Comparing the Best Time-Tracking Software: Finding the Perfect Fit for Your Business Needs

Understanding Time Tracking: A Brief Overview

No matter the size of your business, ensure you’re accurately tracking the time it takes to complete tasks and finish projects is invaluable. Time-tracking software helps achieve this and in the long run, you’re able to identify areas of inefficiency or overspending. Plus, ensure accurate payroll is calculated and paid in a timely fashion. So what is time-tracking software?

Time tracking software is a type of cloud-based software that allows you to track and record employee time (often with the use of mobile apps), without the need for complicated spreadsheets and paper files. It records the amount of hours worked by employees and can be used to accurately calculate payroll costs. Additionally, it helps you better understand which tasks require more attention and resources so you can make informed decisions about how to allocate resources efficiently. Time tracking software also makes it easier for you to monitor teams’ performance levels, track employee time and identify areas where productivity could be improved.

There are cost reduction benefits associated with time tracking software as well. Once you’ve got an idea of how long tasks and projects are taking, and the amount of hours you’re paying your employees, you can identify areas of overspending in your project budget. By understanding how long certain tasks take, you’re able to determine whether you need additional staff. Or if certain departments need extra resources allocated towards them.

The Criteria: How We Compare

Simpro Premium has built in time-tracking functionality, as well as features to help improve quote and job creation, invoicing, asset management and help with managing and tracking teams. Let’s take a look at how we stack up.

Features and functionality

The best employee time-tracking software has multiple features and benefits that you can utilize for your business. Simpro Premium is no different. As well as time-tracking capabilities, Simpro offers a streamlined platform that goes right from the very first lead, to quote, through to job creation and invoicing. Designed to help your day-to-day and automate the manual, time consuming processes you may be holding onto. You’ll earn valuable time back to focus on other areas of the business, plus with dedicated reporting functionality you gain valuable insight. Resulting in data-driven decisions while ensuring your business continues to grow and remain profitable.

User experience and interface

Simpro has won numerous awards from G2, a user-review platform dedicated to helping people find the best software solutions. But don’t take our word for it, here are some of the things our customers have said about Simpro Premium.

By far one of the easiest software’s to pickup and use, quickly backed with a stunning video training suite online...The end to end job management from quote to invoice allows us to see where the profit and loss is for each job or customer.

Robert S. Service Estimator & Co-Ordinator Mid-Market Read more reviews on G2

Integration capabilities

Simpro Premium offers a wide range of add-ons and integrations to enhance your workflows, where your business needs it. From accounting integrations to calendar and email, you’re able to choose whichever suits you and your business.

Small Businesses in Focus: Time-Tracking Solutions

If you’re the owner of a small business, things run a little differently but the core principles remain the same. And who knows, if you play your cards right you won’t always be a small business. With limited resources and budgets, it becomes even more vital that you choose the best time tracking software for your business. You need to look for an efficient solution that meets both current and future needs. Think about time-tracking functionality for your business. For example, if you are in construction, you may have different time-tracking requirements than other businesses and will want to look for the best time tracking software for construction. Consider all of the costs associated as money is usually a little tighter, one wrong calculation could be the difference between your business's success and failure. It’s because of this that small businesses should look for solutions with multiple pricing options tailored to their specific budget and needs.

Let’s take a look at some of the best time-tracking software for small business.

Comparing solutions

It’s difficult trying to narrow down the right software, especially with the amount of options available. Here are some of the most popular time tracking apps that should be on your shortlist:

ClockShark is an award-winning time tracking software platform and app designed for construction and field service businesses. It helps mobile and remote teams track work hours, manage jobs, and streamlines payroll with accounting integrations. With features like GPS tracking, task management, and an intuitive drag-and-drop scheduler, ClockShark simplifies workforce management while providing expert industry support to ease the transition. Employees can check schedules and clock in/out via a mobile app, and it even has offline funtionality—ideal for areas with weak network coverage. GPS tracking ensures crews are at the right job site at the right time, improving efficiency and accountability. ClockShark also makes it easy to track labor costs, generate reports, and add notes and photos to jobs for real-time progress tracking.

