The Importance of Time Tracking for Your Business

For any business, big or small, time is your most precious resource. Poor time management can severely affect your company’s productivity and bottom line. It can also easily lead to employee burn-out as well as decreased morale–two things that are fatal to a business.

That’s why your business needs to track time effectively. That’s where time tracking apps come in. If you’ve never used a time tracking app before, consider trying one out. Here’s why:

Time Tracking Makes Pricing And Billing Easier

To put it simply, your clients want to know that you’re not wasting their money. They want to see exactly where it’s going to ensure that it’s going to good use and you’re not just taking advantage of them.

Time tracking also helps you to price your services correctly because you know exactly how much time and work it takes. It demonstrates to your clients how you are dividing your time and why what you charge is reasonable and necessary. It’s just proof that makes you look far more legitimate.

But what if you don’t bill hourly? Well, time tracking is still a good practice to get into. It will allow you to put a dollar value on the hours you spend working when on retainer.

“Retainers are payment agreements between a client and a service provider. The client pays a specific amount of money to a business — usually monthly — and, in return, receives a set of services during that same time period.” – Accelo

Time Tracking Helps You Delegate And Find Balance With Your Team

Being aware of how long it takes each person on your team to complete a task helps you delegate far more effectively. Rather than splitting the work and project tasks completely randomly, time tracking apps show you exactly which process and people are most efficient at getting the job done. It increases productivity immensely.

It also allows you to create balance with your team by making you aware if they are working too much. With this knowledge, you can truly divide tasks evenly so that everyone is getting a comfortable workload based on their strengths.

“When your team knows that you’re using timesheet data to maintain a healthy work-life balance, they’re more likely to see time tracking as something positive and actually do it. Not to mention, you’ll enjoy all the other benefits of having a happy, motivated team.” – Harvest

Time Tracking Allows You To Be More Time Efficient

Time tracking allows you to create time-saving goals for yourself and your team. Once you know how long a task takes on average, you can challenge your team to improve and become more efficient. Seeing exactly how much time something takes allows you to create informed and realistic goals to improve that.

It also helps you to get rid of non-essential tasks. This is useful when you’re coming up on a deadline and have to make quick decisions about what to tackle next.

“Knowing where perhaps too much time might be spent on projects, you also have the ability to cut excess costs.” – eBillity

Time Tracking Gives You More Time To Explore

Time tracking apps simply help you save time. This means the more efficient you are, the more time you have to explore possibilities.

Sometimes the best ideas happen at the last minute or even after you’ve completed a project. So never discount the value of having a little extra time. Who doesn’t love extra time?

Time tracking isn’t about finding the best times and quickest results. It’s about creating a reasonable and average framework within which your team can thrive. So consider these tips, give time tracking a try, and don’t forget to leave a little room for the unexpected!

Do you track time? How has it helped you? Let me know in the comments below!