Employee time tracking for hourly employees is a practice as old as the Flintstones. In fact anyone who is old enough to know the Flintstones can remember Fred rolling into work with his foot powered car and punching a “clock” for the day. In old TV shows and films you see a box like contraption on the wall that employees had to get stamped in and out on a piece of paper. Tracking employee hours is not a new concept. But in the age of technology and making our lives easier and more efficient, how we track time has of course changed. No longer do we have literal (or cartoon-like) dinosaurs punching a clock for us, or a big box on a wall stamping paper. Technology has taken over the employee time tracking world and now created the need for emerging employee time tracking apps.
Employee time tracking apps and time management software has taken over and made not only employees lives much easier but also employers and different departments within an organization. Time tracking apps have been developed to help with accounting and HR as well as just tracking time. Time tracking apps and time management software can be simple or as complex as an organization needs. Simply put employee time tracking apps work like a stopwatch to help keep track of the hours an employee is working.
Why You Need Employee Time Tracking Apps
Employee time tracking apps are used to help simplify the organization of hours used on a job or project. Anyone from big organizations to small individual freelancers could be using time tracking apps. These apps are developed to help account for the amount of time or hours spent completing or working on a project. Obviously for larger companies attempting to keep track of hours and other various features associated with working hourly, time tracking apps are a necessity. Additionally for individual workers or small businesses, even if a job is not being completed on a hourly basis it may still be important to track hours to make sure that additional hours are not being spent on a job that is not worth that amount of time or money.
For example, if you are a freelancer working on a $1000.00 project there is a big difference between spending 35 hours on a job versus 65 hours on a job. Keeping track of that time can not only help you become more efficient in your time and billing but also show a client how much time you are actually spending on a particular job.
When looking into various time tracking app options, it is important to look for features that would help assist you in whatever job you are trying to run. Some apps could allow you to adjust mistakes in the stopwatch feature if you accidentally leave it running or some apps are way more complex and have various features as opposed to using a simplified version that only tracks time.
Understanding Time Management Software
Time management software is almost identical to employee time tracking applications. Time management software allows you to track time of a particular job you are completing or keeping track of your employees time. The slight difference is that time management software takes tracking time and organization one step further. Time management software allows employees to track specific time spent on projects and tasks. It also helps to see where time can spent improving on time management within individual and group performance. One of the leading time management software and time tracking apps that is used today is Time Clock Wizard. Take a look below to see how Time Clock Wizard measures up to one of the other leading employee time tracking apps.
Toggl vs. Time Clock Wizard: Leading Employee Time Tracking Apps
Toggl is one of the leading and popular time tracking apps that specifically a lot of freelancers and remote teams tend to use. The employee time tracking app offers super simple time tracking, with just a push of a button time tracking for employees and workers begin. Toggl offers app specific features that allows you to track different data and information. The program works everywhere and on every different device. With any popular application there are always competitors. There are options for organizations to pick the best time management software and time tracking apps that work best for their particular organization.
Meanwhile, Time Clock Wizard is a very similar application that takes the features Toggl has and makes it more user friendly.
Time Clock Wizard is an employee time tracking application and time management software app that is used among popular companies. It works as a scheduling tool, employee time clock and payroll solutions. Time Clock Wizard features to the minute accuracy with managing employee time clocks and accessible from any device synced with the location of your choice. It allows you to manage several aspects of employee time tracking at the same time. This includes clocking in and out, PTO, absences and people arriving late to work. In addition, it also helps to make payroll easy and effective. Companies like State farm, Mercedes, T-mobile, and Hallmark all use Time Clock Wizard to handle their employee time tracking and time management needs. The application is free to use for basic time tracking and for up to 3 users. Plans after that start as little as $14.95 per month.
Know The Time Tracking Apps Out There
1. Hubstaff
Like toggl hubstaff offers easy time tracking and and off-line support, but it has many more features that toggl does not offer. For example, it has the function to set time limits and budgets. If you have to outsource work to say a freelancer or graphic designer but you only have a certain amount of money and time to give them, hubstaff allows you to set that time limit and that budget so they can not exceed the allotted time and money. Hubstaff is like combining time tracking with other apps you already know and love such as paypal and quickbooks.
2. RescueTime
If monitoring productivity is top on your priority list, then rescue time app is a great option. This app will run a silent monitoring of whatever is being using in the URL and will automatically monitor any work that is being completed. Rescue time also runs an automatic report that can be customized to fit your needs.
3. Paymo
Paymo is good for individual workers such as freelancers who may be overwhelmed with the amount of apps and technology they are already currently using. If you are working on a job for a client you can track your work and it is recorded to a time sheet. When the job is complete you can forward the invoice to your client and receive payment all through the app.
4. TimeDoctor
TimeDoctor is similar to RescueTime where it automatically tracks what sites you are using on your URL and other applications. In addition to this feature it also has a timer that you and your other team members can turn on and off for tracking time worked. Another interesting feature is tracking social media time and if it notices you spending too much time on social media sites like facebook, twitter or instagram the TimeDoctor app will give you a little notification to get back to work.
5. DeskTime
This app is popular for companies that have in house staff and employees on site in an office like setting. DeskTime not only calculates hours worked but also will let you know who is late or on time, who is absent, etc. The organization can also track these things and set the app to organize which areas are problematic for different employees. DeskTime would not be a good choice for those who work remotely or as a freelancer.
6. Everhour
Everhour works well as an app for people who already use apps like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, or Github. Similar to other apps, Everhour installs into your browser and embeds straight into whatever tool you already use. You and your time can start the timer manually and run reports of how much you are working to Google Drive or Excel.
7. Freshbooks
Freshbooks is mostly popular with invoicing as it started as a company that sends invoices for organizations. The program also recently added time tracking features which made it convenient to have time tracking and invoicing all together.
Popular Timesheet Apps For Multiple Employees
1. Hubstaff
Hubstaff does it again! Making the list for different time tracking apps and proven to be one of the best apps for multiple employees.
2. Timesheet Xpress
Timesheet Xpress is a tool that provides a timesheet system with features such as organization of tasks and time tracking.
3. Toggl
Toggl is featured again! It’s project management and time tracking abilities works well for multiple employees working internally within a company.
4. Clicktime
Clicktime was an internal solution for an IT company that expanded to its own company in 1999. The program advertises as easy to use and focuses on working with jobs such as nonprofits, consulting, universities, architects, IT and healthcare.
Choose Your Solution
With so many different options it could be hard to choice one software that works best for you. It is important to understand that time tracking apps all offer similar but different features. Meaning they all track time and help to keep yourself or employees accountable. However, each individual employee time tracking application has different features that were designed to gear toward what your main goal is. It is important to figure out first what you want in a time management software. Once you have that figured it, it would be wise to browse through the features from each individual application. Some work best for individuals, while others work best for large companies. The best conclusion of all is that we are in a time where no matter what feature or design you desire, there is the right employee time tracking app out there for you.
