•
Timesheet Feature Review #7: Reminder Emails
Keeping track of everything is difficult in today’s hectic and multi-tasking world. Whether you are a blue-collar worker or a high-ranking manager, remembering to do all that you need to do is definitely something that everyone struggles with. There are several ways to help people organize the world around them. For example, to-do lists; calendar schedules; personal assistants, all these exist for the purpose of reminding us of important tasks and dates to be kept.
Timesheet systems are no different, employee timesheets can only be effective if filled and approved regularly. Tasks and projects can only be analyzed and managed well if the information keyed into the system is up-to-date and accurate. However, accessing the timesheet system may not be a very instinctive thing to do, particularly if the timesheet system was recently implemented or if you’re dealing with new staff. This can cause your employees to forget to fill in their timesheets and project statuses. Allow this to go on long enough and your timesheet system becomes useless, your ability to track employee performance evaporates and your company may start bleeding cash.
Employees are not the only ones who need to remember to login into the timesheet system regularly. Project managers and department heads also need to remember to keep track of all the various projects and tasks that they are in charge of. Forgetting to do this can have disastrous results, projects can run way over budget; backlogged expenses can choke otherwise-productive teams into inactivity; work may be unable to proceed without approval from the manager. Timesheet systems can only operate effectively if both managers and employees are able to do their jobs and log onto the system regularly to do what is necessary.
So, how do you constantly remind your teams and managers of the various tasks that need to be done? One popular and effective way is through reminder emails, the #7 in our list of most requested must-have features for timesheets.
What makes reminder emails so effective?
Logging into a timesheet system may not be a habit for your employees, or perhaps they simply tend to forget to submit their timesheets on time. In such cases, you need a way to remind them to regularly fill in their timesheets/update their statuses/etc.
Now, while not all workers are accustomed to working with a timesheet system, almost everyone has the habit of checking their email everyday. The email is all-important for any working adult: corporate news and assignments are distributed through emails, departments communicate with each other through emails, clients and co-workers correspond through emails. Checking your email regularly is just a habit (maybe even an addiction?) that is common across most people.
Reminder emails take advantage of that habit to send you updates on your timesheet duties. Employees are sent reminders on timesheets that have not been filled up, statuses that have not been updated and the like. Administrative staff or managers can also be sent emails that report on project progress and remind them of timesheets and expenses to be approved. Reminder emails are usually sent on a weekly basis by default but can also be configured to send daily reminders or monthly reminders based on your particular needs. This way, whenever you check your email, you’re reminded of your timesheet duties and you are able to do them right away and prevent yourself from forgetting.
Automated reminder emails also save administrative staff the trouble of nagging at employees who forget to submit their timesheets on time. This way, employees are spared the embarrassment of receiving manual reminders from the administrative staff and the administrative staff are also spared the trouble of sending individual reminders. In cases where the timesheet system is newly implemented, this will also allow your employees to become more accepting of the new system.
What sorts of reminder emails are there?
The most common reminder emails are the ones sent to regular employees telling them that their timesheet is due. This helps ensure that the timesheets are submitted on time each week.
But reminder emails can come in all shapes and sizes. Usually, such emails are combined with account types to generate emails that suit the user’s job scope. For example, regular employees are not sent reminder emails telling them to approve timesheets or generate reports because such tasks are beyond their responsibilities. Project managers on the other hand, receive such reminders because they are expected to do these tasks on a regular basis.
Reminders can also be sent informing managers of the system’s ability to generate certain reports. This allows managers to be reminded of the features of the timesheet system so that they are able to analyze the timesheet information better. Status updates can also be sent to managers to inform them of all the work by their teams done in the day/week/month. This way, managers are able to keep better tabs on all their projects and teams which allow them to manage these projects/teams more effectively.
Finally, urgent reminder emails can also be sent informing employees or managers of tasks and projects that have fallen behind schedule. Managers can also receive urgent reminder emails informing them of tasks that are overdue and any backlogged expenses or timesheets that urgently need to be approved. Billing departments can also receive urgent reminders of uninvoiced time or unpaid invoices so that action can be taken immediately. Although most companies would prefer to avoid receiving such emails, the urgent reminders from these emails can be invaluable in averting potential catastrophe.
e.g. Weekly Reminder Emails from TSheets Timesheet (www.tsheets.com)
e.g. Daily Reminder Emails from Intervals Timesheet (www.myintervals.com)
Are there any limitations of reminder emails?
The only critical flaw in reminder emails lies in the fact that reminders can only bring you so far. While it’s all good and nice to receive constant reminders on what to do, the fact of the matter remains that unless you or your employees are disciplined enough to click the included link and perform the necessary actions, reminder emails are unable to do their job.
