A report by ADP Research indicates that 64% of workers say that they would rather quit their job rather than return to the office. This cultural shift has put many business owners and office managers in a unique spot to consider how they will adapt to this new labor reality. One of the things that is top of mind for many of those individuals is how they can keep workers accountable when they are working from home.

Accountability is Paramount

It seems obvious to those who have been dealing with this for a while, but accountability among remote workers is one of the most important things to getting work done. After all, how can a business owner or manager know for sure that the employees under their watch are getting things done when they are working from home?

This is not an idle fear. Stories have emerged of remote workers secretly taking on two or more full-time remote jobs at the same time. Slate.com reported on this by saying:

Remote work has made lots of new things possible for those allowed to do it: We can do laundry while we work, excise commuting from our lives, and not worry about infecting colleagues when we have a cold. But it’s made something else possible too: a surge in people who are secretly working two or more full-time jobs without their employers’ knowledge.

Therefore, everyone must remain keenly aware of the possibility that their employees are not giving their full attention to their work. There is a delicate balance to strike. On the one hand, you don’t want to breath down the neck of your employees and make them feel like they are being micro-managed. On the other hand, you need to ensure that you are getting productive output from your workers.

How to Hold Employees Accountable

There are multiple ways that you can work on holding employees accountable for their time and for the work that they are doing while on the clock. Consider some of the following options to make it happen:

Hold Weekly Catch-Up Meetings

Many people roll their eyes when they hear that they have yet another meeting to attend. However, holding a once-per-week meeting to catch up with the entire team is still an effective way to do things. A once per week meeting is the ideal balance to strike. It helps you gather the information you require from employees while not overloading employees with yet another meeting.

Manage Burnout

It is important to manage symptoms of burnout among employees. Dee Hutchinson of Dee is for Digital spoke with Forbes about this and stated that burnout is an extremely important thing to keep an eye on at this time. The office never closes when people work from home, and it is extremely important to make sure employees set boundaries between their work life and the rest of their life. If they remain on the clock all the time, then they are potentially going to feel increased burnout.

Focus on Workflow

Measuring the quality and quantity of work performed remotely is always challenging. However, many say that workflow is more important than raw productivity. When different individuals and different departments communicate and coordinate with one another, then they are finding the flow that is highly desired by every workplace. Put an emphasis on finding that flow rather than only looking at the bottom-line output numbers. Problem solving is more important than simply churning out yet another ounce of productivity.

Remote Timekeeping Apps: A Powerful Way to Enhance Accountability

We have discussed some of the human capital management tactics that one can take to work on accountability within the workplace. However, it is also important to look at the key performance indicators (KPIs) that must be measured as well. This is why remote timekeeping apps are an ideal way to measure productivity and accountability as well.

Remote timekeeping apps can be used to measure how much time is being spent on a given task. These apps are also a gentle nudge to employees to let them know that they ought to be focused on the work assigned to them. Simply knowing that their productivity is being measured in some form or fashion is enough to push employees in the right direction.

Time Tracker is the remote timekeeping app that one should use to manage their remote workforce. Not only does the app monitor the amount of time employees spend on various tasks, but it also helps leaders determine where employees are at a given time. The nearest employee can be dispatched to handle a specific project as necessary when this kind of work comes up. The cost of travel is expensive and there are some logistical hurdles with getting an employee to a given location when needed. Time Tracker takes the stress out of this by helping users understand where their employees are geographically located at any point in time.

Measuring productivity, maintaining accurate time records, and locating employees to dispatch them where they need to go is all contained within one powerful time tracking app. Time Tracker will make your life easier and more productive. Remote work isn’t going away anytime soon, and some companies have discovered how to make the most of it. If you are looking for ways to keep your workforce accountable and get better results than you ever would have imagined, try Time Tracker for free today.

The post Remote Workforce: Consider a Mobile Timekeeper App  appeared first on eBillity.

Time tracking, in fact, has a wide variety of benefits to both project managers and the teams who use these methods. Today, we’re taking a deep dive into why project time tracking is important and how teams that properly use time tracking will thrive.

Improve Productivity

Without time tracking, projects often have a way of dragging on. Time tracking provides a way to estimate how long a task will take, clock how long employees work on a task, and create accountability for time spent on each task in a project.

Oversight over these elements of time spent during a project can help to improve productivity. In fact, the simple act of clocking into specific tasks and the satisfaction of marking tasks as complete can boost employee’s performance speed and desire to deliver faster results.

Clarify Roles and Contributions

With planned-out time tracking, everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing. Often, in teams where skills overlap, team members may not be clear on the best way they can contribute to the project without overlapping another’s efforts, stepping on toes, or under-contributing in comparison to their peers.

Time-tracking makes it easy to balance assignments and workloads within a project so that everyone is clear on their role and their contributions right through to project completion.

Efficiently Manage Resources

Time tracking can also keep track of the resources used in each task, whether those resources include project materials, booked working space, or even hosted server capacity. Time tracking records how long employees work with specific materials, and the Time Tracking app from eBillity gives your team the ability to make requests regarding the resources they need through detailed reporting.

Time tracking can give you the insight into how resources are being used and for how long, allowing you to increase efficiency and optimize resource availability for the times in which they are necessary.

Deliver Projects and Tasks On-Time

Of course, one of the primary benefits of project time tracking is the ability to deliver your projects on time. When project managers know how long each individual task or project stage will take, they can effectively plan employee time to complete the work within the deadline – often with a margin for review and final polishing.

For larger and more collaborative projects, time tracking ensures that each individual or team brings in their tasks in time to combine efforts with other teams for a combined result. Time tracking can coordinate teams that rely on one another to be finished, to be ready to collaborate, or to take the baton for the next stage without lost time in between phases. Together, you can deliver on-time projects and sub-project tasks.

