With remote working becoming a norm these days, it’s difficult to keep a tab on how each member is progressing and what is the status of the projects they are working on. As a project manager, it can be very stressful to ensure that your team is using their time productively and being mindful about using their effort and time wisely. So, what can be the solution to this? How can you handle all the aspects of project management efficiently? When you have to plan project schedules and resources required, you should first know the time and effort your team is spending on such tasks. But how do you calculate that figure? Implementing timesheet software helps to accurately estimate the actual effort required to do all the tasks in a project. It also enables you to monitor your team’s utilization and do a comparative analysis of the planned effort and timelines. But before delving deeper into this, let’s look at the definition of time management.
Time management is the process of organising and planning how to allocate your time among various activities or tasks. While juggling multiple projects, seek to work smarter rather than harder. This is efficient time management. When you manage various tasks in a project by finding ways to increase your efficiency or productivity to achieve your goals with less effort, then your performance also improves. Whereas if you fail to manage your time wisely or have poor time management skills, then that could lead not only to missed deadlines but also poor quality deliverables. Lack of efficient time management also results in procrastination, lack of focus, and inefficient workflows. Your work and life would not have a good balance and when the projects are derailed, your organization’s reputation is also at stake.
Implementing the right timesheet software can be the answer to all your time management woes. A cloud-based and AI-enabled time management tool enables you and your team members to enter the time spent on various work activities from anywhere and on any device. The best time-tracking software improves your efficiency by monitoring the activities and effort you spend your time on. The timesheet entries done by an employee can be used to run reports, compute quotes, and generate invoices, and that too without the hassles of double entries.
Here is how the best time management tool helps you utilize your time and resources in an optimal manner.
There is timesheet software that has an intuitive design and a simple interface that makes it easy for your employees to enter their details in the timesheet. You can also copy and paste the required data and fill it out from the schedule. This enables users to enter time-related information instantly and efficiently.
The resource management app also enables you to check the actual effort and time spent by team members on various tasks and projects. Project managers can also find out how much time was spent on productive and non-project activities. This information helps in getting a clear picture of all the resource-wise activities or tasks done and the time it took to complete those tasks. Finally, you can also do a comparison of planned vs. actual effort and check the profitability of different projects.
The best timesheet app helps you to create a comprehensive plan listing all tasks and subtasks that need to be done, in what timeline, and with how many employees. For this, you need to estimate the time all these tasks will take to complete. After the project kicks off, you should track the time and effort that your resources are actually spending on various tasks. This will enable you to identify any gaps and what you can do to fix them. An employee timesheet software offers precise project estimates for your pipeline projects based on earlier successful ones.
Top-time tracking software such as eResource Scheduler offers an intuitive design and approval screen that displays all the required information that the approver may want to check before signing off the timesheets or time entries. Depending on the project requirement or their convenience, the approver can view and sign off the time entries according to resources or as per specific projects.
Time management software also helps project managers to compute the total billable and effort required to deliver a project. For example, a project may require 500 work hours and a certain number of employees to complete in two months. The best timesheet app such as eResource Scheduler would show you the time/effort that has already been utilized. So, if the team members have already exhausted 200 hours out of 500, you have to get the work completed in 300 hours. This can help you plan better so that budget overruns or timeline delays don’t happen. Top-time tracking software has an inbuilt capability to monitor all overall effort, time, utilization, and even payment status.
Another key feature of the best timesheet app is the capability to export and import your time entries in excel format easily. This way, you can specify the data you need and share it with other people quickly. What’s more? You can even export an employee’s timesheet data or your entire team’s data to an Excel spreadsheet in just a few clicks.
eResource Scheduler is a top timesheet software that not only analyses the timesheets but also does comparative reporting if your organization is using a third-party time management software. For this, you have to just import all the timesheet data in Excel or you could use the open REST API offered by the tool and do an integration to push/pull that timesheet data.
With the business environment being quite dynamic, it’s tough to gauge and predict the team’s capacity. However, by implementing employee timesheet software, you can easily estimate your overall capacity while including factors such as unforeseen absenteeism, unplanned leaves, etc. Keeping a tab on the overall capacity also enables controlling payroll spending and ensuring a balanced workload distribution. The best time-tracking software like eResource Scheduler helps in resource planning, management, and optimal resource utilization, while tracking time.
A timesheet application also offers important data and information you may need to gauge your existing workflows. You can start by reviewing the timelines suggested by the stakeholders. The next step is to compare the schedule with your team’s output and spot any resource shortages or gaps. Efficient workflows enable employees to utilize their time more effectively and raise their utilization percentage. So, implementing the best time management tool also helps create better and more seamless workflows.
It isn’t easy to decide when you should revise or reconsider your pricing for various customers. But taking this call becomes a cakewalk with the help of top timesheet software. An employee timesheet app provides analytics that helps in determining the organizational costs, and your expenses against the current pricing. In addition, computing the time spent in completing a project helps to subtract the overall expenses like salaries, overheads, etc., and come to a conclusion about whether your pricing is helping you make profits or not. Top time tracking software has in-built AI-enabled algorithms to guide you on ways to advance your profitability by using your resources in an optimal manner.
Time management has become a bigger challenge, especially with remote work and distributed teams. It’s an enormous task for a project manager to track the performance and project status of various employees. Implementing eResource Scheduler, a top timesheet software, helps your staff fill out their time entries and track their productivity against the planned effort and timelines. This top-time tracking software not only offers real-time clarity into all data, but it also enhances the coordination among team members and between different teams. The project managers can analyze resource utilization metrics and create better resource and project plans. If you want to know more about its benefits, just sign up and get a free trial today.
Also read:
Effective project resource management - an ultimate guide
Role of eresource scheduler - the best workflow management software
A gist about the functioning of resource management
Industry use cases of employee scheduling tool
Demystifying Capacity Planning – Importance, Steps, and Benefits of Capacity Planning
