Reasons Why You Should Get a Time Tracking Software for Your Team

Businesses usually capitalize with three kinds of resources: money, people and time. At the beginning of each project, there should be proper planning and allocation of these three, which will best support an unhindered project workflow. For a project to be declared a success, two things must be met at the end – achieve the desired output, and maximize resources covered everything from start to finish.

One resource, however, rests every kind of project on equal footing because it is inherently fixed, and is challenging to maximize with different kinds of project requirements. What makes time a unique resource is that you cannot have more or less of it as you like. But the good news is you can optimize its use by doing this method – time tracking.

Successful project management recognizes the value of time tracking in resource allocation planning. It is a way to maximize the other two kinds of resources, and it gives a business a baseline to measure project performance as it cruises towards each milestone, objectives and goals. Despite initial resistance from employees, time tracking continues to prove its benefits and advantages for projects regardless of its size and nature. It also provides the project manager a wider perspective about the project as a whole, and allows him to manage everything with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Time Tracking Challenges

As good as it sounds, some still argue about the importance of time tracking despite its proven benefits, and imply some unfavorable facets when it comes to employee management. They say it is too evasive of their employees’ privacy. Some also say that it cannot fully justify the way it quantifies productivity levels because it is basically a subjective matter to begin with. There are a lot more reasons behind the unproductiveness and inefficiency of employees to consider, let alone it cannot be addressed by time tracking.

Employee benefits and incentive programs that rely on time tracking as the basis are also met with questions and doubts. Unless the company is outsourcing employees and dealing with remote teams, they say it is not necessary to do time tracking anymore. Punctuality, attendance and efficiency in rendering outputs may be enough to serve as a basis for employee performance.

Time tracking is one important concept that has continuously evolved along with the needs of businesses when it comes to maximizing its talent pool and other resources. As the freelancing sector also continues to rise, time tracking finally managed a way to get out of the shadows of doubt regarding its effectiveness. Its dark side is now looming behind it, and we see that it is now being used responsibly and becoming favorable to both employees and businesses.

Freelancing

Freelancing is a growing industry that is getting traction when it comes to the labor workforce that dives in it, and the businesses that embrace the idea. Forbes.com made predictions for the freelancing economy for 2016 and found accurately that it will be seeing more growth in the on-demand workforce for enterprises, particularly the Fortune 500 brands of today. It is getting attractive because of more opportunities and high flexibility in work hours. Maybe, we are seeing the start of a labor revolution? We have yet to see that.

Freelancers capitalize on their time and skills, and it is logical to invest in something that will optimize its use to maximize profits. Growing your client network will lead you to more revenue opportunities, but entails more responsibilities and better management on your part. Oftentimes, it requires tools to be more efficient and effective with your outputs and increase your client base.

The use of a time tracking software for freelancers give a lot of benefits when it comes to improving productivity and efficiency. As the market of freelancers is starting to tighten, it is increasingly important that you improve the value of your skills. Time tracking lets you be aware of how you spend your time in different activities, which, as much as possible, will maximize your productivity and revenues. It is also effective in managing multiple projects that need reminders when it comes to deadlines.

Another benefit of using time tracking tools is the capability to automate your invoice and billing system, so you can be paid faster. Clients will also appreciate how you can detail your tasks per hour, because transparency increases their trust and confidence in getting your services.

Attendance and Payroll Management

A basic grasp on what time should employees come to and leave from work every day is enough to know how much they will receive on their payday. The conventional punch card system will do fine, and computing for salaries are but basic math. But as the payroll components become more complicated – flexible work hours, tax deductions, and incentive schemes, the once simple chore is now a tedious task.

The conventional attendance and payroll system, which uses time sheets and manual entry method, is a vexing chore for employees, much more of the accounting team that consolidates and processes it. It thus needs a huge chunk of time to deal, which may take away most of the payroll team’s productivity for other core tasks. Conventional methods are also more prone to errors, which makes it non-ideal for critical tasks involving finances.