Manage Project Costs

Project costs can balloon when projects go over-time due to the need to maintain a project environment, provide further resources, or pay overtime to the team. Time tracking keeps every aspect of a project on-point and more efficient. Because you can plan each task ahead of time, including how long it will take and the resources needed to complete the task in that time, time tracking provides the ability to manage project costs from planning to completion.

Around-the-Clock Coordination

Project time tracking also makes it possible to keep team members on task around-the-clock while ensuring that everyone gets ample rest in preparation for their next shift. This can be essential if you have a short deadline that the team is rushing to complete, if you must be available at all times during project development, or if you have an international remote team whose workdays fall into around-the-clock time zones.

Time tracking can make it easy for managers to visualize a full work-day view of scheduled tasks and shift, keeping track of who is available during what times and ensuring that overlapping shifts work together to achieve planned goals.

Ensure Regulation Compliance

Time tracking can also ensure that, even in a hectic delivery schedule, employees are scheduled according to regulations and company policies regarding safety, overtime pay, and work-life balance.

Project time tracking ensures that employees who work overtime are paid overtime – or help managers minimize the need for overtime with considerate shift assignments. Time tracking ensures that no one works too many hours in a row, even if they might sign up for that time. Time tracking also provides clear documentation that your project has always been compliant.

Accurate Billable Hour Invoicing

If your project is contracted work that will be billed by the labor hour, time tracking is essential for providing accurate and seamless weekly invoices. The hours worked by each of your team members, or pooled project hours, can be easily tracked using clock-in, clock-out features that provide perfect clarity.

Time Tracker can then translate those hours into an invoice template, making it easy to invoice your clients with the click of a button.

eBillity Time Tracker Has Everything Your Project Needs

Time Tracker by eBillity app has everything you need to make your projects more efficient, cost-effective, compliant, and of course, delivered on-time. With digital time clocking, employee requests, manager approvals, and alerts for last-minute changes, you can keep your team on-point and make sure your project is delivered within estimated timelines, cost estimates, and performance metrics every time.

You can try out Time Tracker for yourself with a free 14-day trial to see if the app features naturally enhance the efficiency of your project team, providing everyone with the transparency and tools they need to thrive.

The post Why is Project Time Tracking Important? appeared first on eBillity.

Of course, with every time tracking system, there are pros and cons, all the way back to the original punch cards. If your business is preparing to upgrade your time tracking system, now is your ideal opportunity to determine the best way to track employee hours for your team and workflow.

At eBillity, we’ve put a lot of thought into time tracking and can help you examine the benefits of each available time-tracking system.

The Challenges of Paper Card Time Tracking

The original timecards were a testament to early computer technology, punching literal holes in an employee’s timecard to indicate when they arrived and departed. The employee was, of course, responsible for lining up the card properly while the time clock punched in a location based on the current time.

Punch card time tracking, of course, had its errors. If the time clock or the printed cards were offset, it was up to management to guess the correct time entered. Individual cards had to be tracked and payroll depended on keeping track of boxes upon boxes of punched cards. In addition, getting to the time clock on time and punching in and out for breaks introduced a tedium many of us are still familiar with today. Along with the risks of having a friend punch your card for you.

Manual Ways to Track Employee Hours

Today, offices are still using a variety of manual time tracking systems. Some use an honor system of notation; others rely on an updated version of the original card-punching time clock to track employee hours.

Paper Timecards & The Stamping Time Clock

There are still thousands (perhaps millions) of businesses that still use paper timecards, complete with the rack of little slots along the side to hold individual employee cards. The cards are printed up every day/week/month and the time clock stamps an inked number into the correct slot on the card over the tracked time period.

This system is both tedious and inflexible, requiring everyone to keep track of all those cards, and leaving no flexibility for things like taking part of the day off to pick up a child from school or emergency trips to the doctor.

Keeping a Timesheet with Sign In/Out Times

Time sheet tracking is extremely common, relying on employees to sign in and sign out as they clock their time worked. Timesheets are more flexible, but also more chaotic and require more trust. A time sheet where everyone signs the same sheet requires the manager to sort out things like time worked and breaks taken for individuals. However, individual time tracking leaves more room for manipulation and false reporting of longer or more complete hours.

Time Tracking Spreadsheet

Pen and paper timesheet tracking evolved in many workplaces into a time tracking spreadsheet, a method that is still used by millions of freelancers and self-directed professionals today to track not only their time in the clock, but also their time on specific projects.

Spreadsheet time tracking is the most likely when creating an invoice for individual clients and billable project hours but can be used for almost any team and task configuration. It is flexible and paper-free, but still tedious and subject to misreporting.

Digital Time Tracking Methods

Beyond manual time tracking, companies also have the option to upgrade to automated digital time clocks that create records in a payroll database directly instead of relying on translating data from the timeclock system to payroll processing. These systems involve an electronic timeclock and some way for employees to enter their credentials into the system as they arrive and leave the workplace.

Swipe or Scan Timecards

Plastic timecards are like a cross between a paper timecard and a gas card or credit card. Each card has a magnetic strip (or chip) that aligns with the employee’s time clock account. When they scan the card into the time clock by sliding over the strip or waving the chip at the reader, they automatically clock in and out.

This system works well, except when employees lose their card, forget their card at home, must dig for their card and hold up the line, or hand their card to a friend for buddy-punching (a term coined during the punch card days).

Badge Scanning at the Door

In workplaces where all employees have a security badge, scanning these badges can be used to clock in and out. Depending on the facility, the badges are also used to track employee movements through the building as they scan to open doors. This can be a useful way to track where employees are and when they arrive or leave, but only works for employers and teams already equipped with security badge scanning infrastructure.

