Manage Projects Efficiently and Get Paid Faster

by Surekha Shetty | Jan 5, 2022 | Project Management, Software, Time Tracking

Late payments can play havoc with a company’s cash flow. Such disruption can result in shortages meaning there’s a lack of funds to reinvestment in the company or even difficulties paying bills and staff. Regardless, studies have shown that around 64% of small companies have experienced not being paid on invoices for 60 days or longer.

There are various reasons for late payments from clients. One reason is the client lacking funds themselves, while another potential reason is a lack of organization. The company doing the work is also sometimes at fault, such as delayed delivery, quality issues, or administrative problems.

One way to ensure that you’re paid for projects on time is to run the project as efficiently as possible.

Define the Project Before Starting

One way to help ensure you get paid on time is to define the project before starting. You need to define the scope of the task, which materials are needed, how long it will take, and who will be working on the project.

By defining the project fully, you can give an accurate quote and completion deadline, meaning the client is less likely to have anything to contest when paying. Defining the project will also help ensure you get paid fairly for your work and have everything you need to do the job.

Track Your Team

Manpower is one of the most important ingredients of just about any project. Your staff’s experience and skills are necessary to get the job done and even the most advanced technology cannot replace most human tasks. However, as important as manpower is for getting a project finished, it is also one of the most expensive aspects. Manpower can also be one of the most difficult variables to manage.

However, solutions like PK4 Tech’s time tracking software can help to make it much easier for you to track and manage your team. For example, the technology can let you know where an employee is at a particular time, what they have been working on, and how long they have spent on certain tasks.

This ability to monitor employees in such a way is beneficial for numerous reasons, including:

Error Reduction: It can be very easy to make errors when timesheets are created. People are unlikely to remember all the details of their working week, especially if they have been busy. Time tracking software will help to eliminate errors by tracking your employees’ actions for you.
Improved Billing: Time trackers make it easier to track the amount of time working for clients. The software also makes it easier for you to send reports to your clients to keep up with the work being done and monitor the progress of the project themselves. With everything documented, clients are less likely to have a reason to delay their payments.
Monitor Productivity: The average employee will spend around 51% of their working day on unproductive tasks. It’s not necessarily their fault; people just won’t always realize how much time certain tasks are taking. With time tracking software, you can monitor how long employees are spending on tasks, helping you identify where they could be spending their time better.
Easy Processing: Processing timesheets can be a time-consuming and menial task for managers, meaning more important tasks are pushed aside. However, time-tracking software makes it much simpler for managers to approve timesheets. Instead of using paper sheets, managers instead have all the details they need on the screen in front of them. The software makes it easy to accept or reject timesheets at the touch of a button, and let employees know why their timesheet was rejected.
Budget Monitoring: It can be easy to go over budget if you’re not monitoring your expenses, but time tracking software makes it easy for you. With the right software, you can get the information you need at a glance, helping you make important decisions.

Time tracking can help you manage your project more efficiently in numerous ways. In addition to the benefits already mentioned, the software can also produce comprehensive reports that give you the information you need to make impactful decisions. Not only that, but time-tracking software can also integrate with other systems, helping you get more value from them. Overall, the software can help you identify the most productive ways to work, while reducing errors and streamlining your processes. Your clients are more likely to pay on time with an efficiently managed process.

How To Stop Employee Time Theft

by Surekha Shetty | Dec 14, 2021 | Software, Time Tracking

Most employers would probably like to think that they can trust their employees and employees will be honest for the most part. However, we can never be entirely sure that the people working for us won’t take advantage if given the opportunity. Indeed, a study showed that 43% of employees who have filled in timesheets had exaggerated the length of time they worked. Studies have also shown that around $400 billion is lost every year in lost productivity in the United States, further highlighting the need to address the problem.

Employee time theft comes in several types, and not all of them are necessarily deliberate. Some of the most common include:

Charging for time spent on personal tasks
Buddy punching is a practice that involves an employee’s co-worker punching in for them despite the employee not being at work. Buddy punching alone is thought to cost approximately $373 million alone every year
Employees deliberately adding extra time to their worksheets
Employees not clocking out for breaks
Field employees claiming to have been working but performing other tasks, or even staying at home instead
Accidentally overestimating time worked.

Time theft is a real problem for many companies, especially in times of uncertainty. However, one of the most significant difficulties companies face regarding employee theft is that it’s challenging to detect. Managers cannot monitor all employees at all times, especially where field workers are concerned, and honest errors can be particularly difficult to identify. However, you can take some steps to overcome the issue.

