No Need for a Timesheet Login Every Single Time – How to Use Outlook for Tracking Time

Challenges with a timesheet login

If you’re familiar with more traditional ways of reporting time, you know that very often this requires you to login to a certain program or website every single time you just want to report your time. This can be quite frustrating and take up precious time. You then need to swap between programs and browser windows on your computer, which will inevitably interrupt your workflow as well as your focus.

With a lot of traditional time tracking products you furthermore also need to remember what you did and when you did it, which very often results in your time tracking becoming inaccurate and very often not submitted on time.

This very often results in your payroll, billing of clients and just overall control with projects and performance becoming less than accurate, which can have dire consequences for your organization. This is no matter the industry that you’re in, whether you’re a non-profit (for example an interest organization), a government organization (for example IHSS, education, etc.) or if you’re in a corporate business setting (large or small). Tracking your time properly is essential to have a foundation on which to make proper decisions, which will result in the success and thriving of your organization.

So does timesheet reporting and the login need to be so challenging? Please read on…

Finding a solution

So how do you go about finding a solution for this? You obviously don’t want the hassle of a cumbersome timesheet login for your electronic timesheets, and you still want to be able to access it securely and only giving your users access to what they need.

What you should do is to take a look at the tools that you’re already using and which your users are comfortable with. In most office environments this would be your Microsoft Outlook calendar, which almost all professional organizations and companies use for scheduling their time already. You’re most likely using this too.

So you should find a solution that builds on this and makes it possible to track time based on your Outlook calendar appointments. This will enable you to report time on the proper project and activity in a tool that your users are already familiar with, which means that almost no training will be required. If they know how to use their Outlook calendar, they will easily be able to use this tool.

Another huge benefit of this is that you don’t necessarily need to log on to another program or website, so no need to use a timesheet login every single time you need to report your hours.

A solid electronic timesheet solution will also come with a web interface where you can access reports, approve hours, etc. Accessing this and also using an add-on for Outlook would obviously require a username and password, but the right solution would be able to store this securely so that the users would not be bugged by this every time they need to use the system.

Getting support from your users

Timesheet login and getting support from your users

Now that we’ve established that the best possible solution for tracking time is to leverage your Outlook calendar with an add-on, you also need to consider how to get your users to support the decision.

It’s very important that you let them know that implementing or optimizing your timesheet solution is not done to spy on them and following every single step that they take. No one likes that. Communicate that this is done to enhance overall performance for your organization. Knowing how you spend your time will make it clear to you where you could optimize. Are there areas that need more focus and other areas where you’re actually wasting time and resources?

Your time reporting solution should come with good and clear reports showing you how time has been spent so that you can act accordingly.

A strong benefit for your employees, if you select the right solution, is the ability to also give them access to these reports, and you can even set it up so that they can only see how they’ve spent their own time and not necessarily how their colleagues or boss have spent their time.

This is a huge benefit that most employees will really like.

Another huge benefit is simply the ability to use your calendar appointments as the basis for your time tracking, making it really easy as well as accurate for everybody.

What to do now

Imagine going to work and not having to do your timesheet login, by remembering username and password and accessing different programs and browser windows. Imagine simply going about your work, and being able to track time by just adding a few extra fields to your calendar entries. This can be a reality, and it can be your reality almost immediately.

What’s important is that you find a solution that makes reporting time as easy and accurate as possible for you and your employees. You do this by finding a solution that is build to leverage your Microsoft Outlook calendar, and enable you to report time via your appointments. The solution should furthermore come with supervisor approval, strong reporting capabilities and if you want, also options for hourly rates and expenses.

You can sign up right now and get started almost immediately. Do it for your own sake and for the sake of your organization.