Thinking about the cost when choosing the best time tracker for your company is a relatively important consideration. Nobody has money to throw away on time management system software that doesn’t fit their need, not even enterprises and corporations. That’s why it’s important to choose wisely and be absolutely sure that is what you need before you make a payment.

IT time tracking companies understand this attitude as well, which is why most of them are offering you an employee time tracking software free trial to check out whether their platform is exactly right for you.

These free online time tracker trials generally last about a week. And since what you probably expect from your time keeping software in the long run is greater level of control over your assets, data security or increased performance, this isn’t nearly enough time to see these kinds of results.

So what can you find out based on employee time tracking software free trial that could be useful in deciding whether you should buy it or not?

Interface

The first thing you can evaluate right off the bat is the interface. Even a week-long employee time tracking app free trial will enable you to answer a couple of questions about the interface.

Do you like the design? Is it easy and intuitive to use? Is the dashboard clear, uncluttered and easy to understand?

All of these questions might seem trivial if you’re ultimately interested in enhancing performance and optimizing processes but this is actually an important first step. There’s nothing more discouraging and frustrating than not being able to use your paid employee time clock because it’s too complicated or confusing.

So evaluating the interface should be the first thing you look at when using employee time tracking free trial.

Functionality

Another thing you can immediately check, even if you’re only in the time clock free app trial is the functionality of different features.

Some questions you’ll be able to answer include: Which features do you have within your online time management tools? Are they working as you expect them to?

Make sure you try out everything, even the things you might not need right away. Your app categorization should be smooth; real time tracking should work flawlessly; you need to be able to see the screenshots you take; and any other feature you’ve got should also be functional.

Feel free to be extremely critical and expect perfection when it comes to functionality. And experiment - that’s what employee time tracking software free trial is for!

Quality of Reports

As a direct result of all the features working properly, you should have clear and accurate reports on your employees’ computer activity. So, while still using a time management software free trial, take a look at the data and reports it provides.

Do you have all the data that you’re trying to measure? Are all of the features producing some kind of results? Is it clear what the reports you get represent?

Answering these questions affirmatively during your time tracker free trial period is extremely important because these reports are the foundation of all the decisions you’re going to make to optimize your business. Therefore, they should be accurate, comprehensive and clear.

Our bonus tip would be to play around with the reports a bit. See if the employee time log offers any opportunities to aggregate the data or if you can represent it in different formats (spreadsheet, pie chart, timeline, etc.). These could be really useful.

Customer Support

Customer support and help is an essential part of the whole time tracking experience, there’s no arguing about that. And the fact is - if they’re not there for you when you’re on a free trial, they definitely won’t be once you make a payment.

If you happen to run into a problem, regardless of how small it is, contact the support to ask for help. Not being able to reach them is an obvious red flag. But if they’re readily available and helpful in solving your problem, that’s a very good sign for the long run.

Employee Feedback

Lastly, based on your experience with desktop time tracker free trial, you can find out what your employees think about the system. Do they think it’s intrusive? Are they experiencing any technical problems because of it?

Hopefully, you’ve talked it over with your employees and they know what time tracking is for and how it’s going to function. Now, during the free timekeeping software trial, you can check whether the system is what they had expected and whether it’s not disturbing their workflow in any way or slowing down their computers.

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Conclusion

Time tracking system free trials are there for a reason. You might not be able to see your business change before your eyes in under a week, but you’ll get a good estimate of whether that is indeed the best time recording app for your company. By the end of that first week, the least you should be able to do is answer the question - is this software worth your money?

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