Also, there can be a critical difference between passing through a door and starting one’s shift such that employees who arrive early to enjoy a slow cup of coffee and some morning chit-chat and those who linger over the last donut may appear to clock longer hours.

Fingerprint Scanner Time Clocks

Some digital timeclocks use fingerprint scanners and other biometric data. This sounds nifty until the scanner doesn’t work right because the scanner needs cleaning, hands are dry, there’s a cut on someone’s scanned finger pad, and so on. Biometric time clocks are, in practice, often not yet advanced enough for efficient and accurate time readings. If it takes five minutes to make the scanner work, the poor employee appears late, and so does everyone in line behind them.

The Best Ways to Track Employee Hours

Fortunately, technology marches forward, and there are modern methods to clock time that take all previous problems into consideration.

Time Clock Kiosk

A time clock kiosk crosses the ease of a mobile app with the essential necessity of a workplace time clock. The kiosk is installed at the best location for shifts to start and accepts a four-digit code for each employee. It then snaps a picture of the employee as they clock in with a few easy taps on the screen to combat buddy-punching and welcomes each employee in just a few seconds.

Mobile App Time Tracking

Similarly, a time clock mobile app is adaptive to the modern hybrid workforce where not everyone clocks in at the same workplace, and work hours can be tracked even for remote or traveling employees who aren’t in the office. Both the mobile app and kiosk use software that makes it easy to track not just arrival and departure, but also rest breaks, meal breaks, and specific project-based billable hours with a few taps and preconfigured options.

Adaptive Online Time Clock

Online time tracking software makes it possible to adapt your need for accurate time tracking with the evolving nature of today’s workforce. No need for tedious paper cards, losable plastic cards, security badge infrastructure, or even a singular time clock. You can place time clock kiosks wherever clocking in takes place and provide out-of-office teams with a time clock mobile app that also snaps a picture to confirm that they’re the right person, in the right place, and ready to work when clocking in occurs.

With quick taps, employees can mark time spent on projects, adapt their schedules to flexible work hours, and take breaks that also send reminders to clock back in at the right time. With a customizable back end for managers, you can also provide the right quick buttons to make things easy and review clock-in photos before running payroll.

Discover the Best Employee Tracking Solutions

If you are ready to upgrade your company’s time clock, Time Tracker by eBillity is here to make time tracking as easy and intuitive as possible. Contact us today to explore the time-tracking software solutions that will work best for your team, or give it Time Tracker a try for 14-days risk free.

The post The Best Ways to Track Employee Hours appeared first on eBillity.

Simplify Payroll

One of the biggest advantages of time tracking software is that it can help to simplify and improve the payroll process. Companies that still use traditional timekeeping methods, such as paper timesheets, must enter data into a computer manually. This wastes time (and money) by diverting resources that could be better spent on other tasks. Traditional timekeeping methods can also prove detrimental by leaving you vulnerable to human error, as office staff may accidentally input a number wrong or misread an employee’s handwriting.

Time tracking software can then be an invaluable resource for construction companies by streamlining the payroll process and removing the potential costs that human error can cause. Since employees punch in or record their hours on their own devices, not only are unnecessary steps in the payroll process removed, but employees can ensure for themselves that the information entered is accurate.

Reduce Time Theft  

Time tracking software for construction not only simplifies the payroll process, but it also helps ensure that timecards are accurate. The fact is that we all make mistakes, and just like payroll might misinterpret a timecard, employees may accidentally fill out their timecards incorrectly. However, whether it’s intentional or not, time theft (where employees claim pay for time they were not working) is a growing problem, as studies suggest it is something over 40% of employees do. Even if employees are only off on their timecard by a matter of minutes, this can add up to a company paying thousands of dollars over the course of a year for work time that did not happen. Fortunately, time tracking software can provide a simple solution to this problem.

When you use time tracking software, not only does the system help ensure that only time worked is entered into the system by verifying the time and location when employees clock in/out, but you also can use features aimed at helping you combat common time-theft practices. For instance, you may choose to set up break notifications prompting workers to return to work. This helps to save you money by ensuring payroll is as accurate as possible.

Keep Track of Every Worker

Time tracking software also helps to improve efficiency and reduce time theft by keeping track of where employees are at all times. The fact is that keeping track of where employees are has typically been difficult in the construction industry, as workers may have flex schedules, or they may be required to migrate from one site to the next throughout the day. Yet, this can lead to potential time theft if a worker tries to clock in when they aren’t actually at the job site, or if they claim that they were traveling longer than they actually were.

A GPS tracking system built into your timekeeping software can help alleviate this issue by providing information about every worker’s physical location and status in real-time. This can help keep employees accountable, as they will know that they need to accurately record break times and not take detours on route between locations since they are being tracked throughout the day. You can even set a geofence radius that employees must be within to clock in and out so that they don’t try to steal company time. GPS tracking can then keep your workers honest while providing you with valuable location data that could help you determine ways to improve job site efficiency.

Manage Overtime Costs

Another benefit of time tracking software is that it can help construction companies to better keep track of and manage overtime. While projects often require overtime to ensure deadlines are met, not all overtime is necessary, and overtime can quickly cause project costs to skyrocket if not managed correctly. Fortunately, time tracking software can help companies better manage overtime by allowing them to see data about how much overtime is being put in, and by allowing them to set reminders to help ensure overtime hours do not go above a certain threshold. Time tracking software can also help prevent unnecessary overtime hours from being billed by ensuring workers only complete hours that are approved and within budget. You can even set alerts to warn you when specific employees are close to going into overtime, allowing you to make real-time decisions about scheduling, which can help keep your project within budget.

