🕰️ Est. Time: 25 minutes
🎯 Goal: Understand burn costs and the right level of detail to bring across
🔑 Requirements: Access to edit jobs
What to do first
Ahead of moving your Jobs across to Streamtime, there are a few key decisions to make so you can move your projects over in a seamless way.
Deciding your Cutover Date
Your cutover date is the line in the sand that determines what stays in your old tool and what moves to Streamtime. Everything before this date stays where it is. Everything after lives in Streamtime. Your cutover date is flexible. If you need more time, you can always adjust it as you go.
Soft launch
This is where you'll refine your setup with real jobs before team training. If you’re working independently or with a small team, you may wish to compress or skip this step.
⭐️ Every team’s timing will look a little different. What matters is that setup and workflows are complete before your cutover date. Everything after focuses on getting your team confident using Streamtime day to day.
Deciding how to approach Migration
Decide which Jobs to migrate
Deciding now makes migration faster, cleaner, and avoids clutter later. This is your chance to start fresh.
Once you’ve set your cutover date (using the tool on the previous page), you’re ready to categorise your active jobs:
✨ Recently signed → Rebuild from a template
◐ Part complete → Bring across what's still in play; summarise what's done
✅ Recently completed → Leave in your old tool unless needed for reporting (create a simple placeholder with totals if so)
💡 Completed jobs can stay in your old tool or be exported. This keeps Streamtime focused on active work.
Decide your level of detail
The detail you carry across affects reporting accuracy and migration time. Too little and reports won't be useful; too much and you'll spend hours recreating work. Work through the questions below to find your ideal balance.
If you only need historical detail occasionally, you don't need to rebuild it into every job. Talk it through with your team to agree on what's essential. You can always start light and add detail later.
What's still in play?
What's still in play?
If there's a lot of work remaining, start with a template. If it's mostly complete, pull deliverables from your master items library instead.
What's already finished?
What's already finished?
Do you need quick totals for reference, or detailed breakdowns for reporting?
Who needs to see what?
Who needs to see what?
What will finance, leadership, or clients need? Think about next month's or quarter's reporting needs.
How to balance it
How to balance it
Find the middle ground: enough detail to pull the reports you need, without spending hours recreating work that already exists elsewhere.
Choose how to record past work
If you want migrated jobs to reflect time and expenses already burned, decide how much detail to include. Choose the approach that matches your reporting needs, using the options below.
One-line catch-up
One-line catch-up
Best for:
Pulling top-level numbers when you don’t need the granular detail.
How to set it up:
Add 1 expense to cover all time and expenses used to date
Add extra context in the expense description (e.g. work completed, team involved)
Naming convention:
Total used costs from [start date] to [end date].
Reporting impact:
Shows total used costs to date for a simple, high-level view.
Clear split of time vs expenses
Clear split of time vs expenses
Best for
Separating labour from out-of-pocket costs without going into detail.
How to set it up
Add 1 expense for all time used to date
Add 1 expense for all out-of-pocket costs to date
Add extra context in descriptions where useful (e.g. hours vs purchases)
Naming convention
Add time or expenses to the relevant title
Reporting impact
Shows totals for time and expenses separately, so you can see margin at a glance.
Surface the work completed at different stages
Surface the work completed at different stages
Best for
Teams that want past costs visible under the phase where the work happened.
How to set it up
Use a template with the pre-defined phases, or create one from scratch
Show used costs against the relevant phases within the job (refer to the previous steps for guidance on adding used costs)
Naming convention
Add phase name to the title for reporting
Reporting impact
Shows used costs against the relevant phases within a job. Adding the phase name to the expense (name or label) itself helps with reporting
Capture who did the work
Capture who did the work
Best for
Seeing who contributed to past work without recreating every entry.
How to set it up
Add 1 expense per person for all their time used to date.
(Optional) Add 1 expense for all out-of-pocket costs.
Add extra context in descriptions if useful (e.g. role, deliverables).
Naming convention
[Person’s name] — time costs from [start date] to [end date]
Reporting impact
Gives a clear summary of work done by each team member.
Full detailed history
Full detailed history
Best for
When Streamtime needs to be the complete source of truth for past work (e.g. audits, detailed analysis).
How to set it up
Duplicate the relevant template job
Recreate individual expenses and time entries by date, person, and deliverable
Add supporting details or references as needed
Naming convention
Follow your usual naming conventions for items/entries.
Reporting impact
Provides the most accurate, detailed view of past work, but requires the most setup.
Key set up
Ahead of migrating your Jobs, we suggest setting up the following elements in your account so you can save yourself time during the process.
Creating key Expense(s)
Begin the process by setting up the Master Expense(s) you will be using when you create your Jobs - this will reduce admin time and help you to keep everything clear as you go through the process.
Create a Master Expense
Create a Master Expense
Head to the Expenses section - this should be familiar at this point - but if it's not, you can learn more here.
