Chances are that in your professional lifetime, you’ve heard managers, supervisors, or fellow employees remind you to track your time in some form or another. Perhaps that was directed towards meeting a goal. Maybe it was meant to question if the task you were completing was as beneficial as something else.

No matter the case, time tracking is a key component to any successful business, and one that often highlights gaps or improvement opportunities in productivity, insight, and workflows. In this article, we’ll highlight some of the benefits of using time tracking software, as well as provide our pick for the best time tracking software for your business.

#1. Increased Employee Efficiency

To begin, it’s no secret that time tracking improves employee efficiency. Every hour on the clock is an hour calculated towards productivity, so any software that can streamline this process is a huge leg-up. Managers are given the ability to analyze the workdays of their employees, calculating everything from their lunch break, to the time they spent on different tasks within a given period. If employee productivity seems lower than it should be, these numbers paint an accurate picture for new tasks to be allocated to fill in those gaps.

On the flip side, if employees seem buried beneath too many tasks, with a noticeable drop in overall productivity, these same numbers provide ways for their managers to re-allocate or even remove time-consuming, unnecessary delays. In short, time tracking software gives managers and employers a deep-dive into their own workflows, giving valuable insights into their most asset: their employees.

#2. Employee Performance Recognition

One of the most common misconceptions about time tracking software is that it only tracks the click-in and clock-out times of the employees using it. In reality, it does a much better job of tracking what happens between those hours, as true productivity is measured against tasks assigned, tasks completed, and the interruptions or delays that happen within the same time frame.

Take that early morning meeting for example. Perhaps your boss thought you needed to be present, but he or she also gave you a list of tasks that needed to be completed before the end of day. The clock is ticking, nothing of value is being said within the meeting, but you weren’t given the choice to opt out. You know your performance review is coming up, but rather than stress on not having enough time for your duties, you’re able to point to that meeting later as an indicator of how your workflows were impaired with unnecessary delays. Thanks to time tracking software, should your boss decide the meeting wasn’t unnecessary in the short term, they’re still able to review your workflows in the grand scheme of things, re-allocating further meetings, project tasks, and feedback sessions to find a beneficial solution for all. Again, transparency is key, and no one feels unheard. The numbers speak for themselves, and if there are improvements to be made, they can be seen and heard from both sides.

#3. Team Workflow Evaluation

One of the most common misconceptions about time tracking software is that it only tracks the click-in and clock-out times of the employees using it. In reality, it does a much better job of tracking what happens between those hours, as true productivity is measured against tasks assigned, tasks completed, and the interruptions or delays that happen within the same time frame.

Take that early morning meeting for example. Perhaps your boss thought you needed to be present, but he or she also gave you a list of tasks that needed to be completed before the end of day. The clock is ticking, nothing of value is being said within the meeting, but you weren’t given the choice to opt out. You know your performance review is coming up, but rather than stress on not having enough time for your duties, you’re able to point to that meeting later as an indicator of how your workflows were impaired with unnecessary delays. Thanks to time tracking software, should your boss decide the meeting wasn’t unnecessary in the short term, they’re still able to review your workflows in the grand scheme of things, re-allocating further meetings, project tasks, and feedback sessions to find a beneficial solution for all. Again, transparency is key, and no one feels unheard. The numbers speak for themselves, and if there are improvements to be made, they can be seen and heard from both sides.

#4. Easier Client Billing

Another key benefit to time tracking software is the reduction in stress or difficulty of accurate client billing. Invoices are a time-consuming process on their own, so using software to record and optimize billable hours has immediate, tangible benefits.

To paint a picture, let’s say you have two teams of employees working on a single client’s project. Team A has decided to split the workload 60/40, choosing to do the bulk of the work upfront, while Team B handles the revisions. At the last minute however, Team B has decided that Team A’s work needs more revisions than previously estimated, meaning your client is going to be billed for more work than you initially estimated. Thanks to time tracking software, you won’t need to stress the spreadsheets, as all billable hours are recorded accurately and efficiently. Your client can see at a glance exactly what needed to be done, and the results speak for themselves. Furthermore, neither you nor your teams have to take up unnecessary time migrating their data to different tools, saving even more time and money in the process.

#5. Better Financial Oversight

As has been mentioned throughout this article, the key benefit to time tracking software is the improvement to financial oversight that it provides. As money goes in and out of your business, whether to pay employees, bill clients, train new hires, or adapt to new technologies, your accounting department needs all the help it can get to maintain a transparent, high-level overview of how your business is doing.

Productivity gaps cost money, and above all, any reasonable employer will be looking to maximize efficiency wherever they can, whether it’s through better employee training, resource allocation, or re-examining how and when meetings occur. By making full use of all the benefits of time tracking software, you’ll not only have the right tools for the job, but the perfect all-in-one approach as well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, no matter the size of your business, you owe it to yourself to invest in all the benefits of time tracking software. As for our pick for the best, we recommend ArcTimeTracker, a cloud-based application that will allow your employees to enter and track the time they spend on various projects, all from one easy-to-use, online interface.

With additional admin access and permissions, along with the ability to review, edit, and approve submitted timecards, calculate PTO, and optimize efficiencies, you’ll enjoy a sophisticated suite of reporting tools, all at your fingertips

Take your timecards to the next level, and learn more about ArcTimeTracker with your free demo.