How to Choose the Best Time Tracking Software
For Small Businesses?
Counting the hours you worked in a day is a pretty mundane task. The whole time-tracking process is archaic, so why do we still have to do it?
Truthfully, there are probably a lot of reasons why we don’t want to let up on time tracking. The first and most obvious one is that it helps employers count the hours employees worked. Pretty valuable for both parties involved.
However, time tracking software should go way beyond just a way to keep track of how many hours we work. The right time-tracking software solutions takes the tedium out of time-tracking and includes tools and features to increase efficiency and productivity. Good time-tracking software should not only track the hours you worked, but should also help keep track of your daily can’t-miss tasks.
If employees can easily keep track of their daily routine and add small tasks like taking a quick bathroom break or telling their supervisor when they are leaving work early and when they’re on their way to work, time tracking becomes easier and less stressful.
TSheets : Best Overall Time Tracking Software
TSheets is an extremely powerful and feature-rich time tracking software, yet is ideal for small business owners or time-tracking fanatics who mainly track billable work time.
With a professionl-grade featureset, TSheets is an ideal time tracking platform for industry leading small business software companies, phone call centers, and freelance professionals who want to get a premium-level time tracking software.
The software lets you track time and expenses on multiple computers, and automatically uploads data to your secure online dashboard.
TSheets comes with a time-attendance system that you can use to assign users to projects and give them time limits that are tracked automatically.
TSheets has a full-featured mobile app that lets users track time from a mobile phone or tablet and is ideal for field workers, contractors, and online sales people.
The software is cross-platform, meaning you can switch easily between Windows and Mac computers.
You can track time spent on multiple projects with TSheets.
With a friendly and intuitive interface, TSheets is appealing to small business owners.
The software synchronizes with multiple accounts and dates, so you can track billable time on multiple bills, accounts, clients, and projects.
TSheets Pricing
Businesses frequently need to track time so they can properly record and bill their employees for their work, and tracking time is often the biggest cost center when it comes to time-tracking software. With TSheets, you can easily track your time while you’re working during the day, and you’ll get detailed reports and charts of your work-time as well.
A favorite with many users is the personal and user group pricing. As the name suggests, personal pricing allows users to track time using TSheets as their exclusively time-tracking tool. You’ll get unlimited project templates, unlimited workbook templates and unlimited employees. Ż Business pricing without tracking time is also available.
Next, the user group pricing is also definitely one of the best time tracking software for small businesses because you can share the cost of your time tracking between multiple employees. For example, if your company has 1 employee and 10 projects, you can share the cost between employees. This is great when you don’t have the budget to buy a time tracking tool for each and every employee.
You can choose one of the pricing models below that suits your needs. Remember that pricing is for small businesses up to 10 employees, and prices increase when you add more employees and/or project tracking.
TSheets Features
As opposed to traditional time tracking software which only tells you the numbers and tell you to log every time you spend a penny on tools and office rent to your company, TSheets lets you also add your own expenses at the end of the day or week, and further, it also tells you the net profit, if any, which will help you track and analyze where you stood in your projects and business day to day.
TSheets not just track the time for you, but also let you manage these projects on the go, where ever you are, including sales figures, sales trends, and client or client's feedback to help you do your job easier and better.
In any project, TSheets gives you the productivity reports, where you will know how much time you spent on each task and how your projects are going.
It tracks the time for you and keep logs according to their definitions. You can see how much of time you or your employees have already spent on a project you're working on. Furthermore, you can use the time logs features and see how the time distribution for a week or a month look like.
For example, you want to track the time for you to write a paper. Every time you spend 10 minutes on writing, you will be thrown a project on the screen. Each task will be given a task name, task start and end date, task id, and task description.
Harvest : Best for Tracking Time by Project With 5 or Fewer Employees
Harvest is free time tracking software and online time and expense tracking. This system comes with many built-in time management features that make it a great system for people who work in teams and consistently multi-task. For this reason, Harvest is a great system for an office with five or fewer employees. There is a basic time and expense tracking with Harvest. There is a budget feature with Harvest but the user has to manually enter transactions on their own.
