If running any business, you understand how time is essential in every process. Managing and measuring the time used in every process is very important since it guides you in knowing how effective the method is and how to bill the final product.
Learning how much time it takes to accomplish a specific task will help give proper deadliness to clients and payments to your employees. This article will discuss how time tracking helps in managing and bringing value to your business. Here are some ways.
1. It does estimation and bills projects accurately
Time tracking enables you to know how long a project takes and develop your clients' right bill. When a client asks you for a project, you may not know how long it takes, especially if it's something you have never done. Through time tracking, you will be able to develop the time invested and its total bill. Through this business integration, you will come up with fewer or zero discrepancies when doing estimates and final bills. It enables you never to overcharge or undercharge a client and gives you backup when the client asks for the evaluation. Having no tracker may create challenges when asking for payments.
2. It helps you manage capacity efficiently
If your business deals with one project at a time, it is essential to know when to wind up with the current project and take another one without inconveniencing clients. Time tracker enables you to understand your current capacity and when to pick such projects. It also helps you know how many employees you might need for each project, depending on their output per given time. For example, if an employee on shift takes eight hours to complete one project and you have ten projects, you will have to decide whether to use an employee for ten days or take ten employees to complete the tasks in a day, depending on the urgency. Such helps plan your business and inform your clients when to expect their projects.
3. It helps you have insights into your business performance
Time tracking enables you to value projects and determine whether they are profitable to take or not, depending on the time taken and their cost. It allows you to check and evaluate whether you will pick the project or let it go. It points out areas that take little time and those that take most of the time and assess the tasks depending on the revenue. With this, you will know whether the projects are giving your profits and if you are spending much time on non-profitable ventures. For example, it will guide you in picking a task that takes fewer hours to complete than one which takes a full day, having the same pay. Through this, you can accept or reject projects depending on the revenue they will bring to the company.
4. It lets you identify areas for improvement
With time tracking, you will know which areas are doing well and which ones are slow and require improvements. You will learn the areas taking the time and the steps to take to make them useful. It helps you solve challenges, including needing to invest in new machines, have better employees, or other remedies. It also enables you to come up with the correct cost for the slow processes to get profits, considering the time taken. A good example is when manufacturing two different products. If one takes one hour to produce and the other two hours, the two-hour product will cost more if all other factors are kept constant.
5. Increases productivity
When you are time conscious, everyone will work faster to meet deadlines than when you leave your employees without monitoring. It enables you to make payments based on time and removes any wasted not used to perform the company duties. Through the tracker, you will know which processes or employees are time wasters and find ways to eliminate them to enable a smooth and fast operation flow. It is not worth having an employee taking two days to complete a task when others take only a day.
Having a time tracker in your business can be challenging. Not all employees' boards are on it, but it's crucial if you want to instill efficiency. It's like someone watching over them while doing their work, which reduces time wastage and keeps them committed towards work, especially in this era where there are disruptions everywhere, including the social media sites. It is essential to explain to them the reason for it, your goals, and what's right for them. It would help to show them that it's not against them but to help the company grow.