Establish Clear Policies

One way you can help overcome some of the issues is to put a deterrent in place. Your managers can let employees know that they’re aware of problems like buddy punching and that employees will be reprimanded if caught doing so. The act of bringing up the topic alone can avoid complacency among employees and deter them from punching in for friends. Make sure to be polite and respectful when reminding your employees about your policies, but also make sure that you’re firm. Acting on indiscretions will help to send the message that you will not tolerate time theft.

Educate Management

Quite often, the signs of time theft are right in front of us, but we won’t spot them if we don’t know what we’re looking for. For example, what might appear to be a case of an employee working later than others could easily mean that they’re not being honest about their time sheet. After all, it’s a lot easier to be dishonest on your time sheets when there’s nobody around because they’ve already gone home for the day.

Educate Employees

In many cases, time theft might be down to misunderstandings that you can easily clear up with simple communication. You should also make it clear to employees when it’s reasonable for them to record to add time and when it isn’t. You can also educate your employees on the potential harm that time theft can cause businesses, potentially even placing their jobs and their colleagues’ jobs at risk.

Use Time Tracking Software

Software like the PK4 TimeTracker will help to ensure that time is tracked accurately and fairly. For example, the buddy punching system won’t work with time tracking software because employees have to be logged into their computers or on their own mobile devices to track time. The system also helps prevent forms from being filled in erroneously, while it also helps management see which tasks their employees have been working on.

Time tracking software will also help ensure time is recorded accurately for field workers. The time tracking app can record an employee’s location through GPS, so you know they were in the right place. The software is also easy for employees and managers to use, while reviewing and approving timesheets is also made simple, further helping to ensure accurately recorded time.

Overall, time tracker software will help to empower teams to work better and be more productive. Time sheets will more accurately reflect work that has been done while also giving management access to helpful information such as how much time employees spent on particular tasks. Such information will help management see if time is being spent effectively, helping them make their teams more productive while also helping to reduce frustrations.

5 Tips For Measuring Your Employees’ Time And Productivity Levels

by Surekha Shetty | Aug 2, 2021 | Project Management, Software, Time Tracking

We all want to be productive, but productivity isn’t something you can enforce on others. The productivity of your employees will depend on many factors that you won’t be able to control – like their health, motivation, unforeseen events, etc.

Some things you do have control over, though. You can help your employees stay productive by paying attention to their work environment and putting effective workflows and systems in place. And you can measure their output to see what needs improving.

Measuring time and productivity can get tricky since every employee has a unique personality and working style. It takes a skilled manager who’s objective and insightful to decide if a team member is effective, struggling, or overly thorough.

Here are a few individual productivity guidelines to get you inspired:

1. Track your employees’ time

If you’re not already tracking your employees’ time, you really should. Not necessarily to question their choices, but rather to understand how your employees respond to tasks and challenges.

A significant part of workplace management is tracking your employees’ work and break time, as well as diving deeper into how much time they logged for each project and task.

You can also look into how many breaks your employees are taking, paid time off or sick leave, as well as absenteeism or whether your employees get to work on time.

You can easily accomplish this with a Time Tracker, where you have the option to approve your employee’s time entries and have a bird’s eye view of how your team is performing.

2. Track tasks and set clear objectives

Evaluating your employees on the number of hours worked may seem straightforward, but it’s not the best indicator for productivity. You also need to check how well they’ve performed on the tasks you’ve assigned them.

Did they understand the goals? Did some of them fail to meet deadlines or do you have employees who regularly overdeliver? What tasks took most of their time and why? Keep task difficulty in mind when deciding if your employee was effective.

Time Tracker also has the option of creating tasks and projects where your employees can check in, so you can easily correlate the difficulty of a task with the time spent on it.

3. Evaluate client satisfaction

You may have superstar employees who seem to blaze through assignments faster than most of their coworkers. Before you congratulate them, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little suspicious of their performance. They may be fast, but are they really doing a stellar job?

What better way to find out than ask the end recipient of their work – your client? You can send a quick survey, email, or call your clients to make sure they’re satisfied. Ask them to rate your employee’s services, handling time, etc., and see how they respond.

Any negative feedback should be cause for alarm and a clear sign that your employees value quantity over quality. This brings us to our next point:

4. Place value on work quality

An employee’s ability to get things done depends largely on their ability to focus and take their time with the task at hand. Unfortunately, many workers confess to being burnt out and perpetually behind at work. Taking their time is often not an option.

As a leader, you need to ask yourself – is the company culture sending the right message? Do you push your workers to meet impossible quotas, and are they perhaps working at an unsustainable rhythm?

Or are some employees simply struggling because they’re not a good fit for the job? Managers should put their detective cap on and investigate all the possible reasons why the quality of a product or service may suffer and address them immediately.