Harvest’s time management features include a time log and functional time reports. It also has a time budget feature that lets you view expenses for a project. Grow can be enabled to help you estimate time and costs based on the number of projects in your workflow. This feature is available in Harvest Auto and Organizations.
Harvest has a powerful and intuitive interface. A company who is new to Harvest can set up all the default settings within a few minutes. Time tracking is easy with Harvest as well as expense tracking. You will be able to see all transactions with one click.
Most Harvest users are quite happy with this time and expense tracking software. It works good for them even for small teams. The free version of Harvest is great for people who work with small numbers of projects.
Harvest is available in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, and Russian languages.
Harvest Pricing
Checkboxes for time tracking, project costing, and quote tracking.
Price estimates and invoices.
Project/job management and portfolio management.
Customizable invoices and estimate templates.
Automated customer negotiation.
Cost tracking options.
Automated email reminders.
Extended time availability feature.
Social integration.
Integrates with your phone's address book.
Deployment and recurring billing.
Built-in desktop application and web apps.
Simple and easy setup.
Compatible with Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Oracle, and other databases.
Control your software's interface with an online dashboard.
Compatible with your existing CRM.
Detailed financial reports.
Web-based, cross-platform, and mobile apps.
Mobile compatibility.
Admin control options.
Customizable user experience.
Detailed quoting and estimating options.
Regular updates and upgrades.
Open source.
Automated online time tracking.
Customization options.
Advanced project management.
Detailed reports.
New project start and termination alerts.
QuickBooks integration.
Emailed notifications.
PayPal integration.
Experience the clarity of the drag-and-drop setup.
Sophisticated analytics.
Useful reports.
Harvest Features
Harvest is an online time tracking, employee monitoring, and invoicing software. That’s a mouthful, but essentially it’s a time clock and invoicing system that’s easy to set up, easy to customize, and easy to use. Harvest is perfect for running a small business but also able to accommodate medium-sized businesses and even large operations.
The best part about Harvest is that it’s easy to customize. You can choose your own time clock and invoicing system, as well as a time-off tracking system and a simple timekeeping system for hourly employees. You can even select which clients and employees you want to appear on your invoices, too.
Since Harvest is free, you can quickly test the software out and see how it works for your situation. However, they also provide a trial of the paid version if you like what you see and want to keep using Harvest.
ClockShark : Best for Construction Companies
Installers, etc.
ClockShark is a time tracking software designed for construction companies, installers, cleaners, and so on. It’s the best time tracking software for small businesses.
The best part for a contractor is that you can also use ClockShark as a time and attendance software. And you don’t even have to do a thing. You can configure your ClockShark to send you an email whenever a job, task, or activity is performed.
It gives you the ability to assign the work in progress and the work complete time to the project or task so that you can track the time entry on your time sheets. It comes with a flexible smart time clock and the clock can be customized to your specific industry.
ClockShark is compatible with all major platforms, smartphones, and is the best time tracking software for small businesses.
Some of the innovative features in ClockShark include:
Smart Time Clock
ClockShark Smart time clock is the best time tracking software for small businesses because it is smart and accurate. The time clock’s auto-calculation feature is easy to use. Just time in, time out, and ClockShark takes care of the rest.
ClockShark Pricing
ClockShark is a free application that records all your time spent on tasks and projects, and it’s been around for awhile. You can use it on Windows, Mac, and Android devices, and you can access your data online or through a mobile phone. It’s a straightforward, straightforward system, and with the small size of companies that often need time-tracking, it’s a good solution.
ClockShark allows you to add the time you spend on a task to the task when you start it, then it keeps track of how long it takes to complete. There are two ways to track time: manual and automatic. If you set the time spent on tasks to the same method used to start the task, then you can track time more easily.
If you don’t have an Android device, you can use the WebClockShark feature. This feature will track time automatically and gives you access to the data through a Web browser.
