BigTime Reviews in 2023: Alternatives, Pricing, Reviews - SSR

BigTime is the only software in the market that processes payments directly from the app with its proprietary payment system – BigTime Wallet – which supports ACH payments, credit cards, and debit cards.

BigTime is another project management-time tracker hybrid on our list. They provide time tracking and project management solutions to professional service firms in accounting, IT, engineering, legal, marketing, and consulting firms in the US, Canada, and Australia.

BigTime’s project management tools are focused on budget planning and staff utilization. The administrator can set up and assign tasks as well as plan project budgets. As work continues, the admin personnel will be able to monitor the projected budget against the actual hour tracked on a visualization dashboard, which is helpful to stay ahead of cost management. Project managers can also monitor and configure workflows using the gantt chart feature available on the platform.

BigTime Skills Matching

Skills matching is one feature peculiar to BigTime. The meat and potatoes of this feature is the ability to keep track of employee skills in order to pair them with tasks and projects that best suits their skill sets. 

Managers will be able to create a list of skills that are typically required in their firms, assign the skills to their employees, and rate them for each skill according to discretion. It is possible to add multiple skills for one staffer as well as certifications and languages. 

If you have been tracking employee skills in another spreadsheet, you can import it into BigTime with the import option made available. This option only supports CSV files though. 

BigTime Project Management and DCAA compliance

The project creation process requires a lot of patience because BigTime will request a lot of information at this stage. Information such as the name, the type of project, the cost center, and so on, are fields required to be filled. This thorough project documentation is what you would typically find in a time tracking software that is DCAA compliant.

DCAA compliance is a huge part of BigTime’s offering. Being DCAA compliant is important for professional services that take on government contracts because the Defense Contract Audit Agency performs routine audits to ensure professional service agencies are following their guidelines. BigTime ensures this compliance by putting processes in place, like appropriate documentation, enforcing management approvals on timesheets, and regular reviews, that maintains a transparent audit trail. 

BigTime Reporting

One interesting BigTime feature is their reports. Now, most time tracking softwares will have pre-built reports available, such as timesheet reports, attendance reports, payroll reports, etc., upon request. BigTime not only offers these reports, it also gives administrators the ability to create new reports using a report wizard embedded in the system. 

The wizard can also be used to customize and configure pre-built reports (e.g timesheet report) to return data in any way you want. For example, managers can decide to configure the timesheet report to only display the information for a specific client amongst the many they work for. 

Any time they click on the report, BigTime will only pull data (hours tracked, tasks completed, etc.) pertaining to that one client. This flexibility cuts across all parts of the reports section. You can also set permissions to restrict the people that can view your reports.

BigTime Invoicing and Payment Features

BigTime provides billing and invoicing features as well. Time tracked with the corresponding hourly rates is automatically calculated and prepared as an invoice that can be sent to your clients. Since BigTime also supports expense tracking, these can be included in your invoices. 

As it is with most of BigTime’s features, the invoice can be customized and configured to meet your client’s needs. You can also add brand logos, notes, company colors etc. and so on.

In addition to invoice processing and management, BigTime provides a payment system—  BigTime wallet— where users can send and receive payments. BigTime wallet supports credit cards, debit cards, and ACH payments. It is also quite easy to set up and use.  

BigTime Rewards and Referrals and Other Features

As part of their community building process, BigTime has put in place reward and referral programs. For example, if you refer a friend and they sign up, you get a $50 Amazon gift card. The rewards get bigger as your referral gets more into the system.

The BigTime team is particular about customer satisfaction so they invest heavily in upgrades. They release new features as frequently as every three to six weeks. In their recent release (March 2022), they include the ability to add custom timesheet fields, payroll reports, and user-defined dark mode UI.

Energy GPS LLC, Draper & associates, Edge Engineering PLLC, Amatech, Inc.

• DCAA compliance: Most professional firms handle government contracts. To do so, you need to be DCAA compliant. This means meticulous time-tracking, record-keeping and transparent accounting. BigTime keeps you DCAA compliant by building your audit log.
• Resource management: BigTime’s resource management feature makes it easier to get the best from your workforce. You can see staffers available to work on projects and match them with tasks based on their skill set rating. This helps you avoid over/under scheduling and utilization.
• Payment processing: BigTime wallet client portal is a platform that contains all your client’s invoices. Your clients can easily select their invoices, complete their payments, and download receipts through the portal. They can also save their preferred payment methods to streamline future payments.

BigTime also offers:

• Expense tracking
• Reporting and analytics
• Project management

Quickbooks, Salesforce, Jira, Zapier

BigTime’s pricing plans require a minimum of 5 users and you get a free 14-day trial period. The plans are as follows:

• Express: This plan costs $10 per user per month (billed annually)
• Pro: This plan costs $30 per user per month (billed annually)
• Premier: This plan costs $40 per user per month (billed annually)‍
• Enterprise: This is a custom plan that depends on your business needs.

Professional service firms that want a full-featured professional service automation software (PSA) with time tracking and DCAA compliance.

BigTime is a private equity company that produces Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) productivity tools for growing professional services firms. The company was founded in 2002 by Brian Saunders— a software consultant and entrepreneur.

Initially, the company's name was Edison’s Attic, Inc. But in 2010, the name changed to BigTime Software, Inc. Prior to founding BigTime, Brian was the co-founder and CEO of a software strategy and consulting firm. Until they were acquired in 2001. He used the money he got from the acquisition to launch BigTime.

BigTime has since recorded enormous growth over the years. In 2011, they closed a $4 million Series A funding round and changed from an in-premise software to a cloud-based software. 

In January 2022, BigTime received a $100 million strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners— an investment firm in Texas— to further drive innovation and create value. BigTime is trusted by 2,300 professional service firms.