How Our Clients Improved Their Business Using Time Tracking

In this article, we’re going to discuss:

• Why managers often miss performance issues and how time visibility changes that.
• How real-time activity monitoring reveals hidden workflow blockers and unlocks better coaching.
• What happens when teams track employee productivity to fix inefficiencies instead of just reporting them.
• How Insightful turns scattered hours into measurable impact.

You’re accountable for outcomes, but often find yourself blind to what’s actually happening among employees. Targets get missed, delivery slows, or project budgets go off track, and your only options are to guess why.

You ask your team where the time went, and the answers don’t align. You sense the inefficiency, but can’t trace it.

Most managers reach this point because their systems only show output, not how the work gets done. Without operational visibility, even basic questions like “Are we using the right tools? Why are there delays?” go unanswered.

That’s why teams turn to Insightful’s time tracking system to surface patterns that were never visible before. From tool misuse to billing gaps, Insightful (formerly Workpuls) gives managers a baseline to lead with confidence.

When paired with smart decisions, it unlocks productivity improvements, and no spreadsheet ever could.
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When You’re Accountable for Time, But Don’t Control It

You carry the weight of delivery. You’re expected to explain performance drops, justify overtime costs, or answer why a project slipped two weeks behind. This can be difficult to manage when your only data is final outputs. It’s like being held responsible for a machine’s speed while blindfolded from how it runs.

If your team misses a goal, you might hear, "It took longer than we thought," or "We got stuck waiting on X." These aren’t excuses; they’re signals that something deeper is at fault. But without visibility into time usage, you’re stuck guessing instead of improving.

This is especially true when managing hybrid or remote teams and juggling multiple priorities. The further you are from the ground-level workflow, the harder it is to detect what’s slowing things down. Even the best teams struggle when work inefficiencies go unseen.
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How Insightful Replaces Assumptions with Actionable Data

Instead of leaving managers with assumptions and summaries, Insightful provides a real-time view into what’s actually happening: which tools are used, which tasks are draining time, and where there are patterns of disengagement. With this data, you can reallocate resources and prevent the same issues from recurring.

Remote employee time tracking software isn’t about micromanagement but operational clarity. When managers can finally connect time to outcomes, they drive proactive change.
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From Office-Centric to 80%+ Remote—Without Losing Productivity

Insightful’s tools give you real-time clarity into how work gets done, not just how much gets done. By monitoring application usage, task durations, and behavior patterns across your team, you gain:

• Time allocation data broken down by person, tool, and task
• Visibility into which workflows are stalling progress
• Evidence-based insights to inform decisions around staffing, training, or tooling

Methods like timesheets or spreadsheet trackers only provide surface-level reporting. They depend on self-reporting or oversimplified metrics. Insightful replaces that guesswork with automated and actionable time data.

For managers, this means:

• Less time spent piecing together stories
• More time leading with targeted improvements
• Justification for interventions, investments, and team structure

This supports broader business process optimization efforts and positions teams to operate with greater accountability.

That’s precisely what Insightful’s client Impac Mortgage Holdings did. When they transitioned 80% of their workforce to a hybrid model, they lacked visibility into how remote work was happening. After deploying Insightful’s remote employee time tracking software, managers gained insights into app and website usage without disrupting workflows.
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From Tool Overload to a 76%+ Productivity Gain

Even high-performing teams can lose time in the tools they use most. It’s rarely a matter of laziness. Employees often only know the basics of complex software, leading to avoidable delays and repetitive manual work. Managers frequently don’t discover this until it's too late, when output slows and costs rise.

Insightful’s activity monitoring clarifies how tools are used day-to-day, not just whether they’re open. With real-time data on app usage and time spent, you gain:

• A detailed view of tool engagement by person and project
• Insights into whether high-use tools are driving or hindering performance
• Evidence to guide targeted coaching or workflow redesign
  
  

Traditional reporting methods like timesheets or generic app logs don’t tell you where work stalls. Insightful replaces that guesswork with real behavioral data, showing how much time is spent in core applications and whether that time translates to value.

For managers, this means:

• Less trial-and-error in coaching or upskilling
• More confidence in performance interventions
• Faster identification of inefficiencies that impact client delivery

That’s precisely how TRG, a remote education services company, used Insightful. Their COO lacked visibility into time spent across projects, leading to poor resource allocation and stalled output.