In conclusion
Reminder emails is a fairly common timesheet feature. Of the 21 timesheet products reviewed by Software Shortlist, 14 products offer this feature either as part of their basic package or as an optional add-on. It then comes at no surprise that the ability to receive reminder emails is ranked #7 in Software Shortlist’s list of “must have” features of timesheet products. An all-round useful feature, reminder emails perform a much appreciated service that is well-loved by many timesheet users. After reading this post, I hope you have gotten a better understanding on the different types of reminder emails, why they are so effective and why they remain so popular amongst timesheet users.
As always, don’t forget to stay tuned for more reviews as Software Shortlist continues its countdown on the top “must have” features for timesheet users!
•
Timesheet Feature Review #3: Billable vs Non-Billable Distinction
Many timesheet users are companies that perform contract or “outsourced” work, charging for their specialist services on an hourly, daily or retainer basis. This includes professional service firms such as accountants, lawyers, graphic designers, engineers, architects, web developers, PR firms and many more.
For these companies, using time tracking software isn’t just about internal auditing and accounts. For them, the timesheet system is arguably the single most important software that they deal with on a daily basis. Companies that bill their work to clients must be able to generate reports that accurately reflect their work done and the hours put in by their workers. However, as any working adult knows, not every minute spent on the job can reasonably be billed. This makes the billable vs non-billable distinction one of the top must-have features for timesheets.
Not All (Billable) Time Is Created Equal
In the highly competitive world of contract and professional services work, clients are demanding greater transparency and accountability. They are becoming less accepting of paying for “filler time” or time where they don’t see good progress being achieved. For companies that bill their time to clients, this means that every minute billed must be accounted for and justified by productivity and outputs achieved; most clients won’t settle for anything less.
When entering time into a timesheet, the problem with not being able to distinguish between billable and non-billable work becomes glaringly obvious; without this distinction, you won’t be able to log time at all without billing your clients for it. This would create a problematic scenario where you need to trade-off between accounting for the time spent on the project and billing your clients reasonably for the work done.
Take web development for example, coding isn’t always a straightforward and easy task. Sometimes, developers can take longer than expected to fix all the bugs in the website. Now when the developer gets around to entering time into the timesheet, he faces a dilemma: On one hand, he can’t always bill the extra time to his client because it may have been his fault for taking longer than expected to debug the code but on the other hand, leaving the timesheet blank would create a large, inaccurate, and potentially embarrassing void in the middle of his report. So, what can contractors do to side-step such tricky situations?
Enter one of the most useful timesheet features known to man: the ability to differentiate between billable and non-billable work.
e.g. Creating a non-billable time code (14Dayz timesheet, www.14dayz.com)
e.g. Entering non-billable time (in 14Dayz timesheet www.14dayz.com)
What Exactly Does “Billable Work” Mean For Timesheets?
When performing contract work, you need to ensure that your final reports are clear and concise. These final reports are the “receipts” that you submit in order to get paid by your clients. When submitting your reports to external clients, it becomes even more important that you are able to account for every single minute spent on the job and can justify every minute billed to your clients. This will help minimize any disputes with your clients over your charges and final bills. Billable work is simply a term used to describe time that you are charging your clients for. In other words, it is the time logged into the timesheet for which you are actually getting paid.
The concept behind billable and non-billable work distinction is simple: Log all the time spent while on the job into the timesheet but only bill the client for time when work is actually progressing. This way, you are now able to accurately account for all the time that you’ve spent on the job while only charging your clients for “actual work” done.
The advantage of such a system is immediately obvious, your clients will be able to see exactly what your workers were doing on the job and at the same time, they will also not be able to reasonably dispute the time billed to them. This way, you present both accountability and professionalism in your final bills, two highly-prized characteristics for any contracting company or services firm.
When Will I Not Need to Distinguish Between Billable and Non-billable Work?
The whole “billable/non-billable work” concept is only relevant to contract work. When using timesheets for internal purposes, auditing or payroll, this feature is rarely used at all. If your company is only interested in using timesheets to track internal progress and time spent on corporate projects, then the billable/non-billable distinction will not be a “must have” feature for you. Other examples of organizations that do not need to distinguish between billable/non-billable time include government agencies and non-profit bodies. For these organizations, although it remains important to track time spent on projects, time is not billed to clients so distinguishing between billable/non-billable is less relevant.
Also, the billable/non-billable distinction can be foregone when working with an understanding client or a fixed price project. Not all clients operate the same way; some companies simply don’t care what you do with your time so long as you deliver a great end-product at a reasonable rate. Of course, when performing contract work, you are bound to run into all sorts of clients so getting a product with billable/non-billable distinction is still advisable for all companies that perform contract work.
