Deliver Better and Quicker Projects with Timesheet Solutions
Published: 17/04/2023
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With growing volumes and quality requirements, project managers are desperate for innovation in processes. In this article, we want to highlight how timesheet solutions can help you overcome these challenges. The main focus is how to choose the right tool and how to get the most out of it.
Are you becoming increasingly frustrated with outdated project management practices that seem to be preventing you from meeting unrealistically high expectations at equally unrealistically short time frames? You’re not alone. And we believe you’ve already been looking for ways to bring the change, potentially recognising timesheet solutions as one of the routes. You reading this very article suggests that’s exactly where you are, and at this point, you’re probably at a slight loss of where to begin utilising this knowledge.
If this sounds like you, don’t click away as this article is aimed at people in your position. It is focused on setting the scene with some low-hanging fruits, which then become the cornerstone of developing a full-blown transformation by utilising just one solution. Ultimately, our goal is to help you find the most project management-friendly timesheet tool for your business and to ensure you’re capable of bringing its full potential out.
If you are seeking a quick fix to your timesheet management, consider taking the following steps:
Digitise the process;
Introduce some form of automation, even if minimal;
Clarify the existing process to all parties involved
Begin researching the market for the best-fitting timesheet software
These are very surface-level solutions and will therefore offer short-term results. However, it’s the final one you want to focus on as it will serve as your stepping stone towards creating a more sustainable long-term approach. Below, we will assist you in getting the ball rolling to find a tool that will improve your timesheet management and project delivery exponentially.
There are two distinctive traits best timesheet solutions share. Unfortunately, they aren’t always spelt out in the feature lists. And even when they are, it’s in your best interest to try how far their capacity stretches. If possible, we recommend booking a demo with the vendor as the company’s specialist can show you the said features in action instead of you trying to gauge them yourself.
What you want from software is flexibility. The out-of-box solutions barely deliver the results most businesses seek. This is mostly due to the fact every industry is heavily saturated with organisations, and for them to stand out they each need to have a set of unique goals, KPIs and therefore metrics to track. In turn, this means the process must also be unique, accommodating these specific needs. A solution which cannot be customised simply won’t do.
Therefore the timesheet solutions on your radar should offer vast options for customisation as opposed to being tied to specific templates. Don’t get us wrong - it’s great when software comes with templates. It’s especially handy for companies that aren’t too advanced in digitisation. However, the said templates should be fully flexible to be turned into what you need them to be. From a visual and functional standpoint. It’s also understood that sometimes templates can be limiting, no matter how customisable they are. For this reason, we recommend opting for software that also allows the user to build their own templates from scratch.
One of the telling signs of a good tool is that from the get-go it makes no promises to introduce new solutions to your existing challenges. If the software you have your eyes on claims it will fundamentally change your business by scrapping your existing processes and replacing them with more efficient ones… Well, this is not a solution you want to go forward with. While it’s tempting to scrap what you have and have a brand new start, this approach will set your success back.
A truly good tool will help you optimise and continuously improve your existing processes instead of building new ones. Simply put, the ongoing operations have already accumulated hefty amounts of data. Scrapping them fully would mean you will need to wait until new processes collect enough information for you to analyse and act on. When focusing on working with the foundation you already have, however, you will be able to reach your goals and targets quicker by introducing a series of changes and seeing how they affect the results.
A common mistake that occurs when companies adopt software is not utilising it fully. The world of solutions is progressing faster than our mindset which is often tied to older solutions and their limitations. However, to be truly successful and get your money’s worth, it’s important to ditch the said mindset and open yourself up to innovation.
Now if timesheet solutions were only offering timesheets, there would be little to no sense to favour them over more traditional approaches. Since both paper timesheets and Excel spreadsheets are very capable of simply recording time, designated solutions are naturally expected to do more. Time tracking tools, therefore, come with a variety of features, the offer ranging depending on the vendor. Some offer additions like holiday management, while others are more focused on expense-related procedures and so on.
It would be a waste not to use that additional functionality. Of course, not every feature is relevant to every business, but that’s exactly why you want to take your time in finding a solution you can utilise fully. It’s a good idea to play around with different modules your tool has to offer, even if they don’t strike you as something your business needs. While doing so, think of your business as a whole instead of focusing on just one area. For example, while you may have adopted a timesheet software to support your project management processes, try envisioning where its features could aid in legal, marketing or even sales departments. You will be surprised how efficient just one tool can be.
Every business is using some sort of digital tool and it is unlikely for the timesheet solution to be the cornerstone of your tech stack. Gone are the times when businesses would pride themselves on having a variety of tools and believing that the more is the better. With the software market being as huge and diverse, the priority has now shifted to lesser quality but better quality. This makes sense, given tools are also often costly.
There is a win-win approach - integrations. When you link different tools with one another, you expand their individual functionality, as well as unlock process-building opportunities you’d otherwise have no access to you. This, in turn, means you will be collecting new types of data. Often the said data would be collected by a completely separate tool, hence saving you money. Additionally, this means you can better contextualise the said data as you can see the processes it originates from and the areas it affects. And not having to constantly switch tabs for every tidbit of information is, certainly, a big plus of its own.
We have briefly touched on data collection, namely that your existing processes, whether they are effective or not, are already collecting some. How you use the said data is the foundation of your success and the decisions you make moving forward. However, making the most out of the information you’ve gathered is more complicated than it sounds.
Simply collecting data won’t deliver the results you need. We live in a time of data overload, so even without timesheet solutions, businesses are constantly fed data from numerous streams. The problem is that not all data is valuable. High volumes of it also mean there is no way of clearing, processing and analysing it effectively - not for a human, at least. That’s where digital tools step in. Instead of being yet another data stream, they do the job of cherry-picking the important metrics for you. To top it off, they automatically put it in a format that makes it easy to analyse even the most complicated insights. Let’s admit it - it’s difficult to understand what you’re looking at when you’re presented with just numbers. But it’s a different story when they are presented accompanied by graphs, colour coding and categorisation.
That’s another place where customisation is important as, simply put, the data you prioritise will be different from any other business. Even if we are talking about your closest competitor. While most solutions now allow you to build dashboards the way you want them, this is not enough. Ideally, you want the ability to customise the existing filters as well as create your own ones from scratch. And that’s something we are proud to aid our users in at Timesheet Portal. We offer over 40 built-in reporting templates you can fully customise to your needs and make it consistent with your brand. We also enable our users to create their own templates and data filters to populate them. Since reporting is absolutely crucial and can get very granular, we also put no limit on how many report templates can one account have.
Relying on an outdated approach to project management is not just frustrating, but also damaging to businesses. It stunts their scalability and can be damaging to client relationships. Although it’s a big issue, addressing it isn’t as difficult. The major challenge lies in the fact there are many options, and some are better than others - meaning you have to choose wisely.
Timesheet solutions are a great way to innovate and better project delivery. There are some intricacies in spotting the best tools, however. Namely, they should support as much customisation as possible and be optimisation-driven. To fully harness their potential, you will also need to change your mindset when it comes to solutions. Leave your comfort zone, experiment with different features and test out different software integration combos. Even if you don’t succeed immediately, you’ll be left with a lot of valuable data which, without a fail, will deliver the results you’re chasing. With a little patience and courage, it will even exceed your wildest expectations.
There is no time to waste. Start the search right now.