You can even let ClockShark record your voice to know when you enter a room by using the Room ClockShark feature. You can then use the time recorded in this room to track the amount of time you spend in the task. Keep in mind, this is a bit of an extra step if you’re not a voice recognition expert.
ClockShark Features
ClockShark is a cloud-based solution and best of all, you use it on your iPhone and iPad. It’s UNLIMITED with the only limitation if your logins expire.
ClockShark allows you to log and track client, maintenance and work orders in a repeatable way- on the road at events. This is crucial for small businesses especially in the field of car detailing.
You can also embed your clientele into these service activities – you can do it all at the click of a button.
Another great feature is that you can use your ClockShark clock in your email signature.
Extensive editing options with the use of a Google dashboard, entry cron maintenance, invoices, quotes, timecards and pay statements.
Auto assign to an existing employee or five new employees created within the ClockShark app.
Community encourages sharing and collaboration.
Making the ClockShark mobile effortless, even for small businesses.
One to five users.
Flexible API for developers.
TimeSheets the way a small business wants them – FREE.
ClockShark is available for iOS and Android.
More info as well as the full review when you click the link at the bottom of this post.
TimeTracker : Best for Law Firms or Professional Service Firms
TimeTracker Pricing
TimeTracker is a cloud-based time-tracking software for small businesses. With TimeTracker, you can stay organized, work more efficiently, and track employee salaries.
It’s the best time tracking software for small business managers and employers but is it right for your small business?
We compare TimeTracker to the top time tracking software options and explore its pricing, features and pros/cons.
Why is TimeTracker a good fit for small business managers?
TimeTracker makes it easy for small business owners to stay organized and to monitor employee salaries. In addition, TimeTracker is a web-based time tracking and billing software. In this way, it can be managed remotely using a desktop computer or other device. Also, TimeTracker offers is a free option for companies that hire less than 5 employees.
Pros of TimeTracker
TimeTracker is web-based
TimeTracker Cloud does not require you to install software or otherwise install the program on your computer. That means that you can access the program using a desktop computer, tablet or other device conveniently from anywhere.
TimeTracker is customer-friendly
TimeTracker Features
FreshBooks : Best for Freelancers Needing Bookkeeping and Hourly Billing
FreshBooks offers a huge list of features you might need, ranging from basic time tracking to billable-hour bookkeeping. Its integration with third party services like QuickBooks and Xero, as well as its easy-to-set up website accounting feature, make it an ideal time and billing solution. This usually flat monthly rate makes it even more friendly for solo bloggers and micro-businesses.
It’s especially useful for small businesses. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux, so you can use it on a variety of machines, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. It’s free for small business owners, and it’s incredibly easy to use. All it takes is a couple of clicks on your computer and it’s done.
If you have a lot of tasks to manage on a daily basis, what better way to organize everything than with a time tracking tool? Time tracking software provides business owners with the ability to find out exactly what tasks are taking too long and get insight into how tasks are being completed. This will help you decide which tasks need to be reworked and when.
The kinds of tasks you can track in a time tracking software include administrative tasks, project tasks, and sales and marketing tasks. You can manually input tasks into time tracking software or attach them to tasks in a project management system.
FreshBooks Pricing
FreshBooks is great time tracking software for small businesses, but FreshBooks may also be too complex for some small businesses. Instead of FreshBooks, I recommend you use the free time tracking software for small business, by ScheduleOnce.
In comparison to FreshBooks, ScheduleOnce cost less, and it offers more features and less complexity. For example, ScheduleOnce is free and has one less account level. Also, it offers you copious time and expense tracking options, so you can see what you do and which tasks you do during a work period.
FreshBooks Features
FreshBooks is an online invoicing software which allows you and your clients to keep track of transactions and stay on top of your work. It can help you handle bills, credit cards, and other payments in one place.
In fact, freshbooks is the top applications to handle both invoicing and time-tracking. You can track your timesheet right on your web portal where it can be shared with others, or exported to various different applications for easy tracking.
However, there are different features to consider if it’s your first time using a time tracking application. Pay attention to these five things to decide if FreshBooks is the right fit for your business.
