Best Time-tracking Tools for Better Productivity
Published: 07/11/2022
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The goal of this article is to summarise what type of time-tracking tools suits your needs best. It’s a handy piece for project managers in the final stages of choosing their software. You will also find a comparison of three time tracking solutions, defining their key differences despite similar approaches.
When speaking of productivity in a business context, we naturally associate it with success. Well, rightfully so - the more gets done, the quicker you reach your goals, right? However, this easily explained idea is often difficult to achieve in reality as there is no one-fits-all approach. Depending on where you are in your growth journey, your priorities, industry, ambitions and a plethora of other factors - your KPIs and metrics for productivity will be vastly different.
Once you figure out what are the numbers you’re tracking and the benchmarks you want to achieve, you will be facing the challenge of hitting your targets. What we have observed is that despite working hard and minimising procrastination or idle time, many companies inevitably note that they struggle to hit their productivity goals. The science behind this issue is simple. So, let us explain it.
It may seem self-explanatory, but shockingly there are a lot of people who don’t entirely grasp the concept: you can’t reach the peak of your productivity unless you know the exact use of your time. When you have precise metrics of time spent carrying out various tasks, you can identify problem areas such as inefficiently long processes, shortage of workforce, and many others. Simply put, you would otherwise not know the issue is there otherwise, therefore unable to begin addressing it and letting your productivity keep on slipping.
What’s more, when you begin correcting productivity-tanking processes, you will be winning time back. That means you will then be able to apply it in other, more progress-driving tasks, once again improving the overall performance. And this cycle never ends. Another great about time-tracking tools is that not only will they record time for you, but most will take but a couple of minutes to put the results in visual, easy-to-analyse reports. That alone will save you heaps of time that would otherwise be spent putting your data in a digestible format.
Undoubtedly, every vendor will always call their solution the best. And they are right to do so because to someone, it will indeed be a game-changing tool that will elevate their business. However, it won’t necessarily be you. Below, we will talk about a few factors that will help you identify whether the software of your interest is truly the best value for your business.
Rule of the thumb is that if you need to have a process to work around another process - the latter is either broken or outdated. It is very similar to how it is software. If you need to change your operations to accommodate the proper functionality of the solution of your choice - this is not a solution for you. To put it simply, digital tools are meant to adapt to your processes in order to enhance and optimise them, not the other way around. We always talk about how time-tracking tools specifically aren’t to be utilised to scrap your existing processes and help you build new ones. Instead, they’re meant to fix and improve what you already have.
Another important aspect is to be mindful of the human factor. Different people in your organisation may have different levels of technical savviness. Therefore if you adopt an overly complicated platform, a chunk of your team isn’t likely to use it or be prone to misusing it, therefore costing you time instead of saving it. It’s especially important to evaluate the level of technological comfort among teams that will be using the tool most frequently. Remember, the best time-tracking tools don’t have to be complicated, not unless you need them to be.
Instead of wasting money on multiple stand-alone tools, start building an integrated tech stack. Such an approach will help you cut costs and the time spent switching across the apps, as well as minimise manual data insertion. When you integrate the solutions, you often also expand their functionality - meaning the number of tools you need decreases too. Our favourite build is to combine a time tracking solution with an accounting package and a marketing automation tool - it covers all of the key business areas with only three solutions.
What’s more, when integrated, the data your software captures will no longer be siloed. Tech stack is meant to be holistic across your organisation, meaning different across different departments will have access to them. A lot of productivity is lost to a lack of communication between teams that don’t normally collaborate and therefore have no visibility of each other’s activity, leading to repetitive tasks. An integrated tech stack solves that.
We are aware that we’re just one company in the wide sea of time-tracking tools, but we also know what makes us stand out. While it’s unrealistic to expect we have 100% unique features you won’t find anywhere else, it’s our approach and presentation that differentiate us from the lot. To prove that, we will outline key differences between Timesheet Portal and other popular players on the market.
Most solutions offer relatively similar functionality such as bulk upload of timesheets, automated reminders and invoice automation. However, Timesheet Portal is certainly further ahead with its timesheet customisation options. From offering 40+ prebuilt templates you can change to your liking to an option of creating your own templates from scratch, it adapts to your needs and branding easier and quicker. What’s more, the granularity of options you find when adjusting your timesheets makes it particularly easy to calculate overtime, irregular rates, and about every other scenario you can think of. Other tools certainly fall short in this department.
Ultimately, most solutions on the market are focused on recruitment only, whereas we have two distinctive products aimed at recruitment and project management. Additionally, it’s a common practice to hide the tool’s pricing. Timesheet Portal, on the contrary, has an interactive system that allows you to build your package and give you a price estimate in your selected currency. Additionally, we offer a lot of core functionality such as reporting free of charge. The industry standard, on the other hand, comes in a form of a separate product that will cost extra.
A desktop time tracker is often seen as an industry staple. While the idea behind it is the same as Timesheet Portal’s, the execution is very different. For example, such solutions come with a little timer clocking your staff’s time instead of them having to type it in themselves in Timesheet Portal. The former may sound like an easier approach, but there’s a giant caveat - the timer won’t stop unless the employee turns it off. Whereas in Timesheet Portal you can easily set rules which won’t allow the workers to go past the time they’re contracted to work at certain date frames.
We once again want to pick on reporting, something that is rather limiting in the above-mentioned solutions. It doesn’t offer much in terms of details nor allows you to go in more depth. Timesheet Portal, on the other hand, is all about customisation - and it is true with reporting too. You can build your own report templates using a drag-and-drop interface, making them as detailed or as condensed as you want. The reports can also be set to include your branding and selected metrics and will be generated with just a click. There is no limit to how many you can create, export or save as a template - how you use the feature is completely up to you.
One of Timesheet Portal’s most unique aspects is that we don’t sell you pre-build package deals and expect you to make do with what you’re given. Instead, our model is designed to let the users build Timesheet Portal into what they need it to be. In other words, no two companies will ever have the same functionality of the same product - all because Timesheet Portal will be adapted to their unique processes and not the other way around.
The best thing about building your own Timesheet Portal platform is that you aren’t committing to keeping it in the same shape and form forever. We make it easy to upgrade within the platform itself instead of having to chase our sales reps. With that said, we also won’t be chasing you with the goal of selling - we grant you the power upgrade yourself when you need it, to the extent you need. Given there is barely a limit to how far you can go with it, we can safely say that our software is designed to grow and scale with you.
You are probably thinking that upgrading is always easy as every vendor is eager to charge you more - downgrading, on the other hand… Well, that is not the case with us. We understand circumstances change all the time, especially when we are dealing with small businesses or startups. Not to mention, we work across many dynamic industries that get affected by outside factors such as changes in law and compliance all the time. This is why downgrading also only takes a click - and no time is wasted on trying to chase a salesperson.
To be truly productive, you need to be aware of where you and your team spend your time. There are plenty of ways to keep a record of that: paper, excel spreadsheets or time-tracking tools. The latter is the approach we recommend the most simply because it offers a lot of additional features that can drive your productivity further. What’s more, a good software will allow you to carry on optimising your processes as you go, continuously improving your team’s performance.
There are plenty of solutions available on the market, and we are just one of them. However, we have got years of expertise under our belt and we keep polishing our system in accordance with our clientele’s needs. We don’t second guess them either - we hear them directly from you, in a form of challenges you face or the frustrations you have. Are we the best? Of course, we are. The best for the companies we are the right fit for, just any other tool out there.
Do we sound like a right fit for you? Let’s confirm that.