Timesheet Management System – What To Look For

TimeSheet Management System

Time management is a very important part of project management but probably the most difficult. And though time management refers to a combination of tool, techniques and skills used to manage time, there is no doubt that the right time management tool can help considerably in accomplishing specific goals. Timesheets, for a long time were believed to be merely accounting assistants that helped calculate how much employees were to be paid or clients to be billed. However, as project management has become more sophisticated, there is a growing realization that a good timesheet management system can considerably help in timely delivery of projects.

TimeSheet Management System – What To Look For

A strong and comprehensive timesheet management system will offer many benefits along with easy integration into existing infrastructure and make it easy for both staff and management to use. Here are some of the features to look for in a timesheet management system.

Usability – Any timesheet management system must be easy to use. If it is too time consuming for an employee to use a system, then not only does that introduce more errors into the timesheet reporting but also brings down the efficiency of the system. In particular, if the system can build on some of the systems already being used by employees to note down their times; it can save a lot of time and effort on part of the employees.
Product Integration – Though the primary focus of timesheets might be to ensure that employees are paid correctly and clients billed accurately if the timesheet management system is able to integrate easily into already existing accounting, ERP and CRM systems, the data collected can be better used by the company to automate many task management functions.
Reporting – By using the data collected to generate standard reports, a timesheet management system should be able to increase the accuracy of project forecasting for the company.

One of the leading timesheet management systems today is TimeSheet Reporter. This tool goes beyond being a simple timesheet reporting software. To begin with it allows users to use their Outlook Calendar to report their timesheets. This saves employees a lot of time in having to learn new timesheet management systems or having to log in to different systems for different projects. By scheduling their tasks as always in Outlook Calendar and then submitting the task once it is done, they have a simple way of sending in their timesheets for all the tasks and projects they are working on through one easy interface.

Further, all the sophisticated timesheet data that is collected through TimeSheet Reporter can be easily imported into other important business systems that are already in place such as CRM or ERP. This helps in improving the efficiency of these areas as well.

The right solution will efficiently seamlessly enhance, simplify and streamline your workflow, keep track of your hours (including billable hours) so that you and your team members can easily track your hours. It should also include the option of expense tracking, and let supervisors optionally approve the hours submitted for approval in an intuitive way. This will enhance visibility in real time, and also make invoicing, payroll and overall project management more accurate

Finally, TimeSheet Reporter helps management generate standard reports of various types that will help them understand if the current project is on track and what corrective measures should be taken, if any. It also helps them forecast the time and effort in completing project of a similar nature in the future.