As a business owner have you ever found yourself completely at a loss as to why some jobs have made no money at all and taken so much longer than expected? Or what you thought was a reasonable time estimate turned out to be completely off the mark? It can be quite easy sometimes for hours worked to blow out, especially with a looming deadline, unexpected complications arising or a desire to keep a new client happy. And with fixed fee jobs, the business simply has to wear the cost of the extra hours worked. It ‘s essential for all businesses, particularly project based ones, to know exactly how the time of their employees and contractors is being spent in order to monitor productivity and ultimately profitability. By always using employee time sheets and job time tracking software, managers can consistently track hours worked and know which jobs are most profitable, which to outsource or which to simply say ‘no’ to.

By knowing how long certain tasks are taking, and seeing where you spend your time, you can make your project estimates more accurate and your business more productive. This close monitoring helps keep project hours in check, and businesses that track billable hours can easily see the time spent on a particular project. This is also a very good way of ensuring accurate billing by simply generating reports with relevant hours worked and tasks performed. This provides accountability to clients that may be concerned they are being overcharged.

Some time management software offers flexible monitoring for different employees and job types. Employers can track each employee or contract worker and even generate individual reports for greater accountability. For those companies that hire contractors or other freelance talent, time tracking can help keep hours to a specified amount. It also helps to minimises employee distractions. It keeps employees focused and accountable for their every minute ensuring time spent on personal or other non-work related activity won’t take their attention away from the job at hand and it gives employers a way to track it if they do.

The use of time sheets and job tracking software can also be an excellent way to manage time even if your business doesn’t do project based jobs and you don’t need to closely track time spent on client or billable work. It allows you to adjust resources, reprioritise and streamline processes where needed. Tracking your time across all jobs and other business activity can help increase productivity by making you focus on the task you’re working on and can give you a clear picture of exactly where your time is being spent, on a daily basis and over the long term.

Time tracking improves overall company time management. When employees and their managers track the time spent on daily tasks, the company can use this data to streamline processes and improve efficiencies at the individual level but also throughout the business. This makes good business sense, increases efficiency and profitability and ultimately makes both management and clients happy.