Online timesheets: 3 useful ways to implement them for your team
)
Paper-based timesheets or their digital equivalent — spreadsheets — are rapidly facing extinction. These lumbering dinosaurs are no match for the nimble, flexible, versatile online timesheets that have evolved to take their place.
If you haven’t tried online timesheets, here’s a quick introduction to explain why you’ll be way ahead once you begin to track employee time with software.
What’s an online timesheet?
Online timesheets allow an employee to record their work hours digitally, either through mobile apps or across multiple platforms on mobile devices and desktop computer software. Their manager can access this data via the cloud and use it to track attendance, monitor labour costs and control overtime.
It’s also a much more accurate system for payroll and reduces errors. This is no small problem: 1 in 3 Australian employers admit to making employee payment mistakes every pay run. It’s even worse in the UK, with 9 in 10 organisations admitting to making payroll mistakes every month.
Another issue, time theft, is another ongoing - and costly - issue for employers. It’s no surprise that online employee timesheets have proliferated in response to an unmet need for greater accuracy in timekeeping.
How your business can benefit from time tracking software
There are a number of benefits that arise from using timesheet software.
Save money
More accurate time tracking can save money and improve payroll processes, reducing the likelihood of paying people for work they haven’t done. That’s a substantial win for a small investment in time recording.
Real-time scheduling
Say goodbye to outdated schedules. An online timesheet app will send automatic reminders to your whole organisation and distribute updates via the cloud to mobiles, remote and hybrid workers.
Better communication
Time-tracking software can send alerts to all staff simultaneously about new schedules, shifts, overtime or any operational issues, giving you far more flexibility, efficiency and effectiveness in communicating.
Operational visibility
By employing client and job codes, you can monitor online timesheets to more accurately track time, assess billable hours worked on various projects and produce detailed reports. These new insights improve billing fidelity and also can help identify staff or workflow problems to enable training or other solutions.
Online timesheet app
Clocking on and off with mobile apps eliminates manual time tracking and provides an accurate record of employee hours worked. GPS stamping also identifies location, so you can confirm staff are where they should be (very useful, for example, for transport companies).
Seamless integration saves time on administration
The best online timesheets systems can be seamlessly integrated with legacy software to automate manual tasks. This can include your payroll system and your accounting software, letting you track time and wages costs to an unprecedented level.
3 ways to use online timesheet software
Once you free timesheets from the tyranny of pen and paper, their digital form enables all kinds of benefits that go beyond mere timekeeping. This can be seen more broadly as a way of leveraging smart tech to help automate HR tasks and optimise valuable resources.
Equitable work distribution for monthly and hourly employees
There’s nothing more debilitating at work than feeling overworked relative to your peers. Timesheet data can reveal how much each employee has on their plate so managers can distribute workloads fairly. The result is equitable and transparent. Employees remain engaged and do not burn out, which can lead to an increase in employee productivity.
Tracking tasks
When it comes to project management, timesheet software can help to monitor employee qualifications and progress. If employees are underperforming relative to their colleagues, the timesheet data can help track their time and establish whether it’s an over-capacity issue or they’re being underproductive. These insights allow managers to support staff with extra training or a reallocation of responsibilities.
Measuring workplace efficiency
Timesheet software provides rich data that goes well beyond time tracking, billable hours, overtime hours or the payroll process. You can get insights into which clients are consuming the most account management time, or whether your projects are exceeding their scope in time allocation. You can discover the most productive working hours of certain key employees and improve their efficiency by moving their meetings to less critical times. It’s also simple to produce weekly reports.
Implementing online timesheets with a mobile app
Workforces that have adopted mobile apps for time recording and workforce management have found the transition is a boon for managers and employees equally. Staff gain more control of their shifts, leave and availability. They find it easier to collaborate with remote team members. Engagement goes up.
Managers can keep in touch with their teams and gain more visibility into progress and productivity, without interrupting workflows. They can make changes on the go and it frees them up to be more flexible while remaining informed.
A mobile app also frees managers to manage by removing much of the burden of manual administration. Onboarding can now be integrated into the software so that all the company policies and procedures about timesheets are integrated in the app itself.
Conclusion
An online timesheet is a great way to track time and employee hours. When automated workplace software has features like automatic reminders, GPS tracking, time clock, work hours, web dashboard and detailed reports, its value to a business becomes ever greater. The gains in staff engagement from great autonomy are equalled by benefits to managers from automation, leading to enhanced productivity and streamlined administration.
How Humanforce can help
Humanforce is a leading provider of shift-based workforce management solutions that simplify onboarding, scheduling, time and attendance, employee engagement and communication.
Customers in more than 23 countries use Humanforce to optimise costs, realise compliance confidence, empower their team and drive growth.
Humanforce was founded in Sydney in 2002, and today has offices across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK.