As businesses are increasingly using technology to their advantage, there is little wonder that time tracking software is becoming an integral part of modern business environments.
Keeping tabs on employees’ time records has always been an issue in all organizations and a major problem for many large scale companies which have huge manpower to manage. Due to the sheer volume of workers, big corporates have a tough time in accurately tracking their schedules.
It is no secret that there are several factors that go into preparing an employees’ monthly salary, like attendance, paid and unpaid leaves, sick leaves, long holidays, and in some cases, overtime pay. Taking all these factors into account for each employee and calculating his salary can become a source of major duress, unless you have reliable time tracking software in place that does all this for you.
What Time Tracking Software Does
This software does exactly what its name says – it tracks time. Employers can use this smart software to monitor their employees’ schedule as well as the number of hours they spend at work in real time. It also allows you to connect your time tracking system to your accounting software for transferring data. Some software has Web capabilities, which enables you to access information from anywhere any time.
Most organizations invest in a time tracking system to be able to accurately compute their employees’ compensation, based on their attendance and number of hours spent at work. If an employee is availing an unpaid holiday, half-day, or arrives late at work, the payment is deducted accordingly from his salary. Conversely, if the employee is entitled to paid leave, no deductions are made.
Apart from that, this software is also helpful in tracking the employees’ progress by providing you with a report that indicates their efficiency levels. So, if you’ve got an employee who has been working on the same assignment for over a year without much progress, it is time you bought time tracking software to investigate whether the nature of the project is complex and time-consuming, or the problem lies in the employee’s approach to his work.
Why You Need It
There are several reasons why you should get a time tracking system for your business.
#1. Optimal Task Management
There is a good chance that there are several tasks required to be performed by you and your employees on a day-to-day basis with deadlines for each. Some might need to be completed on the same day or in that week or month. Prioritizing tasks becomes crucial at such times.
Time tracking software can make things easier for employers and employees, especially in small businesses with low and busy staff.
Tracking the amount of time they spend on each project and reallocating their time to the most important among them will make it easier for them to handle all their separate duties and complete them on time. This also helps employers measure employee performance and decision making skills.
#2. Helps Payroll
As discussed above, this software lets employers do more than just track their employees’ time. Payroll departments often need to refer to timesheets at the time of calculating salaries. This system can provide them with automated timesheets, thereby making sure that the employees receive their payments based on the number of hours they have put in at work (which will be calculated by this software).
This system is especially helpful in tracking the working hours of employees who work in shifts. It can take that much more stress (and often some guesswork) out of payroll.
#3. Ensures a Smooth Flow of Work
If you want to know what your team does all day long at the office and what they’ve accomplished today, then you need this software as it will give you insights into the goings-on in your business in real time, thereby ensuring accountability.
Apart from that, it can also help you figure out the tasks on which your employees are spending their maximum time and effort. This can be very helpful to you from a logistical point of view. You can generate systematic department-wise reports and figure out which ones are under or over staffed and distribute/hire manpower accordingly.
#4. Helps with Accurate and Timely Billing
This is another important advantage of having a time tracking software in place. If you bill your clients per hour than per project, this software will help you calculate your bills accurately, thereby preventing delays and errors or the possibility of an undue overcharge on you part. Wrongly overcharging your clients will only tarnish your reputation and in all probability, your clients will not come back to you.
On the other hand, thanks to this software, you wouldn’t be undercharging them either, which ensures that you don’t suffer a financial loss. Since both the situations are detrimental to the growth of your business, with the help of a high-quality time tracking software, you can make sure that you don’t have to face them.
Do Convey Its Purpose in Advance
Chances are that when you introduce a time tracking system in your work environment, it would be met with resistance by your employees. They may develop the notion that you don’t trust them enough or are setting them up for something. It is important, therefore, to convey the actual purpose of installing this software to them beforehand. Explain to them that this move does not imply a lack of trust but you simply want to streamline your business processes, improve productivity and meet client expectations.
Conclusion
Installing time tracking software will not only help you streamline your business processes but also keep your employees motivated to increase their productivity, thereby enabling them to perform better. And with accurate business data at your fingertips, you simply can’t go wrong! This may just turn out to be the key to achieving business success.
Images: ”Stopwatch cloud shape/ Shutterstock.com“
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