Project Time Tracking Software – How To Get It Right

Time tracking helps you monitor the number of hours you have spent on individual projects and multiple projects as well. This transparency is very helpful when it comes to getting an overview of how time is being spent, as well as determining the precision and productivity of your employees’ job estimates.

Project time tracking software is important for providers of technical and professional services, organizations that need to see their hours on internal projects, businesses that employ staff on an hourly basis, freelancers, and much more. So pretty much all organizations that need to know how they spend their time.

Software for time tracking can encourage the members of your team to attach the time to activities conveniently with the help of an Outlook-integrated timesheet software. The software should also allow you to access and share reports of time spent on projects, organizations and activities. This enables you to monitor your team members’ responsibilities and optionally share this data with other stakeholders, for example management, clients and investors.

How Does Project Time Tracking Software Work?

With project time tracking software, you can conveniently monitor the hours invested in your projects and assignments by adding time entries for projects alongside instantly generating reports related to time, as well.

Entering Data Related to Time

When selecting a time tracking solution, you could go for are more old-fashioned approach, where your users would need to enter their time manually either on paper or perhaps a spreadsheet. On the other hand you can also select a solution that integrates with what you already use as a calendar, for example Outlook, and leverage that to your advantage. This approach is usually the better.

Tracking of time enables your employees to pick a project and properly record how many minutes or hours they have worked on it. The main advantage of this solution is the fast and simple time tracking procedure. You would not have to be concerned about turning on and off a timer while you are going through your assigned duties, but would simply use your Outlook calendar entries as the basis for your time reporting.

Project time tracking software can be used to semi-automatically monitor and log time spent on various assignments. Using an Outlook add-in, like TSR, your employees will simply create an appointment as they normally would and then add the proper organization, project and activity.

Most employees are very disciplined regarding maintaining their Outlook calendar, so building on that will make your time tracking even more precise. This solution will also raise client and shareholder trust and morale, which are important if the pricing strategy of your project is dependent on the workload, and especially if you charge by the hour.
Even if you don’t charge for your time, it is essential to know how it’s being spent, since you always have a cost associated with it.

Keep a Record of Hours Worked

The best thing about project time tracking software is that it offers you a number of ways to keep a record of the hours you and your employees have worked. You can see your tracked hours according to the activity, according to the project and according to the employee to whom it was assigned.

According to the activity: Viewing hours according to the activity helps you handle tasks in depth without having to micromanage all of your employees. For starters, you can quickly see which projects go beyond the budget or which are behind schedule. Tracking hours at the activity level can also assist with making economic forecasts and spending strategies for other similar projects.

According to the project: On the other hand, making use of a project time tracking software helps you in seeing things in not only a broader perspective, but also in seeing the bigger picture as well. This empowers you to easily analyze the project’s cumulative growth, effectiveness, and performance.

According to the employee: You can also report employee time so that the productivity and effectiveness of your staff can be tracked and evaluated. This is highly relevant not only if your employees are being paid by hour, but is also beneficial and relevant for salaried personnel.

Project time tracking software is also a great solution if you need help in monitoring and easing out the burden and scope of work. For instance, if you check the entries in the time tracking software and discover that one team member has logged over 60 hours of work in the previous week, while another employee has only logged 30, you will know that it is time to redistribute the tasks and responsibilities.

Generating Reports

The best kind of Outlook-integrated project time tracking software will help you generate useful reports.

Time tracking software offer an outline of each employees’ duties over a specific period, and the hours each of them have put into the assigned tasks.

Digital timesheets in time tracking software are a gift to your team as they help them keep track of and monitor their own progress in your company. They allow your staff to have access to a single platform, where they can keep an eye on what they need to achieve every week and how each task they complete is progressing.

Time reports are the analyses and documents that you and other people in your company need to review and evaluate. And with the help of a proper software solution, your job is now easier than ever.

With the right solution, you should have easy access to reports that will show exactly how time has been spent and in which areas, so that you can optimize accordingly.

This can then be shared with stakeholders, such as your board, project managers or clients.

For example, in the event that you need to communicate with the client about how long your employees have spent working on their ventures in the previous month, time reports generated by project time tracking software will prove to be a lifesaver.

What are the Benefits of Project Time Tracking Software?

One of the biggest challenges you will face as an employer or a business manager is coming up with ways to track the progress and success of your employees without micromanaging them. Let’s be honest, nobody can give a project their absolute best if they know that their manager is continuously looking over their shoulder at what they are doing or not doing.

That is where time tracking software comes in. Outlook-integrated time tracking solutions have become valuable tools for many organizations to give stakeholders and company managers as much knowledge as possible. Some of their benefits are given below:

Project time tracking software can keep you from having to face a major setback or overloaded time in a project as you will have transparent access to the progress of your employees without you having to constantly hover over them.
Most modern organizations nowadays all utilize this software to improve their work productivity and to ensure that their teams are on the right path.
You can follow performance and progress in real-time with time tracking software and record the necessary data for reliable future project assessments.
Information collected from this kind of solution can also assist in identifying urgent concerns surrounding your workers and assets involved in a certain project.
Looking at the results of timesheets and time reports, you may also find ways of arranging your employees’ workloads in order to increase productivity.
You can also prevent misunderstandings and identify expensive and wasteful strategies in your projects by measuring the duration of projects and comparing them with expenditures, industry norms, and related project activities’ progressions.

If you are on the lookout for the best time tracking software, keep an eye out for a solution that is incorporated right into your Outlook Calendar.

Bottom Line

Building a long-term trustworthy and secure relationship with your clients, employees and stakeholders has now become a vital component of doing good business and management, especially if you are tracking the amount of time you and your employees spend working. By setting and committing to realistic projects and deadlines, project time tracking software plays a significant role in not only knowing how you spend your time, but also how you can optimize it in the best possible way.