Timesheets are boring. Okay, let me backtrack, timesheets can be boring. Your employees generously entered their time into their timesheets. Then you took that time and reported on it to bill your clients. Now what? It’s just a timesheet! No, not really. Here are some benefits your timesheet data can give that you may not have thought about:
Understand your project capacity: Knowing when to take on more
As your small business grows, you see the work coming in the door, but sometimes wonder if you can fulfill the order. It’s a great problem to have; however, as projects pile up, you may soon start sacrificing quality over quantity.
With a well-constructed timesheet system, you can quickly fire off a “time by employee and project” report to see where your employee’s time is going. With a quick comparison of the project hours put in by employees against the actual hours you have available, you’ll get a quick idea of where you stand.
Do you take on more projects? Or do you find gaps in your employee’s timesheets to fit in a little more project time? Or maybe you look into expanding?
Reduce the risk of knowing when to hire more help
One of the side-benefits of having a proper timesheet system is that you can get a better grasp of your capacity planning. If you’re taking on more projects and assume that you have the people-power to complete them, you may be in for a surprise when you start overbooking your staff.
The average time it takes to fill a position is 42 days.
Source: shrm.org
With an add-on tool like Dovico’s Workload, you’ll see gaps in each of your employee’s schedules in which to schedule project work. In a flash, you’ll reinforce your gut feeling that it may be time to hire as everyone on your team is continually over-worked.
Establish project costing budgets and know exactly where you are at any given time
When you create a project in your timesheet system, you can enter an hourly or overall cost budget associated with that project. Then, as your employees submit time and expenses against that project, the budget gets automatically updated. Put away your calculator and fancy spreadsheet. It’s all done for you!
Provided your employees are regularly entering their time (hopefully daily), your project health report is available within a few simple mouse clicks.
Why guestimate where your budgets are?
The faster you understand your project’s health, the quicker you can make adjustments and pivot if need be.
Give credit to your highest performers
Everyone likes to be noticed for a job well done. People in your business work hard, proving it with the hours they submit on their timesheets. Why not give credit where credit is due?
With a quick report from your timesheet system, you can see who is putting in the hours on what project. Are they remaining within the budget? Are they putting in extra hours?
Give your employees credit for their hard work, the proof is in the timesheet data!
According to Gallup’s analysis, only one in three workers in the U.S. strongly agree that they received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past seven days.
Source: gallop.com
Most employees do not get enough recognition for the work they do, giving them that appreciation goes a long way in keeping them happy at work. Showing them the impact they are making with the time they submit also gives them proof that they are doing well.
Timesheet anxiety is a thing! Most employees do not like entering time into a timesheet. Some even feel judged that their time is not enough. Having the ability to show actual proof of their efforts from the time they have submitted will ease timesheet anxiety. This proof is especially helpful if that employee’s time was impactful in completing a big project.
Your timesheet data is a goldmine of possibilities
Hopefully, with these new ideas, you will begin to see that a timesheet is not just a timesheet. The continual data poured into your database is a treasure-trove of valuable insight. With a little bit of imagination, your timesheet data can give you the confidence to grow your small business into an impactful going concern.
For growing businesses looking for a better way to track employee time and activity.