Timely is a time-tracking tool that helps businesses stay connected with their employees, helping you to report accurately with team and project management capabilities. With a 75% user rate that are within the small business category, plus it’s been voted third easiest to use for its time-tracking functionality.

busybusy is another time-tracking software for the construction industry. With GPS tracking features, as well as materials management, job progress and the ability to manage employee schedules. It’s mostly used by small businesses, with an 81% user rate sitting in that category. Plus, you can use it both in the office and out in the field, so your workflows stay streamlined. If you run a small construction company and are looking for a digital time tracking solution, you should compare busybusy and ClockShark to see which one is the right solution for your business.

Traqq is a time-tracking tool, providing in-depth reports, activity monitoring, and attendance management. With role-based access and individual pay rates, team management stays flexible and efficient. Plus, the lightweight desktop app works online and offline, so tracking never stops—even during connection issues. With a strong focus on privacy, users stay in control of their data while managers gain valuable insights into team activity.

Tsheets TSheets was a popular web-based and mobile time tracking app for field workers and office staff. It integrated with multiple accounting programs to streamline payroll and accounting processes. In 2018 TSheets was acquired by Intuit and has since become QuickBooks Time. If your business already uses QuickBooks and you want to add time tracking capability, QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) may be an option to consider. However, it's not designed for the unique needs of construction and field service businesses. For these industries, a time tracking solution like ClockShark may be a better option.

All-In-One: Project Management With Time-Tracking

In order to be fully flexible and completely streamlined with your business workflows, you want to look at software that incorporates project management with time-tracking features. Fortunately, a lot of stuff out there does exactly that. So how do you choose the best project management software with time-tracking functionality for your business? And what do these softwares do?

By combining time-tracking with project management features, you can identify areas of improvement and streamline processes.

Time-tracking software helps measure the time taken to complete tasks, allowing you to accurately estimate future timelines and hold employees accountable. It also provides insights into how much time is spent on various tasks and activities, enabling you to make better decisions about workloads, resource allocation, and budget optimization.

Project management software helps keep projects organized with task lists, notifications for deadlines, budgeting, collaboration tools, and Gantt charts that provide visual representations of project progress. This allows you to keep track of every step in a project’s lifecycle while seeing how resources are allocated.

By combining time-tracking with project management features, you can identify areas of improvement and streamline processes. For example, by monitoring hours worked on projects and tasks completed, you can determine which tasks take more time than expected or where improvements can be made. This allows you to adjust workloads accordingly and make sure that employees are working efficiently. Additionally, it provides a clearer picture of how resources are being used so that budgets can be better managed.

Integrating time-tracking software with project management also allows for better collaboration between departments. Having a shared platform means everyone is able to see what tasks have been assigned, who is responsible for them, when they’re due, and how much progress has been made. This helps to ensure deadlines are met and that there is accountability throughout the business

Financial Harmony: Time-Tracking and QuickBooks Integration

Another integral part of business is your financial transactions. You and your accounts department must be able to keep track of everything coming in and going out of the business. It’s software, such as QuickBooks, that helps businesses do just that. So when you bring in time-tracking software, it’s important that there are integrations with your existing accounting software. There isn’t one solution to finding the best time-tracking software for QuickBooks, as it entirely depends on your business and the industry you’re servicing. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of financial integration.

Seamless data

The right time-tracking software should be able to transfer data from the software with a simple Quickbooks integration, generate invoices and reports in the same format as QuickBooks for easy reconciliation, and support multiple currencies in order to facilitate international payments. This ensures you have a seamless workflow and the risk of duplicate data entry is reduced.

Security protocols

Ensuring the relevant security measures are in place when integrating time-tracking software with QuickBooks is vital. It protects your business and your customers from any uncomfortable situations with their data. Allowing you to be safe in the knowledge any potential risk of exposure is kept to a minimum.

Accuracy and efficiency

If your time-tracking software is communicating with QuickBooks, naturally that creates an efficient, hassle free workflow. There is less time spent on duplicating manual data entry tasks, and all of the relevant information can be seen in both places. In addition, the risk of manual data entry mistakes is drastically reduced.

Making Your Choice

Finding the best time-tracking software may take a little time, but providing you do your research, you’ll reap the benefits in no time at all. With a seamless, stress-free way of managing your employees and an enhanced workflow, time-tracking software aids business growth and boosts your bottom line.

For further information on Simpro and an insight into how it can help your business, request a demo today.