10 Essential Features to Look for in employee time tracking app

In choosing the right employee time tracking app to use for business or for your own entrepreneurial needs you need to focus on those essential elements or factors that would help in increasing efficiency at the workplace as well as to guide us on how the time is being utilized correctly. One of the key tools of time tracking assists in project management, collaboration, and billing accuracy. Currently there is a great demand for such tools and there are many tools in the market that are available and each of the tools has various characteristics. To help you wade through this, below are

10 crucial features that your time-tracking solution must incorporate to suit your firm’s needs. 

1. Ease of Use: It may not be possible to overstate the importance of flexibility and ease of use in employee time tracking app. It does not matter that you have the ƒ with numerous features: your employees will not be able to use it right if it is complex. Select a tool that does not require much work to be done to begin recording time. It should be as plain as possible and allow users to navigate through it, especially the time entries’ management interface easily. In employee time tracking app, the main goal is to make time tracking as organic as possible to the workflow. A tool that requires the user to learn before he can get meaningful results could dismal the entire project. 
2. Automated Time Tracking: Claims manually recording working hours are definite time wasters and are prone to some mistakes. This is resolved by employee time tracking app that also has some form of automation to it. Some of the tracking options may be automatically tracking duration if the user begins working on a specific task or project, tracking of break time or time spend in Idle state. This affords your team members the convenience of not having to record their work and productivity timing continuously all day. Another benefit of using an automated system for time tracking is that there is less likelihood of human error which might creep into the system, and the time recorded might not match what people are doing for most of their working hours. 
3. Task and Project Management Integration: The integration of both tasks and projects involves blending managing tasks and undertaking projects as a coherent process within an organization. With our pick of top employee time tracking app that also synchronizes with task and project management applications, teamwork becomes more efficient. When you are integrating time tracking with your project management solution you get a better understanding of the time spent on each task and make tracking, adjusting priorities and workflows better. There are many wonderful time tracking applications and one of the advantages of including this one is the compatibility with Trello, Asana, Basecamp, or any other project management tools. This integration offers benefits through its alignment of time tracking and work managing processes so that both can be controlled from one management console. 
4. Reporting and Analytics: There is more to the utility of employee time tracking app than recording the number of hours worked on a specific project. A feature that is rich and well-developed will enable one to produce a report on whatever aspect that may include the number of hours billed monthly, time taken to complete projects, how the team has been performing and the time taken in doing particular tasks. These can be extremely helpful when it comes to increasing the efficiency of how time is allocated within teams or when it is time to time to bill a client. When choosing the employee time tracking app, make sure it provides customizable report feature for you to get the information you may need most. 
5. Mobile Compatibility: Ever in a world that is fast-paced, mobile time tracking is necessary. Employing mobile compatibility is important to establish whether you are working from home, or from another country or state or whether you are just away from your desk the process of logging time need not be a difficult one. Most of today’s time tracking tools feature mobile apps for iOS and Android that let you control timers, record time, and view the reports from your phone or tablet. This feature ensures that tracking time becomes a convenient process wherever you find yourself thus minimizing the chances of forgetting to track time throughout the day. 
6. Billable Hours Tracking: Any business that deals with services needs to keep track of time spent on each project to bill every client correctly for the service rendered. Software for time tracking that has features for tracking billable hours allows you to indicate hours as ‘billable’ and create invoices out of those hours. With this feature, it becomes easy not to overlook some hours while there is clear billing between you and your clients. There are many software products that can perform time tracking along with invoicing tasks that would decrease the time spent on billing tremendously. 
7. Employee and Team Management: Hence, finding time tracking for business with many employees or contractors requires team management features that are beneficial. This functionality enables the managers to monitor their team members and check their work and productivity, also to accept or reject time entries and confirm that the members are following the right timesheets. Certain employee time tracking app contains options offering a different level of users and thus, allow administrators to decide which data can be viewed by others. Moreover, employee time tracking app with team management functionality usually contains the option for tracking the work time of every employee, with which the process of managing payroll and performance becomes more efficient. 
8. Time Clock and Break Tracking: The time clock feature within your employee time tracking app is useful for business that has required to track time for hourly and per project. An enjoyable employee time tracking app is ubiquitously integrated into a time clock app, so the employees can log in and out to mark when they start and finish work. Some others which are concerned with tracking time, such as when an employee has a break or is idle, will help to check whether an employee is sticking to a given schedule and if they are tiring themselves. Some of these are particularly helpful for companies that work on an hourly basis and require seamless timekeeping of work and rest periods. 
9. Choice of Options and Accommodations: Some businesses have specific demands for the time tracking, which is why the program must be flexible and adjustable. Automated employee employee time tracking app let you define options such as timecard layout, employees’ hourly rates, and kinds of reports possible. This flexibility helps you be able to take the software through your business processes rather than the other way round. Customization features are important for such companies as well as for these companies which are engaged in different spheres and have different necessary time tracking demands. 
10. Security and Data Protection: Since business time tracking tools download and store personal and organizational information that relates to employees’ working hours, clients’ fees and project deadlines security measures are crucial in a employee time tracking app. If you want to choose successful employee time tracking app you should search for programs with secure logins, using encryption, and with the regular system of backups in case of the loss of all information. It is essential to verify that your employee time tracking app complies with the industry standard security policies, which will reduce cases of data breaches and can be detrimental to your company-client and employee relationships. Most of the employee time tracking app platforms also provide two-factor authentication to increase account security. 

Conclusion:

When selecting the employee time tracking app nowadays, one must think of how each of the features will be useful for one’s business type and will lead to achievement of the goals. The above 10 features can guide you toward deciding what your preferred tracking system should include depending on your needs — such as automated time tracking, reporting, and analytics or integration with project management tools. 

The employee time tracking app of choice is the one that will not disrupt daily working processes but make them more effective while providing the necessary data of time distribution. When noting the importance of the distinctive features, every person will be able to choose the best employee time tracking app. 

Thus, the application for time tracking is an effective tool for increasing productivity, producing more effective results, managing utilized resources, and achieving the intended objectives during the implementation of projects. For any company big or small, it is useful to know how much time each task takes and that is where this product proves useful. That is why when selecting the time tracking tool, it will be far easier to make the right decisions and help your team be more productive.