Do you ever feel like time is slipping through your fingers at work? Struggling to keep track of your employees’ hours and productivity? In today’s fast-paced world, managing time effectively is essential for the success of any business.
That’s where timekeeping apps come in: they can help you stay organized, save time and increase employee productivity. But with so many time tracking apps on the market, how do you choose the best one for your company?
This article will explain the key features and factors to consider when selecting a timekeeping app for your employees. We’ll also review some of the top options currently available to assist you in making an informed decision. Let’s get started!
Throughout this article, we’ll discuss:
- Top Benefits of Using a Time Keeping App in the Modern Workplace
- Key Features To Look for When Choosing The Best Time Keeping App For Employees
- Factors to Consider When Choosing An Employee Timekeeping App
- Best Time Keeping App For Employees
- Wrap-up: Final Recommendations
Top 7 Benefits of Using a Time Keeping App in The Modern Workplace
A timekeeping app is a mobile or web-based application that enables companies to track and monitor employee hours, attendance, and productivity. It helps employers accurately measure an employee’s performance over a given period and provides valuable insights into their work habits.
Traditional workplace settings have depended on manual timekeeping methods like paper timesheets or punch clocks. But with the emergence of digital solutions, companies can now benefit from automated processes that save time and reduce costs. Also, many timekeeping apps offer features like clock-in/clock-out using GPS or face recognition to suit hybrid work settings.
The following are some of the key benefits of using a time keeping app in the modern workplace:
1. Increased Accuracy and Efficiency
Accurate, reliable, and up-to-date employee data is essential for timesheet management. With a timekeeping app, you can be sure that all the information is accurate and automatically updated in real time. This eliminates manual errors or omissions from human error when dealing with paper timesheets.
Moreover, since the data is accessible online 24/7, managers can quickly review and approve hours worked as soon as they are submitted. This helps save time and money while ensuring records’ accuracy.
2. Improved Employee Accountability
Timekeeping apps offer features like location tracking or facial recognition to ensure employees clock in and out at the correct times. This helps employers track employee attendance and productivity, making them more accountable.
With automated time tracking, you can also get detailed reports on each employee’s performance over a given period. Such insight allows managers to quickly identify any issues related to attendance or punctuality so they can take corrective action as needed.
3. Enhanced Productivity
Timekeeping apps allow employees to submit their hours and view their timesheets easily. This improves employee engagement and makes them more productive as they can quickly review and adjust their work schedules if needed.
Moreover, many timekeeping apps offer automated reminders to alert employees when to clock in or out. This helps ensure that everyone is clocking in at the right times, eliminating any discrepancies between actual working hours and submitted timesheets.
You will notice a quick improvement in productivity in the following areas:
- Employee engagement
- Task completion
- Accurate time tracking
- Payroll process streamlining
4. Simplified Payroll Processing
Manually processing payroll can be tedious and time-consuming at the end of every pay period. But with a timekeeping app, you can automate the payroll process and quickly generate accurate reports for each employee’s hours worked. This helps simplify the payroll process and ensures that all employees are compensated fairly for their work.
Employees can also send time-off requests and vacation days using the app, which helps streamline the approval process. This eliminates any manual paperwork or administrative tasks involved in payroll processing.
5. Better Compliance
Compliance with labor laws and regulations is essential for any business, especially regarding employee hours. With an employee time keeping app, you can be sure that all the necessary information is recorded accurately and consistently across all employees in your organization. This helps ensure compliance with local, state, or federal regulations.
Moreover, many timekeeping apps offer features like overtime tracking and vacation/sick leave tracking to help employers comply with relevant laws. Also, as those apps keep a history of all time sheets in the cloud, you can access them anytime for audit or review.
6. Enhanced Workflow Visibility
Time keeping apps also give employers visibility into employee performance and attendance. Managers can easily view who is working when taking breaks or lunch, how long their shifts are, and more. This helps them stay on top of their team’s progress and make better decisions for resource allocation. It also provides the opportunity to identify any potential issues or areas of improvement quickly.
Regarding project management, you will always know the task status and progress. This helps you manage projects more efficiently and make sure they are completed on time.
7. More Optimized Resource Allocation
Finally, timekeeping apps allow you to optimize resource allocation by providing insights into the hours and resources used for each project. This helps you make informed decisions on how to use your resources best. It also makes it easier to plan projects accurately and meet deadlines.
