Time tracking is one of those things that everyone is expected to know but few really talk about. I saw a discussion about this pop up on reddit this week and while the discussion hasn’t had a ton of interaction just yet, I thought it might be worth to take a closer look at the art of time tracking for IT and some basics on what you should be tracking and why. Billable Time vs Actual Time The first issue you’ll bump into is the difference between billable time and actual time. Billable time is the increments in which you bill to your client. Actual time is the time that your techs record that they actually worked on a ticket. Billable time shows up on invoices to clients, while actual time shows up on time cards in your accounting software. Even if you are a flat rate IT provider it…
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Overcoming the Fear of Selling Managed Services – 7 Tips To Selling As a Small MSP
An MSP will not grow without customers. And customers will not buy unless you sell them on Managed Services. If you’re a small MSP you are probably wondering how to best sell your service. I have been running a professional services small business of some kind or another for decades now, and what I have…
5 Ideas On How to Train Your Customers To Email Tickets Instead of Call
Your customers want a dedicated resource to help with their technical troubles. Who wouldn’t? I can certainly appreciate wanting immediate support when I’m struggling. But as an MSPs, you need to be an expert at resource management. And two of the most expensive resources for MSPs are telephone and/or in-person support. Before I dive into…
Behind the Scenes — A Day in the Life of Virtual Administrator
Virtual Administrator is a unique animal compared to most other companies. Since we are often working as the middle-man our company is dealing with vendors and clients alike on a daily basis. Most of this occurs through our support board. I figured I’d share some (generalized) tickets that we have open right now so you…
What is “Managed Services”?
Managed Services is one of those things that IT People know about as a title but most don’t really spend the time to really grasp. Chances are, you are probably fairly competent in working with computers. Perhaps you are skilled in fixing broken machines, setting up networks, and/or security and business continuity. Managed services kind…
The Secret To Incredible Testimonials for your MSP
“Get Testimonials”, “Build Authority”, “Become an Influencer”. These silly little business quips that make their way into every startup self-help book all sound great but they leave out a difficult step in the process. You know, the part of HOW you actually do it. Usually when we write blog posts we share some technical information,…
Managing Local Admin passwords with Kaseya
One of the challenges we had on our MSP side is dealing with how to setup and manage a local admin account that can be used by our techs. Historically there are a few ways to handle this. Use a Domain Admin account. – This is fine in most cases, since the Domain Admin is…
How to Keep Windows 10 Versions Current Using Kaseya RMM
One of the questions we consistently get asked is “Why is my version of Windows 10 not up to the latest feature release?”. The answer is simply that Microsoft doesn’t push these feature updates out via the traditional patch management process, so all your patches can be up to date, and you can still have…
Protect Against Phishing with a Creative Mailprotector Filtering Rule
These days it can be difficult to see the difference between real and fake emails. Spammers, hackers, and phishing have gotten more and more sophisticated. Now, instead of sending casual “You got money from a Nigerian prince” emails, malicious senders are starting to research their targets and send much more believable emails. They’ll probe for…
Controlling Notification Emails From Mailprotector
By default Mailprotector sends notifications up to three times per day depending on if new spam is waiting in the quarantine for you. This can add up rapidly if you have several distribution lists associated with your account since, by default, you’ll get a notification for each distribution list along with your email account. Controlling…
Is Your Account Secure? Security in an MSP World
In the past month there have been numerous articles about cities and MSPs who have gotten busted with cryptoware. Damages vary from a few hundred thousand to tens of millions in lost time and revenue. As MSPs we are in a sweat-inducing position of not just being responsible for our own machines, but also the…