Technology has its way of upgrading the methods of the conventional payroll by automating the system. Part of it is by adopting time tracking tools. Time tracking and invoicing goes deeper into analyzing the equivalent productivity measure of payrolls given to the employees. They gain deeper insight by knowing if it can indicate an ROI separately. Aside from that, they can also know which ones can be improved or eliminated.

An effective time tracking driven solution sees these as its minimum requirements:

1. Automated time tracking, which replace the conventional time sheets,
2. Capable to be integrated with the business’ existing accounting and payroll system,
3. Flexible pricing schemes to accommodate different business scales,
4. With analytics and reporting capabilities for better oversight, and
5. With proven benefits over implementation on different business scenarios

Time tracking effectively enhances a payroll system in terms of providing accuracy and efficiency in capturing attendance data from employees. By automating the system, you can also streamline it with other systems such as the accounting and attendance. Another noteworthy feature of time tracking for employees is its real-time capture that provides instant access to attendance data. Other sophisticated features such as analytics and reporting are also becoming valuable for businesses that wanted deeper insight about their manpower profitability and worth of investment.

General Advantages of Time Tracking

Overall, time tracking is a useful tool that can help an individual, an employee, a freelancer or a business improves on the aspects of productivity, efficiency, and time and task management. One may meet some apprehensions, skepticism or resistance at first, but being accustomed to it will yield more benefits in the long run. The usually one-sided perspective about time tracking, including the negative views associated with it, is now slowly being replaced with more efficient execution through technology. Today is the era where a single technology can bring mutual benefits for the business and its employees.

Alongside, here are more benefits of time tracking software:

1. It makes you an informed employee or business owner.

You will gain a wider view of the different activities and tasks that you engage in, and accomplish within the day. This helps in setting up priorities, organizing schedules and in eliminating unnecessary activities that compromise your productivity. You can also record time related information about your activities.

2. It exposes your areas for improvement.

A time tracking tool lets you measure your productivity levels, which for freelancers, is an important aspect to increase their opportunities and revenues. You can have a better idea on how to improve on a certain activity or task by observing how much “real time” you spend doing it, that is, with complete focus and without distractions.

3. You will get paid, or will pay, accurately.

The detailed reports, and payment activity-related automation gives ease to freelancers in submitting their invoices on time and with information that is accurate and provable.

4. It discourages you to multitask.

Multitasking can reduce the productivity of an individual by 40 percent. For freelancers, who accept multiple clients, and for project managers who juggle a lot of project related activities, time tracking tools give some ease in maintaining a balance between task execution and output production without sacrificing the quality.

5. It gives efficiency in rendering estimates, projections and proposals.

Time tracking gives you better insight about how much time you or your employees spend over tasks and activities, which let you give accurate estimates and projections for your projects. It helps you set a realistic deadline for your project engagements, and it also lets you maximize your budget, and the number of team members that you employ for a project.

6. Sets a baseline for performance evaluation.

A time tracking software records performance histories, which can let you effectively measure if there are improvements on your employees by comparing it to your present timekeeping. This is valuable when you are working on an incentive program or promotions.

7. You can mitigate future risks.

Time tracking helps you analyze periods of unproductiveness, and learn how to counter them through motivation or risk management. This way, you can improve on your project planning and management that will increase the rate of your project’s success.

8. You reduce procrastination.

Inefficiency and unproductiveness often result from lack of motivation, procrastination, or behavior related habits. By tracking time, you can point out the areas where you lack focus and know what non-essential activities you are doing in exchange of being productive. People, by simply being aware that their work time is tracked and kept, will most likely choose to improve to avoid getting penalized for their behavior.

Looking for the best time tracking software? Let CrowdReviews.com help you find the right tool by looking at different time tracking software reviews to jumpstart your quest and bring out the best in your team.