Category: Time Tracking

Spend less invest more via task tracking app

Spend less invest

Organisations go to great extent when monitoring their employees, keeping an eye on them through their security system. That is not it, they also go to extra lengths when it comes to work monitoring, tracking their activities through their work computers and also accessing their computer cameras in the process. Asking the organizations they will always come up with that one incident that compelled them to do so. No one exactly knows why they actually need to monitor their employees like the way they do!  

The monitoring soon becomes more and more frustrating and it becomes the bothersome for the employees, these organizations might have a good enough incident to endorse this but also you cannot disagree to the fact that it soon becomes slavery. This is common if you ask the employees as they believe any sort of monitoring on them is nothing more than a blatant disregard towards their privacy. However the truth is the organizations do have a right as they are providing and trusting people they don’t know with their life’s work. In order to mitigate this scenario we need a solution that allows certain freedom to the employee all the while providing the organization with what they want.  

It is simple, use a solution that provides not only freedom to the employee but keeps the team lead or the managers into a complete loop of the system. So in a sense you will never lose a minute of work and also you will never lose track of the progress made in a project. Fortunately for you there is such a solution that can help you achieve this possibility.

 

So what is this solution?

The solution that can help you ease not only your own life but also the life of your employees is called: Staff Timer App. It is super simple and cost effective when it comes to getting things done. Not only it measures your work hours it also calculates your payroll all on its own. This is how you stay ahead of competition by spending less on operations and being more productive. The Staff Timer App is not only cost effective it is user friendly, you don’t need to have a great knowledge of tech or internet usage. It doesn’t require you to be savvy when using technology or the internet . All you need to do is enter the details and you will be led to further automatically.

 

Why do you need a Staff Timer App?

The reason you need an automated solution like the Staff timer app is the current situation of the world, the never ending remote work and quarantine requires a permanent solution. The best solution you can hope for is something that proves to be a bridge between employees and employers. The App allows you to monitor employees individually and assess them on their individual performances. It also cuts your administration costs and your additional costs on the finance department. Imagine where you were, you had an entire department just to keep tabs on the employees present and absence and count their working hours to pay them at the end of the month. A user friendly app can do all that in a blink of an eye saving you about 46% annually. This is a big save compared to what you were already doing. Imagine saving this much annually the wonders it can do for your product. Since you are already remote this will help you keep your business not only afloat but also provide the much needed surplus in your budget that you had been hoping for. Staff Timer App allows you to use its own two way communication mitigating a third party provider completely. It allows you to save on all the places you can save without impacting the productivity of your team in these trying times.

Since the green revolution is now the talk of the town so one can guess that the future of work is indeed remote. This pandemic has proved one thing and that we cannot go on like we had been in the past. Remote work is not only helpful to the environment but also acts as a strong deterrent against frivolous spending. So the future is indeed a Staff Timer App with remote monitoring an evident part of industry you cannot possibly survive without a software that not only complements the employers, it also favors the employee. Keep a positive work life balance, bill your clients by the hours and so much more.

 

How can the Staff Timer App help you?

Now since we have established the need, let’s dive into how it will be helping you. The first and foremost thing is no matter where your employees are you will never ever be out of favour or out of the loop. You will always be in control of the situation and their progress will never elude you, the two way communication allows you to not only keep in touch but also provide helpful insight.

This being the most advantageous scenarios allows you to stay ahead of the curb, where your competition will be struggling to keep up with your pace and spending less. You will be spending less indeed but saving and investing at the right places. It allows you to hire freelancers and pay them by the hour of work done by them. So now you will be in the loop forever. The play is simple. All you have to do is make them download this super simple app and let them begin their work. It will keep you updated with their progress and the progress of your project overall.  

So this was a brief introduction, figuratively, of the cost effective, employee monitoring and task tracking app. Staff timer app’s newest version is made to meet all your remote work desires and to enhance productivity by a mile. Staff Timer App works as a remote employee monitoring software that performs almost all the functions performed by the administration. Since remote work doesn’t require much administration it is only wise that you use a software that performs all these tasks without even charging you much.

Why Time Management Software is required Post COVID-19?

With the advent of pandemic and working indoors,  the need of management software was felt. For this reason there was mushroom growth in daily time trackers and task management sites and softwares. 

Now since the pandemic has passed and offices are opening up again, the question is how to use time management software now. As the remote work is now being abandoned, the big question is how to integrate these softwares with our offices now! 

So how do you manage the offices with a time management software:

 

Post-pandemic scenario

The life after pandemic has changed everything, from quarantine to social distancing. We have changed our life and goals. From a 10 years goal we are now looking at surviving a year barely.

Our business has felt the full force of pandemic. When we were working from home there was one and only one goal, to survive and since we survived now we have to look at ways that would ease our integration back into the “normal” world. 