FreshBooks Will Save You Time
The time you can save in your accounting system is undoubtedly one of the biggest advantages of switching to FreshBooks. With time tracker software, you can view all your transactions in one place.
With one-click, you can export your data from the software into your invoicing system.
This way, you can be sure that your information is in one place and that your clients know exactly what is going on.
Billing and Invoicing is a Breeze
FreshBooks provides a simple and easy to follow approach in managing all of your transactions. You can add your clients and view all the information that they need or want.
QuickBooks Online : Best for Tracking an Unlimited Number of Employees
QuickBooks Online is designed for businesses with less than 50 employees. By going online, however, you gain access to a wide range of use cases you wouldn’t be able to enjoy when using QuickBooks in a desktop version.
QuickBooks Online allows you to keep track of multiple employees, and is a great way to keep multiple employees on one payroll. Businesses need to use the right software to capture time tracking data for multiple employees without worrying about errors or omissions in their data.
QuickBooks Online is the best choice for businesses with multiple employees. QuickBooks Online can analyze your time data against time sheets to determine if any employees are incorrectly paid, and it can provide a complete breakdown of every employee’s time. This makes it easy to find any violations.
QuickBooks Online can be used in tandem with QuickBooks desktop software. For example, QuickBooks Online offers online credit card processing and bill payment functionality that you do not find in any of our other choice. And it can provide data analytics that you cannot get in an offline version, so that you can identify trends and identify potential errors before they become future problems.
QuickBooks Online also makes it easy to launch a business, acquire contracts, and manage vendors, so that you can keep your business running smoothly.
QuickBooks Online Pricing
QuickBooks Online Time Tracking Features
QuickBooks Online Time Tracking will make your job simpler and help you know what activities need to be worked on and the time spent on those activities. It gives you the flexibility to work from anywhere and allows you to create jobs with the ease of online aptitude.
QuickBooks Online Time Tracking comes in a free version that can be used by small business owners which offers Basic Time Tracking. Later, you can upgrade the account for the advanced features like billing, invoicing and support.
QuickBooks Online Time Tracking offers you an interface which shows the total estimated hours spent on each job. It also lets employees create records for their billable time based on their own small business, jobs and customers which also helps business owners to track various billable hours.
The free version of QuickBooks Time Tracking and Advanced feature is for small businesses with up to 10 employees. It also allows users to track short, fixed projects, recurring time, fixed price projects and sales, inventory and product sales.
QuickBooks Online Time Tracking is the ideal solution for small businesses which have their employees work from anywhere. It lets you spend more time doing work rather than handling administrative tasks that add up the work load. Also, by being able to transfer the data from wherever you are, it makes you able to keep better track of what your business is doing.
QuickBooks Online Time Tracking let you take advantage of time and money opportunities you may otherwise have missed.
Zoho People : Best for Low-cost GPS Tracking
Zoho People Price
Zoho People is a very popular and flexible time tracking platform. It is very popular among small and mid-sized businesses. Zoho People is one of the different ways to track employee attendance.
It takes minutes for you to set up a free plan with the basic features. Not only this, but it also gives you the opportunity to combine recognition with the tasks. Zoho People has its own recognition and benefits features that you can use. The platform is also great when it comes to rewarding your dedicated employees. You can access the information anytime from any device. The information can also be kept private, for the security reason.
It is a cost-friendly platform because, it can help you track employee performance. You can even create a customized plan for your next event. Creating separate plans for your vacation and business can help you avoid any problems.
If you have an unlimited number of employees covered, the personal business plan is a great solution to reduce the cost. This plan also supports employees who want to bring their family members on board. The only downside of the personal business plan is that, it doesn’t give you batch options.
However, if you have a few employees, the standard plan will be a great fit for your business. This is because, it offers great value. You can learn more about Zoho People from the below link.
Zoho People Features
Time tracking is an essential tool to measure and improve employee productivity. Zoho People Time Tracking is a web-based application for small businesses that can help you win in the tough marketplace today.
