Time Tracking Software

Because every second counts

Time is money. Nowhere is this truer than in business. Whether your business consists of just you or of several other employees, tracking time spent on the job is a key part of managing your bottom line.

Software time tracking is a program or application that allows employees to record the time spent on various projects or tasks. It is sometimes called time sheet software, and it may be coupled with attendance software, such as time clock software or time card software.

Unlike manual systems, software time and attendance tracking can be automatically tied into other business applications. For example, employee time clock software can be connected to your business’ payroll software in order to facilitate faster, more accurate processing of paychecks. Or, combine time tracking and billing software to generate invoices for clients.

The type and sophistication of the time tracking software you need is determined largely by the size and scope of your business. If it’s a one-person operation, attendance tracking software is not likely to be necessary, nor is compatibility with a payroll system. In fact, for most small businesses, a simple time tracking application with a few simple reporting features is generally all that is required.

Features and Benefits

The right time and/or attendance tracking package can provide:

• Information. As hard as we try, we often can’t account for every second of our day. Time tracking software allows you to see at a glance exactly where your time is going. It can also identify problem or outstanding employees.
• Efficiency. Seeing where your time goes will help you identify nonproductive periods and tasks so that you can better structure your time around them. It can also reveal parallel tasks that may be overlapped to save you time.
• Convenience. By integrating the software with your other systems, you save yourself the hassle of manually entering the data.
• Savings. Accurately tracking your time will ensure that you invoice clients for every billable minute and only pay employees for actual work time. With to-the-second time-on-task reporting, there’s no more costly rounding.

Top Choices

Some of the more popular time and/or attendance software includes:

• Complete Time Tracking Software
• Track-IT Suite
• TraxTime
• Project Clock Pro
• Timesheet

Major Considerations

When shopping for and evaluating time tracking software, ask yourself these questions:

• What features do I need?
• Do I need it to be compatible with my accounting or HR software?
• How accurate do I need the software to be? (To the minute? To the second?)
• Is it easy to use?
• Can I customize it to my business?

Price Range

Time tracking software ranges in price from around $40 to around $150 per license. Generally, the price per license decreases the more licenses you buy.

Summary

If you have the type of business that requires you to track billable hours for invoicing clients, manage several projects or many aspects of one large project, or track employee hours for purposes of pay and vacation, then time tracking software is probably a wise investment. Look for a program that is compatible with your existing accounting and HR software, and you can save yourself time and money. And in business, that’s the bottom line.