Different companies face all sorts of challenges depending on their size, industry, market position, organization type, company culture, and many more factors. 

And while there is a preconceived notion that only large companies need project management and productivity working from home tools, this is simply not true. 

Small businesses have organizational issues, too!
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So what are the best ways a company can solve common problems with the proper use of insights from (remote) employee tracking?
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• Official company record of employees’ attendance
  
  
• How many working hours employees spend in the office (virtual or physical)
  
  
• How much time employees spend on productive activities
  
  
• How much time employees spend on projects or individual tasks
  
  
• Record of the resources employees use at and for work (websites, apps, tools)
  
  
• Protection against unauthorized employee access to internal and external systems, etc.
  
  

Read on to find out how specialized software can help you introduce these measures and solve other common workplace challenges.

What Is a Time Tracker?

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The name is pretty self-explanatory - this type of productivity working from home software keeps track of employee attendance via the check-in and check-out functionality at its basis, with the purpose of resolving time management issues that may interfere with business operations. 

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As modern efficiency boosters go, this tool should be first on your list. 

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Not only do time trackers take a record of employee comings and goings, but they also measure the time users spend on particular websites, apps, systems, and other tools, thus providing reliable workstyle analytics and insights into their working habits. 

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Tools of this kind are introduced in a professional environment, not with the purpose of spying on employees by the management and making sure they don’t take marathon coffee breaks, but to identify issues that slow down business processes and resolve them in a constructive manner. 

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Ensuring Transparency and Accountability

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By making sure the company has a comprehensive project and individual task schedule, and via monitoring employees’ working patterns and efficiency levels, management is able to keep their team on track and within project deadlines. 

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This, in turn, makes a labor time tracker an indispensable company tool for coming to data-driven and profitable decisions.

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However, different industries are bound by a variety of specificities in terms of what their daily responsibilities include, how work needs to be tracked, and what is considered productive and unproductive working time. 

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For example, safety inspectors spend most of their working hours in the field, so installing a desktop-based time tracking software doesn’t give a clear picture of their productivity level. For them, the best solution is GPS tracking that can record their movements and how they correspond with work responsibilities. 

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For marketing agencies, on the other hand, it is important to have a good insight into the type of websites employees visit during working hours, and whether that is in accordance with their professional responsibilities. For instance, it’s completely expected that an SEO specialist spends some part of their day reading blogs about SEO, but the same cannot be said for the accounting department. 

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This is where a time tracker comes onto the scene. 

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Not only does it provide transparency and urge accountability among the employees, but it also prevents and helps resolve conflicts in the office. 

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Employee Productivity

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As much as 20% of an average working day is spent on minuscule or completely unimportant tasks. These are all more or less unproductive activities that not only devour company money - especially when the employees are paid by the hour - but also take the focus away from core employee responsibilities. 

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The downsides of time theft are more discernible in startups and single-person-ownerships, so it’s no wonder that small business time tracking is becoming increasingly popular. 

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Improving Project Deliverability

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Tools like this, especially those with integrated project management options make it significantly easier to deliver projects to clients on time. 

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If all team members have complete insights into project dynamics, they can prioritize their tasks so as to avoid causing bottlenecks and gaps in the process, and work as a well-oiled machine where each task is completed in sync with other team members. 

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In this sense, utilizing time tracking tools gives a solid prediction of time requirements for future projects and can also pinpoint potentially problematic areas that need to be resolved beforehand in order to ensure the success of the project. 

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Easier Client Management

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A tool of this sort that has a client login option can make the whole collaboration process easier for both parties. This will allow the client to have first-hand knowledge of project progress without the need to interfere with the process with constant inquiries. 

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Even reporting is facilitated, if not completely unnecessary if the client has complete insight via a time tracking tool, which also makes billing significantly easier.

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Transparent Payroll Calculation

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Payroll calculation is one of the most overseen functionalities, while at the same time, one of the most useful ones. However, not all trackers incorporate it in the same manner or at all, but those that do are quickly considered essential by the users since it makes the workers’ attendance and working productivity easily translatable into the corresponding paycheck amount. 

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Simply put, online time tracking and billing software gives the user complete control over productive and unproductive employees and paying them accordingly. Moreover, it makes the performance reviewing process that much easier, and all promotion and raise-related decisions are completely backed up by objective arguments. 

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Not only is there no room for human error or bias, but it also makes the entire process transparent and scalable as the company grows. 

Training and Skill Development

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One of the biggest challenges you’ll face when scaling your business and improving operational efficiency is how to upskill your workforce and provide them with sufficient, relevant training opportunities.

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With a work tracker like Insightful, you can easily identify good opportunities to implement skills and training development programs based on each individual’s skill set and performance levels.

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When you understand where employees are spending most of their time, you can more easily understand what areas they might need assistance in. If one particular task always takes longer than expected, you know that there’s an opportunity for training.

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Imagine being able to diagnose the bottlenecks in your company on the fly and address productivity inhibitors with targeted skills training - that can be your reality when you use time tracking solutions.

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Client and Task Prioritization

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Just as you can use time tracking solutions to identify opportunities for upskilling and professional development, you can also use them to establish your main priorities.

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If you want to make significant progress towards your strategic goals, you need to know how to prioritize your clients and tasks.

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Repeatedly avoid the most meaningful tasks and client relationships, and your business is bound to suffer as a result.

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This is especially true of service-based industries, in which your resource allocation is critical to your success. Time tracking solutions allow you to move time around strategically so you know you’re always focusing on the most relevant tasks and clients.

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Time Tracking Takeaways

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It’s obvious that introducing a time tracker in your company environment can have very positive effects on several areas that may be pain points for your particular business or industry. 

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However, in order for the tool to be able to help you resolve them successfully, make sure you identify them and your expectations as precisely as possible beforehand.

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