According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), the first strategy for simplifying business operations is to "clear the underbrush." In other words, get rid of outdated rules and unproductive procedures. And, you could easily include old-fashioned, employee time tracking processes that are considered a low-value activity that wastes time and ends up costing more money when compared to the benefit of that activity.

Your company's administrative tasks are certainly important to the success of your business. But, when functions like employee time tracking don't enforce accurate data or require extra monitoring by management - those are the administrative by-products that waste time and money.

Small- to medium-sized professional businesses (SMBs) must make the most of every opportunity to stay competitive, relevant, and streamlined. And reducing slow, manual tasks can contribute to each of these goals. That's why time tracking software for employees is critical to the success of any professional business that hires more than 2 or 3 employees. Stop allowing money to go out the door due to a lack of monitoring the amount of time your employees spend on productive business activities.

Employee time tracking software simplifies the way business owners or their HR staff track billable hours, and that includes how many hours their employees actually work, along with hours spent on activities that support the client's project or case. It is often client support or hidden work hours that eat up your profits and negatively affect your cash flow.

The best employee time tracking software will help you keep track of all project or caseload hours, using an easy and intuitive interface. When you think of time as one of your most valuable assets, then you'll quickly understand how important the automation of employee hours worked can be to the success of service-oriented business owners like consultants, lawyers, contractors, and shop owners like spas, real estate offices, beauty salons, kiosks, and auto repair centers.

BigTime is the perfect example of time tracking software for employees because it allows each business to easily customize timesheets to suit their specific business application and the needs of their clients.

List of Time Tracking Software

When considering a software app for your business, always look for features such as those found with the BigTime time tracking software that reduces the learning curve and simplifies app navigation and usage. Too often, companies will invest in a big-name app, only because it is receiving lots of online hype. What happens next is they will find these super-expensive apps to be cumbersome to roll out, hard to understand, and difficult to establish as a company-wide standard way of doing business.

Here, we offer a list of time tracking software applications to consider. These apps have been widely reviewed for their cost versus value, speed of implementation, and whether they are customizable to suit your business needs.

Clockify

This time tracking app free has the essential bare-bones of time management features such as employee attendance, productivity tracking, and billable hours. If you are looking for a super simple time tracker, then Clockify may do the job - only beware of watered-down apps that leave you wanting more down the road.

BigTime Time Tracking

The BigTime app is perfectly suited for consulting and contracting type business structures. This time management software app is already the #1 rated Online Time and Billing Software. The beauty of BigTime is that you can start with an employee time tracking software app, then bundle other project management tools down the road for a complete business management automation solution.

Harvest time tracking

Harvest is a web-based time tracking solution that offers a 30-day free trial before making a commitment. It allows your HR team and/or employees to track time from their mobile devices or at a remote desktop location. You can set up different projects with different tasks and pay rates instead of using an hourly pay standard.

These three apps can be considered in addition to time tracking app free. BigTime offers many of the same features as the other apps with the added benefit of expanding as your business takes on more projects or clients.

Employee Time Tracking Software For Small Business 

Finding the right employee time tracking software for small business can offer huge returns in time and profits. Employee time clocks for small businesses are crucial technology that automates the tracking of hours your employees have worked. Even consultants, contractors, architects, accountants, and lawyers depend on supportive help to keep their business running smoothly and efficiently.

In addition to basic features found in the best timesheet app for small business, consider software that also has the following features:

  • Reporting tools - gain business insight such as high demand for employee support versus production overlaps, future work scheduling, and job manpower costs, along with other time tracking metrics.
  • Expense Tracking - Consultants and contractors will discover many expenses that are billable but have been missed due to manual time-keeping. Choose an employee time tracking software for small business that captures in-house and field hours that are billable to your client's project, such as travel expenses, mileage, or equipment rental.
  • Timesheet Restrictions -Protect the integrity of your employee's time with built-in restrictions and system prompts when something looks suspicious. For example, you may want to prevent employees from logging time worked in advance of their shift.

Today's employee time clocks for small business are feature-rich, yet very affordable. For example, at the time of this writing, BigTime offers 3 pricing platforms starting as low as $10 per month which can be downloaded by up to 5 employees.

The company also features a free assessment tool that helps the business owner select the best plan to fit the size and structure of their operations. Just answer a few quick questions, and you'll instantly see which timesheet tracking plan is right for your consulting or contracting business.

Owning a small business doesn't mean you have small administrative tasks. Capturing all billable hours and all man-hours worked by your employees could be the key to improving your company's bottom line.

Best Time Tracking Software

The best time tracking software doesn't have to be expensive or take lots of time to deploy, learn, and integrate within your existing HR functions. Small business owners may even consider advertising for the best free time tracking software. But, like anything else that is free- you get what you pay for.

Consider BigTime, which is not free software, but they do offer a free trial. Companies that offer a free trial period are those that are confident in the software they've developed. This means they are certain that potential customers will not experience system crashes, slow operating speeds, or need to put in a big upfront effort for a small payback down the road.

The best timesheet app for employees will deliver full features and functionality for a trial period of time. This gives your decision-makers the time to evaluate the software's learning curve, security features, and other measurable benefits to your company.

And, when it comes to enterprise time tracking software, the decision to deploy a specific program or platform is a big one. Enterprise-wide apps will have to be scalable, as your company grows and expands into new territories. Instead of just being the best time tracking software, you will likely want to bundle other programs such as project management software, invoicing software, and payment process capabilities.

The biggest benefit of BigTime's bundled software is that your company is investing in a solution, and not just cutting corners with limited best free time tracking software. This project management app is the best way to consolidate important administrative tasks within a central location. Also, the bundled package eliminates the need to re-enter client information because all parts of the BigTime Project Management package are designed to work seamlessly together.

Time Tracking Software For Consultants

Why the need for time tracking software for consultants? The answer is simple. Consultants are typically experts or professionals in a specialized line of work, which is typically not business management. The success of their consultants depends on how well they serve their clients. And, most importantly, consultants will often travel to where their clients are.

This is true for most professional service providers, like accountants, engineering firms (field work), lawyers, IT consultants, and financial consultants.

Consulting business owners must protect their profits, because each project or case has likely been assigned a budget. Staying within that budget while delivering those services on time equals a successful consultancy and a happy client.

Free time tracking software for consultants and time tracking app for freelancers often don't recognize the distinct way consultants deliver their services. Also, free apps rarely put much thought into ease of software usage or app navigation - both of which make a huge difference when you don't want to spend too much time on secondary, administrative functions.

BigTime is unique in that the app developers created it specifically to address the time tracking and project management needs of professional consultants. The app features time tracking, project management, invoicing and more that can be used stand-alone or bundled seamlessly together for a complete consulting or professional services business.

BigTime knows the importance of tracking your time in the same place where you keep track of other project management tasks for better insights into your financials and to ensure more accurate billing. Feel free to explore BigTime online to discover how we can streamline your company's administrative and financial tasks.