Indie Shops Punch Out

A number of small agencies are following the lead of anomaly and are tossing out their time sheets. Will this catch on?

- Katie Richards

Nail Communications, a Providence, R.I.-based shop that counts New Balance and Stonyfield Farm as clients, decided this summer to take the radical step of doing away with time sheets. The independent shop joins Anomaly, which boldly made this move when it opened its doors a dozen years ago, as well as Nashville, Tenn.-based Bohan Advertising and Eric Mower + Associates, a full-service shop in New York. Next year, Alaska-based Spawn Ideas plans to do so as well.

While time sheets have been used forever to track client work, they are considered a major time suck. Agency managers have tried everything—from incentivizing employees with beer fridges that spring open only after time sheets are turned in to embedded software like that of KBS, which is supposed to simplify the process. And yet time sheets often are still either turned in late or are incomplete.