Improved Estimates

Time tracking software can also be essential in helping you to provide potential customers with more accurate bids. With detailed information easily accessible to you regarding how long it takes to complete tasks and how long similar projects have taken, you can create competitive bids that customers can rely on to be as accurate as possible. This significantly reduces the likelihood that you lose a potential customer because you overestimate the cost/duration of a project, or that you will irritate a customer because you underestimated a project’s timeline. You will have all the necessary information at your fingertips to ensure your estimates are as accurate as possible.

Accurate time tracking is essential to ensure that your construction company maximizes productivity and minimizes unnecessary costs.

If you are still maintaining physical timesheets or manually tracking timecard data, try Time Tracker free for 14 days and see how easy online time tracking can increase productivity and profitability in your construction projects.

The post Why Time Tracking Software is Perfect for Construction Sites appeared first on eBillity.

What is Time Tracking and Billing Software?

Time tracking software for accountants is a tool that helps businesses monitor and record the amount of time an employee spends on a given task or project. This information is used for billing clients, project management, and productivity analysis. In accounting, keeping track of billable hours is a critical part of doing business, and such accounting timekeeping software provides accurate and efficient record-keeping. The software also eliminates manual data entry, making it easy for team members to submit real-time and accurate time logs.

Why Should Accountants Use Time Tracking and Billing Software?

Time tracking software for accountants can significantly improve invoicing and reporting accuracy and efficiency within your organization. The tool can track multiple invoices at a time and simplifies the generation of reports, thus saving you time to focus on other critical business aspects. Consider this, if your accounting team is tallying timesheets and processing payroll every week, this task is taking time away from other work responsibilities and is not cost-effective. Billing software automates all these tasks and makes your accounting team more productive.

Time-tracking solutions are also helpful in reducing idle time among employees. Employees often spend time without realizing it, but the 5 minutes spent on little distractions add up at the end of the day. Time and billing solutions for accountants give better oversight on how time is spent, which can help employees become more productive and accountable for their working hours. Other reasons that may influence you to try time and billing software include a spike in data input errors due to manual processes, high employee absenteeism rates, low project profit margins, client invoicing delays, and frequently missed deadlines.

Some of the critical business benefits you can unlock with time and billing software include:

• Complete and accurate capture of billable hours for improved profitability as you can identify the most and least profitable clients and then make necessary adjustments
• Time entry for staff is made easier
• Improved visibility on the utilization of labor resources which can help in improving your workforce
• Increased customer satisfaction through timely billing and comprehensive and transparent reports of how they were billed
• Reduces administrative costs associated with manual time collection and invoice creation since the software automates all these actions
• Eliminates the use of paper timesheets and excel spreads to track employee time

Features That the Best Time Tracking Software Have in Common

Multiple time tracking software solutions with different feature sets and user experience needs are available. However, the benefits you experience hinge on the tool you choose to work with. The best tool must deliver all the essential features your employees and business need to track billable hours and should also streamline interactions with clients by providing spot-on estimates and delivering accurate and timely invoices.

Here are some top features you should look for when hunting for the best time and billing software for accountants:

Time Trackers

This feature allows employees to measure and track how long it takes to complete specific tasks. The tracker can pause for breaks or stop and restart once you move on to the next task/project. For example, consider a time tracker that supports manual input tasks outside the program, such as in-person meetings or research projects. Some tools come with built-in break timers that allow users to specify the duration and frequency of their breaks. The program then automatically issues a reminder when they are due for a break.

Timesheets

Timesheets comprehensively overview an employee’s weekly work hours and tasks. Depending on your program and preference, this report can also be submitted at the end of the pay period. In addition, some programs feature templates and copy tools that employees can use to duplicate schedule timesheets without many variations.

Client invoicing

Client invoicing is an essential feature for accountants in time tracking and billing software. It helps generate invoices for billable work hours and you can even see the payment status. Some tools also include total balance and invoice ID numbers on the billing dashboard.

Expense reports

This feature helps you track your budget for a project and keep your profit margin broad. You can see how much of your budget remains, calculate internal costs, and keep spending in check. Some tools go as far as providing visual representations, such as charts and graphs, to help you visualize the associated costs of a project versus the profits.

Team overviews

This feature gives you oversight over employee roles, hours worked, and billable hours. It can also help you evaluate your team’s overall capacity to ensure you spend your time effectively and avoid unnecessary overtime.

User profiles

Having your employee profiles is essential for scheduling and payroll processing. The profiles outline how many hours employees are available to work and their pay rate, deductions, projects, and time-off requests. User profiles can also help you track your employees’ absences, job titles, and contact information.

Project management tools

Time tracking and billing tools can also double up as project management platforms. This allows you to monitor project progress, expenditures, and assigned team members.

Payment processing integrations

The ideal time tracking and billing software generates client invoices and lets you track payment progress in real-time. Once your client receives their invoice, they can initiate payment with just one click, redirecting them to your payment gateway. This is often a separate integration from the tracking program, but you can confirm if your chosen software supports it.

User-friendly interface

These features can only be helpful if your team members can use the system to its full potential. Therefore, ensure that the program is easy to navigate and, if possible, can be personalized to suit your needs.

Alerts and Notifications

Some programs allow you to set notifications based on your business objectives and personal preferences. For example, you can select the program to alert you when employees reach their work capacity.

