If your business builds complex products, performs aircraft maintenance, or handles multi-shift repair work, you’re likely familiar with long running jobs – projects that stretch over days, weeks, or even months.

Unlike short term work, these jobs require a different kind of labor tracking. You’re not just counting how many units are produced in a shift. You’re measuring how long it takes to complete just one.

That makes accurate, real time tracking essential. Without it, you risk delays, budget overruns, and missed expectations. With it, you gain control, visibility, and better outcomes.

What Counts as a Long-Running Job?

A long running job involves significant labor time and often spans multiple shifts or teams. Common examples include:

In these cases, tracking labor isn’t just helpful, it’s business critical.

Why You Need to Track Planned, Actual, and Remaining Hours

If you want to manage long-running jobs effectively, you need three key metrics:

• Planned time: How many hours the job was budgeted for, usually pulled from your ERP.
• Actual time: The total hours already worked so far.
• Remaining time: The difference i.e. how much time is left to complete the job.

When your team can see all three in real time, they can make smarter decisions and avoid costly surprises.

What That Looks Like in Practice

Here’s a simplified example using AutoTime:

• An engine mount repair is budgeted at 1,000 hours. That data is imported into AutoTime.
• Debbie starts work at 6:30 a.m. and sees all 1,000 hours remaining.
• Kenny clocks in a few hours later and sees that 3.24 hours have already been used.
• Their supervisor checks in and sees the combined time spent, updated in real time.
• At the end of the day, Debbie clocks out and sees 987.20 hours left on the job.

Everyone knows exactly where the job stands, without waiting for reports or estimates.

How This Helps You Stay on Track

By using real time labor data, you can:

• Catch overruns early: If a job is taking longer than planned, you can replan or request more hours before going over budget.
• Keep stakeholders informed: Accurate progress updates help manage internal and external expectations.
• Protect your margins: When additional work is needed, having time data supports billing or funding requests.
• Support MRO revenue: For repair and maintenance businesses, tighter tracking helps preserve profitability.

Tools That Make It Possible

AutoTime supports this workflow by:

• Displaying planned, actual, and remaining hours to employees and supervisors
• Integrating with your ERP to pull in job budgets automatically
• Providing real time visibility into job status and labor use
• Logging all labor activity for full traceability and audit readiness

Whether you’re managing a single project or dozens at once, AutoTime gives you the control to stay on time and on budget.

Are you tracking your long-running jobs as effectively as you could be?

AutoTime helps you turn time data into better decisions. If you’d like to learn more, get in touch or schedule a quick demo.