Josh Peterson
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Most MSPs don’t stall at $2M because the owners stop working. They stall because the business outgrows its evidence. “We don’t track time” is rarely a financial decision; it’s a cultural stance disguised as virtue. But without time entry—paired with usable notes—there is no reliable way to measure agreement gross profit, validate service capacity, or defend pricing with confidence. In this BMK Roundtable, we reframe time entry as leadership discipline, not micromanagement. If you want to understand how this fits inside a scalable operating system, start with Vision, then pressure-test your assumptions against our guidance on accurate time tracking and approvals and the behavioral reality behind why techs resist time entry.
The real danger is not short-term survivability—it’s long-term scale. An MSP can “feel” profitable for a season. It can rely on intuition about which clients are noisy and which technicians are overloaded. But without time data, those feelings never become decisions. They become resentment. Time entry is the base layer that turns noise into math, math into pricing conversations, and pricing conversations into strategic leverage. Remove that layer, and growth becomes guesswork.
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Time Entry Is Not a Culture Problem. It’s a Leadership Problem.
The objection usually sounds noble: “We don’t want to micromanage.” Or, “We want our team focused on solving problems, not billing.” But that argument collapses under scrutiny. Time entry does not exist to satisfy ego or control behavior. It exists to create evidence.
- Evidence of what was done for the client.
- Evidence of how long it actually took.
- Evidence of whether pricing assumptions were correct.
Without that evidence, leadership is left with feelings. And feelings do not scale.
Managed Services Still Resolves to an Hourly Truth
Flat-rate agreements feel elegant. Predictable revenue smooths cash flow. But the physics of a service business do not disappear simply because billing is monthly. Every hour worked must still be paid. Every technician still consumes salary. Every agreement still produces an effective hourly rate—whether you measure it or not.
If an MSP cannot outperform its old break/fix effective rate under a managed services model, the structure is cosmetic. The economics have not improved. They have simply become harder to see.
No Data Creates Resentment. Data Creates Options.
Consider two $10K-per-month clients. One is noisy. One is stable. Without time entry, leadership “feels” which one is painful. But feeling is not strategy. It produces one of two reactions: resentment or emotional client termination.
With time data, leadership gains options:
- Re-price based on documented consumption.
- Adjust scope based on measurable patterns.
- Rebalance dispatch or technician allocation.
- Renegotiate expectations with clarity instead of accusation.
The difference is not cultural. It is structural.
The $2M Ceiling Is a Discipline Ceiling
Below $1M, intuition can survive. Founders hire people they trust. Everyone shares context. Dispatch is informal. Capacity is guessed. But as complexity increases, the absence of discipline compounds. Service salary-to-revenue ratios drift. Agreement gross profit becomes theoretical. Overworked technicians mask underpriced contracts.
At that stage, time entry is not a reporting tool. It is the glue that holds the model together.
Notes and Time Are Not Separate Conversations
Good time entry includes two components: daily time capture and meaningful notes. One measures capacity and economics. The other ensures continuity, communication, and legal defensibility. Separating them weakens both.
The question is not whether technicians enjoy entering time. The question is whether leadership can responsibly grow without documented reality.
Episode Highlights
- 00:05:55 — Why “good time entry” means both time and usable notes.
- 00:10:48 — The dopamine problem: why technicians resist the habit.
- 00:22:38 — If managed services doesn’t outperform hourly, what changed?
- 00:35:01 — Two identical contracts, two radically different economics.
- 00:39:59 — The hidden profitability illusion: underpaid or overworked staff.
About the Guest: Gary Boyle
Gary Boyle is a Partner at Bering McKinley, working alongside MSP leadership teams to bring operational discipline into service delivery, pricing, and performance management. His focus is helping owners replace intuition with structure—especially in the service department, where most profitability assumptions are either proven or exposed.
Connect with Gary Boyle on LinkedIn →
About the Host
Josh Peterson leads conversations at Bering McKinley around service maturity, leadership cadence, and operational scale for MSPs. His work centers on helping firms connect service execution to financial clarity through disciplined systems and measurable outcomes.
Connect with Josh Peterson on LinkedIn →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is time tracking necessary for flat-rate MSP contracts?
Yes. Flat-rate billing does not eliminate labor cost. Time tracking ensures the MSP understands capacity, effective hourly rate, and agreement gross profit—without which pricing decisions become guesswork.
Does time entry hurt MSP culture?
Only when framed as surveillance. When positioned as professional documentation and operational clarity, it becomes a leadership standard—not a control mechanism.
What is the minimum standard for good time entry?
Daily entry of actual time spent paired with notes that explain the work performed and enable another technician to continue without rework.
Continue the Conversation
If time entry is still a debate inside your MSP, it’s likely a symptom of a deeper structural issue. The solution is not more pressure—it’s clearer alignment between service economics and leadership expectations.