Zoho People makes it easy for users to track their time, bill more accurately and increase their visibility within their teams. From time entries to time reports, Zoho People offers a variety of features to improve efficiency and boost productivity.
Employees can easily create or sign-in as existing users to the application. Time entries can be logged instantly and you can record the needed workload. Users can monitor their daily progress and respond to customer concerns with their preference of auto-responders.
Zoho People helps small businesses create clear profiles of their workers for billing purposes. Users can monitor their wages and receive instant data for billable hours. Simply select employees and click on –View Customers”. All type of billing transactions can be billed and paid with a click of a button.
Several reports help managers to gain an insight of activities of individual employees as well as the business in general. Managers can download the report and analyze the data for better coordination among their teams.
Clockify : Best Free Time Tracking Software
We are not affiliated to them. Information is compiled from public sources, and is not verified.
Clockify’s free time tracking system is best suited for freelancers where the primary focus is on free time. It’s also one of the most popular time capture software used by small businesses in order to report all project-related activities, and track the time spent on each project.
Clockify is much more than just a time tracking software. Although it’s good for recording the hours spent on work-related activities, it’s also a relatively easy to use time tracking software that’s free for complete functionality.
One of the features of this time tracking software that we love is the availability of unique templates to create time reports. Project managers will be able to customize the template to match their organization’s criteria and name it accordingly. Such customization helps to minimize employee, union, and client confusion but also provides a clear, detailed view of time spent on work.
Another good feature of Clockify is that it’s compatible with both Mac and PC operating systems. This means that users can easily track time spent on Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer web browsers and on both Mac and Windows computers.
Clockify Pricing
Clockify is a sophisticated time tracking and attendance tool that allows you to gather time sheets more quickly and accurately. It also has an integrated with Google Analytics to help you measure your business's KPIs.
Clockify is easy to use, designed to eliminate the stress that can come from tracking expenses and it’s easy to manage. You can quickly set up projects, employees, and timesheets. Just enter your hours and Clockify does the rest. The app automatically imports your recurring project expenses to create a record of what was spent on each project. One of Clockify’s best features is that it includes a list of all your employees to make it easy to follow cost records.
Clockify is a great option for small business owners. It’s just one of three apps we recommend to make the most of your accounting software.
Since Clockify is a Google Chrome application, you’ll need Google Chrome to use the app.
Clockify Features
Clockify provides business professional with the time tracking software to easily save time with Clockify Premium. Whichever professional you are, you'll find Clockify Premium time tracking software useful. It keeps you productive through easily saving time itemizing your time throughout the day.
Our time tracking software is an amazing time management application that contains the below features.
Time tracking automation:
Clockify time tracking automatically saves time data and metrics – tracking your time for free.
Time billing for employees:
Clockify time tracking software works for you to easily bill your employees for breaking down the time usage per task.
Tagging reports:
Clockify time tracking software helps you to easily log your time to produce customized tags.
Control your time:
Clockify time tracking software works as a tool to easily manage your time with our simple time manager.
Time payroll:
The time clock system in Clockify keeps a tab on your time clock.
Start time clock:
We provide you with a free cloud based start time clock.
Just in time payments:
Your employees can easily submit their time invoices via the clockify payment system. The time clock system in Clockify keeps a track of all your time clock entries.
Time clock machine:
Bottom Line
If you are running a small business, time tracking for your employees can be expensive. The most efficient time tracking software for small businesses can easily create a task using the employee’s biometric information to specifically match the time spent on a task.
A great time tracking system has to have positive and negative times. This shifts your time information to where it’s most useful. A business owner that is trying to better operate efficiently will look at how the time was spent on a task instead of where it was spent.
The best time tracking software for small businesses is one that easily automates it’s time tracking process so you don’t have to worry about the data. It also allows you to easily export your time tracking data which you can use to compare with payroll data to determine if you’re receiving accurate data.
You can get a solid time tracking system that can save you quite a sizable amount of money by automating the process. You can also better manage your payroll time and ensure you’re getting accurate information to make the business decisions that will make it grow.