Tips for Choosing the Best Time Tracking and Billing System for Accountants

• Identify an appropriate price point and select the best contenders based on your budget. You will also need to determine which pricing model works best for you. For example, do you prefer a flat fee or a monthly subscription?
• Determine your use case based on the gaps you want to fill in your organization. For example, is there something that needs to be added to your current accounting toolbox? Also, consider what you hope to achieve with the implementation of the software.
• Identify must-have features that the tracking software must include for it to be a valuable investment for your business.
• Get user feedback from clients or employees on what they expect from their time tracking software. Their input can help set the standards for the new time tracking and billing tool you should use.
• Evaluate your current software setup to identify the functions and features you need to fill in the gaps and ensure you get a system compatible with your existing go-to apps.
• Analyze your business’s current and future needs and then pick a program that best fulfills those needs.
• Take a test drive with a free trial, if available, before committing.

Why Time Tracker by eBillity Stands Out from the Rest

Time Tracker by eBillity is a flexible time and billing software that allows teams to track time and expenses for payroll, projects, and client billing. We understand that time is a valuable resource, and although managing it is difficult, it must be done, nonetheless. Using our time tracking and billing software for accountants can ripple effect on your organization, helping you work efficiently and maximizing your ROI. Signup for 14 days free trial today and join hundreds of other accountants and bookkeepers enjoying increased productivity and profitability. You can also join eBillity’s Advisor Program and enjoy 20% commission and other benefits as you help your clients and business partners grow.

The post Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing Time and Billing Software for Accountants appeared first on eBillity.

No one is able to run an entire company alone. As businesses grow, they have to hire employees. By necessity, these employees must be able to work together.

When your team doesn’t collaborate well, it can impact your profitability and productivity. A lack of collaboration and cooperation can make teams less satisfied, which can impact employee morale and retention. Once your teams can collaborate at a high level, you can enhance communication, productivity, and problem-solving.

Why is Team Collaboration Important?

The main reason why team building is important is that it allows you to harness all of your team’s strengths and ideas. Team collaboration helps your team draw on a range of creative ideas. Additionally, you can delegate roles and tasks, so your team can use comparative advantage to become more productive.

Right now, your team could be a complete mess, or it could simply need a little fine-tuning. Either way, there are a few exercises and tips you can use to boost collaboration among your team members.

How to Improve Team Collaboration

If you aren’t sure how to boost collaboration levels, you aren’t alone. The following team-building exercises can help your teams learn how to work together and become more productive.

1. Encourage Mentoring and Collaborative Leaders

One of the best ways to encourage collaboration is by modeling the behavior you would like to see. Good (and bad) behaviors become a part of a culture’s norms when leaders do them. If you want to encourage a certain attitude, model it in your own life first.

As a part of this strategy, it’s important to encourage mentoring and coaching. At Nokia, mentoring and coaching have been a part of the company’s culture since the firm was tiny. When you are first hired by the company, your mentor goes through a list of every single person you need to know and how they can help you.

This kind of strategy helps to instantly create a professional network for employees. Later on, they can draw on this network for advice, professional growth, and troubleshooting. In addition, mentors help to provide team members with direction and support.

2. Use Time Tracking Software

You don’t have to micromanage everything your team does. To encourage collaboration, you can get everyone to use team collaboration software. This kind of software allows you to delegate tasks and track project completion in real time.

More importantly, team collaboration software makes it possible to collaborate from any location. Projects can be updated as people complete additional steps, which makes teamwork more efficient. Plus, managers can track every second that team members work as well as time-off requests.

3. Set Expectations

It’s hard to achieve your team’s objectives if people don’t have clear expectations and goals. In a team environment, it’s easy for each person to assume someone else will handle a task. Because of this, you need to determine which tasks people will be responsible for.

Once someone is assigned a task, you must also tell them your expectations. Being specific about your expectations helps to prevent confusion, encourage accountability, and boost productivity.

4. Host Kickoff Meetings

While team-building exercises and software programs are great, nothing can take the place of a pre-project kickoff meeting. Sending out an email isn’t enough to convey all the expectations, tasks, and deadlines your team will need to meet. In addition, emails don’t allow the type of back-and-forth you need to answer questions and get feedback.

Instead, take some time to talk to your team about the project during a kickoff meeting. Then, use this time to address each stakeholder’s assumptions about the project, so everyone can be on the same page.

5. Give Team Members Autonomy

Initially, you should set some ground rules about your expectations. For example, you should let team members know which communication channels to use and when they need to complete their tasks.

Once everyone is aware of the role they are expected to play, you should set them free. Give them the autonomy to complete their work. As long as your team members know who to contact for help and how to contact them, you should trust them to finish their tasks on their own.

The Best Team Collaboration Software

For teams to do their best work, they must be able to communicate with each other. You can encourage team collaboration by investing in the right software programs. To get started, try one of the following top tools for collaboration.

Slack

Slack has made a name for itself as a go-to source of team collaboration tools. If you don’t already have a messaging system, Slack is a great way to communicate in a digital space. Plus, it can be integrated with many other systems.

Time Tracker by eBillity

With Time Tracker, you can get time-tracking software that can instantly update from any device and any location. This software can help you with collaboration, resource allocation, and project monitoring. Plus, eBillity’s time and billing software can be used to create business reports and comes with many different integrations.

Trello

Trello is a kanban-style collaboration tool that allows users to streamline their project management needs. You can use it for managing clients and working with teams. In addition, Trello lets you create boards, write out to-do lists, manage tasks, and so much more.

Improve Your Team’s Productivity

If you are ready to improve your team’s productivity and become more effective, the right team collaboration tools can help. With Time Tracker by eBillity, you can get time-tracking software and other tools for managing your team members. To find out more about how eBillity can help your team, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.

The post A Project Manager’s Guide to Fostering Team Collaboration appeared first on eBillity.

More importantly, you don’t want your team members to get overworked because they’ll become burned out. Over the long run, burned-out employees tend to become former employees. With a balanced work schedule, you can maximize productivity, improve team morale, and maintain employee retention levels.

What is Your Team’s Work Schedule?