You can make data-driven decisions to ensure efficient resource utilization, reduce costs, and improve employee performance.
10 Key Features To Look for When Choosing The Best Time Keeping App For Employees
When choosing a time keeping app for employees, you should look for features that can help you manage your employees’ hours more efficiently. Here are some of the key features to consider:
1. Real-time Tracking
One of the fundamental features of a timekeeping app is the ability to track employee hours in real time. This helps you monitor your employees’ time on tasks and projects and whether they take unscheduled breaks or work overtime.
Real-time tracking also makes it easier to identify potential problems, such as mismanagement of resources or unproductive behavior, so you can take corrective action quickly.
Apart from real-time tracking, many time-keeping apps also come with an activity tracking feature, which allows you to monitor browsing and app usage history, keystroke logging, and other activities.
2. Mobile-friendly Time Clock
The modern-day work environment has become increasingly mobile. So, selecting an employee timekeeping app that offers a user-friendly mobile interface and allows your employees to clock in from any location is essential.
Look for a timekeeping app with a simple, intuitive design that ensures quick and easy time tracking on the go. The best time keeping apps for employees are compatible with Android and iOS devices.
Mobile apps may also let you use GPS tracking to monitor your employees’ location when clocking in and out. This helps ensure your employees are at work rather than working remotely or taking long breaks.
3. Leave Request & Approval Management
Managing leave requests can be time-consuming and frustrating. Automating this process with a timekeeping app makes managing leave requests easier, tracking the number of days taken off, and approving or rejecting requests quickly.
This feature also helps ensure employees take their allotted leave following company policies. Additionally, you can use the data collected to get meaningful insights into employee attendance patterns over time.
4. Employee Scheduler
A good employee timekeeping app should also have a scheduling feature. This allows you to easily create and manage staff schedules, assign tasks, and execute shift changes without manually updating the timesheet.
Advanced time keeping tools for employees offer drag-and-drop functionality for easy schedule creation and management and an interactive calendar view so you can quickly identify any scheduling conflicts or gaps in coverage.
Many apps also offer multiple views, making it easier for all your employees to get a complete overview of the working week. Some views you can use include a timeline, kanban board, and Gantt chart.
5. Real-time Reporting
Another key feature to look for in a timekeeping app is real-time reporting. A good timekeeping app will provide detailed, customizable reports showing you an overview of employee hours and other data such as attendance, leave requests, overtime payments, etc.
The platform should let you generate custom reports with the right filters and parameters, so you can quickly identify any trends or issues that need to be addressed.
6. Analytics and Data Export
Analytics help you gain valuable insights into your employees’ working behavior, such as average hours worked per day or week. A good timekeeping app should provide customizable reports and graphs showing employee performance over time.
The platform should also allow you to export data in various formats for further analysis or integration with other applications. This will help you make better decisions about how to manage your employees’ time more effectively.
7. Integration Capabilities
It’s unlikely that your timekeeping app will be the only tool you use in your company. Modern-day businesses rely on multiple tools and applications to manage their operations. That’s why your timekeeping app needs to integrate with other systems you use, such as payroll processing applications, project management software, or customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.
Integration capabilities help streamline the workflow by automatically transferring data from one system to another, saving you time and effort manually updating information.
A few common integration examples include
- Office and document management: Google Drive, Google Docs, Office 365
- Communication: Slack
- Project management: Asana, Trello
- Payroll: QuickBooks, Xero
- CRM: Salesforce, Zoho CRM
8. Project Management Tools
Project management tools are essential for keeping track of tasks and projects while ensuring productivity. With a timekeeping app, you can easily assign tasks to employees and monitor their progress in real-time.
You can also set deadlines, create reminders and checklists, view project history, and more. The goal is to help you manage your team’s workload better by improving efficiency and communication.
Below are some essential project management features to look for in a timekeeping app:
- Task & Project Management
- Gantt Charts & Timelines
- Communication & Collaboration Tools (e.g., chat, email)
- Activity Feeds and Reports
9. Payroll Automation and Invoice Management
Another critical feature of a timekeeping app is the ability to automate payroll. This helps you save time and effort by automating deductions, taxes, and other calculations while ensuring your employees are paid accurately and on time.
Time-tracking apps also come with invoice management tools that help you generate invoices quickly, track payments, and manage accounts receivable. This makes it easier to keep track of your finances so you can make informed decisions regarding budgeting and cash flow.
