Common Administrative Challenges with Timesheets and How to Solve Them
There aren’t many people who enjoy sifting through a mountain of paperwork. If you haven’t yet found a reliable time tracking software solution, dealing with the hassle and headache of manually managing timesheets may feel like an insurmountable obstacle. Administrative overhead, usually part of a project’s non-billable hours, eats away at margins and drives down the bottom line.
Luckily, the right time tracking software can eliminate many of your administrative tasks and help you be more proactive in addressing challenges before they arise. At Replicon, our project time tracking platform offers solutions that tackle the biggest issues you face in timesheet management, saving you time that you can then allocate toward tasks that drive revenue and make your projects a success.
Common Timesheet Challenges and How to Solve Them
Challenge #1: Employees Struggle to Complete Timesheets Accurately and On Time
Let’s face it; filling out timesheets is a chore. It takes employees’ time and attention away from focusing on billable hours, and without the right tools in place, it’s easy for mistakes and errors to slip through the cracks. And when they do, it places even more strain on you. And now, in our increasingly remote workforce, employees are completing tasks from various locations that may not be conducive to time tracking, leading to a greater risk of inaccurate reporting.
Solution: Intuitive Employee Timesheets
Ensure accuracy and simplify the time tracking process by adopting software that offers configurable and adaptable timesheets that make reporting a breeze. Pre-populated timesheets allow you to set rules and structure timesheets the way you need, so employees spend less time on administrative tasks, and submit on time, every time. GPS and geofencing features are also a great way to ensure accuracy, no matter where employees are working from. And whether they’re at home or on the move, a platform that offers mobile timesheets, like Replicon, can provide a quick and effective solution to time reporting on the go. Ultimately, by simplifying the process for employees and making timesheets an integrated and seamless process, rather than a headache, you’ll give them back valuable time they could be spending on billable hours.
Challenge #2: Keeping Track of Billable vs. Non-billable Hours
Speaking of billable hours, when it comes to time, not all hours are created equal. You want employees focused on billable hours so you can keep profit margins up and administrative costs low. But when you can’t see at-a-glance where and how employees are spending and tracking their time, the balance between billable and non-billable hours may begin to tip in the wrong direction.
Solution: Instant Insight with Real-Time Visibility
The best time tracking solutions should offer you instant visibility into employee timesheets, so you can see immediately how many of their hours are billable, and how many are not. This kind of insight gives you the opportunity to make proactive decisions in the moment and help employees track their billable and non-billable hours more accurately, while saving valuable time. Additionally, with Replicon, you have the power to set custom targets for billable hours to keep employees on track and see at-a-glance how they’re performing.
Challenge #3: Difficulty Scaling Across Multiple Locations
As your business grows, you want your timesheet software to grow with you. Manual tracking or point solutions simply can’t keep up with the evolving demands and regulations of distributed, remote, or global industries, and it isn’t able to scale as you expand. The additional effort of managing employee time when they’re distributed around the world adds to your administrative overhead and takes hours that could be better allocated elsewhere.
Solution: Remote and Global Timesheet Management
Global governance and time tracking become easier and more manageable with the right software in place. A tool that allows you to organize employees by location and provides a single system of record will allow you to support local administration, no matter where you are.
Challenge #4: Missing Errors That Cause Revenue Leakage
Without real-time visibility into your employees’ time, you can’t know if critical hours are being missed or misreported, leading to time loss or even time theft, and creating revenue leakages that could drain your project budget. Mistakes happen, but when you don’t have the tool you need to catch and correct them, it results in loss of profits.
Solution: Enhanced Validations and Intelligent Approvals
Instant notifications and alerts are key to finding errors before they become problems, and that’s exactly what you get with timesheets and time tracking from Replicon. Advanced validations ensure you can approve timesheets from anywhere, at any time, and make quick corrections. It also gives you the ability to process submissions and approvals more efficiently, so you’ll always meet deadlines with fast and accurate timesheets.
Challenge #5: Lack of Insight and Real-Time Data
Intelligent decision-making requires deep analysis, but if you’re only able to access historical data, you’re missing out on an opportunity to get ahead of issues, keep budgets on track, and move projects forward on time. Historic data is useful, but it can’t help you pivot in the moment. To do that, you need real-time insight into how your employees are using and tracking their time.
Solution: Instant Visibility and Reporting with Advanced Analytics
Data-driven decisions rely on accurate, up-to-the-minute data to identify trends and predict future needs. Advanced analytics provides instant visibility into the numbers you need to make swift adjustments. When you can see employees’ timesheets as they’re in progress, you’ll be better able to understand utilization rates, billable vs. non-billable hours, and much more. The numbers don’t lie, and when you have quick, accurate insight, you’ll be able to save time, resources, and money.
Ready to learn more about our comprehensive time tracking suite? Be sure to check out how Replicon offers time and billing solutions with the timesheets and software you need to tackle common administrative challenges. And if you want to find out more about timesheets and time tracking, check out our free webinar.
