Time Management Software – Is Your Employees’ Time Accounted for?

Every individual, company or organisation, large and small should have time management strategies in place to ensure their operations run as smoothly as possible.

The intricacy of the time management system you require will vary according to the number of staff or contractors you employ and the complexity of the tasks they and you deliver. For sole traders and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), a simple excel spreadsheet completed weekly, which breaks activities into categories with blocks of time assigned to each may be sufficient. However, for larger organisations with tens, hundreds or even thousands of staff; or organisations with multi-site operations perhaps spanning national and international borders; and critical projects with largely unmovable deadlines, effectively managing time is often crucial to the overall success of a project and indeed the future of the company as a whole.

If you are considering introducing time management software to manage productivity, you will likely be aware of the potential benefits to be gained, including increases in productivity, reduction in down time, greater transparency, reduced admin, simplified reporting and so on.

But what options are available and which time management system is right for your business?

Off-the-Shelf Time Management Software

There are indeed hundreds of free and subscription based time and expense management solutions on the market as highlighted by Capterra and Business.com. These comparison sites and reviews can help you to find a suitable piece of software for your business, but if they fall short of your selection criteria and the features just don’t quite mould to your unique requirements, commissioning bespoke time management software may be the way forward for your organisation.

Bespoke Time Management Software and Mobile Apps

There’s no doubt that there’s an additional upfront cost involved in creating a bespoke software solution, at least in the short-term until the software has paid for itself, but the end result also tends to be a much more user-friendly platform which meets your needs more effectively.

One issue you will need to consider during the product specification stage is how users will access the time management application. This will identify whether you need web-based time management software, which is perhaps better suited to office based staff or consultants, or a mobile app which will work better for salesmen, tradesmen or any other worker who is regularly on the road and away from a laptop or desktop PC. Perhaps your team has a large number of both types of employee, and therefore a time management system that can be accessed online via the company website or via a mobile app that employees will download to their phone will be necessary.

Other factors that may impact on whether you develop a web based software solution or a mobile app will be the number of functions you need the time management solution to address. An app may be sufficient for one or two key activities but if you require a number of complex and interlinking features, a web based version may be more user friendly.

There is much to consider but the best advice we can give you is to seek professional help. Spend time working with your design partner on a specification that will guarantee that the end product will do what you need it to do. It takes longer and costs more but it will save you a lot of time, money and heartache in the long-run!