Employee Time Tracking Tool
Table of Contents
Time tracking has always existed. But if earlier everything was written down in a notebook, now it is perfectly done by programs and applications that can both manually and automatically monitor how much time each employee spent on a task. Taking into account the working time, automated programs do an excellent job that can track how much time each employee spent on a task.
What is time tracking tool
Time tracker is a program that helps you to monitor employee activity and track his working hours.
First of all, time tracking is transparency in front of yourself, colleagues and clients. Secondly, it is self-control, which positively affects both the responsibility for planning the workload, and the development and quality of financial planning.
Many of us can meet innovations with a slight hostility. Especially, as time tracking for work means some extra control. If you talk about all the advantages with colleagues, most likely there will be no questions about the implementation of time tracking. Well, except for the case with complete amateurs or conservatives.
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What advantages for business time tracking tools have
Control of efficiency is necessary at work. Even in a small startup, it’s important to have a clear understanding of everyone’s work, especially if it’s a remote team. This eliminates any controversial moments and improves the atmosphere in the team. In a large company, it is impossible to keep track of everyone yourself, so the time tracking system will do everything for you, which works like a timesheet. Install it and just view the reports it provides.
Time tracking is used more often in companies, most of which are either freelancers or outsource. When the team is not working in the office, it becomes more difficult to control their work, and here time attendance apps come to the rescue.
If the company did not use time tracking before, but suddenly decided to implement it, this may be perceived by staff as an infringement on their freedom.
That is, time tracking can and should be implemented when management can honestly and transparently explain to the team why this innovation is needed. For some, it will be a fight against dishonest employees within the company. For others – work on oneself and control of increasing one’s own productivity. Some will see it as a way to transparently report to clients, removing all questions about the cost of work.
Are there any negative sides of time tracking tools? In those areas where work efficiency is correlated with the success of the project and the completed task, regardless of the time spent on it, time tracking can only do harm. A separate case when time tracking is used when there is a suspicion that employees are using working hours for personal purposes. For example, you might notice if some tasks take longer than the average time for the company or the productivity of employees is significantly worse than colleagues. time tracking software will immediately detect this.
What problems time tracking tool solves
For in-office employees and remote workers time tracking software can be extremely useful: it assists in time monitoring, better organization of your workflow and, as a result, increase in money or free time. First of all, it helps you not to be distracted. You will also find out which tasks you spend more time on, this will help you better plan your workflow.
For employers time tracking system is also incredibly beneficial. Using this application they can learn and improve the productivity of your employees. Time tracking program will allow you to highlight weaknesses in your work. Thanks to the analysis of the program reports, you can find out the reason for the delays and take the necessary actions to improve the situation.
Time-tracking saves company`s money. You do not have to pay for the hours during which the employees are engaged in personal affairs, creating the illusion of working process. With the help of time tracking tools, you will be sure who really works conscientiously and with whom it is worth having a conversation.
You can easily calculate cash payments to employees using the working hours calendar. The time tracking system will calculate for you how many hours per month the employees actually worked, and how much rest they had, it will make a report and a calendar of working hours. This will allow you to quickly and easily determine the size of the payment.
Time tracking allows monitoring the implementation of assigned tasks. You set tasks that an employee must complete in a certain amount of time. Or the employee sets the tasks himself, but you always know what exactly he is working on. Time tracking system provides a report on the task progress.
Why you need to implement time tracking solutions in your business
There is no need to talk about any serious analysis of manually collected data. Effectively keeping a daily record of working time is possible only through the introduction of special time tracking software, and if these tools are selected and used correctly, within a couple of months the company increases productivity. Automated control of attendance at the workplace contributes to the timely execution of payroll calculations (since a weekly or monthly reconciliation with timesheets is no longer required), and more sophisticated tools give reason to reasonably exclude from the total amount of hours worked long-term personal telephone conversations, smoke breaks.
Daily accounting also has a positive effect on project management: it is easier for their managers to track the execution of tasks and the corresponding costs, adjust the budget as needed, and not at the end of the project, when the impossibility of its implementation is already obvious. Even companies that charge a fixed fee to complete a project get advantages – they can easily analyze which categories of work and which clients are preferable for them. It may seem that hired employees of companies suffer the most from the implementation of systems of this class, but this is not so – they receive a clear answer to the question of how long they really worked, and at the same time the confidence that their work will be properly appreciated.
There is another problem worth paying attention to: managers, especially those who are not deeply familiar with the specifics of work, tend to underestimate the required labor costs. Convincing them that work on a task takes longer than they imagine is completely difficult, but it is possible, with the help of correctly selected specialized software.
There are many time tracking programs, they can be divided into several main classes. First of all, this is timesheet software, in fact the same table in which you need to manually enter a list of work performed daily, but only in electronic form and with input forms. As a rule, this is locally installed application with a limited set of reports, which, nevertheless, may be quite enough for small and medium-sized companies, unless, of course, the specifics of their activities involve many distractions, especially those related to the Internet and social networks.
Larger organizations already need time tracking solutions. Time tracking software records information about operations performed on a computer, and is integrated with an accounting system, applications for calculating wages, and project management tools. In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of such projects, somewhat differing in functions and reporting forms. Freelancers and outsourcers generally prefer time tracking app, which is integrated with billing systems, which greatly simplifies the workflow with customers. And organizations working on long, large projects find it easier to use time tracking tools that are integrated into project management systems, so they can take full advantage of the benefits of splitting projects into phases and even tasks on a single timeline.
Conclusion
Whether or not to implement time tracking for a team is still to be discussed by both managers and employees. Almost always, the implementation of time tracking leads to opposition from the team at first. So when does it make sense to use it?
Time tracking for employees is far from a universal tool, but it is capable to solve many issues. It is suitable for those professionals whose work can be measured over time. Often, designers, programmers, lawyers, consultants and a number of other professions use the hourly method. For such employees, time tracking will be useful for themselves (to understand their earnings), for their bosses (to control processes) and for the client (so that they understand what they are paying for).
