When you run a business, your company is either making or losing money every minute of every working day. A time tracking tool gives you valuable insights you need to get your business on the right side of that equation.
How do they do this? At a high level, you gain a complete picture of employee time spent on each individual task with a time tracker. This allows you to measure the efficiency of your current workflows and address inefficiencies.
What’s more, employee time tracking software comes with helpful features you can’t get with Excel, swipe cards, punch clocks, or paper timesheets. These special features empower you to:
- Automate data entry.
- Measure employee productivity.
- Offer customers precise, detailed estimates and invoices.
- Reduce payroll mistakes.
- Better manage project costs.
- Plan for the future with more accurate data.
- Get real-time updates from the job site.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Simply put, the best time tracking apps arm you with the tools you need to make you more efficient and profitable.
Questions to ask when choosing a time tracking tool
So now that you know the benefits of an employee time tracking app, how do you pick the best one for your business?
There are literally hundreds of choices out there with a wide variety of features. To complicate matters a little more, no two businesses are exactly alike. There is, however, some functionality that every business needs to get the most out of its time tracking tool.
That said, these are the questions you need to answer before deciding on the best time tracking tool for your business.
Does it have a mobile app?
This is a deal-breaker for service businesses with teams that work in the field.
To get the most accurate data, you need the exact number of actual working hours for each block of time.
A time tracking tool with a mobile app is really the only way for your field team to accurately log time. It’s also the best way for them to confirm what they’re there to do.
A mobile app allows your team to open the work order when they get to the job site. It also gives them a convenient way to start and stop the timer on their mobile devices as soon as they begin and end a task.
Having your team manually fill out time logs leaves too much room for error because, at best, they’d be making their time entries in the truck. And there’s also a real possibility that they don’t fill in timesheets until the end of the day or week, giving you even less reliable data.
Another important feature is that a mobile app acts as a portable employee time clock with attendance tracking. Your field teams don’t need to come to the office just to clock in and out or to hand in timesheets.
Is it cloud-based?
To get the most out of your time tracking tool, it needs to be cloud-based. This is especially true for a mobile time tracking app.
Cloud services allow for updates made in the app to be communicated in real time between your office and field crews. This way you can get live updates of your work crew’s progress on each job and solve any delays or issues.
Another big reason going cloud-based is important? A cloud-based time tracking tool also enables you to check employee availability and send last-minute work orders to your teams in the field.
Does it address the challenges your business faces?
Measuring the blocks of time needed to complete each job is a basic feature of an employee time tracking app. But for your business to thrive, you need more than just a simple time log.
The right automatic time tracking app will have reporting features that give you the insights you need to:
- Improve your teams’ time management skills.
- Help you with accurate budget forecasting.
- Reduce project costs.
- Streamline your operations.
Can it integrate with the tools you already use?
One of the biggest benefits of time tracking software is the ability to automate workflows and reduce the need to manually enter the same data in different programs.
In other words, your time tracker needs to make for simple software integration. This way, data can be imported to and from your time tracking app and your accounting and invoicing tools, email, scheduler, contact list, and more. And software integration isn’t just about making your life easier and saving valuable time, it also reduces the chances of a data entry mistake making you look bad in front of a customer.
Does it have a free trial?
One of the great things about software solutions these days is that many will give you the option to try before you buy.
A standard free trial should be enough time to:
- Get used to the interface.
- Experiment/play around until you learn how to use it.
- Start seeing the benefits of a time tracking tool.
So now that you know the features that are crucial to your business, let’s take a look at Method’s time tracking solution.
Method’s app checks all of the above boxes and more. Keep reading to find out the 4 top reasons why our popular time tracking app should be your go-to solution.
Why Method should be your time tracking tool of choice
Rated as the number one CRM for QuickBooks, we’re experts in workflow automation.
Many of our field service customers needed time tracking functionality so we built one based on their input into our CRM and FSM solutions.
The result? A time tracking tool perfect for service businesses with work crews in the field.