1. Click create > Expense
2. Set your Expense Name - we suggest using 'Total used costs from [start date] to [end date]'. for this (you can use whatever your preferred date setting is)
3. Set your Supplier to be your company - i.e., for Streamtime, this would be set as Streamtime - this helps if, for example, this is accidentally sent to your external accounting package - as your team will know that this is an internal expense.
4. Add your description - include whatever information feels relevant, depending on how you're choosing to approach the migration.
5. Save your Master Expense
⭐️ This process is amendable depending on your decision on Job Setup, i.e. if you're capturing who did the work via your Expense, you might want to amend the Expense name to 'Total used costs from [start date] to [end date] - [name]' - or something similar to this.
Creating Template Jobs
Template Jobs will also support these workflows, by allowing you to duplicate key templates for your projects, and minimising the admin time needed.
You can learn more on Template Jobs and how to create those here.
Once you have completed these key steps, you're ready to move on and start thinking about adding your projects into Streamtime!
Adding your recently signed Jobs
Recently signed Jobs are our freshest Jobs - for these projects, you've probably only logged a few hours across the team. In this case, we're essentially going to build out our Job as if it were a new opportunity.
Start by choosing your workflow below, and then follow the steps.
Workflow One - using Expenses (where it's not important to track previously logged hours in Streamtime)
Workflow One - using Expenses (where it's not important to track previously logged hours in Streamtime)
Duplicate the relevant Job Template & start to plan your Job
Add your Master Expense(s)
Your Expense(s) will now hold your completed time/expenses within the Job from the previous platform.
Take the following steps when creating your Expense:
1. Set your Issue Date to the Time Spent Date (i.e. if you are tracking time in Streamtime from the 11th of February, your Expense date would be the 10th of February)
2. Add your Total Cost & Total Sell
3. Complete your Expense description
4. Link to Time Entry Data if needed (i.e. if you have a google sheet with your previous tools data, you can link that here)
5. Mark your expense as Approved
Build out your In Play or upcoming Items
We suggest planning these Items either by Person (for items where the previous tool calculated your sell rate using your team member sell rate) or using Fixed Price Items by Role Rate (where the item sell price is fixed, but you would see the difference between the Fixed Price set, and the rate of your team member sell rate).
Learn more on Item Pricing here.
If planning by Person, set your item to Priced by Person Rate.
If planning as Fixed Price by Role Rate, set your Item to Fixed Price, and then switch this over to Role Rate pricing. The instructions on this are here. When using this pricing method, the indicator will also show you whether you're higher or lower than your team member sell rate, which is really helpful for understanding profitability.
Plan out your teams hours
This ensures the scope of your project is in line with your previous tool. You might not have worked out hours in your previous tool, but doing it this way sets you up to start building out Jobs in this way going forwards.
Create a Quote
Take the following steps:
1. Enter your Quote Number from your previous tool
2. Set the Issue Date (backdated to your original Issue Date)
3. Add a Label for ‘Migrated from XYZ Tool’
4. Link to existing Quote
5. Approve your Quote
Workflow Two - Time Logged in Streamtime (where you would like to log previous time in Streamtime so that you can report on past time and future time in the system)
Workflow Two - Time Logged in Streamtime (where you would like to log previous time in Streamtime so that you can report on past time and future time in the system)
If you're looking to track time within Streamtime for reporting purposes, the below video covers this. You can also find the step by step instructions beneath this.
Duplicate the relevant Job Template & start to plan your Job
Build out your Completed Items
Build out your In Play or upcoming Items
We suggest planning these Items either by Person (for items where the previous tool calculated your sell rate using your team member sell rate) or using Fixed Price Items by Role Rate (where the item sell price is fixed, but you would see the difference between the Fixed Price set, and the rate of your team member sell rate).
Learn more on Item Pricing here.
Plan out your teams hours
This ensures the scope of your project is in line with your previous tool. You might not have worked out hours in your previous tool, but doing it this way sets you up to start building out Jobs in this way going forwards.
Plan out your Timeline
Create a Quote
Take the following steps:
1. Enter your Quote Number from your Previous Tool
2. Set the Issue Date (backdated to your original Issue Date)
3. Add a Label for ‘Migrated from XYZ Tool’
4. Link to existing Quote
5. Approve your Quote
Track your teams time for Completed Items
Head into the Schedule, and track your teams time in bulk for your project
Mark completed Items as Complete
Adding your part complete Jobs
These are your jobs that are straddling both systems. Maybe you've already raised your Draft Invoices, and they've been sent to your Accounting Package already.
Again, you have two choices here - you can either keep your relevant data for any Complete Items on file from your previous tool, or you can recreate this within Streamtime.
Workflow One - using Expenses (where it's not important to track previously logged hours in Streamtime)
Workflow One - using Expenses (where it's not important to track previously logged hours in Streamtime)
Duplicate the relevant Job Template & start to plan your Job
Add your Master Expense(s)
Your Expense(s) will now hold your completed time/expenses within the Job from the previous platform.
