The goal is simple when it comes to time management: try and do more with less. When you run your own business, time is one of your greatest resources and expenses. Tracking time is crucial… but a pain in the neck!
But, good time tracking can help you understand your business and make meaningful strides towards more efficiency.
Timesheets are one of the best ways to measure your business’s productivity and how you and your team are spending your day. With a lot of tracking methods, it can sometimes feel like the benefits of collecting information can be outweighed by the extra time it takes. However, timesheets can be an important part of understanding your operations, identifying issues and can ultimately save you money.
Blog: How Forgotten Timesheets Are Costing Your Business Over $40,000 A Year
When done right, collecting and understanding timesheets is far from a waste of time.
Keeping Everyone On Task
Timesheets for employees give you and your team a clear idea of what your days are focused on. It can help your team to understand where they are spending most of their working day and help them to identify areas for improvement. It reduces the randomness of the workplace and gives you a clear view of your team’s productivity.
See Why Forbes Says You Should be Tracking Time
Streamlined Billing
If you bill your clients hour-for-hour, calculating billable time can be a real pain. Timesheets can allow you to see exactly how many hours you and your team have spent on a particular project and easily translate that into a bill for your client.
No more guessing and trying to calculate, just keep that timesheet and come payday, you’ll be able to deliver an accurate bill to your clients. This allows you to bill with confidence and also ensures that you get revenue for the time your team actually spent, reducing the chances of unprofitable projects.
Blog: Get Your Timesheets Signed Off Easily With WorkGuru Forms
Manage Your Resources Better
Far too often you’ll under- or over-guesstimate how many hours or how many people it takes to get a job done. Keeping a timesheet will allow you to clearly measure the actual time spent on a project and understand how to better utilize your team’s time in the future.
Are five of your employees working on a project that only takes two people? Did the project you predict would take four hours actually take ten? Either way, it could be adding unaccounted for costs and expenses, that are completely hidden without timesheets.
Managing Your Costs of Production
Calculating your cost of production can be a daunting task, particularly with large and complex projects. When there are materials’, supplier fees, employee wages and a seemingless endless list of other costs to consider it can feel almost impossible to take it all into account. While there are myriad different ways to calculate your costs, a timesheet is a vital tool in doing so!
Blog: 5 Ways Productivity Can Be Improved By The Right Project Management System
Timesheets will allow you to see exactly how much time you spent ordering materials, paying your suppliers and how many hours were spent on the project in total. If you can get ahead of the game by taking into account all of these specifically calculated costs at the start of a project, you’ll have a benchmarking tool that’s customised to your business. You’ll be able to see where your costs are high and how you could adapt to bring those costs down.
Keeping Your Employees Happy
Two things make up a successful business: happy customers and happy employees. Staff with high morale and job satisfaction are more likely to work harder and produce better results, which means a better product for you to sell to clients. One way to help staff feel happier at work is by rewarding and acknowledging hard work.
If an employee takes some extra time after their shift to finalise an important job, or finds a way to reduce the time it takes to complete a task then this should be acknowledged. However, if you can’t see it, you can’t reward it. This is where effective timesheets come in handy.
WorkGuru can help you track time, keep track of your project costs and bill for the time your team spend. Chat to the team today to get a free demo of WorkGuru and see how it works for your business.
