Timeglass
Granola is a useful option for agencies and consultants who want a record of client conversations without adding a meeting bot. A firm also needs a process for accounting for the work around those calls. That includes assigning delivery time to projects, reviewing entries, and preparing records that support billing.
The decision should follow how your people work. A consultant may handle several clients in one morning. A studio may need many people’s contributions against a shared project budget. Meeting notes can support both situations, provided the firm defines where its time and billing records will live.
Where Granola fits client work
Granola fits conversations where a person wants to listen, take a few notes, and return to a fuller account afterward. Its documented workflow combines written notes with a transcript. Client interviews, project reviews, and internal planning meetings are practical occasions to test whether the resulting record meets your needs.
An account manager can use the record to check a client request before briefing the delivery team. A consultant can revisit the reasoning behind an agreed next step. Granola also supports organizing and sharing notes, with personal notes and team spaces described in its introductory guide.
Before a client call, decide how participants will be informed about transcription and how their preferences will be handled. Review the available notices, sharing settings, and client terms with the person responsible for the engagement. Granola’s transparency documentation describes its notification options.
How Timeglass records client calls
Timeglass brings a client call’s recording, summary, and transcript into one meeting record. A colored timeline shows when each person spoke, alongside their share of attributed speaking time. The record also includes the meeting date, start and end times, duration, and platform for later review.
You can watch available video alongside the transcript, use chapters to move between topics, and select a summary timestamp to return to its source. Action items can include an owner and due date, and you can mark them complete. Search and date or team-member filters help you find the right call later.
For follow-up work, copy the summary, download the transcript or available audio, or create a view-only meeting link with an expiry you control. You can revoke the link later. The Timeglass meeting page shows these tools in the recording and review workflow.
How Timeglass identifies speakers
Speaker diarization separates a recording into turns by different people. Timeglass names speakers automatically, separates your voice from the call audio, and recognizes returning voices when Speaker Names is enabled. Your account team can check which client requested a revision and which teammate agreed to deliver it.
When teammates record the same client call, Timeglass merges their recordings into one transcript. Names connect action items to people and give connected AI tools context about client commitments. Learn more about speaker identification.
Three timekeeping needs around client calls
Client-services firms need a record that follows delivery work from the request through completion. A useful timekeeping process covers work between calls, connects that work to the correct budget, and keeps enough detail for review. Those requirements become more important as a person switches among clients during the day.
Work between meetings needs its own record
Preparation, document editing, research, and replies to client comments can consume substantial effort around a short call. Our research with consultants and agency operators repeatedly raised the need to understand that delivery effort. A team should decide how these activities enter the timesheet, including work completed away from a computer.
Each entry needs a clear project assignment
The same activity can have different billing treatment under different agreements. A revision may fall within a retainer, consume a project allowance, or require separate approval. Employees need clear client, project, and task choices, along with a way to flag work whose classification requires a manager’s decision.
Billing review needs a consistent trail
A reviewer should be able to connect an entry to the work described and the period billed. Agree on how the firm handles corrections, approvals, and changes after submission. For a scope conversation, keep the approved request and the delivery record together so both sides can discuss the same sequence of work.
What to check in a client-services workflow
A useful evaluation follows one piece of client work through capture, assignment, employee review, and billing preparation. Involve the person doing the work and the person checking the invoice. Their requirements often differ, so testing the complete sequence gives a firmer basis for a decision than reviewing a feature list.
Ask the following questions using a familiar project and its real billing rules. Record the answer and the setting or procedure that makes it work.
- Can employees account for client calls, delivery work, and time away from the computer?
- Can each entry use the client, project, and task structure required by your agreements?
- Can employees correct assignments and descriptions before the agreed submission point?
- Do visibility settings match what employees and managers have been told?
- Does an exported sample contain the fields your billing system needs?
- Can your security reviewer verify data use, retention, access, and the scope of any audit report?
For clients with confidentiality requirements, obtain a clear answer about which data enters each service and who may access it. If a contract requires a particular security report, confirm the report itself and the service it covers. Timeglass’s security information is a starting point for that review.
How firms combine meeting and time records
A firm can use Timeglass for meeting records and time entries, with its billing system handling the invoice. Teams that also use Granola should agree on which app holds the notes used for follow-up. A person reviews the time entries before the agreed handoff. The export format and connection between systems should be tested with an actual sample.
Timeglass can assign captured activity to configured clients, projects, and categories. Employees can review those assignments and make corrections under their workspace permissions. Project and client reporting then provides a way to inspect how recorded effort is distributed. The project overview explains that part of the product.
Agree on the transfer schedule, the responsible person, and how corrected entries will be handled after export. A monthly billing run has different needs from a weekly payroll process. Test the final file in the receiving system before replacing the current routine. The export overview provides a place to begin.
For the product-level comparison, read Timeglass and Granola side by side. Our billable-time guide also explains the steps between a meeting record and an approved time entry.
Work is captured.
Meetings and the work between them provide the context for your entries.
Timeglass drafts entries.
The draft connects recorded work with its client and project.
You review the entries.
Check the descriptions and assignments before you submit your time.
You export approved time.
Prepare the reviewed records for the next step in your billing process.
An illustrative week at a 20-person agency
For an illustrative planning example, suppose 20 people each have 40 scheduled hours in a week, giving the agency 800 scheduled hours. Allocate 120 hours to meetings, 500 to delivery work, and 180 to internal work. These invented figures provide a starting point for discussing the review process.
The 120 meeting hours could include client reviews, internal planning, and supplier calls. Each needs a billing classification. The 500 delivery hours might include design, research, writing, and implementation. The 180 internal hours could cover administration, training, and business development. An employee’s records should explain where their own time fits.
The manager can then review the project allocations against the planned budgets. A project with many delivery hours and few meetings still needs a complete time record. A project with frequent calls may require a closer look at coordination effort. Both situations benefit from descriptions that connect the hours to the work.
Captured time, scheduled capacity, and billable time each have a specific definition. Use your own reviewed records to understand the relationship. Keep leave, breaks, and uncaptured work visible in the reconciliation so the team can check its actual use of scheduled capacity.
Common Questions
Frequently asked questions
A rollout should fit the client agreement, employee expectations, and the firm’s billing routine. The questions below address the decisions that recur when agencies evaluate meeting capture alongside time reporting. Treat a pilot as a chance to check the complete process, including permissions, review, and the receiving billing system.
Do clients need to be told about AI notetakers?
Set a clear participant-notice and permission process before client meetings. The applicable requirements depend on location, the client agreement, and the information discussed. Ask the person responsible for your firm’s legal or privacy review to approve the process, and give staff instructions for handling a participant who declines.
Can Granola provide our billable-hour records?
Granola does not include billable timesheets. Plan how durations, project assignments, employee checks, and billing exports will be handled in your timekeeping system, then test that sequence against a familiar project. You can use Granola’s meeting records to support that review.
How do agencies track time across clients automatically?
Automatic capture can prepare entries using the context available from work activity. The firm still needs a clear client and project structure, appropriate capture settings, and a review routine. Check ambiguous assignments during a pilot and measure the corrections needed before deciding how widely to use the process.
Can Timeglass and Granola run at the same time?
Our research includes people using both products within the same workflow. Test the combination on your team’s devices and meeting platforms, including recording permissions, notices, performance, and duplicate records. Assign each product a clear role and confirm how people should respond when a client requests a different recording arrangement.
Book a demo to walk through a client project, review the time entries, and discuss the export your agency needs.
