The success of an organization depends on its ability to manage projects effectively. A study by Proofhub says that organizations end up wasting 12% of their time due to poor project management. As project management is a role where you will have to coordinate with people of all levels, you will stand responsible and accountable for many processes and their outcomes. Amidst this busy schedule, it is quite common for someone to miss important details. This is why you can rely on an online timesheet app that will automate the tracking process and keep you informed about the status then and there.
In this article, we will explore the role of an online timesheet app in project management and its benefits for your business.
Project Management – Key to Business Success
The ultimate goal of any organization is to develop its business by delivering quality output on time. To excel in this, each company will require a quality project management process. This process is responsible for communicating with different levels of people like clients, employees, and stakeholders. In addition to that, they are also responsible for tracking the progress at every stage of the project life cycle. Such close monitoring and timely decisions will positively impact the value of your organization.
Here are some of the common methods of time tracking used by project managers.
- Spreadsheets – This is the most common tool. Though they may appear manual, they can be automated to a certain extent, allowing you to perform filters and other functions to manage the system.
- Online Timesheets – People are actively adapting such tools in recent days. This is completely automated and removes most of the manual tasks. Integrating these tools with others is quite efficient.
- Paper-based – This is the least preferred of all. Very few people are dependent on paper-based analysis these days.
- Other tools – They are a few more effective tools to automate and ease your project management tools.
Out of all these possibilities, online timesheets are highly preferred by a vast audience. There are quite a lot of free online timesheet apps out there in the market for you to practice.
Possible Errors in Project Management
Managing projects manually can lead to numerous potential errors. Some of them are,
- Missed Deadlines – Timely reminders and notifications will keep you from missing deadlines. This will keep track of the due date and remind you at regular intervals along with the percentage of work done.
- Budget Overruns – Accurate payroll calculations will save your budget from unnecessary spending. Improper management techniques will let you pay for the employees who are not productive during their working hours.
- Resource Mismatches – You can map the tasks to the right persons. Data analytics of their performance and skills will help you identify suitable tasks for them and plan your processes accordingly.
- Poor Communication – Managers, who have multiple tasks on their plate might miss communicating with the team. Focusing more on time-tracking, and sheet audits, will reduce their communication chances with their team.
An online timesheet application can effectively address all these challenges.
Online TimeSheet Apps
When project management complexity becomes evident, there are ways to simplify it. An analysis of Monday.com demonstrates the role of automation tools in minimizing human efforts. As per the report, 54% of the workforce believes that they would save more than 5 hours by using automation tools. Online timesheet apps are one such automation tool. Online timesheets can replace numerous manual records and automating their effective implementation will save you time and effort in tracking your employees’ time logs manually.
Implementing Online Timesheets in Project Management
Here are some tips for seamlessly integrating online timesheets into your workflows:
- Start with training – Provide resources and onboarding for employees to learn the new system. This encourages adoption.
- Customize configurations – Tailor the timesheet fields, logs, reports, etc. per your tracking needs. This will ensure increased usability.
- Integrate with existing tools – If you use project management, billing, or ERP software, connect it with your timesheet app for centralized data.
- Automate processes – Use capabilities like auto-reminders and notifications to reduce manual oversight. This will boost compliance.
- Analyze data frequently – Review timesheet analytics often to identify resource gaps or budget issues. Analyzing and working on it at the early intervention will prevent problems.
Change management is critical when implementing new systems. But the benefits will quickly outweigh any initial hurdles faced.
Benefits of Timesheet Apps in Project Management
Online timesheet apps offer multiple advantages in project management. Here are some key ones.
Accurate Time Tracking
This will remove the burden of manually monitoring the productivity of your employees. Instead, you can implement online timesheet apps that will automatically track your employee’s clock-in and out time and evaluate their monthly working hours. This will increase the accuracy of your timings.
Resource Allocation
As timesheets can evaluate individual performance and productivity, you will be provided with enough insights to plan on the resources. These online timesheet tools will collect all the data and let you visualize them in a presentable format. These reports will draw a picture of an individual’s capabilities, and availability which is the key to allocating tasks. On the other hand, it will also give you ahead of the people who are off, so that you can tweak your allocation process anytime.
Streamlined Invoicing
Collaborating the timesheets with payroll processes will help the finance department to cross-check the employees working hours, and their productivity. Integration can also minimize payroll errors, ensuring your employees are paid accurately and on time.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Time logs might seem negligible, but when analyzed, they can bring significant benefits to project management. When subjecting the timesheets of many employees to analysis, you will get to develop a business insight that can not be achieved with any logical analysis.
Automatic Reminders and Alerts
These systems include the feature of sending automatic alerts and reminders. You can set it in a way that the timesheet apps send reminders to every stakeholder about the project deliveries and the targets. This will help you to speed up your process and deliver the work on or before the deadline.
Integration With Other Tools
Timesheets’ efficiency doubles up on integrating it with other tools. With the payroll process and attendance process, this can give a huge picture of the employee’s productivity. On the other hand, if integrated with a data analytics system, you can modify your strategies and win huge business results.
The Future of Project Management With Online Timesheets
Online timesheets already provide significant support for project management. In addition to this, it also has the potential to align with technological advancements and make a considerable impact on businesses. Online timesheet apps continue to evolve with exciting new developments on the horizon:
- Artificial Intelligence and Analytics – Predictive analytics will enable scenario planning and forecasting. AI can optimize resource scheduling.
- Enhanced Mobility – Time tracking on smartwatches, improved offline access, and location-based logging will boost adoption.
- Deeper Integrations – Platforms like Workday, SAP, and Microsoft Project will integrate at deeper levels for unified systems.
- Increased Automation – More plug-and-play automation will be available for workflows, alerts, approvals, etc., thereby boosting productivity.
These innovations will make timesheet apps an indispensable part of project management. Adopting these solutions will soon become a competitive necessity for maintaining efficiency.
Final Thoughts
Adapting online timesheet software is a smart way for businesses to boost productivity, costs, capacity planning, and outcomes for project success. This online timesheet application facilitates real-time tracking, unified data, and automation to streamline project management. By utilizing this application, you can streamline your workflows and implement a timesheet solution tailored to your specific needs.
