Why Timesheet Software Is Essential For Businesses In 2023

“Lost time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin

In days when timesheet software was unheard of, a renowned American author Benjamin Franklin penned down this quote to stress the importance of lost time. You see, since time immemorial, the time has always been looked upon as an invaluable asset that human beings simply cannot afford to waste in any aspect of their lives.  

Imagine your workplace three or four decades ago. You and your colleagues don’t have mobile phones, there’s no internet connection at the workplace, there are no computers, there’s no account of how much time you and your coworkers are spending on completing assigned tasks, and there’s no way to find out how much time you’ve wasted gossiping (what else you could do other than work in those days?).

All you (and your coworkers) did was to write down their names, in-time, and out-time in attendance registers. Manual entries were the only way to record time back then. However, old ways are not supposed to lead to new doors. Right?   

In the 21st century world, employees have so many distractions in the workplace. Mobile phones, social media, texting, internet browsing, watercooler conversations, etc. How many times have you seen your co-workers checking their phones, or indulging in gossiping at the workplace? 

I’m sure you have lost count of it. However, numbers don’t lie. 

A survey by America Online and Survey.com shows that American workers end up wasting approximately 10 hours (2 hours daily) in a five-day working week. And this time doesn’t include lunch or scheduled break. 

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Without using dedicated timesheet software, you might not even know how your employees are wasting a lot of costly, precious time during working hours. 

There’s no doubt that when the majority of businesses are already facing tough times due to Covid-19 in many parts of the world, time wastage at work is a dreaded sin. 

Who better to realize the dire consequences of lost time (and benefits of utilizing time) than in the contemporary business world where businesses of every size and type are involved in a heated competition with each other.

Amongst other crucial factors, if there’s one thing that can spell the success or failure of any business in an extremely competitive marketplace today, it is its ability (or the lack of it) to track time spent by its employees on various work-related (and non-work-related) activities in a day. 

Businesses relied on making manual timesheets for recording the number of hours worked by employees for hundreds of years. Well, old methods worked well but they are quite limited in their function. 

In this article, we will take a look at how timesheet software has become an essential component in businesses’ time management policy today, and how this tool can help you keep track of time in ways you can never imagine doing through manual time recording. 

So, are you ready to explore timesheet software? Alright then. Let’s get started and not get up from the seat until you’ve grasped the last line of this article. 

Is wasted time costing your organization big time? Subscribe ProofHub ASAP to prevent all that time worth millions of dollars going down the drain.

What Is Timesheet Software

Timesheet software can be used by organizations to track time spent by their employees on tasks, projects, or clients. Timesheet software is used by businesses across various industries for payroll, client billing, estimation, tracking, and even time management. 

Timesheet software also provides valuable insights to managers and employees in identifying tasks that are taking more than expected time and costing the most money. This allows users to plan and prioritize tasks accordingly. 

Timesheet Software- Why Using One Is Essential To Your Organization’s Productivity

Any organization, irrespective of its size and type, needs to keep track of the time spent by its employees while at work. Accurate recording of time by using reliable and functional timesheet software can help businesses in more ways than one. 

• Automated employee timesheets help businesses (client-based) generate accurate invoices through impartial reports and independent trackers. This will ensure that you don’t end up overcharging or undercharging your clients. 

• Using powerful timesheet software makes it easy for clients to check the project’s progress at every stage. This promotes transparency between the business and clients and keeps them both on the same page. 

• Using a timesheet software helps you identify areas where you’re wasting your organization’s resources. You can take out low-priority tasks that are taking longer than expected time, and save a lot of valuable time in the process. 

• Timesheet software can help your company spot the most productive employees in your organization. You can compare the output of different employees, which can help you categorize them as good, average, or mediocre. You can find out which employees deserve recognition and which employees need more training to do the job effectively.

• Automated timesheets help to simplify payroll processing as it records the employees’ actual working hours daily. The HR department can use this accurate data to calculate wages with minimal errors. 

• Timesheet software can provide team managers with a clear picture of whether their teams are regularly working beyond their capacity. If this is the case, managers can reduce their workload to help create a fine work-life balance. 