After utilising Insightful, TRG discovered significant inefficiencies. Specific tools were heavily used with little result, while others were underutilized due to a lack of training. Within six months, they improved their teams by streamlining tool usage and, by doing so, boosted productivity by 76%.
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Eliminate Workflow Barriers & Raise Remote Productivity to 90%+

Even strong teams lose momentum when process friction goes unchecked. Context switching, tool sprawl, and uneven workloads remain invisible without real visibility. This only becomes noticeable when deadlines are overdue or output stalls occur. Managers are expected to fix it fast, but legacy tools rarely show where the real blockers are.

Insightful’s activity and screen monitoring software gives you a clearer view of how work happens, not just how long it takes. It captures:

• App and website usage mapped to task flow and idle time
• Behavior patterns that indicate bottlenecks or context overload
• Real-time visibility into unproductive tool-switching or off-track activity
  
  

Timesheets or anecdotal performance reviews can’t surface these nuances. Insightful replaces blind spots with precise, behavior-based diagnostics.

That means managers can:

• Uncover blockers before they impact clients or SLAs
• Rebalance workload and coach more effectively
• Confidently support high-performing remote teams
  
  

That’s precisely how eSquared transformed its business. When they suspected drop-offs during unstructured hours, Insightful’s monitoring tools confirmed the gaps without disrupting daily workflows. Within weeks, productivity climbed from under 70% to over 90%, and 98% of employees willingly chose to remain remote.
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Cut Subscription expenses by 56%+

As your team grows, so do your software stacks and your subscription costs. Many managers struggle to justify what they’re paying for, unsure if all tools are actively used, overused, or idle. And when teams have overlapping access to similar platforms, the waste quietly adds up.

Insightful’s software usage tracking replaces that guesswork with real data. It captures:

• Frequency and duration of app usage by team, role, or time zone
• Underutilized tools that drain budgets without delivering value
• Redundant apps that can be consolidated or removed entirely

Spreadsheets or license audits only show what’s paid for, not what’s productive. Insightful shows what supports work, so you can staff leaner and invest smarter.

For managers, this unlocks:

• Data-backed cuts that don’t compromise delivery
• Clear ROI cases for tool renewals or cancellations
• Resource visibility that scales across remote and hybrid setups

That’s how TRG International restructured its global operations. They identified costly inefficiencies by using Insightful to analyze app usage and unproductive hours across time zones. In doing so, TRG reduced the equivalent of 1–2 employee costs per team annually, cut subscription expenses by 56%, and built more accountable teams. All without increasing oversight.

Take Control of Project Billing & Time Allocation

When managing remote teams and freelance contributors, even minor time discrepancies can snowball into budget overruns or billing disputes. Traditional methods like spreadsheets, time cards, or self-reporting leave too much room for error.

Insightful replaces outdated tracking with precise, automated data that shows:

• Logged hours tied directly to specific apps, tasks, and projects
• Real-time visibility into how billable time is actually spent
• Gaps between assigned work and actual engagement
  
  

This turns billing into a source of clarity, not conflict. You gain:

• Confidence that invoices reflect true effort
• Faster dispute resolution with objective work records
• Smart optimization of contractor payments and tool investments
  
  

That’s exactly how Outstaffer leveled up their global remote work model. Using Insightful to verify how external staff spent time across client projects, they closed the loop between activity and billing. Outstaffer confidently optimized contractor payments, cut unnecessary software costs, and delivered more transparent billing to clients, all backed by accurate, real-time data.
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Save $12K+ Monthly by Managing Distributed Teams Smarter

Distributed teams face unique challenges like inconsistent reporting, disconnected workflows, and pressure on team leads to “check-ins” to stay updated. But when oversight is manual, it gets expensive.

Insightful eliminates guesswork by automatically capturing:

• Active vs. idle time by employee, account, or shift
• Unproductive patterns that drain hours without results
• Real team output, without disrupting their workflows

Instead of relying on status updates or chasing deliverables, managers can use tracking software to gain real visibility into where time is being spent and where it's being wasted.

That’s how Alia Services transformed their operations. Managing a fully remote workforce across multiple client accounts, they used Insightful to detect performance gaps and identify misuse of their hourly billing model. The visibility restored trust and saved nearly $12,000 per month in unproductive hours.
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Turn Time Visibility into Team Productivity

You can’t afford to make decisions in the dark as a manager. When you see how time is spent, you unlock:

• More innovative interventions on tools, training, and morale
• Accurate proof of work for clients or leadership
• Faster resolution of bottlenecks that stall delivery

Start a 7-day free trial or book a demo to see Insightful’s effects.

Updated on: June 30th, 2025

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