The post pandemic era leads us back to where we started. One thing is for sure now that this pandemic has changed our lives in every imaginable way, so we cannot go back doing the same thing that got us here in the first place.

 

Why do you need time management software even now?

This here is the million dollar question that what do we do now with our: employee management software. The popular notion would be to not use the software at all as now the offices have reopened and the employee and employer distances are now no more so we need to look at it.

We simply cannot revert back to our old ways. So even though the pandemic is over we are still looking at how to effectively use these helping tools so we can build a better and seamless workflow. So here is why you need Staff Timer App even post COVID.

When pandemic struck and we moved indoors for quarantine there was a major disrupt in working flows. To make it seamless and keep the work going we took the help of various softwares that would help us feel comfortable while working remotely.

Now as life has changed and we are slowly resuming our work from the designated offices the need for such remote employee management apps are not required at all, or are they? 

What Staff Timer App does is that it keeps your team active and you in pole position to assign tasks individually. With the Staff Timer App’s, “Record & Assign” feature you can assign tasks through voice notes from anywhere and share the screens of your team and assign tasks through that along with audio. 

 

Save additional costs

The pandemic has adversely affected the economy it is not without question that your business might be looking on the downturn. The best way you can do is to cut your extra costs, since the offices have resumed it means a lot of cost (extravagance) will resume as well.

What if a software can cut that cost drastically, that is what Staff Timer App does it can perform all the functions that an admin performs. It is more reliable and not prone to error. Imagine all you can do with additional revenue, not much but still save enough to save your business. 

 

Progression in the time of regression

The real people of progression are those who would accept that future is here and integrate their lives with it. If you stand in the way of progress you will be made irrelevant and the best way you can avoid being irrelevant is by adopting the solutions that would keep you ahead of the curb.

This is exactly what Staff Timer App does, equipped with endless features that allow you to optimize the productivity of your teammates by allowing you to manage them seamlessly. Features like automated payroll and online attendance with live screen monitoring is the futuristic way to go about the business after pandemic. We have up-till now battled a pandemic, survived quarantine, we can certainly cannot go back to our old ways that have led us here. 

 

The high end solution

Staff Timer App is a high end solution to all your recurring problems when it comes to management. Life after pandemic has changed a lot and this app has features that can help you in the future. The sleek and seamless task tracker helps you keep your entire day organized. You can mark your tasks complete and be more productive in the time. 

 

Conclusion 

The pandemic has taught us one thing and that one thing is that we can survive if we want to survive. The precautions are a necessity but if you can adjust this it will be the best thing you could do for your business and your future.

Staff Timer App is not your regular time management app, it bases its expertise on tracking your tasks throughout the day and that is what a modern task management app must be doing, not enslaving the employees but empowering them.

Why Personal Time Tracking is Important

Personal time tracking is an important part of our lives. Its importance can be perceived by the fact that once you master it, you’ll immediately improve the quality of your life. 

A scary thing about time is that once it’s lost, you’ll never get it back. But there is also light at the end of the tunnel. You can organize and track your time to get ahead in life. 

If you revolve your day around to-do lists then unmet deadlines will inevitably pile up. That will lead to a fear of failure as well. This will end up paralyzing your professional life. Just imagine working long hours at the office, only to achieve nothing in the end and compromising your personal life in the whole process. 

Only by implementing personal time tracking in your life can you change your fate. 

Time is one of our most valuable assets. So much so that the great Benjamin Franklin used to say, “Time is money”. And personal time is known to be the equivalent of happiness, harmony, and quality. These qualities are the foundation of work-life balance and satisfaction. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss personal time tracking and why it’s so important in our lives. So without any further ado, let’s just jump into it. 

What is a personal time tracking?

As the name suggests, personal time tracking means keeping an eye on your personal tasks, projects, activities, and routine. 

When we talk about personal time tracking, we don’t necessarily mean tracking only household chores. Time tracking can also extend to your work life as well. In fact, it’s not outlandish to consider time tracking as the main key to professional success. 

How to track time

Nowadays, you can easily track your time through time tracking apps like Staff Timer. But that was not always the case. 

People have been tracking time through different methods since ancient times. Our forefathers used to observe the sun and the stars. They even invented peculiar devices like sundials. Today, we’ve come a long way since then and now use all types of time tracking software to efficiently keep track of time.

Before the introduction of modern devices, employees had to physically clock in and out of a time clock machine. This machine was invented in the late 1880s by Willard Le Grand Bundy. When the patent for his time recorder (the precursor to modern time tracking apps) was approved, Bundy started a company that developed employee attendance machines.

Bundy’s company later merged with other organizations to form the International Time Recorder Company (ITR). Fun fact: this particular company was the actual predecessor to IBM. 

