The US economy loses around 50 million hours per day due to ineffective time tracking and time theft. This loss equates to $7.4 billion USD for a singular workday. Reports of such considerable losses are alarming—especially for construction businesses.
According to a survey, 40% of workers never track time while working, whereas 33% may do it occasionally. Reluctance to adopt time tracking apps in the construction industry may be attributed to various reasons.
Even though time tracking solutions have been advanced over time, workers might find them too complex to understand. For the time being, around 38% of workers still rely on sheets and cards for tracking time.
Manual time tracking methods can be daunting and tedious at times. Going through dozens of reports and tracking time manually also reduces efficiency and increases the chances of errors.
As technology evolves, we witness many amazing innovations for managing construction-related work. As a constructor, a time-tracking solution can be no less than a wonder for your business.
Many construction businesses have already started to leverage time tracking in their organizations. Some of the most competent solutions, including the SmartBarrel device, provide easy-to-use solutions for time tracking.
With so many time tracking solutions available, choosing the one that suits your firm the best might be a difficult task. Here, we discuss what to consider when purchasing a construction time tracking solution and how you can get the most out of it.
Things to look for in a construction time tracking solution
Below are some features that can make construction time tracking solutions easy to use.
User-friendly interface
The best construction time tracking solution will have an interface that’s easy to use and understand. Workers should be able to enter their hours on a job site with only a few clicks.
If the interface is complex, employees will find it difficult to buy into and make effective use of, making them want to stick to manual methods that can cause significant errors and delays. A time tracking solution must have a simple setup so the employees can view their progress in real-time and add new projects or change information.
Time tracking for every project
A time tracking solution should be able to accurately track the time spent on each project task and the total time spent on the project. This is the only way to ensure that you get an accurate bill for your services.
When looking for a time tracking solution, consider whether or not it offers time management functionalities. This is a must-have feature if you need to assign time to projects or track time spent on a project.
Project management dashboard
The process of tracking time can be a bit tedious. You may have to log in to several different programs, manually enter the information, and then print off the sheet. At times, this process can be a bit nerve-wracking.
Instead, you can leverage time tracking solutions that include a project management dashboard. Time tracking can be a huge part of project management. If your workers have accurate timesheets, you’ll be able to track costs accurately. This will allow you to adjust your budget accordingly and effectively.
Report management
An effective construction time tracking solution must offer a detailed daily, weekly, and monthly progress report. It should also help you manage your project efficiently by providing information to see where it stands and what you need to do next.
In addition to this, it should allow you to track changes made to a project’s timeline. This feature is often missing in time tracking solutions; however, it’s better to go for the one having proper report management.
Communication features
A construction time tracking solution should include features that allow accessible communication between team members. This way, everyone can easily track their progress and ensure they’re meeting deadlines.
If you’re looking for a solution with more advanced features, you may consider cloud-based services. These solutions allow for project management and real-time collaboration in one place.
Unified location for data
A construction time tracking solution should be able to keep track of where a given task is taking place in the construction process. This information should be consolidated in a single location so that it’s easy to compare different stages of the project.
Payroll management
An efficient time tracking system must also be able to calculate payroll. You can enter timesheets into the system and then use them to calculate your employee’s payroll. This will help in eliminating errors and make it easier for you to generate payroll correctly.
Integrations
Construction time tracking software should be able to integrate with your existing project management system. This ensures that all project-related data is in one place, allowing users to track their data efficiently. Plus, this will also enable you to save time switching among different platforms to gather information about a project.
Why is a construction time tracking solution important?
Construction time tracking solutions can be significant in many ways.
Eliminates human error
Human error is the leading cause of construction time delays and cost overruns. A construction time tracking solution can help identify and prevent human error with better time management.
Avoid missing deadlines
If a contractor is not tracking the time it takes to construct a project, they may not be aware of when it’s running behind schedule. Construction time tracking is important because it helps with delivering projects on time.
Eliminates time theft
A construction time tracking solution helps eliminate time theft by ensuring that workers execute their assigned tasks. It helps the project be completed on schedule and within budget.
The bottom line
Construction time tracking solutions can help you effectively manage projects without missing deadlines while preventing losses. At a glance, time tracking software implementation can seem like a tedious task; however, the benefits it holds are immense.
