When we introduce our time management software to companies, we usually have to answer a particular question – “why would we do this?” The problem goes even a little bit deeper because most of the time employers are afraid of the reaction of their employees to the announcement that “from this day on, we are starting to track whatever we do on a computer!”
Those questions and fears are, of course, completely normal. Time tracking software is a huge change for any company and let’s face it, most of us are afraid of changes, especially that drastic. Luckily, the statistics are on our side. It should not take much time to demonstrate, how big of an improvement one can make when he or she starts to track their working hours.
Managers vs. Regular Employees
What would the employers/managers like to see? Well, our first guess is probably the money (no offense!) To begin with, thanks to TimeCamp, we can estimate the cost of the future project – with the insight into our costs; we will be able to manage them more efficiently. What is more, managers are given the ability to track and value their employees’ work, not to mention all the data that is essential when it comes to payroll processing and billing or invoicing.
But work is not only about the money; we should better never forget that. There are other profits of using time tracking software, and not all of them are beneficial only to our boss. So far all the regular workers reading this post probably thought “Yeah, so the big shots are earning even more, and I can’t even check my Facebook account, where is my profit?” Do not worry; there are plenty of advantages and opportunities the time tracker offers.
Using time tracking software has many benefits! Didn’t you ever feel unrecognized for all the work you have performed? Or perhaps the raise that you honestly deserve is not coming? Well, with TimeCamp you have a line of argument to prove that you should be given it! All you have to do is to tell your manager to take a look at your computer activity and the gathered statistics to see how hard you have been working.
Another advantage is the possibility to demonstrate that a particular project, which was completed after a deadline, needs more time and resources, and its delay is not your or your team’s fault. (Of course, this won’t work if it wasn’t completed due to your laziness!) From the data provided on the project, you will draw conclusions and as a result, improve your ability to estimate the time needed to finish it and steps that should be undertaken to be as efficient as possible.
With all your projects being tracked, you have a better insight into the future, so you can accurately plan when to start with something new, or to make a decision whether the problematic task that is taking too much of yours or your team’s time should be finished.
Finally, and this is probably a little bit controversial and not everyone may agree, but the fact is, that we do work better, knowing that someone can check what we are doing and how we are doing it. This is not a bad thing. When they are somehow “stripped” of all the distractions, people tend to tune into the state called “the flow,” when they are enjoying the process of doing whatever they do and the time passes by much faster. Not being able to watch this “funny cats compilation” or check our social media accounts every once in a while (and at the same time looking back with anxiety to check if the boss is not watching) is not the end of the world! When we focus our mind on the task in front of us, the time will pass quicker and at the end of the day we will feel the burst of energy thanks to the realization that today we have done the job and that we have done it well. And this is not made up; the author writes it from his experience ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
TimeCamp – automatic mode.
Hopefully, you have been convinced that time tracking software really is useful, because it is time to present TimeCamp, the software that you may be using in the future (and we hope that you will be doing this on your accord!) We will start from one of its most important and helpful features – automatic mode. TimeCamp allows us to track our projects automatically basing on keywords. Once it detects a word assigned to an individual task/project in an application name, window title or URL address, it will start tracking our working time on the task with the same name.
We can add keywords while creating a task, when TimeCamp detects a keyword change, it will swiftly switch between the tasks.
Most typical examples of such keywords are:
– folder’s name or file’s name – application’s name – address of a website (or part of it) – project’s name – name of a client
Remember not to use words that are too general, like for example “programming”, and avoid standard nomenclature, including “www,” “website,” “dashboard,” etc.
To switch between automatic and manual mode, you have to click your right mouse button on the TimeCamp icon on your taskbar and select the Auto mode, enjoy!
TimeCamp for your mobile device.
If you would like to use TimeCamp but you are not working on a computer, we offer a version of our program for mobile phones. Just two month ago we introduced our mobile app, version 3.0. Our team has been working hard on its development, making it more accessible and elegant. It offers a new, customizable reports view and more intuitive design. Apart from that, it offers the most important features that our desktop app has – real time synchronization, reports generator, possibility to share large files and more.
Budgeting
This is one of the key features of our time tracking software and probably the main reason why customers decide to sign up with TimeCamp. We can set a budget for any task we want and then monitor the performance of our team to judge the task’s profitability. Report view provides us with the information necessary to compare the progress of each task. You will be informed via email once the budget is near exceeding.
To set a budget for a project or task, you have to find the Project Management Page and click on the desired task. On the edition panel you will find the Budget section; there you can enter the preferred value in the “estimated hours” box.
One thing we have to bear in mind is that time counted for any subtask(s) will be added to estimated time. If subtask has its own estimated time, the values are added to the parent task. To compare tracked time with the budget, we have to group our task by “Project Budget”. This is straightforward and intuitive, takes about 5 minutes to get a grip on.
Summing up
This will be it, at least for now. It may be hard for some, but the truth is that the development in technology leads to such solutions as time trackers at work. Fighting them is not an option. Even more, it is simply a wrong choice – they are harmless! Our mission at TimeCamp is to prove that our tool is nothing but helpful, give it a try, and you shall not regret it for a single moment.
Why to use time tracking software?