Time tracking software

Time tracking software allows users to effectively track their time.  

Efficient time management can help meet tight deadlines, avoid stress, improve productivity, and above all else, make extra time for themselves. It can also help maintain a work-life balance by keeping track of the time.

Employee time tracking software 

Nowadays, time tracking software can be found in almost every industry. Workplaces that require the use of computers or mobile devices are quickly embracing these apps. Many companies have also started using employee monitoring software to watch over their employees’ work activities. 

See Also: Best Time Clock Apps for Multiple Employees

Time Tracking: Advantages

Time tracking apps in the workplace are popular for a reason. Some pros include:

  • Exposing sensitive problems like harassment.
  • Reducing/preventing theft.
  • Discovering which workload may need to be redistributed.
  • Helping monitor and ensure safe practices.
  • Reducing instances of employees wasting company time.
  • Highlighting bottlenecks or areas where employees spend more time than necessary, letting employers review the process and improve upon it.
  • Allowing employers to monitor their employees’ work activities and ensure that they’re being productive and following the rules.
  • Tracking hours worked on specific tasks, leading to an increase in accuracy for invoicing.
  • Helping with recordkeeping, such as tracking employee time, projects, tasks, etc.
  • Monitoring customer interactions to ensure policies are being adhered to and customers are being treated well.

Time Tracking: Disadvantages

Every rose comes with a thorn. Time tracking apps provide a lot of downsides in the workplace as well. Some drawbacks include:

  • Employees feeling as if their privacy has been violated.
  • Increase in employee turnover rate if tracking becomes very intrusive.
  • Time tracking being perceived as a sign of mistrust; breeding resentment and reducing employee morale and productivity.
  • The line between work and home getting blurred; most people often use the same device for both.
  • Important data getting misused by the higher-ups. 
  • Legal issues to contend with, ensuring employers remain within their legal rights while also respecting their employees’ privacy rights. 
  • Tracking programs only being useful if they are carefully scrutinized, requiring lots of time and money.
  • Modern time tracking becoming a great risk by creating a false sense of security.

Key Takeaways

Personal time tracking is only useful in the right hands. If you want to be someone of importance then you have to start tracking your time. Otherwise, the sands of time will quickly blow past you. 

Instead of using traditional methods like pen and paper, use time tracking apps to keep an eye on your activities. They are fast, reliable, and secure. To read about some of the best time management apps for 2020, click here. 

If you found this article helpful, do share it with your circle. Good luck and stay productive!

Task Tracker: Why It is Relevant to Our Society

Task tracker is becoming increasingly vital to us as different kinds of distractions keep piling upon us as time goes on. Most people only track their time to get a general sense of where things are headed. But if you genuinely want to improve your performance, every detail counts. Tracking your daily tasks will give you important insights that will help improve your work process and approach. 

There’s no definite blueprint to improving your overall productivity as its all relevant, task trackers are essentially your best chance at boosting project management and profitability. 

What is a Task Tracker?

As the name suggests, task trackers are apps that record all the time spent on each individual work task on your desktop, laptop, tablet, etc. They come with different features, some free and some paid for, but all of them mainly concentrate on task tracking. 

Today’s task trackers can go as detailed as you want, even giving you the option to apply tag names on the tasks you want to track. 

Why You Need a Task Tracker?

Now that we’ve established what task trackers are, let’s discuss why you would need one. Imagine yourself as an employee who’s expected to be on top of everything even when your colleagues are constantly chatting, the phones keep on ringing, and urgent emails flood in. On top of it all, you’re stuck in pointless meetings and keep an eye on technological resources that are regularly updated.

 

Sounds exhausting right? It won’t be if you plan a solid work process involving task trackers. Start by creating a checklist that makes up for our limited human memory. Itemize all the important steps in a task so that it can serve as a guideline for the whole team. This will improve your productivity and ensure that you don’t waste your time answering the same questions and explaining the same process to your team members. 

Some benefits of task trackers include:

    • Streamlining project workflows
    • Revealing minimum delivery requirements
    • Providing accurate bills
    • Improving operational processes
    • Obtaining important insights 
    • Avoiding irrelevant tasks 

Choosing the Right Task Tracker

This is where things can get a bit tricky as it’s not easy choosing the right task tracker for yourself or your team. In theory, you can use pen and paper to track your tasks but the better approach is using a time tracking app like Staff Timer. You’ll find two types of task trackers in the market – automatic and manual. 

Automatic task trackers track your time in the background as you focus on your work; with manual task trackers, you have to start and stop the timer by yourself. 

In the end, the task tracking method you choose will depend on your own personal working style and the obstacles that you want to overcome. 

Workings Style

Some people like to be in control of their time, preferring to start and stop their tasks by themselves. Other people find manual time trackers to be irritating as it’s easy to get lost in your work and forget to switch your tasks. 

