9 Min. Read

The 6 Best Employee Time Tracking Apps for Small Businesses

July 8, 2021

Employee time tracking apps are a great way to increase efficiency and simplify payroll. But with so many options, how do you choose?

There are a million different things to do when running a small business. And one of those million things is keeping track of the time your employees spend on their tasks. Do you still track time with the classic paper timesheets?

Or do you have each employee submit a timesheet at the end of the week or month through email? Trying to organize all of the moving parts can become a nightmare. And it can lead to a lack of accountability and a payroll process that’s inefficient.

There are time trackers with varying capabilities for small businesses to help avoid those headaches. They hold employees accountable when it comes to attendance, overtime and even time-off requests. Plus, you can receive comprehensive reports that highlight areas to improve your payroll process.

Here is a list of the 6 best employee time tracking apps for small businesses!

Here’s What We’ll Cover:

1. Timecamp

Are you tired of manually filling in employee timesheets or time-consuming expense reporting? Timecamp uses automatic time tracking software to let you focus your time on other important areas of your business. The time that’s tracked can even get converted into an invoice to send to clients.

The attendance module in Timecamp keeps an accurate record of employee hours, vacation time, holidays and any time off. You’re able to see an overview of your team’s performance and how much time they have spent on different tasks. This lets you see any problem areas and offers an opportunity to make adjustments as needed.

If you’re working on a project, how do you know if you have gone over budget or not? Are your team members being as productive as possible? Timecamp generates reports that are easy to read and detailed enough to determine the profitability of your project. You want to ensure accuracy and accountability.

Timecamp includes the ability to easily approve employee timesheets. It gives real-time data so you can provide comments and feedback, set up automatic approvals or even lock timesheets.

2. Harvest

If you’re looking for a versatile way to track employee schedules, Harvest might be the perfect solution. You can set up automatic reminders for employees to clock in and clock out or enter hours automatically. Harvest also lets you track expenses to help stay within budget.

It’s a very simple way to manage the time that employees spend on their tasks. The easy-to-use interface of Harvest also provides actionable insights. This allows you to generate custom reports and quickly make necessary adjustments where needed.

Employees can start and stop a timer as they work to track their time or fill out a timesheet at the end of the day. And it’s always accessible since you can download the desktop or mobile apps. You can also integrate Harvest with other productivity tools you’re already using.

Add your Google Calendar or Outlook calendar to stay on top of hours. Or add one of the different browser extensions to stay productive and up-to-date with team members through apps like Slack, Asana or Trello.

One of the best elements of Harvest is its ability to help streamline your entire workflow. You can convert events from your Outlook or Google Calendar into time entries you can then submit. You will save time and be able to work more efficiently, focusing on the areas of your business that matter most.

3. Timely

One of the most tedious and difficult things about tracking your hours is trying to remember what you did and when you did it. You might forget to turn on a timer or you might get so in the zone that you lose track of time. Timely records all of your work and stores it in its Memory Tracker.

With the Memory Tracker, all of your work gets grouped together and it offers suggestions for the time you can enter. You don’t need to manually log everything you do since Timely will track it for you. And it learns from the data you enter.

When you edit or spend time looking over the work you have done, Timely learns from you and becomes more accurate at entering the time moving forward. This can save you a ton of time if you happen to forget to stay on top of the hours you have worked.

With the Project Time Management feature, you can quickly see the status of an ongoing project. You can make adjustments, provide comments and feedback to team members and track the progression of the project. This will help create a more efficient workflow and increase productivity when it comes to project management.

You’re also able to integrate Timely with other productivity apps you’re already using. Google Sheets and Documents, Evernote, Slack, Trello and WordPress are a few of the apps you can link to.

4. Connecteam

In a world where a lot of employees are working from home, Connecteam is a great time tracking tool for working remotely. The app has a design meant to fully automate and simplify your time tracking process. And the great thing is that setting it up is simple and fast.

Your employees use a GPS time stamp to clock in and out. This is helpful for managers to see the status of each employee and where they’re working in real-time. Employees also use the GPS time stamp to request time off, add notes or view past timesheets.

It also makes the entire payroll process much more efficient. Managers can set limitations, receive notifications and review timesheets on the go. This removes the need for more complicated processes. And it will allow your employees to be more productive by focusing on their tasks.

Connecteam generates real-time reports that you can use to see how different resources are being utilized. You can invoice customers or clients depending on the project or job that’s taking place. Budget forecasting will also become much easier.

Time tracking features include scheduling meetings, managing tasks and implementing training when needed. It’s basically an all-in-one employee time tracking tool.

5. ProofHub

ProofHub is designed to allow you to better manage your employees and teams when it comes to the most important elements of your business. And it can be integrated with several other apps, including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and many more. It’s packed with a ton of features to help deliver projects on time.

Create discussion topics to communicate with team members and remove any needless back-and-forth. It makes for better collaboration, planning and organizing all aspects of your team. Assign tasks and share important details to prioritize what needs to get done first.

The interface is designed with the use of Kanban boards. Managers can split tasks and responsibilities among employees and everyone can see who is working on different areas. Your team will become more empowered to manage their time better and streamline their workflow.

It’s also a great way to organize all of your important documents and files. They can quickly get found whenever they’re needed since they’re stored in a central location.

And when it comes to tracking timesheets, there’s no more wondering involved. All of the details of time spent on tasks are easily accessible and viewable. You can create online timesheets, set specific times for tasks and track team performance.

6. Toggl

Did you forget to start your timer? If you did, Toggl will give you a gentle reminder. It’s one of the more common time tracking apps out there and for a good reason. You can use Toggl in combination with over 100 different apps like Asana, Xero and Trello.

You can set timers to start automatically and use them across their different apps, like the desktop app, browser extension or mobile app. With one click all of your time entries will sync together automatically. We’re all forgetful sometimes, so using the Toggl Autotracker can help trigger suggestions for time entries.

Powerful and insightful reports about employee time will give you actionable information. You can create a general summary or an in-depth and detailed report that you can get every week. All you have to do is choose which data you want to see, add a few filters if needed and then sort the data how you want.

Toggl can be an excellent app for tracking time for your business. On top of tracking and managing employee hours, you can use the project dashboard to forecast timelines and monitor progress. This allows you to see problem areas and avoid scope creep.

You can even assign billable hours for team members or projects to review how you’re generating revenue. This gives you a view into what tasks and activities are contributing the most and areas that might need to be addressed.

Key Takeaways

Creating a more efficient workflow and a simplified payroll process is important for any small business owner. Employee time tracking apps are an incredible way to help make those processes easier. But what if you still prefer an old-school method?

You need to do what you feel is best for your business, but using an employee time tracking app will make your life easier. There won’t be a need for tedious and time-consuming hour counting and making sure everything lines up correctly. Employees will be more accountable, more productive and more efficient.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all employee time tracking app. But the six time tracking apps outlined above can provide an all-in-one solution. Take the time to look into which app might work best for you. One of these employee time tracking solutions will be sure to give you more time to focus on the most important areas of your business.

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