Whether your schedule is a complete mess or just needs some fine-tuning, there are a few changes you can make to improve your team’s work schedule. Your work schedule is a roster with your company’s future work periods. Individual workers and teams are given expected work hours, locations, work times, job descriptions, and responsibilities.

Effective scheduling practices have been found to improve time management, increase transparency, boost morale, improve reporting, and enhance a team’s work-life balance. A schedule directs the way your organization uses its labor hours, so it can determine whether your company is a success or failure.

Why Work Schedules Are Important

Your schedule determines your team’s resource allocation, and you need more than a spreadsheet to balance your team’s workload. When you schedule appropriately, you can avoid having any downtime and maximize your team’s productivity.

Achieve Your Goals

You must use your team’s time effectively if you want to reach your goals. A schedule is like your battle plan, and it is an integral way to determine how your battle resources are used. If you don’t plan ahead, you can end up wasting your team’s time and energy on unnecessary tasks.

Allocate Your Resources Properly

Another reason why work schedules are important is that they allow you to allocate your resources properly. When your team members can complete tasks without feeling overwhelmed, your team can enjoy better morale, lower turnover, and decreased absenteeism.

As a company, you spend less on labor when your labor hours are used efficiently. Plus, employees can complete more per hour when they don’t have to do overtime hours.

Improve Reporting

Creating an effective schedule allows you to understand which employees are perpetually late, who finishes projects early, and how everyone is progressing on each task. It gives you a bird’s eye view of your team, so you can make adjustments as you go instead of after someone misses a deadline.

Avoid Wasted Time

How often should teams meet? In most cases, teams should meet a lot less often than they do.

In fact, studies show about half of all meetings are considered a waste of time. This is a problem because the average executive spends 23 hours a week in meetings. Meanwhile, one survey found that 83% of typical professionals spent 4 to 12 hours in meetings per week.

How to Organize Your Team’s Work Schedule

Businesses can improve their operations by improving their scheduling practices. A team’s work schedule determines how your employees use their time, so you need to learn how to schedule as effectively as possible.

1. Know Your Team

Before making a good team work schedule template, you must get to know your team members. For example, you may need to challenge an experienced employee and train a new team member. Meanwhile, another team member needs a chance to practice a recently learned skill.

Beyond growing and developing your team, you also need to understand their skills and weaknesses when you delegate tasks. You should understand each person’s personality type, full-time status, overtime abilities, and experience.

2. Communicate With Your Employees

Your team is your greatest asset, so communicate with them. Tell them about schedule changes, why you chose them for different roles, and what you expect them to achieve.

Think of your schedule as a living document. Talk to your employees during the week, and be ready to make changes as needed. Your employees may have suggestions and preferences, so you can accommodate these needs whenever it is possible to do so.

3. Use Time Tracking Software

You don’t want to simply write down a roster for the week and call it a day. With a world-class time tracker, you can divide up tasks among your various team members. You can track where employees are at on different projects, avoid overtime abuse, and redeploy team members as they complete different projects.

4. Check Team Availability

If one of your team members is on vacation, they’ll have a difficult time completing any tasks this week. Before you release a new schedule, check on your team’s availability. Other than asking about vacation time and upcoming sick days, you should also talk to team members about what they are working on and any other things they need to accomplish at work.

Ideally, you want to avoid double-booking or overscheduling your team members. Overworked employees are more likely to quit, so make your team’s work schedule as balanced as possible.

5. Release the Schedule in Advance

If there’s a problem with your schedule, you need to know about it before the workweek starts. Otherwise, you can’t plan around it.

More importantly, good organizations value their employees. Communicating a schedule in advance allows your employees to plan for childcare, dates, doctor appointments, and everything else in their lives. If you want happy employees and a finished to-do list, you should release your schedule in advance and get employee feedback about it.

Learn How Time Trackers Can Help Your Work Schedule

If you are struggling to create your team’s work schedule, a time tracker can help. With Time Tracker by eBillity, you can enjoy using a leading time-tracking program with your team. To learn more, check out Time Tracker’s free 14-day trial today.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Balancing Your Team’s Work Schedule appeared first on eBillity.

Scope creep occurs when a project’s objectives, requirements, or vision shifts from what was agreed upon at the start. Even when a client adds on smaller tasks one by one, it can still throw off your project’s schedule and lead to cost overruns, missed deadlines, and a frustrated team.

So, how can your creative agency push back on scope creep and help clients respect your time? We’ve shared our top tips below.

Set Clear Project Expectations and Ensure Clients are On-Board

In order to keep your project within scope, you must first determine exactly what the project will entail. The best way to do this is by creating a Scope of Work (SOW). This document should outline the project’s expectations, including the:

• Type of work being completed, and the people involved
• Project’s objectives
• Tasks that must be completed in order to fulfill these objectives
• Task list that divides the project into manageable steps
• Project schedule that defines when, where, how, and by whom the work will be completed
• Specific list of project deliverables
• Project management report outlining any measures that must be taken to keep all parties satisfied
• Success criteria and sign-off, signifying when the project is finished

Consider your SOW to be your project’s roadmap. Taking a wrong turn along the way could lead your project astray or derail it completely.

That’s why it’s also vital that your creative agency clients are on-board with the project’s scope. These objectives and expectations should be written down and discussed with your client at the start of the project. You’ll get off on the right foot this way, lowering the likelihood of future problems.

If you don’t establish clear scope guidelines, clients may take advantage and pressure you to complete more work than you initially agreed upon.

Put Your Terms in Writing

Speaking of objectives and expectations, it’s also important that you outline your general working terms to your client from the get-go.

When you’re creating boundaries with clients, write them down in a formal contract and have them sign it before you begin working together. This is one of the most effective methods for encouraging a client to respect your time.