Those who need to frequently work with both the clients and projects will most likely want to focus on their work and leave the whole time tracking to an app. 

Using a Task Tracker App

Most task tracking apps are pretty simple to use, especially Staff Timer. The app records all of your tasks in the back office where you can easily search them by their project and date range. The search results will show you a list of tasks containing:

    • Project name
    • Title
    • Created at
    • Last worked
    • Total time
    • Actions

This feature will help you:

    • Check out how long it took to complete a certain task 
    • Anticipate problems and make necessary adjustments 
    • Detect potential delays, allowing you to be proactive at critical times

Don’t Expect Instant Success

Task trackers are not a hack or some magical spell that will instantly improve your productivity. You’ll need some practice to perfect your new work process. It doesn’t matter how you put your tasks together, always be ready to amend or update as needed. 

You’ll need to add some things that you may have overlooked or forgot and remove unnecessary steps. But pretty soon you’ll have a task tracker that you can rely on to produce consistent quality work. 

Personal Task Tracker

If you just want to track your personal tasks then you’ll like some of these apps mentioned below. 

    • Todoist. This is a unique to-do list app that balances both power and simplicity to create an app that can run on almost every platform out there. It’s flexible enough to adapt to your workflow while still being easy to use.

 

    • Trello. Do you like categorized cards and post-it notes to help you manage your tasks? Try Trello. It’s essentially an online corkboard used to organize “cards” into lists – these cards can be notes, projects, shared files, or anything else that can help you track your tasks. 

 

    • Evernote. A lot of people are using Evernote these days and for good reason: its a powerful project management app that can help you organize your thoughts into a form of series. Toss your documents and file into your personal notebooks or save them as you like. 

 

Project Task Tracker

Project managers have it tough. The apps mentioned below can take some of the burdens off their shoulders. 

    • ClickUp. This is one of the best task management tool in the world, used by world-famous companies like Google, Nike, and Airbnb. Its got process, task, and time management all in one place. 

 

    • Asana. A hybrid task and project management app, Asana is pretty easy to use. Through this app, you can create dependencies between tasks so that one task cannot be completed without completing another. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices. 

 

    • Staff Timer. Looking for an app that monitors your employees and their tasks? Staff Timer is the accurate answer to your question. It uses automatic screenshots and real-time monitoring to improve overall employee productivity. 

Key Takeaways

Task trackers can only help you achieve your goals when the tool you’re using is the right one. And your tool preference will depend on the obstacles you want to overcome. Look into all the apps that we mentioned, you’re bound to find the one that suits you best. 

If you found this article helpful then be sure to share it with others. Good luck!

10 best time management apps in 2020

Time management apps are becoming increasingly common due to rising demand. Every business enterprise or startup is concerned about maintaining productivity levels, and that is only possible through an efficient time tracking or project management system.

It gives an accurate picture and insight into employee’s productivity and manifests their peak performance levels. Time monitoring apps bring-in more cost efficiency and transparency into businesses thus generating more revenue than ever before.

Here we are detailing 10 best time management apps in 2020 that you will need to save and manage your time:

Slack – collaboration and communication

Slack is one of the most used management apps that companies prefer. It is basically a tool for communication and collaboration. Slack offers shared channels with search options. It can be integrated with numerous other project management app(s). These are some of the features that make the work convenient and staff members located around the world can connect with each other.

    • You can pin messages and refer to channels
    • Manage and track documents
    • Advanced search option
    • Shared channels to streamline work activities

It’s especially good if you are located in workspaces scattered around the country or world even. You can communicate and coordinate across businesses or units of the same business that require secure communication. Not only this, you can easily streamline your sidebar through it.

For instance, if you need to send frequent messages to some channels more than another. You can make them ascend in the sidebar to ease the process for you. Google calendar app can be integrated to keep your schedule on track.

Platforms: Windows, iOS, Linux

Website: slack.com

StaffTimerApp – Time tracking for employees

Stafftimer App is one of the best time management apps available in this competitive market of time trackers. It assists global teams and also remote workers to track their productivity.

There are some unique features offered on this app which include the following:

    • Real-time monitoring
    • Task assignment via voice clips
    • Intelligence reports
    • Daily work image & video logs
    • Instant screen capture
    • Keystroke & mouse activity

The screenshot feature is optional for example if an employee is involved in fieldwork and employers can simply opt-out of screenshot capture feature and just track the time alone. 

With audio clips process of assigning tasks is expediated in an unprecedented manner. Lengthy emails are outdated now. Even feedback is given via this method. This saves time for both an employer and an employee. On the other hand, Real-time monitoring is a live screen sharing with an employee. An employer can actually visualize, what his staff member is up to? Similarly, intelligence reports will provide insights into how much time was spent on different URLs.

