Best Practices for Accurate Time Tracking

Accurate time tracking is vital for business success. In this article, we will be sharing some of the best practices to achieve it. We will also discuss how Timesheet Portal specifically can help you reach your goals.

Most companies have come to acknowledge how vital time tracking is for optimising their processes for maximised efficiency. However, implementing and utilising it correctly still stands as a challenge to many. Simply capturing time isn’t enough. The records need to be clean, consistent and accurate to be useful. In fact, inaccurate data poses many threats, such as becoming the cornerstone of decisions that result in financial losses, project delays and many others.

This article is going to explore best practices to ensure you utilise time tracking correctly. Namely, we will be talking about ways to avoid common pitfalls when it comes to accuracy and how to avoid compromising it. Finally, we will discuss how our platform, Timesheet Portal, can contribute to minimising the threats and maximising efficiency. 

Why is Timesheet Accuracy Important?

There is no point in tracking time if you don’t do it correctly. Although a powerful tool, when not brought to its full potential, time tracking can be harmful. Accuracy is at the core of the practice when it comes to recording time as the data collected through it covers the following areas:

• Compliance;

• Resource allocation;

• Financial investments;

• Team’s availability;

• Developmental expenses; 

• Scalability;

• Company growth.

Having a clear and accurate understanding of your team’s time expenditure is a key variable in your overall success. Clean data is a solid cornerstone for decisions, whereas incorrect figures can send you in the opposite direction. 

Best Time Tracking Practices

There are many ways to track time, and the method of choice will often trickle into your company’s overall work style and preferences. Which is not an issue. However, there are certain practices you need to adhere to if you want to ensure the data you record is accurate. 

Consistent and Timely Entries

The reason why time tracking is a valuable asset to every business is because it offers a centralised overview of the company’s performance and efficiency over time. In other words, it makes it easy to spot patterns the moment they begin emerging. It can be used to spot potential issues and prevent them from festering. Alternatively, it can highlight opportunities, allowing to capitalise on them early on. But for that to be possible your team’s time tracking efforts must be consistent and as delay-free as possible. Both factors are vital to ensure accuracy, which is at the core of helping you reach conclusions when making business-oriented decisions. 

Employing a digital solution like Timesheet Portal makes time capture easier. The common reason why employees struggle to record time either accurately, consistently or timely is because the process isn’t convenient. Friction reduces efficiency and makes people prone to delaying the task. However, a digitised solution’s first and foremost priority is ensuring convenience, removing hoops one needs to go through to record time. This makes the task easily incorporated into ongoing processes, meaning your staff won’t have to interrupt their workflows. In turn, making time capture an active part of them. 

Using Automated Tools to Minimise Errors

Even with the best intentions, accuracy isn’t always easy to achieve. Humans have limited attention spans, get distracted by a plethora of factors and sometimes simply mistype/misclick things. While to er is normal, it seldom softens the impact the said errors cause, especially if they haven’t been spotted early on. From time expenditure to actual financial losses. Time tracking errors can deal a lot of damage to your progress, relationships and reputation. 

Automation doesn’t fully eliminate the risk of mistakes but significantly reduces it. Most errors stem from the flaws humans have and, therefore, disappear when the tasks are entrusted to digital tools instead. In terms of time tracking, this may come in the form of applying time rules, meaning employees can only log time until a certain cap. So, if they accidentally leave the timer running, it switches off automatically at the cutoff time. While most of these measures cover small tidbits, they all matter when painting the big picture.

Role of Timesheet Portal

Accurate time tracking is one of the key priorities for Timesheet Portal. We aim to make the process both easy and flexible, guaranteeing the data you capture is correct. Below, we will explain how it’s achieved. 

Features That Enhance Accuracy

As the name of our platform indicates, we are specialists when it comes to time tracking. What’s more, Timesheet Portal is designed to make it not only accurate but also easily customised to meet each company’s unique needs. One of our biggest assets is an extensive list of options regarding time rules. From capping the hours worked per day/employee/task to setting cutoff times for all timesheet-related tasks, Timesheet Portal is created to blend into your organisation’s processes and enhance them seamlessly. 

The extent of Timesheet Portal’s functionality stretches beyond simply recording time. We help clients with their pay and bill processes, automatically translating time data into currency. Timesheet Portal can be adjusted to differentiate rates, making it perfect for companies that charge per task or those with a price dependent on operational hours. You can also save time by skipping the manual process of extracting the invoices and uploading them into your accounting package by utilising end-to-end integrations with your favourite solutions.

Integrating with Other Systems for Seamless Data Flow

Having touched on the topic of integrations, it’s important to note that at Timesheet Portal, we take great pride in how many we have to offer. Our platform is compatible with the most popular accounting packages, as well as a variety of other tools that support your organisation’s growth. Additionally, we work with our clients to create custom APIs when requested, as well as continuously expanding the list of freely available integrations.

Linking your tools is made particularly easy. All you need to do is go to the integrations tab within the Timesheet Portal, choose the software you want to connect with and follow the step-by-step guide shown on the screen. All in all, it takes but a couple of clicks to establish a seamless end-to-end link. Not only do integrations grant free data flow between different solutions, but also open the door to new automation opportunities and in-depth data you would otherwise have no access to. 

Tips for Implementation

Just like any system, however, Timesheet Portal needs some prior groundwork before it can reveal its full potential. The process looks different for every company as it's based on their goals, but there’s one thing we recommend every company to do in preparation.

Setting Clear Guidelines and Policies

Our system is rather straightforward and designed to be easy to use. But there’s only so much it can achieve if your team is not using it as intended. The commonly encountered issue is that workers have a negative outlook on time tracking and neglect it as a form of protest. For this reason, when you’re introducing Timesheet Portal to your team, you should have guidelines and policies prepared, too. 

For example, you should clearly outline the cut-off time for timesheet submissions and define the approval period or how many fixes are applicable after the initial entry. Given each company's unique processes and pre-existing policies, guidelines for timesheet use should be built around them to seamlessly integrate into your day-to-day life. The less friction there is, the easier it will be for your team to adjust and use the tool correctly, resulting in better results moving forward.

Summary

Accuracy is non-negotiable when it comes to time tracking. Incorrect data can harm your business both short and long-term. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you need to create an environment in which your teams can update, submit, review, and edit their time entries on the go. Additionally, you need to make it easy and convenient enough to turn into a consistent practice. Process automation offered by various tools can aid you in this, as it's known to remove the most common friction points. 

One such tool is Timesheet Portal. Our platform is jampacked with features aimed at making the overall process of time tracking smoother, all the while promoting effortless accuracy through a variety of customisations available. From capping work hours to automatically calculating different rates, the system blends into your processes and elevates them. Timesheet Portal also offers an extensive list of integrations, allowing you to utilise the data it records across other areas of the business. 

Interested in assessing how accurate your current time-tracking efforts are? Let us help.