10. Customizability and Add-ons
Finally, finding an app with all the features you need for your business is difficult. That’s why looking for an app that allows you to customize and add features according to your specific needs is important.
Look for an app with a wide range of customization options, such as custom fields, filters, triggers, and integrations. This will help ensure that your time-tracking solution meets the unique requirements of your business.
Factors to Consider When Choosing An Employee Timekeeping App
When selecting a timekeeping app for your employees, there are several factors to consider. Some of the most important include
- Business size and type: If you have a small business with just a few employees, you may not need all the features of larger-scale applications. However, if your business has dozens or even hundreds of employees, then it’s vital to choose a timekeeping app that can handle large amounts of data and scale as needed.
- Required Features: Take some time to think about which features are essential for your business. Do you require employee scheduling? Time tracking? Payroll integration? Or something else entirely? This will help narrow down your options and ensure that the app you select meets your needs.
- Price: Price is always an essential factor to consider when purchasing any type of software. While you want to make sure you’re getting quality, be sure also to compare prices between different apps and choose the one that best fits your budget.
- Scalability: If your business expects growth soon, scalability should be a top priority when selecting a timekeeping app. Ensure it can handle additional users or data as needed without major issues or delays.
- Compatibility and Integration: Finally, check for compatibility with existing systems at your company (e.g., payroll) and any third-party applications you may be using (e.g., accounting software). This will help ensure a seamless transition and prevent any potential headaches.
3 Best Time Keeping App For Employees
Many options exist regarding time keeping apps for employees. We’ve outlined a few of the most popular ones here:
1. Day.io – Overall the Best Time Keeping App for Employees
Day.io offers a complete employee time tracking solution. The cloud-based app is available for Android and iOS devices, making it accessible to everyone in the workplace. It’s also integrated with popular project management suites such as Trello and Asana, giving you a single view of employee time and project progress.
Users can track their hours in real-time with just a few taps on the app, while managers can see detailed reports of how employees spend their time. The app also offers features such as tracking overtime, vacation days, and holidays to ensure accurate payroll calculation.
Features
- Employee time keeping with real-time tracking
- Continuous progress-tracking
- Integration with popular project management suites
- Detailed time reports for managers
- Cost and bill management
- Overtime, extra hours, vacation days and holidays tracking
- Employee scheduler for time-sensitive business operations
- GPS authentication to prevent time frauds
- Fingerprint-supported time clock for improved accuracy
Pricing
- Time and attendance tracking: $4 per user/month
- Project and time tracking: $6 per user/month
2. Connecteam – Excellent Time and Activity Tracking Features
Connecteam is a highly customizable employee time tracking app that offers GPS tracking, job-specific time tracking options, and automated timesheets, among other features. With Connecteam, you can manage your team’s work hours and timesheets effortlessly, even on the go. The app ensures accurate timesheets and provides valuable insights into work habits, making it ideal for workforce management.
Features
- GPS tracking for real-time employee time keeping
- Job-specific time tracking options
- Automatic timesheets with detailed reports
- Customizable templates for specific job requirements
- Alerts and notifications to keep team members informed
Pricing
Free basic features for up to ten users. Paid plans for more users start from $0.5 per user/month.
3. Jibble – Solid Employee Time Keeping Apps for Construction and Manufacturing Projects
Jibble is a mobile app for employee time keeping that includes facial recognition for verification. It offers monthly, weekly, or daily timesheets, allowing you to monitor how much time was spent on specific projects easily. Ideal for SMBs, Jibble is accessible from various platforms and devices and can be used with an iPad kiosk to clock in from a particular location.
Features
- Mobile time tracking that allows employees to track time on-site, remotely, or even on the road
- Geolocation technology to ensure that employees are at the right place at the right time
- Face recognition attendance feature eliminates buddy punching and time thefts
- Offline timesheet software, allowing time tracking even when the internet connection drops
- Integration with Microsoft Teams and Slack
Pricing
Basic features are free. Premium plan starts from $2.99 per user/month.
Wrap-up: Final Recommendations
Time keeping apps can be an excellent tool for managing employee performance and productivity. Investing in the right one can save time and money while working smarter.
The best time keeping app for employees will depend on your particular needs, but Day.io is an excellent all-around choice with its comprehensive features and advanced analytics capabilities. You will also find project management and progress-tracking features in it. Sign up for Day.io today to manage your employees’ hours more efficiently!