Outline elements such as your working hours and methods of communication. Additionally, set expectations for response times, how long your calls are supposed to last, and turnaround times.

The written contract should also specify exactly what you must deliver. So, if a client attempts to persuade you to produce something that isn’t covered by the contract, you may politely decline or ask them to pay an additional fee.

The payment conditions should also be included in the contract. This includes information such as the amount owing, the payment method, the due date, and any additional terms that apply, such as late penalty fees. After all, chasing up late invoices is a further waste of your precious time.

Address Boundary Breaches Immediately

It’s one thing to set boundaries, but unless those boundaries are enforced, a client won’t take them seriously. Therefore, when a client breaches one of the elements discussed above, politely follow it up to prevent it from happening again.

Some client boundary violations may be easier to resolve than others. For example, if the contract specifies the scope of your deliverables and the customer requests additional work, you may quickly schedule a call to discuss the added expenses.

Similarly, a late penalty clause in your contract can help you deal with situations like late payments.

If a demanding client calls you after hours on a regular basis, you must sit down with the client and respectfully remind them of your working hours.

Most clients will happily comply with such a request. However, if the client’s demands have shifted to the point where they require extra hours, you’ll need to negotiate a new agreement.

Know When to Say No

You and your team want to give each of the stakeholders, as well as the end-user, the greatest potential result. You can only accomplish this if you have defined duties, boundaries, and timeframes that everyone understands.

You’ll have to learn to say no from time to time if you want to keep control of the scope of your project. It’s never easy to say no to your employer, manager, or a key project stakeholder. However, it’s the strongest approach to safeguard a project’s quality, and that is precisely how you should think about it.

If an employer or client asks you to take on more work, explain that it goes beyond the scope of the original SOW and will inevitably affect the project’s budget, timeframe, and resource allocation.

If a team member is contributing to the project’s creep, refer to your personal workflow. Explain that there’s simply no additional time left in order to hit the project’s objectives.

Use a Time Tracker to Manage a Project’s Timeline Effectively

If you want a client to respect your creative agency’s time, then you must also respect and be in control of your own time. Time management is crucial to your project’s scope, as failing to hit deadlines is one of the quickest ways to make a project’s timeline and budget blow out.

Thankfully, time tracking software can help you manage your project scope, so you can understand how the project is progressing at any given time and keep clients in the loop.

Time Tracker by eBillity, for example, gives you complete transparency over your project budgets, tasks, and team. With detailed real-time reports, you can easily avoid scope creep and over-run. This is because you can track what team members are working on in real-time. Then, you can instantly see if any project is going over its hours or budget.

Time Tracker also allows you to monitor estimated hours against actual time spent. This not only helps you and your team to remain accountable for your efforts but also provides clients with concrete proof of the time you have put into their project.

Take Control of Your Time

As a project manager, time is your most precious resource. Let time tracking software handle some of your day-to-day tasks, so you can spend more time on your client’s important projects.

Ready to take control of your time? Start eBillity’s free, 14-day Time Tracker trial today.

The post How To Get Your Creative Agency Clients To Respect Your Time appeared first on eBillity.

That’s definitely true when it comes to time tracking statistics, so we’ve compiled some key ones as we head into 2022. 

22 productivity and time tracking statistics to know

1. 69% of employees admit that they don’t track their time accurately.

According to a Forbes online test about time tracking, half of employees also estimate that a quarter of their time at work is wasted. 

2. Employees are only productive for 2 hours and 23 minutes each day.

The remainder is spent: 

• Checking social media (44 minutes)
• Browsing news (65 minutes)
• Discussing work with coworkers (40 minutes)
• Searching for new jobs (26 minutes)
• Making calls (18 minutes)
• Taking coffee breaks (17 minutes) or snack breaks (8 minutes)
• Instant messaging (14 minutes)
• Making food (7 minutes)

3. Productivity rates plummet to 45% between noon and 3:00pm.

Freelancers’ activity rates go down to 43% between 3:00 and 6:00pm.

4. US workers spend more than 2.5 hours on emails daily.

That amounts to 120 messages per day, and unrecorded emailing time leaks $50,000 per employee annually. 

5. Buddy punching costs more than $370 million each year.

More than 75% of companies lose money to buddy punching, which is preventable with safeguards such as biometrics and GPS data. 

6. Productivity drops by 40% when an employee attempts to multitask.

Multitasking lowers your comprehension level by 11% and your intelligence by 17%. However, a time tracking system can help employees see where they’re spending their hours and focus on one thing at a time. 

7. Multitasking without time tracking decreases productivity by nearly half.

If your staff is going to multitask, make sure they’re logging it with a time tracking system that allows for multiple timers to be used. 

8. Disengaged employees cost companies 18% of their salaries.

There’s a clear connection between engagement and employee productivity. 

With a time tracking tool like Time Tracker, you can quickly pull an employee report that shows:

• Billable versus non-billable hours
• How much time is spent on specific tasks
• How much PTO employees are taking
• Employee utilization rates

9. Remote workers are 57% more satisfied with their jobs.

Organizations that allow remote work report a 25% decrease in turnover rates. Many companies facilitate remote work by using time tracking software. 

10. 700+ hours go unbilled annually in any company. 

Studies show that 36% of employees never track time spent sending emails, and 20% never track time spent in meetings. 

11. The US economy loses 50 million hours a year to errors in employee timesheets. 

That lost productivity adds up to $7.4 billion a day.

12. Time tracking has been shown to reduce productivity leaks by 80%.

It’s one reason the right time tracking software can help you combat time theft, which occurs when workers are paid for time they did not work. 

