How And Why We Track Our Projects Using Time Tracking?

Aside from the managerial benefits that come with time tracking your projects, there are some valuable financial additions, which can help you for the future and ongoing projects. With the usage of a time tracking software you can effortlessly control just about everything.

You can… Save Data for future projects and hence develop an accurate estimation of cost and time and use the insight to lower those values. Also to evaluate the work still in process, effectively calculate payrolls and cover all billing/invoicing needs. However, these precious bonuses are only available for those, who want to and do keep track on their projects and use the information they can gather from this action.

So, How Can You Tell If A Project Is On Track?

Simply said, by using time tracking to monitor the advancement of your projects. There are few steps you need to follow, in order to keep track of your entire project.

Note if the progress of the project is according to your original plan, and if not how close is it? Knowing where your project is down the line, how far is it from completion and does it move according to plans and estimations, is not so hard. You just need to keep track of the time tasks take to complete successfully, and if everything is produced on time.

If you record time using time tracking software, these are not difficult to answer questions, since you can create projects schedules and tasks, distribute and assign them to your employees and all you have to do is just check their progress.

Another thing you should point your attention to when managing a project is the major milestones. Creating major milestones for your schedule will help you more easily check off assignments and see if you are all moving according to plan. If for instance you divide the work into portions and groups, the time tracking of tasks will be even less troublesome and as simple.

Cross-functional reviews of the tasks is a determiner not only if they are completed on time but according to the expectation of quality. If you do not review the work completed regularly and while it is being done, the solidity of your project is still uncertain. Therefore, when you use time tracking with screenshots, you can check both time and quality, and react to any complications.

Last but not least is check if the means meet the expectations and the goals. Being on track is not only an issue of timing and standards, it is connected with budget specifics and estimations. If you make a sanity check for the ongoing project and adjust it in the process, you would not go over-budget.

And since everything from time to quality and budget is connected, one cannot go without the other. The only way to know if a project is on track is to monitor all those, from the smallest task to the milestone. If you use time and attendance tracking with screenshots and activity levels, you can keep an eye on the project and adjust the work process to meet your expectations.

1. Time Lord. You completed all that you have planned, without any struggles and of maximum quality, had plenty of sleep, food, liquids and free time. – That is great! Certainly your time management is at the highest level and you have no problem keeping your schedules, performance, and productivity at their best. Having the perfect balance between life and career is a dream come true for the true achievers.  Good job!

2. Timeline commander. You completed all you have planned, with some minor issues. Your work was of satisfactory quality, you slept enough, had several good meals, remembered to drink liquids often and had some free time. – Then again, that is an average week for most of the people who are on tight schedule. You have to work better to improve your time management skills and techniques, so that your performance does not drop and you do not compromise your health or personal life! The usage of Time tracking software can help you improve your skills and move up to number one quickly. Keep your head high!

3. Time pawn. You made it before the last minute. Had difficulties meeting the deadlines, you are not sure all went well enough. You had to stay burning the midnight oil at least once, ate fast food at least few times, forgot to drink liquids often enough and there was no actual free time for you. – You definitely have to work on your time management skills and optimize your schedule, so that it works out for you, without the need of overworking yourself. Getting dehydrated, not enough sleep and not eating properly affects your performance. Your body needs strength and endurance or else you lose focus and productivity. You may want to work on your organization skills, use time tracking software to optimize your time spent on tasks and divide your assignments accordingly.

4. Time slave. You missed at least one of your turnarounds. You had so little sleep that you barely pushed through the week because you had to work. You ate next to no cooked meals and forgot to drink liquids. Most of the time – you had no time. Not to mention free one.  – You may consider rethinking your priorities. You need to work on your time management, organization and focus skills. Not having time to take care of your health and wellbeing affected your performance so bad, that it just kept getting worse. What must you do? Reorganize your weekly schedule, so that you have time to rest and reflect. Prioritize your tasks based on their complexity. Use time tracking software to improve your time management and focus so that you get a handle on your performance and enhance your productivity.

By now you have probably understood how important is your time management and productivity if you want to live a healthy life. The better you get at organizing your own time, the more your career and life will flourish. It does not matter if you work for or with someone, or even if you are self-employed. Time is either your biggest enemy or your most loyal friend. Your choice.

Time tracking has a positive effect on your budget

Time is money and every hour counts. To ensure the efficiency of your office, time management is vital. Also, the Invoicing and billing of your company have to be up to the level. However often it happens that the working hours of an employee are not  tracked or is even faked. Using time and billing software for the work process will ensure that all the work is tracked and there will be no “made up” hours which will equal budget loss for your company . Also, that will surely affect the overall budget.

Therefore to ease the Accounting and properly spend the company’s budget , having all the tracked working hours saved and with 24/7 access to the accounting sheet information, you can easily adjust the company’s budget and make sure each employee will get his payment and the calculations for the expenses are covered. Also, there will be no surprise expenses of overworking hours since you can simply adjust the hourly rates and working hours of all your employees.

Moreover, the Spreadsheets and employee work schedule are somewhat bothersome and difficult to process. Yet, when you do that for your entire office with using the simple timesheet software will save you the time and money usually spent on copying and verifying of employee’s working hours, since all of that information is recorded altogether with the accounting. Saved time equals saved money. Every dime counts when a company is growing and excelling on the market.

Time tracking also improves the strategies for your projects

Another critical point in your project’s estimations is the transformation of the workflow’s information into understandable data. The timekeeping software of SCREENish allows you to efficiently estimate all future and ongoing tasks, since it tracks the hours of each employee’s assignment, forming a Workflow Graph that shows the levels of productivity and worked hours. For a proper project management, that information is decisive.

Forming a good business and project strategy requires an ideal knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of all your employees. Knowing how much time it takes any of them to complete their assignment will build solid evaluations for the productivity levels, hence,  how much time will it take for them to reach the set goal.

Time tracking will boost  the productivity of your employees

Reviewing and forming a proper feedback for the Employee’s work requires a regular monitoring and management activity. Having a time tracking software with screenshots and activity levels will give you an insight of the current or past tasks which have been assigned to each employee. This valuable information can help you prevent any damage on the project and will allow you to adjust all your expenses for its completion.

Also, you will allow you to see which of your employees is just not cut for the task. The rearrangement of your team’s assignment and  the removal of the less productive links is better to be done sooner than later. This optimizing will have a whole-scale impact on the success of your business and your team’s achievements.

Furthermore without daily reports the risk management is difficult. Also, creating feedback for the work of your employees will give them the opportunity to adjust their attitude and improve their technique when it is needed.

If you want to run a profitable business, the increasing of your team’s productivity is paramount. Clear  and understandable assignment with reasonable time window is always appreciated by employees and using skill improvement techniques and time tracking will ingrain a productive attitude in your team.

Effective business management is achievable only when all management practices are top notch. Time management is vital and only when using it your operations will be successful, bringing you the desirable profit and success.