Time and Mileage Tracker for Business – Easy Way To Do It In Outlook
What is a time and mileage tracker
When running a business it’s extremely important to know how time is being spent. However, it’s also important to track if you do any work-related traveling, for example using your own car.
This is what you use a time and mileage tracker for. In this way you track and report how you’ve spent your time and also if you’ve had any work-related mileage.
In the old days, you would track your time as well as report your mileage, by using pen and paper. Since then, solutions have become increasingly better, and most professional companies now a days uses a software solution for this.
However, in a lot of cases employees need to use a separate software program for reporting time and a separate program for tracking mileage. This is not ideal since your employees then need to be trained in two separate programs and also spend time on going from one system to another.
The best solution when looking for a way to track time and have a mileage tracker for your business, is a solution that combines these two things, preferably in a system that is easy to get to know and use. In this way employees will not have to enter different programs and learn how to use these.
Importance of a time and mileage tracker for business
So why is a time tracker and mileage tracker important for business?
First of all you need to know how time is being spent. This is the only way to know how your business is working and also how you can make it run even better.
This will help you with internal project management, even on things such as administration, since you will better know where you spend your time, and if it can be used in a more optimal way and also if you need to add more resources to an activity or project.
If you’re billing clients you also need to make sure that you invoice them correctly. This is especially the case if you bill by the hour, but also the case if you do fixed-fee projects. You need to know if your client projects make financial sense for your business.
Even if you don’t bill clients, you still need to know how time is being spend, in order to be able to optimize.
If you have any work related mileage, you also need to track this. You need to know how many resources you spend on mileage, gas, etc.
In some cases you will bill your clients for this, so this info needs to be available to you, so that you get compensated properly.
In this way, you’ll have an overview of expenses, which will again help with having an overview of your overall financial situation.
Mileage reimbursement for employees
In a lot of companies it’s common practice that employees will use their own cars for example to get to clients, and also pay for the related gas. This is usually the easiest approach to getting to jobs that take place at your clients’ locations.
That being said, your employees should of course not pay for this out of their own pocket, so you need to compensate them for this. Therefore having and easy way to reimburse your employees for travel expenses, such as mileage and gas, is paramount.
Furthermore this process should be as simple and efficient as possible, so that your employees will not have to wait a long time for their reimbursement. This is their own money after all.
So it’s really important that you get a system that’s easy for your employees to use and which collects data centrally. In this way everybody can quickly get an overview of how time has been spent and if any mileage or the like has been reported.
How to do it in Outlook
So how do you find a time and mileage tracker for business purposes that makes it easy and accurate for everybody?
You need a system that builds on something that your employees already know. If you’re a professional organization, you most likely use Microsoft Outlook as your email and calendar system. So you should find a solution that builds on this and makes it possible to track time and mileage via your calendar appointments.
This will make it easier for everybody and there will be almost no learning curve.
With the proper solution (for example like TimeSheet Reporter), you will be able to turn your Outlook appointments into time entries with the capability of tracking expenses as well.
When creating an appointment in Outlook, you simply select the proper organization, project and activity and that’s it. Your time tracking is done.
You can then further also add information about expenses such as mileage, etc.
When everything is completed, you can then submit this for approval.
Easy time tracking in Outlook.
Easy mileage tracking in Outlook.
From the system, selected users can then generate reports based on this information, and also create documents for reimbursement purposes.
It doesn’t get much easier than this.
Other things that you should keep an eye on
As mentioned above, one of the important features that your solution should have, is the ability to have an optional approval workflow. In some cases it makes sense to skip this part, but in most cases it’s a good idea to have.
When a time entry or expense has been submitted for approval, a supervisor can then check that everything looks right and can then approve it, before you reimburse your employees or invoice your clients, or simply before making any project management related decisions.
A good system will also allow you to track other expenses besides mileage. This could for example be hotel stays, etc. It should allow you to define these yourself.
Besides this, having strong reporting tools is also paramount. You want to be able to get an overview, as well as a more detailed view, whenever you need it.
How to make it benefit everyone
The business benefits of having a proper solution in place for tracking time and mileage are obvious. However, it’s also important that you make the benefits that your employees get visible.
Using Outlook with a third-party tool, for example, makes it really easy for your users, since they will be using a system that they are already familiar with and use.
You can also give them access to create reports, optionally only for their own time.
Furthermore a good system will also make reimbursement much easier and faster, which is always something that employees will be happy about.
A good solution also makes it easier for management. They can easily create reports when they want and quickly get an overview of how things are.
They can also easily help with the reimbursement process, which also makes employees as well as accounting happy.
Besides this, your time tracking and expense reporting will actually get done. You will not have to wait until the end of the month, but can do it right away. This provides a current and up-to-date picture of how time has been spent, mileage, etc. You can then act accordingly right away.
Get started now
So get started now. Get the best possible time and mileage tracker for business right away. You can sign up for free and make life easier for both management and employees.
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