Why Time Tracking Matters for You and Your Business

Many of us have negative connotations towards time tracking; perhaps we don’t wish to be honest with ourselves about quite how much time we waste on non-essential tasks or have that fear of ‘big brother’ watching.

But in fact, time tracking can be pretty helpful. And right now we’re going to dispel those misconceptions.

We’ll talk you through how time tracking can help you get more done and feel more accomplished. You’ll also discover the effects for your business–improving your team’s productivity, balancing your work-money relationship, making billing easier and much more.

How time tracking can help YOU

No matter your position or level of seniority–intern to chief exec–time tracking can help you do your job better and feel more satisfied at the end of the day. Here’s how:

Develop good time management habits

We have all heard of that wondrous “work-life” balance, but have any of us ever actually achieved it? Many of us are guilty of putting in way more hours than we are paid for.

Sometimes that’s what’s necessary when an urgent deadline is looming, but if you’re working until the only one in the office is the janitor every day you need to monitor your time better.

Tracking time helps you be honest with yourself about what you truly spend your day doing, value your work time and your home time–make that balance and feel accomplished that you’ve fulfilled your mission for that day.

Manage your time better

That brings us on to point two–time management. Once you know what your spending your time on you can learn to budget it more efficiently. We all love to procrastinate, but it’s not very helpful for you or your health. So, learn to manage your working time better.

That said there’s no harm in taking brain breaks–actually there are some benefits to it too–what’s important is not to let it consume too much of your time. This is all about personal efficiency.

Get paid for work you do

Whether you’re self-employed, billing a client for your company, or just need to know the hours you worked so you can get paid; tracking your time with software helps take the guesswork, and stress, out of it.

When you’re “on-the-clock”, so to speak, you’re also likely to become more efficient during your working hours. Time tracking leads to self-honesty and self-discipline, so if you start the countdown, you’ll naturally increase your productivity too.

How time tracking can help YOUR BUSINESS

While, of course, the “you” benefits apply to your employees as individuals, helping them as they helped you, now we’re going to look at the effect on your business. So, let’s dive right in and take a look at how time tracking software can transform your company:

Use your team’s time wisely and keep projects under control

Just like your personal time, time tracking software can help you optimize your team’s performance. This is not about judging who has been slacking off a little–sometimes downtime is justified–this is about ensuring that the work is distributed correctly and it’s manageable for your employees within their current hours.

The stress-performance balance is essential to getting the best from your team. The absence of stress can cause a slowdown due to the lack of incentive to work, while conversely overly stressed employees may be careless–think Newton’s first law of motion.

Your time tracking data will show if your current employees can manage with their workload or if you’ll need to draft in some extra hands to make that deadline.

Time tracking also keeps your projects on track, letting you know how fast work is being done, if you’ll need to make any project adjustments to ensure the project’s success, and estimate more accurate completion dates.

Optimize your work-money relationship

The crucial point behind any business, no matter how much you love the work, is just that it is business; a for-profit company designed to bring an income to you and your employees.

Time tracking illustrates which activities are profitable for your business, and which are not. And while you might need to decipher the data on direct profitability and indirect, time tracking will raise areas for concern and celebration. It will allow you to optimize your company’s work-money relationship for a more successful business.

This is a huge factor for the growth of your company; accurate time-money-work estimations could see you increasing your profits in future projects.

External expectations and billing

Whether you’re a SaaS company, an outsourcer, service, or product company, at the end of the day there’s always going to be an outside source to impress–investors, clients, etc.

Even though they’ve hired you, or invested in your company, they may not have a very clear idea of what work is being done and where their money is going.

Time tracking lets you show exactly how much bang for their buck they’re receiving from your team’s hard work in a detailed work report, which could potentially drive further business, funding or a much-needed spending increase.

Transform payments

If you’re a bill-by-the-hour kind of business, tracking your time with a timesheet software ensures you track as you go, and doesn’t leave everything to the last second when you’ve almost forgotten how many hours you’ve toiled away; allowing you to automate and get straight to the point–getting paid.

Speaking of payments, it’s time to talk payroll. If you are an employer, by using time tracking software you can automate payroll processes on your computer, cutting down the time you need to input data.

Be a team player

Companies are about teamwork. Those lone wolves, they may be effective to a certain extent, but at the end of the day completing large-scale projects require a variety of skills, not just one person, and that means teamwork.

Time tracking allows you to distribute work evenly across your team and adds transparency to the working process by showing how many hours everyone has put in to make this project happen. It also incentivizes workers to strive harder to meet their goals as they don’t want to be seen as the slacker, bringing pride back into the workplace.

That said, the software also avoids the situation of unmet deadlines by highlighting if someone needs help based on the estimated (reported) time, so you can provide it before it’s too late. Not as the "bad big brother” watching, but in order to meet the ultimate goal getting work done right.

What to take away?

If you’re seeking to boost your business, optimize your working process, or even get more out of your own day; time tracking software is a simple solution that provides a number of benefits helpful to you and your business.

What’s important is to choose a time tracking software that meets your exact needs. You may wish to consider if this software integrates with your current project management tools, account software, and messaging services, to ensure you get value for your money.

Happy time tracking!