Take the following steps when creating your Expense:
1. Set your Issue Date to the Time Spent Date (i.e. if you are tracking time in Streamtime from the 11th of February, your Expense date would be the 10th of February)
2. Add your Total Cost & Total Sell
3. Complete your Expense description
4. Link to Time Entry Data if needed (i.e. if you have a google sheet with your previous tools data, you can link that here)
5. Mark your expense as ApprovedBuild out your In Play or upcoming Items
We suggest planning these Items either by Person (for items where the previous tool calculated your sell rate using your team member sell rate) or using Fixed Price Items by Role Rate (where the item sell price is fixed, but you would see the difference between the Fixed Price set, and the rate of your team member sell rate).
Learn more on Item Pricing here.
Create a Quote
Take the following steps:
1. Enter your Quote Number from your Previous Tool
2. Set the Issue Date (backdated to your original Issue Date)
3. Add a Label for ‘Migrated from XYZ Tool’
4. Link to existing Quote
5. Approve your Quote
Workflow Two - Time Logged in Streamtime (where you would like to log previous time in Streamtime so that you can report on past time and future time in the system)
Workflow Two - Time Logged in Streamtime (where you would like to log previous time in Streamtime so that you can report on past time and future time in the system)
If you're looking to track time within Streamtime for reporting purposes, the below video covers this. You can also find the step by step instructions beneath this.
Duplicate the relevant Job Template & start to plan your Job
Build out your Completed Items
Build out your In Play or upcoming Items
We suggest planning these Items either by Person (for items where the previous tool calculated your sell rate using your team member sell rate) or using Fixed Price Items by Role Rate (where the item sell price is fixed, but you would see the difference between the Fixed Price set, and the rate of your team member sell rate).
Learn more on Item Pricing here.
Plan out your teams hours
This ensures the scope of your project is in line with your previous tool. You might not have worked out hours in your previous tool, but doing it this way sets you up to start building out Jobs in this way going forwards.
Plan out your Timeline
Create a Quote
Take the following steps:
1. Enter your Quote Number from your Previous Tool
2. Set the Issue Date (backdated to your original Issue Date)
3. Add a Label for ‘Migrated from XYZ Tool’
4. Link to existing Quote
5. Approve your Quote
Track your teams time for Completed Items
Head into the Schedule, and track your teams time in bulk for your project
Mark completed Items as Complete
Adding your recently completed Jobs
These are the Jobs where we have a little bit of remaining Budget – and the real purpose of this Job is to ensure Team Members are able to quickly and easily log Time to these Jobs in the same way they would any other Job – from the To Do Screen, and to avoid them having to log Time in two different places.
This allows you to have a clean cut off from your previous tool, by logging time within Streamtime from a set date, and either adding previous time as an Expense with the time data kept elsewhere, or backdating your time in Streamtime and starting to log new time going forwards.
Workflow One - using Expenses (where it's not important to track previously logged hours in Streamtime)
Workflow One - using Expenses (where it's not important to track previously logged hours in Streamtime)
Create a new Job
Add your Master Expense(s)
Take the following steps when creating your Expense:
1. Set your Issue Date to the Time Spent Date (i.e. if you are tracking time in Streamtime from the 11th of February, your Expense date would be the 10th of February)
2. Add your Total Cost & Total Sell
3. Complete your Expense description
4. Link to Time Entry Data if needed (i.e. if you have a google sheet with your previous tools data, you can link that here)
5. Mark your expense as Approved
Add any Items remaining into the Job, and plan your teams hours
Create a Quote
Take the following steps:
1. Enter your Quote Number from your Previous Tool
2. Set the Issue Date (backdated to your original Issue Date)
3. Add a Label for ‘Migrated from XYZ Tool’
4. Link to existing Quote
5. Approve your Quote
Workflow Two - Time Logged in Streamtime (where you would like to log previous time in Streamtime so that you can report on past time and future time in the system)
Workflow Two - Time Logged in Streamtime (where you would like to log previous time in Streamtime so that you can report on past time and future time in the system)
If you're looking to track time within Streamtime for reporting purposes, the below video covers this. You can also find the step by step instructions beneath this.
Duplicate the relevant Job Template & start to plan your Job
Build out your Completed Items
Plan out your teams hours
This ensures the scope of your project is in line with your previous tool. You might not have worked out hours in your previous tool, but doing it this way sets you up to start building out Jobs in this way going forwards.
Plan out your Timeline
Create a Quote
Take the following steps:
1. Enter your Quote Number from your Previous Tool
2. Set the Issue Date (backdated to your original Issue Date)
3. Add a Label for ‘Migrated from XYZ Tool’
4. Link to existing Quote
5. Approve your Quote
Track your teams time for all Items
Head into the Schedule, and track your teams time in bulk for your project
Mark Job as Complete