Above all, daily work videos provide employees with an overview of their whole day’s progress. It has a user-friendly interface and convenient for every significant industry like legal, healthcare, accounting, designing, accounting or even freelancing. So if you want to make time tracking your habit, it’s for you.

Staff timer app provides on-demand integrations with any software of your choice.

Platforms: Windows, Mac

Website: stafftimerapp.com

Asana – Project & time management apps

 

Asana is one of the most commonly known and popular products available for project management. It helps you monitor and track your goals and projects to further your business. It helps you decide, and handle your priorities and projects in a structured way.

You can assign tasks and then watch them progress. Never miss deadlines by creating a timeline so you never miss out on anything. There are 100 integrations that help you bring every useful file and document in one place.

    • Activity feed
    • Automatic updates on emails
    • Track tasks and add followers
    • Comment on tasks

You can track the most important or urgent tasks based on customized preferences. Create projects and teams private to protect sensitive information.

Platforms: Andriod, iOS, Chrome

Website: asana.com

Evernote – Note tracking app

 

Evernote is one of the best time managing solutions for note-taking especially if you are not organized and feel lost when you are unable to locate your required document. No matter what device you use, it will store and retain your most important information.

There are various methods through which you can store your information with Evernote:

    • You can type notes, take photos or even add voice notes
    • Less hassle in organizing or searching the notes
    • You can create notebooks that are folders precisely

It does offer an interesting feature of tracking data with the help of geolocation which means you can trace data based on the location when you entered it. Asana has an optical character recognition function that caters to images you upload with text on them. For example, a handwritten note whose image you took and added.

Platform: iOS, Mac, Windows, Android

Website: evernote.com

Remember the Milk – App for managing tasks

 

Remember the milk is a kind of virtual assistant for managing your time and tasks. It offers a smart list option that sets a distinction between personal and professional tasks. It helps you to:

    • Update task
    • Create subtasks
    • Set deadlines ranging from days, months, & years

You can share tasks and lists with others. It’s a free-to-use app unless you subscribe to its premium features. Pro users can add unlimited users, restrict access to edit, and can work in offline status as well.

Platform: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Fire, Apple Watch

Website:
www.rememberthemilk.com

Todoist – Task management lists

 

Todoist is one of the strongest task managers that can handle things from simple domestic task to an important and professional one. It’s one of the most suitable time management apps for both business teams or individuals like freelancers. It can handle both basic and advanced level tasks.

Some of its key features are:

    • SSL secured connection
    • Task priorities
    • Projects and subprojects
    • Active projects can be 80 with 5 members at maximum in each

It offers more than 100 integrated tools. Todo-ist is available on most of the devices with the consistent design shown on all of them. You can pin your important projects, label or filter them accordingly.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, Chrome, Safari, Linux

Website: todoist.com

Basecamp – Organize Projects

Basecamp is one of the most popular project management applications. It doesn’t only keep to-do lists, but also keep notes, files and events’ schedules as well. This app holds central importance for task organization. It has a user-friendly interface with a one-month free subscription.

Its benefits include:

    • Transparent management and accountability
    • More efficient communication and coordination
    • Updated customizations and integrations

Every project depicts outdated to-do tasks and stores all the files associated with each of the tasks even if the deadline has exceeded. Basecamp is suitable for companies of all sizes and even for remote workers.

Many renowned multinationals are its clients. This task manager is supported in multiple languages and an ideal fit for globally sparsed teams.

Platforms: web, iOS, Android, Mac, and PC

Website: basecamp.com

Trello – A work collaboration tool

Trello is an extremely user-friendly task management software that gives an impression of a whiteboard. It’s free of cost and you can create multiple boards with your to-do lists, along with ‘doing’ and ‘done’ task cards.

    • Quick overview
    • Drag and drop function
    • Easy to organize with tags and labels

There are cards within boards where one can add tasks and set the due date as needed. Collaborations are simplified with this software. With the free version, one can have an unlimited number of boards, cards, checklists, and attachments. You can remove or delete the cards from the boards and can rename them anytime. Besides you can add as many members as you like into them.

This software provides seamless integrations with google docs and dropbox. 

Platforms: Web, Mac, Windows

Website: trello.com

Dropbox – Store and Organize files

Dropbox is one of the most widely known and popular file-sharing options. It’s considered the most prestigious document storage and sharing software. It is suitable for both businesses and individuals’ needs.

With the help of cloud storage, it makes the entire process extremely convenient for accessing, storing and retrieving files.

    • Simplified link sharing via email, chat or even a text
    • Provide offline access
    • Online backup and file retrieval
    • Manually determined bandwidths
    • Accessible from any device

Dropbox offers a successful and trend-setting referral program. Through which 500MB storage is obtained with every referral. There are numerous software that allows data sharing but not as efficient as dropbox even that, for free.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

Website: www.dropbox.com

Proof hub – Project Planning Software

Proof hub brings in many features to eliminate the need of subscribing to numerous apps for task management solutions. It tries to develop a centralized location for communication, project management, and handle teams efficiently.

