If you’ve thought about using a time tracking software for your business in the past, you might have come up with a few reasons why you think it isn’t right for you. There are a lot of common objections to implementing time tracking.
You might think that it’s too complicated to integrate a new software, or that tracking time will actually slow your team down. Or perhaps you’re worried that tracking time sends the wrong message about your company culture and encourages micromanagement. The truth is time tracking can benefit your business in more ways than you’ve imagined when done correctly.
Top 20 Benefits of Time Tracking Software
Time tracking is essential and has many advantages that can aid your business. Here are the top 20 benefits of using time tracking software in your business.
Keeping Employees on Task
Even the most productive employees can sometimes struggle to rightly appropriate the hours in their workday based on looming deadlines. Integrating a time tracking software into your team’s workflow helps employees take ownership of their clients, projects, and tasks by offering visibility into how much time they’re spending on each to give them a way to audit how their time should be spent vs. how it is actually being spent.
Improving Quotes and Estimates
Your clients want to know how long it will take you to finish a project, and a good time tracking platform can help you give them the most accurate estimates possible. The software keeps detailed records on how long similar jobs took to complete in the past so you can quote turnaround times with confidence and ensure customer satisfaction.
Better Billing Accuracy
If you’re billing time on an hourly rate, you could be leaving money on the table. Time tracking software keeps records of how long you spend on a job down to the second so you can bill clients for the exact amount of work that gets done.
Managing Contractors
If your business relies on freelancers or contractors, it is essential to account for their time and workload to prevent budget overages. You can use time tracking software to manage contractors and ensure you’re only paying for work that is being done. Plus, you’ll be able to compare the performance and capacity of different contractors so you can allocate work more efficiently.
Prioritizing Projects
A good time tracking platform for teams possesses forecasting and staff allocation features to make sure projects stay on track. You’ll be able to forecast hours for high-priority projects, and ensure each employee has the designated time allotment to meet those goals. This gives both you and your team the visibility you need to work towards important dates and hit targets.
Lighting Fast Sync
When you’re working with a time tracking software, you’ll never be left wondering what happens to a project after it’s been delegated. You’ll be able to check the hours tracked against the tasks you’ve assigned in real-time for easier follow up and client updates. This removes the frustration of managing remote teams and allows you to mitigate delays before they impact the due date for deliverables.
Improves Project Schedules
If your team has trouble meeting project milestones and stick to the timeline for deliverables, you might end up with a client relations issue on your hands. Time tracking software can give you deeper insights into your project schedules so you can find out if you need to work faster or if you’re simply too ambitious with your timelines.
Tracks Time Across Different Devices
A great time tracking platform is accessible on multiple platforms. From mobile to web, you’ll have a cohesive view of your employees’ time from any device, anywhere in the world. This is especially useful as remote work continues to displace traditional office hours.
Informs Strategic Direction
Using time tracking gives you a huge pool of data about your efficiency, capacity, labor costs, and profits. You can use this data to measure against your goals, and refocus your strategic direction if necessary.
Comparing Projects Over Time
Staying on the topic of data, your records can help you compare features and performance of projects from the past and present. You can look for improvements in completion speed or look at the changes in ratio of project types over time.
Rate Adjustment
There comes a time for every business when you must raise rates. Time tracking software can give you a more informed view on when it is time to increase rates, since you will be able to watch your profit margins for pricing inaccuracies.
Added Value for Selling
If you ever decide to sell your business, the data from a time tracking platform can prove profitability and bolster confidence that you’ve been running an extremely professional operation. You’ll have a reputation for accuracy and potential buyers can see exactly what output they can expect from your team.
Better Team Performance Reviews
Regular employee performance reviews are a good best practice for management, and the data from a time tracking software can help you backup your evaluations. You can show team members their averages for a week in comparison to other employees, helping them to identify strengths, weaknesses, and future goals.
Managing Scope Creep
Anyone who works with clients has almost certainly dealt with scope-creep at one point or another. Without any checks and balances in place, one change can lead to an influx of others, and before you know it the project is completely out of scope. When you use a time tracking tool, project managers can keep a closer eye on time and budget to manage scope-creep before it even starts.
Helps Identify Areas for Improvement
With the data and reporting available in time tracking software, your regular audits will help you identify areas where you can improve performance and drive better efficiency. If every team member is struggling with time on a certain task, that may indicate that the process needs revision.
Increases Professionalism
When your clients ask questions, a time tracking tool will allow you to give them the most complete and professional answer because you can pull real-time reports on job status, progress, and more. The software helps you answer even the most obscure client inquiries with PDF and CSV reports at your fingertips.
Tracks Earning Potential
Since time tracking software gives you visibility into what hours are being worked on different types of jobs, you will be able to see if you’re making a profit or where you might be able to adjust your pricing. This can help you cut back your efforts on jobs that don’t pay as much, so you can maximize your earning potential and spend more time on high-return jobs.
Helps Manage Capacity
Sometimes well-intentioned employees will volunteer to take on multiple projects, but when the tasks are all in front of them, it becomes too much. It can be a habitual problem either because they love to help or because others often lean on them for their skills. Regardless of the reason, it can be prevented by time tracking tools, which give you optics into how work is being allocated through a forecasting feature.
More Accurate Compliance Reports
If your team needs to report your time for compliance reasons, time tracking software can ease the burden of compiling reports and can ensure they are complete with notes, start/stop times, and a total duration.
Helps Reward Excellence
With more visibility into time, it will be easier for you to recognize high performance and reward excellence within your teams. The data from time tracking can help you target employees for promotions or incentivize performance with friendly competitions and challenges.
What Businesses Should Use Time Tracking Software?
Nearly every business can make use of some of the features of a time tracking tool. Most platforms offer time clocks or timesheet features that every employee can easily use to track their workday for payroll.
If your business works in billable hours, a time tracking software is something you should consider. Lawyers, consultants, and creative professionals earn fees by the hour, so accurately tracking time is essential to ensure clients are being billed for what they owe, and that firms are earning the most profits possible.
Businesses that frequently employ freelancers or contractors should also use a time tracking software, especially if these workers are remote. A cloud-based platform allows workers to track time from anywhere, which means even employees who are not on-site can maintain the same standards for tracking time and workflow.
TimeLord Maximizes Efficiency
If you want to save your business time, TimeLord is an excellent option for a time tracking software. While the platform can transform your business in many ways, there are four main features that make TimeLord a must-have.
TimeLord helps you visualize, customize, personalize, and organize virtually every aspect of your time tracking and job performance for optimum efficiency and better results. From comprehensive timelines and easy reporting to color coding, tags, and notes, there is no shortage of ways this time tracking software can make your life easier.
Try TimeLord Today
Don’t just take our word for it. Give it a try and see just how much more productive you can be. Download TimeLord today to get started.