It may be that your employees need to get better at time management, or that you should set better work priorities – or both. Whatever the reason, there’s always room for improvement.

5. Set a good example

Lastly, don’t just measure your employee’s time and productivity. Start with measuring your own. All the decisions you make throughout a workday as a manager can have ripple effects on your team’s work.

Can you improve your work environment? Are you good at delegating tasks you struggle with? What about self-care and taking time off? The more you investigate your own productivity dips, the more you’ll have an idea about what your team members are dealing with.

So track and measure as many of these factors as you can, and do it frequently. Only then will you have a clear idea of how to improve, and how to appreciate the people who are a great asset to your company.

Managing Employee Paid Time Off Doesn’t Have To Be Difficult

by Surekha Shetty | Jun 20, 2021 | Mobile Apps, Project Management, Software, Time Tracking

Managing Employee PTO[/caption]Every worker deserves time off, and paid time off (PTO) is one of those perks many companies choose to offer. Reviewing and approving paid time off used to be overwhelming, but with modern tools in place, managers can now focus on more important things.

Similar to traditional leave, with paid time off, employees get paid when taking personal time off, vacation days, sick leave, time off during federal holidays, and parental leave. The only difference with PTO is that employees don’t have to give a reason for taking paid leave.

How much PTO should you offer?

Since paid time off isn’t federally required, you’re probably wondering how much time off should your company offer. Short answer – it’s totally up to you, but in this competitive work environment, providing PTO will contribute to happier, more productive employees.

Statistically, US businesses offer an average of 10 days of PTO per year, while European workers are guaranteed between 20 to 30 paid days off – that’s a whole month off!

Before you get all envious, you should learn that modern businesses have recently embraced the concept of unlimited PTO, provided that employees still get their work done. It works great for young workers who value their autonomy and flexibility, although many of them end up taking less time off than the average.

How to effectively manage PTO requests

Leave management can become very complicated, especially if you have to handle a high number of employees. Many companies still log PTO requests manually inside a spreadsheet, which makes for an inefficient and expensive process.

If you’re an HR manager in the digital era, you’re probably balancing different types of employees – remote or on-site, salaried, hourly, or part-time. Logging mistakes when managing PTO could lead to unfair payment and open up your company to potential lawsuits.

This is why you need to run a tight ship and have great systems in place. The best way to do this is to establish ground rules and use modern time tracking tools that allow for seamless PTO management.

Define the rules in your employee handbook

Creating a standard policy on taking paid time off is the best way to go, especially if you have many employees and they all come to you with their individual problems and requests.

Inevitably, leave requests will overlap during times like winter holidays, and you’ll be the one prioritizing which employee gets time off. So how do you make that decision?

A few popular policies you could have in place are:

First come, first served. This type of policy takes out a lot of the guesswork and makes sure all workers are fairly treated.
Seniority-based. Time off is granted according to the employee’s “rank,” although, because of their vital experience, taking time off is not always feasible.
Reasons for making the request. Personal reasons such as sickness, burnout, parental leave, or family issues should be discussed and, if possible, prioritized.
Flexibility of the request. When completing the PTO request form, employees should mention whether their vacation dates are flexible or not.
Taking time off too often. You should set rules to prevent employees from requesting time off too frequently or during times when it impacts productivity.

Your employees may have personal issues, or they may be prone to burnout, and as a manager, you have the final say in allowing them to take paid time off.

But keep in mind that favoritism can get the best of you at times, so use your better judgment and adhere to company guidelines when managing your workers’ paid leave.

Use a tool that easily tracks time off

Time tracking has come a long way. Modern time tracking tools are now indispensable for efficient project management – everything gets logged, and time off is no exception.

Managing Employee PTO

Our leading time tracking tool for Salesforce, PK4 Time Tracker, is built to easily manage PTO days. Inside Time Tracker, the PTO Current Status displays Total Days, Available Days, and Pending Approval Days.

Users can log their desired PTO days by selecting the PTO type (personal, vacation, sick, other, etc.), the start date and end date of their leave, and send it for approval.

Managers can edit total PTO days for their employees and approve or reject requests. The available days get automatically updated as employees use their time off.

This entire process is organized within a simple interface, where you can have a bird’ eye view of your workers’ activity.

Needless to say that this automatic system of vacation management takes a lot of pressure off of HR managers.

There’s no more back and forth communication – all the information is out in the open, and employees can feel confident that they get fair treatment when it comes to their earned paid time off.

As a professional, you can’t run your business arbitrarily. Having a set number of PTO days, establishing a universal policy, and tracking hours, including time off, are all essential to your company’s productivity and your employees’ wellbeing.

Photo by Trend on Unsplash