    • Workflows and boards
    • Mobile and tablet compatibility
    • Advanced search
    • Multiple languages

It helps you upload your documents easily from a centralized location. No more hassle to manage documents through email. It is a reporting software that presents a report on how the resources were used and give the insight to track the progress of various projects.

Remote members can use it to discuss and share ideas with each other as it also serves as a communication tool.

Platforms: Android, iOS

Website: www.proofhub.com

How to Manage profits & costs with time tracking apps

Companies are delivering exceptional customer service to their clients, by actively investing in business solutions, that utilize the latest technology and time tracking apps. Businesses also enhance their productivity as well as streamline operations by implementing such solutions.

Whether you manage a big company or a startup, wasting operational costs are not acceptable. Even a minor hiccup can lead to devastating disasters if not managed right. Thus, time tracking apps are a great way to increase profits and reduce costs, altogether. 

Companies successfully reduce their costs, by following the new trend of automating daily operations. Every minute and every task is valuable for the final project delivery no matter how minor they are.  Through time tracking apps, you can easily manage invisible billable hours such as time spent on emails, phone calls, project management and communication, meetings, and fieldwork.

If you are working with freelancers or remote teams

Knowing what your remote employees are doing and how much time they are spending on each individual task can give you a better idea of how well they are utilizing your resources. Even though outsourcing employees can reduce costs but managing them can be a hassle. It’s important you organize them strategically and in a profitable way. 

No matter how many freelancers you are dealing with every day, time tracking will remember how much time they spent on your project and generates a report so that you can calculate idle time. Therefore, time tracking apps can make every billable hour important. You don’t even have to hire in-house teams when you can outsource talent. 

Through automatic time tracking, you can also know which projects are worth your time. You can easily estimate project ROI and know which projects to prioritize more. Win-win!

Increased productivity equals increased profits

Upgrade your workplace with a time tracking tool especially if the process is outdated. This can help your employees be more productive throughout the day, and understand roadblocks through real-time monitoring. You can easily tell which tasks turn into profits and track the performance to see if your team is successful when they spend time on that certain task. This will not only help you set goals but clear expectations to gain profits and identify the idle time. 

Time tracking apps reveals invisible work and inefficient workflows. But it also helps you keep a proper check and balance on priorities, and overhead costs. Justify employee inefficiency and efficiency by identifying the tasks that drain your time, consequently your budget. 

Every good time tracking app has an admin dashboard that shows trends of each individual employee, allowing you to make informed future decisions when it comes to hirings and resources.

As Artificial Intelligence is making its way into our businesses and tools, we have more opportunities to automate and streamline almost every administrative task such as expense management, accounting, meetings et al 

Evaluate what you really need

Technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Deploying too many tools so quickly is a bad strategy. Don’t go for the products, or subscriptions that you know you will never actually use. This is one of the ways through which you can cut additional costs. Run a quick audit if need be. 

Choosing just one right time tracking tool can go a long way.  Not only will this save money but also helps streamline workflow. 

Check out the Staff timer app that offers a comprehensive time tracking solution for global teams. Available for mac and windows!

The Latest Trend in Time Tracking Apps for Educational Institutes

All humans get the same amount of hours each day i.e 24 hours. Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. – they also had 24 hours each day, just like all of us. 

So what’s the difference between these extraordinary individuals and us? What separates them from the average man? Their secret is simple. They efficiently managed their time. 

In this modern age, pens and sheets have been left behind. People are now starting to use time tracking apps to manage their daily routines, schedule, and tasks. Educational institutes are no different. 

Time tracking apps keep evolving as preferences keep changing. In this article, we’re going to look at some of the latest trends in time tracking software for educational institutes. 

Before we start discussing the latest trends, lets first establish what time tracking app actually does. After that, we’ll go over some of its common features. 

What is a time tracking app?

As the name suggests, a time tracking app helps users effectively track their time.  

Effective time management can help people make deadlines, avoid getting stressed, improve their productivity & efficiency, and above all else, make extra time for themselves. They will also be able to maintain a work-life balance by keeping track of their time.

To perfect time management in educational institutes, employers should be able to easily track an employee’s work hours. This will help them observe an employee’s daily progression and accurately judge their performance. 

Time tracking apps can provide all of this. They allow users to create to-do lists and prioritize tasks, set alerts & reminders, organize the files & tasks, and even streamline communication between team members. 

Common features found in time tracking apps

We know what time tracking apps can do. Now let’s look at some common features of time management apps. 

