Time is one of your business’s most valuable resources and, as someone who runs a business, you know that there always seems to be a shortage of it. Juggling paper timesheets and time cards isn’t what you should be spending extra time on, and it can be even more of a drain when you have to correct errors and mistakes, your employees are late with their paperwork, or forms are incomplete.
Unfortunately, even though tracking may not be the most inspiring part of running your business, doing it accurately is key to growth, maintaining clean books, and keeping employees happy.
Luckily, there is a way to make things easier and improve accuracy. Time tracking software allows you to keep track of billable time, check productivity, automate reporting, and more to help you maximize efficiency and better manage your business’s resources. Choosing the right platform may be among your most important decisions.
Like any good tool, time-tracking software needs to help you do what you do best. It should take the hassle off your plate while helping your business run smoothly and profitably. A feature-rich platform may even help you win more customers and discover where operations could be more efficient. One startup found that focus and productivity improved after the employees were encouraged to start tracking their time a few years ago.
Whether you’re tracking billable hours, monitoring project activities, or analyzing how your team spends their time, you need a nimble, reliable, uncomplicated system. Consider your needs and budget when shopping around, as each platform comes with its own options and pricing, from simple scheduling to invoicing, messaging, project tracking, and GPS monitoring.
To make the most its capabilities, the platform you choose should be able to integrate with relevant billing, accounting, payroll, or project-management software that your business relies on. Most time-tracking platforms often offer free trials, so you can test drive and find one that feels right for you.
Here are four sleek, cloud-based options to consider for keeping your business, and time, on track.
WorkflowMax
WorkflowMax, owned by Xero, works with more than 30 productivity-focused apps, including Google Drive, Dropbox, SalesForce, HubSpot, and Zendesk. Among other features, WorkflowMax helps you track customer leads, proposals, and manage your sales pipeline; quickly provide customized, branded quotes; manage projects; track worker productivity; and share documents.
The platform also generates reports that produce key business insights, like which customers drive your greatest profits. It offers an agile online invoicing function and lets you dispense with manually entering employee hours on a spreadsheet by allowing workers to log their hours online.
Pricing ranges from $15 a month for one user to $250 a month for up to 50 people, with premium upgrades available.
Harvest
Harvest, like other cloud-based programs, helps you handle timesheets, budgets, expenses, and invoicing from computers and mobile devices. It also grabs that data to help you analyze job progress, expenses, and profits, and allows you to accept payment online. Its companion product, Forecast, supports planning for future projects, employee schedules, and budgets.
Harvest integrates with PayPal, Basecamp, Slack, Trello, Asana, and QuickBooks, among other payment, invoicing, time-tracking, and project management tools.
A freelancer or other solopreneur can track an unlimited number of projects on Harvest for $12 a month, while teams pay $12 a person per month (or $10.80 a month if paying annually).
TSheets
TSheets, in addition to precise time tracking from any location, offers easy payroll syncing, billing, and invoicing, as well as scheduling by shift or task. Alongside employee mobile time tracking, the app includes GPS location stamping that lets managers find employees in real time. TSheets can also alert managers and employees when overtime is close to kicking in, and tracks accrued paid time off.
Geared toward multiple industries, TSheets notes that its software complies with U.S. Department of Labor and Defense Contract Audit Agency regulations.
TSheets integrates with ADP, QuickBooks, Gusto, Square, Expensify and Paychex, among others. Pricing ranges from free for one user – scheduling including – to $80 a month plus $4 per person for businesses with 100 or more users, with scheduling costing another $1 a person per month.
Tradify
Tradify helps “tradies” like builders, plumbers, painters, landscapers, and electricians with one to 20 employees quickly handle quoting, invoicing, timesheets, job management, team communication, purchase orders, scheduling, and reporting.
The app, which works on iOS and Android, includes GPS mapping to track your team, and photo and note features to stay up to date on job progress. Full access, unlimited jobs, and phone and email support for one to nine users costs $20 a month per user. A discounted per-user price is available for larger businesses.
With the right app, you can, at minimum, enjoy greater ease and efficiency in tracking your team’s time, and may gain valuable insights that boost productivity and profits.
Could your company use experts to help you reconcile your books, track spending and payments, and manage payroll? BKE specializes in bookkeeping for small businesses, and works with numerous cloud-based tools. Contact us and we’ll review your books for free.