Why is time tracking software necessary for you and your company?

You've probably heard it before: keep track of your time! Time tracking software is essential for determining how you spend your time, both personally and professionally. It's essential for efficiency, understanding, and a smooth workflow. This is critical for everyone in an organization, or in society at large. Keeping track of your time is critical whether you're an executive, a manager, or a team member.

When it comes to business, though, several issues arise, such as: How can I keep track of time? What is the most effective time management software? How can I set up project time tracking software? What are some of the finest time-tracking practices? We'll do our best to answer them all in this guide.

What is a time tracking? 

Let's start from the beginning. The term "time tracking software" mainly relates to how companies keep track of their workers' working hours. This assessment of project or job hours is then used to ensure that personnel is reimbursed appropriately.

Time entries aren't only for payroll; they're also a secure means for managers to track where their employees' time is going and how long it takes them to finish a task. Once you've determined which jobs take the most time, you may consider if that time was effectively spent. The most time-consuming jobs aren't always the ones that take the greatest effort or provide the most benefit. Quite often, the opposite is true.

These two scenarios are the most prevalent reasons why companies utilize time tracking software, often known as timesheets:

The Team Timesheet from DeskTrack. DeskTrack simplifies time tracking by utilizing artificial intelligence to propose the hours that need to be tracked. Each team member reports their time explicitly on each job (or project). The total amount of time spent on tasks will be automatically compared to your estimations.

However, if you delve a little further, you'll discover that time tracking software may provide more than simply payroll data and business insights into time spent, especially if it's integrated with your project management software.

Benefits of time tracking

Individual employees may find the insights gained by time tracking software to be eye-opening. How much of your time do you waste surfing the web, going through your mailbox, or searching through a stack of files for that one document? These are frequently seen as small everyday operations, but when added together, they are likely among the most time-consuming non-billable activities in your workweek - is this justified? According to a Harvard Business Review report on timesheet filling, the US economy loses $7.4 billion per day in productivity due to employees who don't record their hours.

1. Transparency in work processes

When you make time registrations a part of your daily routine, you're instantly increasing the transparency of your company. It helps you to keep on top of the working process by providing information on the projects that are being accomplished and how long they will take. Additionally, you begin to see which duties are continuously placed on the back burner and begin to prioritize work more effectively. Finally, employee monitoring software tools give employees a larger view. They can look back on their tasks and improve productivity when necessary, all while keeping track of what everyone else is up to.

2. Increased accountability among employees

Employees are more focused since they know they have to disclose hours spent on assignments if they don't register their time. Everyone is aware that the time is ticking at this point and is attempting to be as productive as possible. Employees will begin to see trends and patterns in their work hours if they look at their week, and they will attempt to reduce non-billable labor.

What time tracking Software Brings to the team is the ability to reflect and adapt. Ask yourself

• Did the task work towards a broader goal? (e.g., the business mission)

• Was the task important enough to take up that amount of time?

• Could the time have been spent more effectively and beneficially?

• Did the task pursue a personal or career goal?

• Which concrete changes did the task take?

When you've answered some of these questions, think about whether there's anything that may be improved to make your workflow more efficient and effective. Is it possible to reorganize the work to make it more efficient? Do you need to upgrade the software or hardware, or did you have to wait for someone or anything in order to proceed? What irritated you the most during the process? It should be changed. All of these are crucial questions to ask yourself and your team. Sort the tasks into priority order and schedule your time appropriately.

3. Understanding of your billing and operational efficiency

If you run a service firm, project time tracking software is essential for increasing operational efficiency since it feeds into your billable usage report and shows the productivity level of both individual contributors and the overall organization. You can keep track of how much time you spend on client work and bill properly this way. In turn, increasing billable hours leads to a more lucrative business.

4. Knowledge where resource demand is the highest

The amount of time spent is an important indicator of the number of resources required. It identifies if a department needs additional labor or other inputs, as well as who contributes the greatest value to the team. This is critical information for the team as well as the corporation. It's possible that only one individual does the majority of the labor. In such a case, perhaps something has to be altered to bring everyone up to the same level, such as responsibility and task redistribution or sharing.

5. Tracking how the budget gets burned

What's the best approach to maintain track of your project's budget? It's time to track time once more! You won't have to take any extra steps to figure out how much of the money has already been spent when employees fill out timesheets logging time on projects and activities. All you have to do now is double-check that the rate cards and hourly prices are correct.

Types of time tracking

In general, employee time monitoring provides a more objective, deeper insight into your business, which may be used to make decisions. However, personal time monitoring software should not be confused with project time tracking software. The following is the distinction between the two.

Personal time tracking

Several software options aim to make tracking your digital time easier. RescueTime is an example of a program that can measure your digital time across several devices. What websites and applications do you use the most, and how much do you use them? The time is subsequently classified, and important insights and a productivity score are offered. You may compare your workday from week to week using this score, learn from your mistakes, and adjust your routine accordingly.

Those solutions are fantastic for personal time monitoring or small teams, but they aren't yet scalable or efficient enough for a team of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. The solutions don't have a clear link to projects and tasks, and they're not coupled with other important information like your schedule and resources. In such conditions, it is just ineffective.

Project time tracking

Larger firms, on the other hand, may find it more useful to use time monitoring software directly on projects. This is most often done in the project- and resource-management solutions. They make it easy to manage all of your work across projects and the company, giving you and your team vital insights into how to better manage time in the future.

How to introduce time tracking Software To employees

You'll need to consider how everyone will react to the news before adopting timekeeping. Attempts to monitor someone's activities at work are frequently met with hostility. Despite the numerous advantages, any type of time management reporting is likely to elicit opposition from the team due to the perception that they would be constantly monitored.

This response stems from a lack of awareness of how the data will be used. Some people may be concerned that their timesheets will be used against them or that they are being used to micromanage them. As a manager, it is your responsibility to encourage the discussion regarding time tracking and thoroughly explain the use cases. We can't emphasize enough how important communication is in navigating change. Explicitly stating the underlying motivations for utilizing time monitoring software might help you gain team support.

Successful company executives go to considerable pains to demonstrate that time monitoring software benefits both individuals and businesses. Team members may utilize time monitoring software to work toward their own and shared objectives, putting their time where it matters the most, both personally and professionally. Managers may utilize the time monitoring software Insights to gain a detailed picture of their team's peak performance, general happiness, productivity, and even work allocation.

As an executive, utilize time tracking software's insights and data to guide your business in the correct direction, put a strategy into action, and guarantee that every individual management and team member understands and pushes the organization together, not away, towards the same purpose and vision. That is the formula for a successful business.

Get started

Now that you've learned about the advantages of time tracking, schedule a consultation with one of our product experts or sign up for a free 15-day trial to learn more about how DeskTrack can help your company keep track of time spent and resources allocation across projects and activities.