In Conclusion
Like most other timesheet software features, being able to distinguish between billable and non-billable time is a feature that may be indispensible or completely irrelevant to your company. For almost all companies that bill time to clients, the ability to differentiate between billable and non-billable time will probably be the most important feature to look out for when shopping around for a timesheet product. On the other hand, for companies that deal solely with internal or corporate projects, this feature will rank pretty low in their books.
As it turns out, billable/non-billable time distinction is a fairly common feature. Of the 21 timesheet products reviewed by Software Shortlist’s panel, 17 products include this feature. I hope this article has helped you gain a better understanding of what billable/non-billable distinction actually does and why it is such a popular feature amongst timesheet software users.
Software Shortlist is currently counting down on a list of 13 “must have” timesheet features for prospective timesheet product buyers as suggested by our search data so stay tuned for our upcoming reviews!
•
Timesheet Feature Review #1: “Entering time in a weekly view”
In service firms and project-based organizations, timesheets plays an increasingly important role in helping people manage and control their various accounts and projects. Timesheet software offers the perfect way to keep tabs on multiple projects by generating clear and useful reports used to track the time and work done on any particular project, and can also streamline the billing and accounting process.
Software Shortlist recently published a list of 13 features that its search data suggested were the top “must-haves” for prospective timesheet buyers.
Today, I’ll take a detailed look at the #1 most requested timesheet feature – using a weekly view to enter time.
Entering Time in a Weekly View
There is probably nothing more important to the usability of timesheet software than the way(s) in which people enter their time into the system. Many timesheet systems offer multiple time entry methods, as company needs vary with the nature of their work, plus users often have different (strongly held) views about which is best.
Common time entry options (and a few examples of what they look like) include:
- Daily view: Enter time manually in a view that shows time entries for a single day against relevant projects or tasks, with space for explanatory comments
e.g. Daily Time Entry View with Clicktime (www.clicktime.com)
- Weekly view: Enter time manually in a grid-like format that shows an entire week at a glance, typically with projects or tasks as rows, and days on the top.
e.g. Weekly Time Entry View with Replicon (www.replicon.com)
- Stopwatch timer: Enter time by selecting a project or task and clicking “start” on a timer. When you have finished that work, you click “stop” and the time entry is automatically added to the system.
e.g. Desktop timer widget from Harvest (www.getharvest.com)
Why does entering time in a weekly view matter?
To put it simply, the weekly view makes entering your timesheets about 7 times easier. It allows you, at a glance, to see across an entire week and easily enter time against your projects without constantly having to cycle through multiple pages on the daily view.
It is particularly well suited to people who have regular activities or projects that run across many weeks. You can enter time against one project for the Monday, and then simply tab across to Tuesday, and so on. With only a handful of keyboard strokes, you’ve completed your timesheet …without having to wait for new pages to load. And since the list of projects / tasks is typically carried across to the next week, you usually don’t need to set up the grid again each week but instead just start entering time.
And if you’re someone who never quite gets around to entering your time each day (or you have staff like this!), you’ll find that the weekly view can help jog your memory. You can mentally work your way through the week, comparing and contrasting days, and entering time quickly so you meet that weekly timesheet submission deadline. Not ideal, perhaps, but very much a real world scenario.
What are some drawbacks of weekly timesheet entry?
The grid format doesn’t allow you to easily see or enter detailed comments about how time was spent on a given day. Some timesheet systems provide hover-text or pop-up windows while others have fields below the grid for this purpose, but the simple reality is that the weekly view is not as well suited to providing detailed explanatory notes on how your time was spent as the daily timesheet view.
Whether this matters or not depends on the type of work you do and the expectations of whoever is approving your timesheet (e.g. boss or client). Some people prefer to enter the time in a weekly view first, and then go back and enter detailed notes on a daily view afterwards. Others prefer to enter time and notes simultaneously on a daily view.
The other key issue with a weekly view for time entry is about accuracy: it encourages you to enter time on a weekly basis and therefore your entries are only as good as your memory, and entries are often rounded to the nearest increment (e.g. 15 minutes or half an hour). This results in over- or under-billing, depending on the personality of your staff.
Timesheets are more accurate if time is captured closer to when it was spent, such as using a stopwatch or completing timesheets on a daily basis. A stopwatch allows you to capture exact increments of time at the instant they are worked, but may accidentally be left running or not started in the first place. Daily timesheets provide a good middle-ground, but require the discipline of setting aside some time each day to fill them in.
In Conclusion
The weekly view for entering timesheets is the single most popular “must have” feature requested by users of Software Shortlist’s timesheet comparison service. After reading this article, hopefully you now have a better understanding of the weekly timesheet method for entering time, why it is so popular, and the trade-offs involved in its use.
Why not join in the conversation and let us know which method you prefer for entering time on your timesheet system and why?
Stay tuned for more reviews of the other top “must-have” timesheet software features…
