Everyone loves a fresh start – and for many, the new year provides the perfect opportunity to shake off bad habits and invest in some self-improvement.

And why shouldn’t businesses do the same?

Overloaded with leaking revenue, worn-out processes, and sluggish productivity, the time is ripe for project-based organizations to jump on the “new year, new me” bandwagon and invest in their own success with some fresh new approaches.

So, what can services businesses do to make 2020 their year?

Here are five tips from Raj Narayanaswamy, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Replicon:

Redefine their understanding of billable time

A common fallacy among services firms is equating billable time to total time – but billable time alone simply doesn’t cover every minute a resource is working. Without 100% visibility into all resource time, true billable potential cannot be determined.

Calculate the true cost of their resources

Without specific direction, each team will determine a resource’s cost differently, resulting in job cost discrepancies and all-around confusion. With an advanced forecasting system, businesses can learn from valuable historical cost data in order to optimize the present, plan for the future, and supercharge growth.

Consciously establish what utilization means across the organization

Without a centralized approach to utilization built-in to an organization’s workflows, every services company department and team will use their own methodology for measuring utilization. This can get messy. Deliberately establishing one standardized definition for utilization across the organization will set everything straight.

Ensure real-time visibility into key metrics

Real-time visibility into key metrics and ongoing project progress allows project managers to lead team members in the right direction based on what actually needs to be done, and ensures the client remains on the same page from start to finish.

Track project profitability at a granular level

Aggregate data won’t help you here – only drilling down into time tracked at every level can provide the level of detail required to reveal the true profitability of the project. Each specific metric deserves attention, otherwise, the information can easily slip through the cracks.