Manual tracking: The employee keeps track by hand of when they arrive or leave, take a break or how much time they have dedicated to specific projects.Most tools offer one of the three following options for tracking time. Currently, the selection is so large that you and your employees can try out different tools to find the most appropriate one for you and your company’s needs.
Most time tracker tools are user-friendly and easy to learn how to use. This helps save money that especially in the early founding phase is often better invested in other areas. Additional hardware – a terminal for tracking time, for example – is not necessary. Normally every employee receives their own login details that are only known to them to access the system. Online time tracking tools can be quickly and seamlessly set up. If only a limited amount of time or budget is available, then you’ll immediately see when this will be reached or even exceeded.Įxamples of project-related working hours timekeepingĩ:00 am to 9:30 am: Read and respond to e-mailsġ0:30 am to 12:30 pm: Work for customer X This has the advantage of enabling you to keep an eye on a project’s progress and its cost-efficiency. These tools display the hours that employees have spent on specific projects using descriptive diagrams. With online timekeeping, you can set your budgets or hourly rates for specific activities or projects. In doing so, not only is the total working time tracked how much time the employee takes to complete a specific project is also determined. This is important in many agencies, for example, or specialist departments that do the groundwork for other departments within the company. With project-related timekeeping, in contrast, individual activities, projects, or customer service hours are tracked. With work-related tracking, only the arrival and departure times are tracked, as well as break times. Workings hours can be tracked in two different ways. If your employees work too much, this might mean that you need additional staff or that processes need to be optimized.
With this in mind, time tracking has another function in addition to merely displaying the working hours that have been achieved: They can also reveal a company’s time and personnel shortages. On the one hand, overtime hours are regulated by law on the other, excess work can be detrimental to your employee’s work-life balance and even their health.
You also see if your employees are working too much. If you track working hours, you learn not only if someone is shirking their work. It’s true that trust is good, however, it’s common knowledge that oversight is better for all parties involved. Entrepreneurs often trust employees themselves to be mindful of adhering to the working hours stipulated in their employment contract. While a company is being established and just afterwards, its focus is often on things other than tracking working hours.