February 26th, 2022 | Updated on December 28th, 2022
One of the main parts of running a successful business is employing the right people. However, even the best employee could be stealing time or buddy punching. So how can you be certain that it’s not happening in your business?
You might say that it’s an inoffensive crime. Five minutes here and there never killed anyone. Nonetheless, this crime is costing businesses billions per year.
If you’re still tracking time with pen and paper or Excel, some minutes can easily be missed. That’s why businesses are looking for digital solutions. The time tracking software Monday reveals the total time taken to complete a task individually as well as for the team. We’ve done the research to provide you with the five reasons why time tracking is a must.
5 Reasons Why Time Tracking Is a Must
1. Employee Attendance
As a business owner, you know the difficulties of the back and forth phone calls trying to find out whether:
- Staff have arrived for their shifts (even better: they’ve arrived on time).
- Workers have taken sick leave.
- Employees have taken vacation days.
And the list goes on. When you aren’t yet digitized, that often means looking through your notes, calling, and texting all day to find out where everyone is. By using a time tracking app, you can know all that information without ever having to make a phone call.
2. Smoother Payroll
Without going digital, you might be subjected to hours of disagreements over how many hours were completed.
For example, you may have scribbled down that one of your employees (let’s call him Joe) worked five hours on Sunday.
Although Joe claims he worked six hours, and since you have no way of tracking, you may end up paying for extra hours and you can’t be sure whether Joe was in fact telling the truth.
When you move over to a digital platform you won’t have to worry about discrepancies because Joe will be clocking in and out directly from his smartphone, and with a GPS timestamp at that.
3. Use the Right Employee Time Clock App
If you’re ready to make the switch and looking for the most user-friendly employee time tracking app, then Connecteam is the answer you’ve been seeking.
Connecteam has everything you need to ensure your business is never prone to time theft or buddy punching. Here are some of the essential time clock features that Connecteam has to offer:
- Employees can clock in and out via the app on their desktop or mobile devices from anywhere.
- If your business revolves around employees meeting at the same site (for example, construction workers, restaurant staff, etc) you can easily set up a kiosk app. It is set up on-site and employees can clock in when they arrive. That means your staff won’t even need to download the app.
- With the help of GPS geofencing, you can set designated areas for your employees to clock in from. This guarantees that they are always clocking in on-site and ensures workers are where they should be at all times.
- You also have the added GPS breadcrumbs feature, which provides you a real-time view of where your employees are once they’ve clocked in. You can see them even while on the move. You’ll be able to see a graphic image which shows you the locations where the employee visited along their day. That means you know if they spent too long at one location, or if they ran an errand they shouldn’t have been doing during the workday.
- With Connecteam, time management is an easy process and ensures that you never have to track time manually again, whether that be with pen and paper or spreadsheets.
Payroll has never been easier, with the following features:
- Sends auto-reminders to employees to clock in and out.
- Seamless integration with Quickbooks Online.
- You can lock the timesheet so that no further changes can be made.
- Time clock limitations ensure employees can only clock in during work hours.
- Add or delete work hours and PTO in bulk.
Connecteam has developed the most user friendly timesheet on the market. Once you get started, you will be wondering how you worked without it.
Connecteam understands the difficulties when it comes to counting hours, therefore, inputting information is so simple, using the least amount of clicks, so you can count hours fast and payroll is a breeze.
And this only scratches the surface of what Connecteam can do for your business. Connecteam also offers you advanced scheduling, task management, engagement opportunities, chat, and so much more.
4. Better Project Management
When you implement time tracking software you can begin understanding how long tasks take to complete.
Once you have that information you can make executive decisions about which projects will gain priority and which projects you can realistically take on.
This is important because you can build better relationships with clients as you are not providing times on the fly. You have the data so you now look more professional too.
5. Budgeting
When you take on a project, your number one priority is your budget. It’s the difference between making a profit or a loss. Therefore, time tracking can aid you to reach those profit goals.
Time tracking provides you with the data to know the length of time needed for a project including the number of workers. Hence, you can make calculated decisions along with charging the right price for your projects.
For example, if you pay your worker by the hour and you think the task takes 3 hours but in actual fact, it takes 5, you now have to add 2 hours of pay to the budget.
When you have a time tracking tool with an efficient timesheet you already know that the task takes 5 hours, so there are no unexpected surprises.
The Bottom Line on Time Tracking
Time tracking does a lot more than just providing you with accurate hours. It assists you in knowing how much time is spent per project, budgeting correctly, and optimizing your employee’s productivity.
What’s more is that you save yourself time as payroll is no longer a struggle. You know how many hours were completed and you can pay accordingly. It’s a win-win situation!