Our time tracking solution simplifies your workflows for both your office and field teams. These are the features that make it happen.
1. Simple payroll automation with two-way QuickBooks sync
Data entry, especially from multiple sources, is one of those tasks that:
- Takes a lot of time.
- Can lead to costly mistakes.
- Is not a good use of your resources.
Based on the feedback from our customers, we built a time tracking app that solves these issues and more.
To do so, Method’s Time Tracking app syncs with both the QuickBooks online and desktop versions.
Billable hours logged in the time tracker are imported into QuickBooks and can be approved and sent to your payroll and invoices in a few clicks — eliminating double data entry and reducing your office staff’s workload.
With Method’s powerful two-way time tracking sync with QuickBooks, you’ll enjoy:
- Easier, faster, and more accurate payroll and invoices.
- A 360-degree view of every customer and job from estimate creation to job completion and billing.
- Painless approvals — entries can be approved in bulk for maximum efficiency.
2. Replace manual employee timesheets with a user-friendly mobile app
Tracking time with our mobile app means not having to worry about constantly chasing after your team to fill out accurate timesheets.
Our easy-to-use mobile time tracker makes it convenient for your field crews to record time entries.
Your team simply pulls out their phones before and after a job to start and stop the timer. That’s it! Say goodbye to clipboards, stacks of paper, or trying to find a pen.
And the best part? You get more accurate data because there is no delay between when your team logs their hours and when they complete the work. No more trying to remember how much time was spent on a task or rounding up or down.
Automated time tracking also makes invoicing customers easier and more accurate. Approved time logs can be added to invoices in a few simple clicks.
So now both you and your customers can be assured that they are only being charged for actual billable time.
Better yet, Method lets you create custom QuickBooks invoices so you can include as much detail as you need on your invoices, something your customers are sure to appreciate.
3. Get real-time reports from the field with our cloud time tracking tool
Our online time tracker gives you instant updates on job progress, employee hours, and what’s happening at the job site.
By keeping you connected with your team in the field, our app enables you to:
- Troubleshoot problems on the job site as they happen.
- View notes left by your work crews in their time tracking entries in real-time. This information can be grouped by employee, job, or customer as required, making it easy to find it when you need it.
- Capture revenue from last-minute and emergency work orders.
What’s more is, with real-time information, you gain a data-driven look at individual employee performance and overall team activity.
Having access to this data positions you to:
- Accurately identify operational bottlenecks.
- Optimize scheduling to reduce costs.
- Create more accurate estimates.
4. Connect the tools you love
So far you’ve learned about our time tracking tool’s easy integration with QuickBooks for payroll and billing processes.
The Time Tracker app also has native integrations with the programs you rely on every day — making it easier to automate even more of your workflows. We’ve highlighted two of the more popular integrations below.
Google Calendar
This app is everywhere, including your employees’ phones. You can schedule tasks, reminders, and jobs with information automatically imported from our time tracking tool.
Zapier
With our Zapier integration, your time tracking tool can be connected to hundreds of apps.
Based on the workflows you create, you can trigger time entries to import and create reports, contact customers from within the app, send invoices automatically, and so much more.
Recap: Why Method is the top time tracker for teams on QuickBooks
To sum up, a time tracking tool empowers business owners and managers to drill down on how time is being used on each task and project.
By doing this for your business, you gain the insights you need to streamline workflows, reduce project costs, and keep your customers happy with more precise estimates and invoices.
Method’s time tracking solution was designed with service businesses in mind. Our Time Tracker app:
- Automates your payroll process and ends double data entry with our QuickBooks sync.
- Makes it easy for your team to record precise time entries in the mobile app.
- Keeps you constantly connected to your field teams and ensures that everyone’s up-to-date and on the same page with a cloud-based service.
- Takes workflow automation to new heights with native software integrations.
Find out why Method’s app is the go-to time tracking tool with a free trial.
Image credit: Scottslm via Pixabay
