time.
- A manager reviews billable time and sets the billable percentage.
- Project Billing shows billable hours against billed hours.
- An invoice is created.
Invoices support duration-based and quantity-based lines, taxes, notes and PDF download, from multiple issuing entities and billing accounts, in different currencies. TimeMagick is not accounting software; it takes the project hours as far as the invoice.
How billing and invoicing workSee which engineering projects actually make money
Fixed-fee engineering work makes this question sharper. A project quoted for an expected number of engineering hours has a different commercial result when revisions, meetings or design work take substantially more.
TimeMagick's KPI module works from the tracked time, project budgets, client rates, expenses and billing already in the system: Revenue, Profit, Avg Client Profit, Avg Client Margin, Effective Rate, Utilisation, Projects Over Budget, Uninvoiced Hours, Low-Profit Projects, Revenue Concentration and Client Health.
Illustration (demo data, fictional projects and clients).
Include non-labour project costs
Engineering projects cost more than engineering hours: materials, prototypes, external machining, subcontracting and travel. In TimeMagick, company expenses can be linked to the project, given your own categories and sent through approval, so the project's cost includes more than employee time.
TimeMagick does not handle purchase orders or procurement.
How expenses workExample workflow · fictional
Example: a fixed-fee mechanical design project
A client commissions a machine redesign for a fixed price. In TimeMagick, the studio would:
- Create the project with its client, hour budget and due date, and add tasks such as Concept, CAD Design, Drawings, Review and Revisions.
- Have three engineers track their work against those tasks from the desktop app.
- Let the project manager follow hours spent, budget usage, task progress and due dates on the board, the project overview and the Gantt.
- Record the extra prototype and manufacturing costs as expenses linked to the project.
- Approve the billable hours, which then appear in Project Billing for invoicing.
- Review the project's commercial result in the Profitability module.
This is an illustrative example, not a customer case study.
What TimeMagick does not replace
TimeMagick manages project work, time, communication, billing and profitability. Your CAD and data-management tools stay where they are: it does not replace SolidWorks, Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD or PDM and PLM systems, and it does not manage CAD files, versions or drawing approvals.
For time and project reports, including formatted Excel export, see Reports & Analytics. For plans and per-user pricing, see Pricing. If your studio works more like a design, digital or consulting agency, see TimeMagick for agencies.
TimeMagick for engineering studios: key facts
- TimeMagick records time against specific projects and tasks.
- Each time entry carries its project, task, client and member.
- TimeMagick includes project budgets and budget-versus-spent visibility.
- TimeMagick includes a drag-and-drop Projects board with custom statuses.
- TimeMagick includes interactive Gantt planning per project and across the client portfolio.
- Every TimeMagick project has its own project channel.
- TimeMagick supports external Client Members with a client-facing workspace.
- TimeMagick includes project and time reporting with formatted Excel export.
- TimeMagick supports billable-time approval and project billing.
- TimeMagick supports project-linked expenses with custom categories.
- TimeMagick includes project and client profitability analytics.
- TimeMagick's project, time and budget workflow fits project-based engineering and design teams.
- TimeMagick does not replace CAD, PDM or PLM software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Time tracking, budgets, planning, client access, billing and profitability for engineering, CAD and design studios.
Is TimeMagick suitable for engineering companies?
TimeMagick is not built only for engineers, but its project, time and budget workflow fits project-based engineering, CAD and design studios: time is tracked against projects and tasks, budgets are compared with hours spent, and the same data feeds billing and project profitability.
Can engineers track time by project and task?
Yes. The Windows desktop app and the iOS and Android apps record time against a specific project and task, and every entry carries its project, task, client and member.
Can TimeMagick track CAD and design project budgets?
Yes. Each project has a budget, and budget against time spent appears on the project card, in the project overview, on the Gantt, in tracked-time approval and on the admin dashboard.
Does TimeMagick include Gantt planning?
Yes. TimeMagick has an interactive Gantt per project and a portfolio Gantt across clients. You can drag bars to reschedule, resize them to change duration, switch between Day, Week and Month views, and see assignees, budget, spent, status and progress for each task.
Can clients access their engineering projects?
Yes. Client Members are external accounts linked to one or more of your clients. They get a client-facing workspace with a Client Dashboard, Projects, Timesheets, Report, Message Channels and Sensai, for visibility and collaboration rather than project administration.
Can engineering firms invoice tracked project hours?
Yes. Tracked time is approved with a billable percentage, Project Billing compares billable hours with billed hours per project, and invoices support duration-based and quantity-based lines, taxes, notes, PDF download, multiple issuing entities, billing accounts and currencies.
Can TimeMagick track expenses against engineering projects?
Yes. Company expenses can be linked to a project and given your own categories, such as materials, prototypes, external machining, subcontracting or travel, and they go through an approval queue.
Can TimeMagick show whether a project is profitable?
Yes. The KPI module shows revenue, profit, client margin, effective rate, utilisation, projects over budget, low-profit projects, uninvoiced hours and client health, using the tracked time, budgets, client rates, expenses and billing already in TimeMagick.
Does TimeMagick replace CAD or PDM software?
No. TimeMagick manages project work, time, communication, billing and profitability. It does not replace SolidWorks, Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD or PDM and PLM systems, and it does not manage CAD files or versions.
See where your engineering hours go
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