Time tracking

This is a core functionality of time tracking apps. It captures worked hours and keeps a record of them on a timesheet. 

Project management

 Some time tracking apps have lightweight management tools while others focus entirely on project management. They allow you to group tasks or set deadlines and priorities. You can also track daily, weekly, and monthly work hours.  

Alerts 

Notifications can be used in different ways. You can set timers and get alerts when time is about to end. Alerts can also be used as reminders about urgent and pending tasks. 

Reporting and analytics

Reports can be generated by analyzing a large amount of data relating to tasks. These reports can be used by employers to gauge their employees’ overall progress. 

Latest trends in time tracking apps for educational institutes

Today’s employees are mostly Millenials and Generation Z, or Gen Z for short. The challenges and difficulties that they face are completely different from the previous generations. For example, Boomers didn’t have to worry about wasting their time on the internet. 

This is why time tracking apps have evolved. The latest trends and features include:

Password manager

There are countless websites on the internet that require you to make an account. At one point, it becomes hard to keep track of all the usernames and passwords. Now apps featuring password managers are starting to pop up. 

Meeting manager 

Employees and staff members of educational institutes are notoriously busy. Their workload is huge and strenuous. Trying to arrange an important meeting can take a lot of effort as well. Now there are apps that can leverage the power of AI to give smart suggestions for when, where and how meetings can take place.

Note-taking manager

A vast amount of information is available on the internet, this is especially true regarding educational content. Note-taking managers can help teachers clip and save sections of websites, annotate them, and quickly access them via searches, notes, and tags. 

Bookmarking manager. We can’t always be online. Bookmark managers let users save articles, videos and more from any website, app or publication. This way, they can access saved content offline and on any device. 

These are just some of the latest trends in time tracking apps for educational institutes. As time goes on and priorities change, new trends will start emerging. However, don’t worry about missing out. We’ll keep you posted. 

Time tracking for Attorneys

One of the most lucrative and prestigious professions besides medicine is the practice of law. However, with increasing pressures and numerous changes in the legal world, the workload is rising at an unprecedented rate. 

The most important part of an attorney’s professional life is time. There is severe competition to meet the required number of billable hours. Usually, an attorney needs to complete 12 billable hours on average for every working day. 

Many attorneys lose track of time. This slowly becomes detrimental to their productivity levels. If they keep track of their time, their attention will divert. This is bad because their whole focus needs to be on their clients. 

Let’s first understand some key responsibilities of an attorney. These include:

    • Advising and representing clients in courts or government agencies.
    • Researching and analyzing legal matters.
    • Assisting and communicating with clients.
    • Drafting legal documents for lawsuits, deeds, contracts, etc. 
    • Preparing to defend clients in courts.

The above-mentioned responsibilities may not encompass the entire set of duties attorneys perform. But, the important point to takeaway is that with these excruciating pressures it becomes hard to track time. 

How time tracking app can streamline processes for attorneys?

Some of the ways in which time tracking tools can help attorneys include:

More time for clients

When an automated system like Stafftimer app is monitoring time for attorneys, they can spend more hours dealing with their clients without the hassle of manually filling timesheets. In the end, every minute matters when you are practicing law. 

Time monitoring is not left in workspace 

Yes, you can use Stafftimer even in a court or some meeting with a client. Its screenshot feature is optional. This means that you don’t need to worry about accidentally capturing case proceedings. Attorneys just need to enter a task, and get liberated from the stress of calculating time. The tracker shall keep counting it for them. 

Daily work reports

An attorney will not need manually filled timesheets since Stafftimer provides them with daily work reports. These reports can serve as verified proof of their billable hours. 

Accurate invoicing

Staftimers calculate work hours in an immaculate manner. No need to worry about getting inaccurate invoices and wasting your hard labor. The app provides effective solutions for these situations. 

Clients can receive bills with the proof attached. Don’t worry about bothersome tasks like payroll and making calculations for invoices. An attorney’s every minute counts and Stafftimer takes great care of it. 

Intelligent reporting and real-time monitoring

As an employer or a partner in a law firm, your resources are not getting wasted. Why? Because Stafftimer is taking care of them. The app provides employers with daily reports. These reports can tell how much time an associate lawyer was spending on each task or window. 

With real-time monitoring, employers know how much time an attorney is taking on each case as it live-shares their screens. This way, employers always know who has the chance to progress further and who is struggling.

Cost-effective solution

When an employer knows who is productive and who is a dead fish, they can save their resources by eliminating unproductive employees. Legal practice needs aggressive competition between equally capable persons. It can’t afford to carry someone around.

Team members’ hours can be tracked to plan budget costs. This data can then be used to accurately bill clients.

Offline tracking

If attorneys are out of the workspace and lose connection to the internet, Stafftimer will keep on working. It will update from the back-office once the connection is restored. 

