Time Tracking in Business Organizations
Want more productivity, profit and powerful insights in your business? The advantages of time management and time tracking can achieve all of that and more!
Time tracking for businesses is a log of how you and/or your employees spend their working hours. However, the simple time log can give you invaluable analytics. It helps you understand what tasks are taking the longest, how you can improve efficiency, and where your revenue building efforts should be directed.
Besides accurate payroll and invoicing, time tracking in your organization gives you data to make business decisions. Time tracking isn’t just another software. It’s a powerful business building tool!
Types of Time Tracking
The benefits of time tracking aren’t limited to tracking billable hours. It can also help increase productivity, generate project reports and accurate invoicing.
Time tracking can either be manual or automatic depending on what you are using it for.
Manual Timesheets
Pen and paper can still do the job if you prefer writing things down! A manual timesheet is a table where you can physically write down the number of hours you work. This works well for:
- Employees who work rostered shifts
- People who prefer pen and paper
There is room for human error with manual timesheets, and it only gives very basic insights into what work you are doing.
Excel Timesheets
Using an excel spreadsheet is a manual way of tracking your time. Benefits of using a spreadsheet to track are:
- Automatically adding up hours if you set it up right
- Easy to share with members of your team
- Can be set up exactly the way you want
A spreadsheet is like a digital timesheet. You can add your start, finish and break times to make payslips and invoices easier. However, there is still room for human error and it doesn’t give an overview of exactly what you are doing in each hour.
Time Tracking Software
If you are invoicing based on billable hours, an automatic time tracking software is the simplest solution. Time tracking helps expedite reporting and makes invoicing clear for clients. Using an automatic time tracker helps to:
- Give an exact insight into what you do on an hourly basis
- Create accurate invoices so you get paid what you’re owed
- Increase productivity by tracking how long it takes you to do tasks
- Give accurate project budgets to clients and other team members
If you are only getting paid for the hours you work and not a flat daily fee, time tracking software is the solution for efficient work and transparency with your clients. For employees, it gives managers productivity and invoicing data.
Benefits of Time Tracking for Businesses
You can see the benefits of time tracking in your business almost immediately. From reduced paperwork, to increased productivity, time tracking software for teams is going to be your new secret weapon for growth.
Increases Focus
One of the best time tracking benefits is the increased focus. Multitasking can kill productivity, and tracking specific work activities can help reduce the inefficiency of moving between different tasks.
Ensures Accountability
Time tracking can increase the accountability of employees to managers, but also for employees to themselves. It can give an overview of who completed what task, and how long it took compared to the project timeline. Employees can also use it as a way to set and achieve goals in their work by avoiding procrastination.
Prevents Burnout
As well as increasing hours on a project where needed, time tracking can also reduce the number of hours. Having an accurate overview of time spent on a project can show both managers and employees where they may be overworking and need more people working on a job. Say goodbye to burn out!
Allows Efficient Team Management
As a manager or project manager, it is your job to assign tasks and divide employees according to their strengths. Keeping track of tasks and time can give you an insight into how each person works and where they might be better suited for the next project. For example, if one person takes less time to complete sales calls and another is more efficient at drawing up budgets, you can allocate them tasks that suit them.
Boosts Profitability
Time is money. The more your employees can effectively manage their time, and the more you can accurately see what resources are needed for specific projects, the more streamlined profits will be over time.
Tracks Hidden Tasks
Hidden tasks are things that need to be done, but aren’t necessarily billable. Tracking activities such as meetings, client timelines, phone calls and admin mean that you can create more accurate timelines for project completion.
Helps Prioritize Better
Most people have a time of day that they work better. For example, if someone prefers to complete creative work in the morning, time tracking allows them to allocate the time they need because they can estimate how long it will take them to get into a creative flow.
Reduces Project Costs
Time tracking helps to reduce costs by accurately allocating your budget and improving productivity. Your workers can do more in less time by focusing on the task at hand, and you can take on more projects as a result. Both you and your clients win when you reduce costs overall!
Make Data-Driven Decisions
One of the most important benefits of time tracking is having data to make your business more efficient. For example, time tracking reports can show you billable totals in a project to show whether you’re making or losing money, using either specific criteria or across your whole team. This helps when it comes time to report back to clients and managers.
Introducing Time Tracking to Employees
Time tracking has potential to have a positive impact on both your team and your profitability. However, implementing time tracking for the first time can be met with resistance.
From identifying repetitive, time consuming tasks to increasing resources to accommodate “hidden tasks”, time tracking software for teams ensures everybody has the time and money they need to complete projects to the best of their abilities.
Here are a few tips for introducing time tracking to employees:
- Tell employees what the data will be used for - make sure they don’t feel like you are just micro-managing them!
- Introduce an easy to use time tracking software
- Make timesheet admin easier for them by integrating time tracking and invoices
Final Thoughts
Although it might seem like it is just one more software to implement, the benefits of time tracking will show themselves almost immediately in your business. Through increased productivity, project management and proper allocation of your human resources, time tracking is the secret sauce your team has been looking for. Want to finally start seeing the benefits of time tracking? MinuteDock is the easy-to-use time tracking software that you and your employees will actually enjoy using!