Keeping Track Of Project Time And Cost With A Timecard for Outlook
Keeping Track Of Project Time And Cost With A Timecard for Outlook
No one starts a business to fail. Unfortunately, a lot of the new businesses started over the past several years have failed just shortly after opening their doors. If you speak with any successful business owner, he or she will simply tell you that there are a variety of factors that will determine your success. And, some of these factors are without a doubt organization, proper tracking, record keeping and keeping employees productive. At any point if any business loses these qualities they are going to fail. This is where time tracking software can come in extremely handy. The best time tracking software on the market can easily and quickly help organize your business, track your employees, and make them overall more productive.
Quick And Easy Integration of Your Timecard for Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a program that has been around for an extremely long time. Just about every computer in the business world has this program and most users are familiar with the program and its current features. And, this is probably why most businesses utilize Outlook as their main tool for emailing and calendar keeping. Well, one of the things about the best time tracking software out there is that it easily syncs right up with Outlook. Incorporating this software into your business doesn’t mean that you have to set up training classes and waste valuable resources trying to get people tuned into new practices. You can easily create a timecard for Outlook and your employees will be able to report their time right from there.
Get In Tune With Your Projects
As a business manager you are probably extremely busy on a day-to-day basis. You probably have several different projects going on at any given time. And, when you combine this with your daily tasks it just makes it almost impossible to check in on every project and see if things are running smoothly. Sure, you have project heads assigned to each project, but it is still good to know what is going on inside your own business. This is exactly where the right timesheet software can help. The software will enable you with the abilities to check on project time and cost at all times. Simply log into the software and check on the hours that are being reported by each employee for each individual project.
Become More Competitive
With the recent downturn of the economy in many areas most business owners are doing everything they can to make their businesses stand out amongst the competition. Now is the time to get more competitive than ever so that you can gain an edge on your competitors. This is something else that time tracking software can do for you. With the ability to know the hours that are being spent on each project, it will provide you with a general ideal of how the projects are running. You probably already have a general ideal of how long it should take to complete a certain project. Well, when you log into the software during the day you can easily and quickly see which projects are running up extended hours.
This might mean that the team is encountering problems, which will give you the ability to pull resources from projects that are ahead of schedule and help the teams that are behind. Not only will this give you the ability to turnover projects at a faster rate, but you might also be able to do it at less cost. Less cost in turn means that you can enhance profits.
Create Standardized Project Time And Cost Reports
Any business manager probably has multiple different reports come across his or her desk on any given day. While these reports are necessary to the successful operation of your business, they are probably also filled with a lot of irrelevant information. In fact, it probably takes you twenty minutes just to decipher the information until you find what you need. Twenty minutes might not seem like a lot of time, but it adds up. Time tracking software can completely change all this.
Time reporting software will give you the ability to standardize and customize your reports so that you only get the information that you need. Spend less time deciphering unneeded information and get right down to the brass tacks. In addition to this, you can customize the reports so that they are printed out in unique bar graphs or pie graphs. This can make the data more interesting and more enjoyable to read.
Assign Roles To Different Team Members
Time tracking software also gives you the ability to assign each employee a unique username and password. Sure, this seems like a standard feature, but an additional feature is that you also have the ability to assigns roles if you are using the right timesheet solution. If you want to give a supervisor the ability to pull reports, you can do so. If you just want your supervisors to be able to report time then you can assign them to do just that. This feature really gives you control over the software and how your employees are able to interact within that software.
Make Employees Happy With Time Approvals
Whether you are a small or large organization your employees are without a doubt your number one asset. They are the ones in the trenches doing the leg work and communicating with customers. This is why it is imperative to keep your employees as happy and productive as possible. You might be surprised to learn that the best time reporting software can enable you with the abilities to do just that. When an employee reports his or her time during the day, you can assign a supervisor to approve or reject these entries.
The supervisor can also add and respond to a comment, which gives them another means of communication with their co-workers. When an employee knows that his or her time entries have been approved it is going to make them happier and more productive. Just knowing that you are getting paid for your hard work or extra work can go a long way in a place of business. Even if the time is rejected just knowing that they have the ability to leave comments asking why also helps.
Notifications Of Missing Entries
Work can get hectic and busy from time to time. This is especially true when employees are overwhelmed and trying to work on more than one project at a time. During these busy times it would be perfectly reasonable to imagine that an employee might forget to fill out his or her timesheet for a certain day. This is another great thing when you are using the right time tracking software. The software will notify employees when there are missing timesheets. This prevents supervisors from having to undertake this role and it eliminates the chances of a less than fulfilling paycheck for your employees.
Nothing will make your employees less effective and productive than not getting paid for all their hours even if it was by their own doing.
Mobile Access Anytime
Whether you are in the office taking meetings all day or you are out of the office attending meetings, the best time tracking software can provide you with the capabilities of staying in touch with your current projects. How does it do this? Well, the most advanced and innovative time tracking programs will sync right up with smartphones and other mobile devices. All you have to do is access your account and you will still have all the available features right at your fingertips. It will be like you never left the office. This really gives any business owner the ability to take control of projects and see how they are operating.
Available In A Variety Of Languages
The world is a diverse place these days. You can easily have ten individuals with different backgrounds and cultures in any given room at one time. So, it is pretty safe to assume that some of your employees might not possess the best English. Maybe they can speak English fluently, but have a hard time reading it. Whatever the situation is, it won’t really matter when you invest in the right time tracking program. These programs are coming available with a variety of language packs that allow you to convert the database into the language of your choosing.
If you want to customize the program so that your Spanish-speaking employees get their timesheets in Spanish, you have the option of doing so. Making these changes on their database will not affects what other employees see. New language files are always being added as well, so if the language you are seeking isn’t available right now it is possible that it will be in the near future.
Easily Access Overviews Of Time
Perhaps one of the greatest things about the right time tracking software is that both users and admins can get overviews of time reports. This can include time that was approved, time that was rejected and time that has been spent on each project. Whether you want to check on a project or get an overview overall, you always have that option right at your fingertips.
So these are definitely some of the things that you should bear in mind when looking for a timesheet solution in the form of a timecard for Outlook, for getting an overview of project time and cost.
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