Female lawyers

Ambitious lawyers who are also mothers will find it difficult to split their time. Either they can spend quality time with their kids or focus most of their attention on their practice. Seeing this complicated predicament for their female lawyers, some major law firms are offering flexible work options. 

This means that they can choose to work from home on certain weekdays. However, the real challenge is how to ensure that they are actually working? And how many hours they are spending on work? Stafftimer solves this problem by keeping track of time. This way, everyone gets paid according to the number of hours they’ve put into work.

Conclusion

Employee monitoring software is a crucial need for the legal world. Their work, routine, and progress all revolve around billable hours. Therefore, it’s necessary for them to use a time tracking software that can monitor their time. This lets them pursue their commitments without any worries. 

4 Strategies to Improve Your Productivity as a Freelancer

There is no denying that the freelance market is appealing to many professionals all over the world. According to a 2019 study on a US-based independent workforce, the freelance market generates nearly $1 trillion in income. That’s almost 5% of the US GDP.

A 2018 Entrepreneur article reports that there are over 57 million Americans working as freelance professionals as of 2017. Considering the numerous advantages freelance employment brings to the table. That number will definitely rise in the future.

However, even the most hardworking and diligent freelance workers are not immune to procrastination and distractions. Poor productivity is a constant issue for many business organizations that employ freelance workers, mostly remote teams from all over the world. Missed deadlines and late submissions from your freelance workforce can set you back and even cost your business its precious clients and projects.

The good news is that productivity issues are easy to fix. With the following productivity strategies, you can expect your freelance workforce to deliver high-quality output at a productive rate.

Use Time Trackers

Time Tracking Software and apps are not new. However, they are still highly effective tools to keep productivity up in the workplace. The same can be said for professional freelancers and remote teams.

Many companies require their independent workers to install a time tracker on their devices. Many solutions provide a customizable freelance time tracking template that managers can configure so it tracks or records specific information such as hours worked, time spent on breaks, and averages.

Workers log in before their designated work schedule or project-related tasks. They then log out after their shift or once their tasks are accomplished.

Many time trackers are built to document not just hours but record the time spent on work down to the last second or minute. This is an effective productivity strategy especially if your organization bill your workers by the hour.

Activate Random Screen Capture

You can’t monitor your freelance worker’s progress all the time. Yet you want to make sure he or she is spending working hours on actual work. That’s understandable. Your company doesn’t want to pay for unproductive hours.

One way of ensuring your freelance employees are indeed working during their supposed working hours is to capture images of their screens at random times. It helps identify who is working and who is spending their hours doing something else. Such a feature empowers your workers to devote all their billable time to work, driving productivity up.

You may settle for a free time tracking software for freelancers. However, if you want this feature, you may have to invest in premium productivity and time tracking suite.

Give Your Best Tasks and Projects to Top Performing Freelancers

You can create and cultivate a productive environment for your independent workers if you include a gamification element to your approach. Instead of just assigning tasks and projects to the next available worker, you can send your most critical and high-paying jobs to your best freelancers.

Publishing their names as well as their earnings on a leaderboard will definitely entice your freelance employees to perform better and turn in great results to rise up the ladder. Aside from boosting their performance and productivity, your freelance workers become more engaged and dynamic.

By adding an element of competition, you can empower your freelance workforce to prove their worth, which then translates to better results and improved productivity.

Limit or Block Access to Certain Sites and Social Media

There are numerous productivity apps for PC and mobile devices that can track time and capture screenshots at random moments. On top of that, you also want your productivity apps to limit or block your freelance workers’ access to specific websites and social media sites that cause distraction and fuel procrastination.

Such capability is quite useful, especially when social media sites have proven to take much from a worker’s productivity. That said, not all social media is bad for work. Some employees spend their break watching funny cat videos. Others use social media and other sites for research, communication, and collaboration purposes.

Companies should establish guidelines on social media usage by their freelance workers. Many of today’s work processes are built on online connectivity and access to the Internet. That means the complete banning of social media is not a viable option. While social media can be detrimental to a worker’s efficiency and productivity, it can also be a huge asset when utilized properly.

Automation, Collaboration, and Communication are Key

If you want to have a highly effective and productive team of freelancers, you need to put them in an environment that fosters effortless and painless automation, communication, and collaboration.

Your freelance employees don’t want to spend time typing their credentials whenever they open devices and log in to their respective accounts. Many productivity apps automate the logging in of multiple systems and different credentials.

Communication between and among your freelance employees should be instant and smooth. Instead of relying on lengthy email threads, replace them with real-time communication tools and task management platforms for faster and more effective communication, instruction, and deployment.

By centralizing tasks, information, contacts, and more, you can maximize your freelancers’ capabilities and talents, optimize processes, and deliver desired results.