• Daily automated timesheets created and maintained through project management software bring all your time data to one central location. Employees can know the amount of time they’re spending on completing different tasks and manage their time accordingly. 

• When employees know that automated timesheets are recording the time spent by them on different tasks and projects, they become more conscious and focus on work, which further improves their overall efficiency and productivity. 

So, we’ve read that using good timesheet software can turn out to be hugely beneficial for organizations. Accurate invoicing, payroll and time tracking of employees are some of the main benefits of using such software. A business that keeps an accurate track of the time of its operations is likely to be more successful than the one that doesn’t. 

Moving further, we will study how not using a powerful timesheet software can cost businesses big time. 

Automated Timesheet Software- How Not Using One Can Cost You Big Time 

Time is money for businesses. If you want to make the most of it, you should know where all the time of your workforce is going during working hours. There’s so much to gain from accurate time data provided through timesheet software. 

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On the other hand, not upgrading to automation and continuing to create and rely on manual timesheets can cost businesses heavily as it’s not an accurate and reliable method of time tracking. 

Why waste precious time, effort, and space with manual timesheets? Register NOW with ProofHub and digitize all your time data in a centralized location.

Let’s see what businesses stand to lose due to mismanagement of employees’ time. 

• Manual processes of timekeeping are time-consuming and lead to the wastage of human resources in the organization 
• The risk of human error associated with creating manual timesheets is fairly high 
• Fake entries on behalf of another employee are a common issue 
• Manual timesheets take up a lot of space and are prone to damage, theft, and misplacement 
• Manual timesheets are not as accurate as automated timesheets, which can create many problems when making payroll or generating invoices 
• Low scalability and lack of integration with other systems

Must-Have Features For Any Powerful Timesheet Software 

Without a doubt, there are many options available when it comes to the availability of timesheet software today. Every timesheet software is trying to get the customer’s attention by promoting itself as the best in the market. 

However, if you are choosing a timesheet software just because it is the best in the market then you might be making the wrong choice. Like every timesheet software is different, with each offering a different set of features to its users, the same applies to organizations too. 

Every business is different. Your organization’s time-tracking requirements are likely to be different from others. For example, a field management service business might have a different time tracking needs as compared to a shoe manufacturing company. While the former has to record time data of its on-field employees, the latter has to create timesheets for its on-premises employees. 

That said, there are some features that no business, irrespective of its type, can afford to miss out on when choosing the best timesheet software. Do you want to know what are some must-have features that you should look for in a timesheet software? 

Read on, we’ve created a list of essential features for you so that you can make a well-informed decision. 

1. Real-Time Monitoring

This is the main feature to look out for when you’ve got a small or big team to supervise. Real-time monitoring enables you to track what your employees are doing whenever you want to. This will give them a clear idea of whether or not their team members are efficiently utilizing available time or wasting a valuable resource called “time”.

Employees leaving their work midway and indulging in time-wasting activities is a major problem faced by many companies. Real-time monitoring allows managers to check what’s going on on their employees’ screens. While this may appear like you’re spying on your employees, the fact is your employees are aware that their work can be tracked at any time. 

It’s only when employees will browse non-work-related websites that they are likely to feel insecure or anxious about their actions. 

2. Time Reports

Another essential feature that is offered by good teamsheet software. And if the software doesn’t offer this feature then it doesn’t even deserve your second look. Team managers can create custom time reports of people and projects, and see how much time is being spent by people on different tasks and projects. 

When it comes to creating time reports for clients, managers can see the total number of billed hours, billable hours, and non-billable hours. 

3. Timesheets

This feature is the crux of any timesheet software. While nearly all will offer this feature, its functionality and versatility will vary from tool to tool. When looking for a powerful timesheet software, do check out all things that you can do in that particular software timesheet. Generally, a good timesheet solution inbuilt into a top project management software like ProofHub will allow you to : 

• Add multiple timesheets to record time data
• Use timesheets for payroll, client billing, estimation, and time management 
• Set time estimates for different tasks
• Track time manually or using timers
• Export and archive timesheets
• See all time data in a single place 
• Limit visibility of timesheets to selected people

4. Works Smoothly On All Platforms 

As a team manager, you’re supposed to access your timesheet software only from your office, on your PC, or laptop. When you want to monitor your employees in real-time, you should be able to do it on the go or from your home. The optimized timesheet solution works hassle-free across multiple devices, like PC, laptops, iPad, and mobile phones. 

