How FullStack Labs Used Toggl to Win New Business and Grow from Freelancers into a 70-Person Software Consultancy

Challenges

FullStack Labs has been using Toggl since Day One. “Everyone on our team uses Toggl - even our non-billable employees,” David Jackson, FullStack CEO told us.

When the founders first formed the company, they were essentially freelancers with big dreams. But they were always judicious about tracking their time and showing their hours worked.

“A lot of the old-timers in our industry bill by the day, week, or month. They’ll go to clients and say, ‘We’ll put three developers on the project.’ And that’s the highest level of visibility you get,” said David.

So while clients might see that a developer named John worked 40 hours, they won’t know what he worked on, or whether he was out for two days on vacation.

Meanwhile, whenever FullStack Labs pitched new business, they brought Toggl reports with them. They could show what their developers were working on, and when, and for exactly how long. “We viewed this differential as an opportunity to outcompete others in our industry,” David said.

And outcompete they did. FullStack has grown ten-fold in a few short years. And their clients get time reports every single day.

“Our clients are getting a description of every hour they’re billed for, while competitors are sending blind invoices with no task descriptions on a weekly or monthly basis.”

And they bill only for the time worked - if someone is out or on PTO, or only works six hours in a day - their clients won’t be billed for the extra time.

It’s that care and attention to detail that allowed them to win business with the likes of Uber and several Fortune 500 companies. They’ve been able to hire organically, growing their time-tracking capabilities all the while.

Toggl gives us the opportunity to outcompete our rivals. When we pitch new business, we bring our Toggl reports and demonstrate the level of visibility we can provide.

David Jackson, CEO

Solution

“Today we have a robust and complex project management approach that incorporates Toggl with Jira. We run two-week sprints across all of our projects, and we run time-tracking around all of our development,” said Jackson.

They incorporate Toggl with Jira, folding time-tracking into each day of their two-week sprints. They assign stories to developers, plan work, and estimate how much time each story will take.

At the end of each sprint, they can look back and ask, “Did each person get everything done that they were supposed to?” They’ve been able to pinpoint blockers, and find quick solutions to particular problems.

And clients can see as much as they want to. With FullStack’s internally-built bot, which integrates with Toggl, they pull reports every day and automatically send them to clients.

At the end of the day, “Toggl runs our whole business in terms of how we bill clients and generate revenue.” Through profitability and revenue projections per developer, FullStack Labs has the data to prove their hard work is being directly translated into value for the client.

The bottom line? “It helps us win more business,” said David.

Results

• Grew team to 70+ people over four years
• Won big business with clients like Uber and Fortune 500 companies
• Outperformed competition by showing Toggl reports in pitches
• Ability to retain employees through accurate compensation and detailed billing (salary plus overtime)