How do you track project time for salaried workers?

psadiv

I would like to implement some kind of auto or online time tracking system, right now we are using a bunch of excel spread sheets and it is a nightmare. What do you all use? Any suggestions on how to actually get approval for it from management?

marc

Here is a thought, how about a classic cost benefit ratio? I understand this looks at the kaliedeoscopic HR world as though it can have some black and white to it with some linear thinking solutions, but it is worth a try.

Perhaps some of the accounting types you might have lurking around the water cooler can discuss ways to capture time savings associated with running an off the shelf program with time consuming fun of designing and tweaking excel spreadsheets to get the information you need. Surely there would be significant time savings associated with this approach.

The committment to accurately track time must permeate an organization because it is time consuming and costly to make this work.

We just use estimates based on tracking actual time over a 30 day period and allocate those percentages through our payroll system. It is not as accurate as tracking actual throughout the year, but we save significant time at all levels through this process. We have not justified buying the software, training all staff on it's use and implementing the back-end support structure necessary to insure accuracy and timeliness throughout the process.

NancyJ

There is a program commonly used by lawyers and CPAs called Timeslips. Each employee has an ID, each client has an ID, and each activity/project has an ID.

The employee logs in, and can start a timer, and then minimize the program. It will track the amount of time they are on a phone call with the client, working on a specific part of the project, etc. Time spent outside of the office can also be manually put in. The employee can also add comments to the entry (i.e. "spoke with Bill about.... he said....")

You can run a report showing the amount of time each employee has spent on a specific project, and doing what. It's great for tracking profitability. Salaried workers will take a few tweaking, but the results are worthwhile. Especially when justifying a bill!

Also helpful to track communications across multiple employees/customer contacts. The "he-said/she-said" is eliminated when you have specific date/time stamps on phone calls, and other team members can see the call detail (so they know the progress you made with the customer before they get on the phone with them).