Timesheeting and Time Keeping – Top 9 BENEFITS
We have all heard ‘Time is Money’ but you only realize its true meaning when you start your own or manage a business. In that case, it becomes essential to keep track of where your time goes, to optimize and improve workflows. That is where timesheeting or time keeping comes in – an excellent project management tool that records the time employees spend on various tasks, projects, and clients.
While companies used to manually track their time on paper, the administrative burden, high costs, and overall inefficiency of this method have given way to more userfriendly anfd effective timesheeting solutions. Regardless of how you track time, doing it is essential to the success of an organization in many ways that are explored in this article.
1. Timesheeting Helps Measure Efficiency Of Projects
Timesheeting tells you which projects your employees are working on, so you can observe their efficiency by comparing the time they dedicate to each task or activity with the output produced. As you identify which tasks delay work completion by taking longer than necessary, they can be optimized or eliminated altogether. If not, you might at least want to finish them first to raise efficiency.
If the same department is repeatedly having challenges at the same step of the project, be it budgeting or logistics, you can easily note where the problem lies. The best thing is that it can be done without interrupting the employees, as all this information is at the tip of your fingers if you choose a good solution.
If a certain department is recording too much time on administrative duties and meetings, it is a wake-up call for you to figure out why so much time is possibly being wasted. Time keeping allows you to recognize areas that need improvement, and tasks that require further training and development. You get the opportunity to conduct performance analysis and better understand the workflow of your organization.
Proper timesheeting solutions provide you with improved real-time insights into the productivity of your workplace, especially when they can seamlessly integrate with the Outlook Calendar. Solutions that do so can convert that calendar, which everyone knows how to use, into a timesheet tool, minimizing the need for any further training, ensuring a smooth transition into this form of time tracking.
2. Time Keeping Improves Human Resource Management
When all employees log in the time they spend on activities and tasks, it provides management with accurate information that facilitates improved decisions when it comes to staff and resource assignments. At all times, the manager is aware of which staff member is working on what task in which department, as well as the amount of time they spend to finish a particular project.
When all that information is readily available, you can not only conveniently identify which staff members are free to be assigned another task but you can also maximize efficiency by reallocating tasks according to employee skillset. Moreover, it can also ensure equal or optimal distribution of workload.
For example, if a particular department is not logging in as many hours as others, it may be because they have the time and capacity to take on additional work. Time keeping pinpoints exactly which departments are successfully delivering and which struggle and require further assistance or resources.
Ideal timesheeting solutions produce standard reports that can help you evaluate employee skills and summarize the team’s progress, identifying everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
3. Allows Identification Of Problems Before It Is Too Late
Having all the data available in the form of a timesheet can work wonders when it comes to solving problems before they escalate. If a department is regularly logging in too many hours on a project, the information can be presented to the client and the timeline edited, before your employees burn out and display a lowered interest.
Similarly, if a department spends too much time on administrative meetings, you know that time is not being put to better, billable use, and need to do something about it. That would not be possible without an efficient time keeping solution.
4. Enhances Accuracy Of Collected Data
Proper time tracking ensures greater transparency and accuracy when it comes to maintaining an enormous amount of information. When you have daily timesheets, there is no hassle of trying to remember the exact amount of time you spent on something so that you can get paid or bill the client accordingly.
This is particularly the case with solutions that help make the process as easy and accurate as possible. The time you devote to a project is easily registered, which is then optionally reviewed by supervisors to eliminate any mistakes.
Therefore, the data that is ultimately reviewed by accounting, human resources, and management for payroll, staff assignments, and better managerial decision making is largely void of any errors.
5. Facilitates Better Financial Tracking
Efficient timesheeting is key to saving costs for the company, thereby raising profits. It is already established that once you reallocate tasks based on the suitability of employee skillset, organizational efficiency is raised, increasing revenues.
Besides that, time keeping is an excellent indicator of which projects are costing you money, which makes good financial sense, and also how much time is allocated to non-billable activities like administrative meetings. This is especially ideal for organizations that charge according to time.
When you have a vast set of data available, the past trends can help you estimate expected costs which can then be compared to the real cost of the project, providing you valuable insights that could save money in the future.
Moreover, using a good time reporting solution saves a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on administrative costs in maintaining paper-based records.
6. Empowers Employees and Boosts Morale
Timesheeting provides employees with a renewed sense of ownership over their own time, as well as a quick and easy way to track it. They can see for themselves where they spend their time, so they can decline additional assignments or take on more, backing it up with proof.
Ideal timesheeting solutions are also personalized, as the employees can see the number of hours they spend on different activities. The total transparency of data lets them view their schedule in advance, enhancing awareness of their time that translates into greater morale and a more effective way to work.
Since records are always stored, they can also support employees’ applications for certain tasks, promotions, or other jobs. All these benefits result in happier employees, which eventually contribute to the growth of the organization.
Moreover, as the time logs are readily available to management for review, they act as a driving force for employees to battle procrastination and improve discipline when it comes to work, allowing them to be more productive, benefitting the company’s revenue in the long run.
7. Forecasts the Need For Resources and Refines Capacity Planning
When you have employees track time data on various projects for extended periods of time, you can identify important trends that may modify the way you work in the future. As you receive insights into your employees’ performance and the tasks that consumed the most time, you can then prepare more reasonable and realistic timelines for those in the future.
Moreover, the human resource side of this analysis also predicts your recruitment needs in the future for projects that have displayed a scarcity of resources in the past. This increased accuracy of forecasts can save the company both time and resources in the future.
8. Fosters Better Client Relations By Facilitating Accurate Billing
Since time keeping helps you maintain a thorough record of time spent on each project, task, or activity by each employee, it can ensure accurate invoicing so that clients are billed according to the exact hours of service provided. When this information is presented to that client, they receive all verification of where exactly their money is going, eliminating the need for any last-minute conflict.
As all your claims are backed by well-maintained logs, your client is bound to leave with a positive experience that may bring with it future orders, as well as glowing recommendations to other potential clients who may then procure your services. As your company gets this competitive edge in the market, it will only bring with it higher profits and further business expansion.
9. Flexible Hours
Your organization may have a policy regarding flexible hours, so that if you for example work two hours more one week, you can take two hours off the next, or vice versa.
Your time tracking solution should enable you to have a simple kind of flextime system, where employees and management can see how many hours have been reported, compared to what should have been reported.
Bottom Line
A timsheeting solution is vital if you wish to improve the quality of your work, accomplish more in less time, and take ownership of the time you have at your disposal. This is now an integral part of most successful companies, so you need to procure a solution as soon as possible.
If you obtain one that integrates with the Microsoft Outlook Calendar by building upon its existing model, you save a lot of resources that would be otherwise wasted during the transition to a time keeping solution. As explored above, this has a wide variety of benefits, so it is high time you keep your projects on track and give your company the edge it deserves.
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