Time theft can take various forms, including buddy punching, taking long breaks, starting late, finishing early, and engaging in personal activities during work hours.

13. 75% of businesses say time theft is a challenge. 

One study reveals that US employers lose $11 billion annually in productivity to time theft, and another shows that 4.5 hours per employee per day  is lost to it. 

Nearly half of American employees openly admit to time theft.

14. In the legal profession, attorneys spend 2/3 of their day on non-billable tasks.

Roughly 31% of an attorney’s day is spent doing billable work, which means 69% of their time is spent on non-billable tasks. 

15. 80% of small businesses made adjustments during 2021. 

Roughly 75% changed their products or services, and 44% reported these changes as “minor.” 

One minor change that had major effects: Making sure solutions like time tracking systems are cloud-based and working efficiently. 

16. 73% of businesses are “very satisfied” after automating tools and processes.

91% of organizations use automation technologies, and 51% make extensive use of them. 

17. Some companies save $600,000+ in yearly wages simply by automating time tracking.

Getting rid of data entry, spreadsheets and paper timesheets keeps employees accountable while allowing them to easily track and submit time.

18. More than 90% of employees say that their paychecks are delivered on time due to tools including time tracking. 

87% are “certain” or “very certain” that their paycheck deductions and net pay are accurate. 

This is a good thing because 49% of workers will leave a company after just two issues with their paychecks. 

19. Companies that use time tracking software with payroll features are 44% less likely to make errors.

This saves payroll admins, managers, and other employees several hours of administrative work.

20. Time tracking cuts the time it takes to process time cards from 7 minutes/card to 1 minute/card.

This allows administrators to spend more time on high-value tasks. 

21. Time Tracker can save 30+ hours in administration and increase revenue by 30% every month.

Use it to easily keep track of employee time and attendance in seconds:

• Clock in/out and take breaks with time cards
• Capture every second worked with timers
• Add time in blocks with weekly timesheets
• Approve employee time entries in two clicks

22. 97% of Time Tracker customers would recommend our time tracking system to others. 

Try a free, 14-day trial to find out why. 

The post 22 Time Tracking Statistics & Productivity Facts to Know Going into 2023 appeared first on eBillity.

Today, we’ll cover the basics, from overtime pay calculators to how to manage overtime effectively.

How does overtime work? 

As a concept, overtime is simple. If an employee works more than X hours in a week (typically 40), the additional hours are classified as overtime (OT). Employees are paid at a higher rate for overtime hours.  

Why does overtime exist?

From a legislative standpoint, overtime exists to:

• Prevent workers who are willing to work long hours from taking all the available jobs
• Reduce unemployment by spreading work among more people
• Compensate OT workers for increased risk of accidents due to exhaustion or overexertion

How to calculate overtime pay: Hourly workers

When it comes to how to calculate overtime hours, the process for hourly employees is straightforward. The government requires companies to pay people at a minimum, one and a half times the regular hourly rate for any work over 40 hours per week.

Overtime hours calculator for hourly workers

Example: An hourly employee who makes $13/hour will make $520 per week. 

If your employee works 50 hours in one week, their overtime pay will be $195 for 10 OT hours. This means their weekly payment will be $715 rather than $520 — a difference that becomes exponentially more significant with each employee and each OT hour worked. 

How to calculate overtime pay: Salaried workers

Salaried employees are typically exempt from overtime — unless they make less than $684 a week. As of January 1, 2020, employees below that threshold must also receive overtime pay for any work exceeding 40 hours/week. 

This change means more employees are eligible for OT. However, employers can still apply certain funds to the salary threshold — something that can be financially beneficial when considering how to manage overtime effectively. When calculating an employee’s salary, employers can count non-discretionary bonuses and incentive payments such as commissions toward the total. 

How to calculate overtime pay: Exemptions

In most companies, some employees are exempt from receiving overtime pay. 

To qualify as exempt, employees must be:

White-collar jobs are higher-paid, higher-skilled positions that typically require more training or education than low-skilled or manual work.

Common examples of exempt employees are:

• Executives
• Sales representatives
• Computer and IT experts
• Administrative professionals 

Managing overtime costs with incentives

While all employers are required to pay at least the minimum for overtime, many use overtime to improve employee satisfaction and motivate workers.

Overtime incentives

Managing overtime may be easier when employees see the perks, which could include:

• Paying employees at a higher rate than the legally required 1.5X their hourly rate
• Starting overtime pay at less than 40 hours/week, especially for jobs requiring intense manual labor
• Offering special incentives for night, holiday or weekend work such as extra PTO
• Setting performance-based targets (sales thresholds, project completion) so employees can work toward a goal rather than just logging OT hours
• Holding overtime-only contests such as raffles, which can only be entered during OT hours

How to manage overtime effectively with time tracking

Now that you know how to calculate overtime hours, it’s time to answer another key question: How is your company currently tracking employee hours? 

As an owner or manager, you know that paper timesheets are antiquated and disorganized systems and lead to everything from time theft to mistrust in the workplace. But what you may not know is that solutions like Time Tracker can benefit employers and employees by increasing: 

• Trust
• Efficiency
• Productivity
• Transparency
• Profitability

Time tracking is especially important when managing overtime costs because it streamlines and standardizes processes, saving you time and headaches. 

With Time Tracker, you can:

• View each employee’s total shift hours while creating new schedules 
• See daily, weekly and monthly hours as they come in
• Set up rules so you’re alerted when an employee goes into OT
• Use historical data to ensure you don’t over-schedule an employee who often works OT
• Ensure payroll costs don’t go over budget

Ready to try Time Tracker for yourself? 

Get started with our 14-day free trial.

The post How to Calculate Overtime Pay and Manage Overtime Costs appeared first on eBillity.