People prefer to work on different devices. Some like to work on PCs, some on laptops, while others on tablets. A good timesheet software solution works equally well on all devices and operating systems including iOS, Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. 

5. Affordable

Covid-19 has hit a large number of businesses across the globe. Many businesses have shut down their operations and many are struggling to survive. In these unpredictable times, it helps to choose affordable timesheet software, especially for startups and small-scale teams. 

You wouldn’t like to invest in a timesheet solution with “per-user” pricing plans. As your team grows, such software can prove to be incredibly expensive on your organization’s budget. Choosing a solution with fixed pricing plans means you only have to pay once monthly or yearly, and continue without worrying about increasing costs.                                                                                                           

6. Integration Capabilities

Would you like to use a timesheet software that can only be used independently, without integrating with other apps of your choice so you can manage other aspects from a single location? I doubt so. Some software API can be integrated with the existing project management software, which is of great use when you’re already using team collaboration and project management software. 

Also, you should be able to export timesheets and all the time data to other systems, which makes integration with other business apps easy. 

7. Technical Support

Imagine you have experienced a technical glitch in your timesheet software at odd hours of the day, and the technical support for your timesheet software is not available. I know you would not want to be left feeling frustrated and helpless in such a desperate situation. 

So, make sure that the timesheet software you choose offers round-the-clock technical support through phone, chat, or email. This will make sure that your timesheet software is back on track as soon as possible in case there’s some sort of technician snag. 

How ProofHub Can Be The Best Timesheet Software For Your Business 

ProofHub is an all-in-one team collaboration and project management tool with many powerful features to simplify complex project management. Timesheets are one of its useful features that are specifically designed to help organizations improve efficiency, increase productivity, and significantly reduce time wastage. 

Easy-to-use and easy to understand, ProofHub’s time tracking software gives team managers and their teams a clear picture of how much time they are spending on tasks and projects. 

With all-time data at a centralized location, team managers can identify areas where unnecessary time is being spent by employees. Similarly, team managers can also analyze the time data accumulated by the timesheet software to figure out the average time spent on completing certain tasks. 

In other words, team managers can assign tasks according to the time taken by team members to complete them. This will ensure that team members are not assigned excessive work that they find difficult to handle. 

Let us take a look at some stand-out features of ProofHub’s time tracking software, which will give us a useful insight into the amazing capabilities of this software. 

• Add multiple timesheets to record time data. Use them for payroll, client billing, estimation, tracking, and even time management.
• Set time estimates to set a clear timeframe for tasks and projects, so team members can set the pace of their work accordingly.
• Know which tasks take more than the estimated time.
• Have Bird’s eye view of all time data of people across all projects, billable or non-billable, project progress, and status, without having to jump through projects.
• You can track time manually or use timers to record the time it takes to get work done.
• You can export timesheets and use them for client invoicing, payroll, estimation, and even time management.
• Archive timesheets from the Time section and use them later whenever required.
• Create custom time reports of people and projects. Get to see logged hours pulled right from your timesheets, all in a one-time tracking tool
• You can limit the visibility of timesheets only to selected few people with whom you want to share them. You can give access to more people or reduce them whenever you want.
• Advanced search allows you to find what you’re looking for in timesheets using relevant keywords and phrases. 

Fed up tedious manual processes to record time spent on tasks by employees? Embrace ProofHub NOW and automate the whole time tracking process to save time, money, and efforts.

The Final Thought

It goes without saying that accurate time tracking has become an integral part of any organization’s time management procedure. You cannot assume your employees are making the right use of available time just because they are present at work. You ought to know how much time they are spending on what activities. 

Using top-rated timesheet software can help your organization save precious time, money, and resources. You will know exactly how much time your employees are spending, on what activities. Detailed time data will allow team managers to filter out low-priority tasks while understanding the individual capacity of every team member. 

So, what are you waiting for? ProofHub offers one of the most efficient and affordable timesheet software you can have for your team. Go, get it and track time the way it should be in the 21st century!