July 9, 2019 · by Esther · in AEC Tech Tips

Finding tools that can help free up your time will create more space for you to focus on the creative side of your business—instead of logging in endless timesheets and expenses, or sending and chasing up invoices, you should try and invest time in automating your business processes as much as possible.

Automating your business with software is like an investment.

The QuickBooks Time Kiosk (formerly TSheets Time Clock Kiosk) is a simple digital time tracking tool that operates like a traditional wall-mounted punch clock—without the expensive hardware! Simply run this app on any internet-enabled device or tablet and link it to your existing QuickBooks Time account. We specialize in tax compliance, financial consulting and software implementation services for closely held businesses, venture capitalist companies, non-profit organizations and their related individuals. We serve both foreign and domestic clients ranging from 2 - 60 million in net worth. At cHb Advisors, LLC our goal is to enhance the CPA-client experience by going above and beyond.

Just like cash invested one time in stocks or real estate generates income slowly, long term: investing time in implementing software to automate your business will free up time for the next weeks, months, and possibly years to come, helping you improve your profitability.

Today, we will be looking at the top 9 time tracking online tools and apps that have made tracking time, expenses, and invoicing incredibly simple and easy to do.

While many of these tools are free, some of them have subscription costs.

Let’s look at an example that solely focused on how much time is spent on expense and time tracking, and invoicing.

During any given week, you will probably have to:

Record the hours you spend on a project then log that info.
Sort out your teams’ timesheets each day/week.
Save your receipts (from petrol to lunch dinners to building supplies,) then properly sort and log them when you get back to the office.
Create itemized invoices and trying to remember what it was you, or your team members were working on and when.
Create payroll reports and analyzing your project budgets to make sure you are not overspending.
Go back through team members’ calendars and timesheets and checking for sick days, vacation days, and holidays.
Figure out who has paid your invoice, and having to chase up with people who owe you.

This could easily add up to 2-3 hours each week.

Now, if you imagine that your rate is $65/hr, 3 hours a week will begin to add up quickly: by the end of the month that is about 13 hrs a month, or 156 hours a year, which at your rate would be about €10k per year. Suddenly, paying $50 for an annual subscription seems like a great investment.

The point is that some daily admin tasks can eat up a lot of hours over time, without helping you really build your business, and finding ways to minimize your admin hours will ultimately help you build your business.

Without further ado! Here are the top 10 apps that we would suggest to help you start automation your time tracking, expenses, and invoicing.

Top 10 time tracking apps

1. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a time tracking and productivity management software with a special solution for architecture firms. It lets you track time through multiple devices, like desktop, web, and mobile. That way you can get a high-level perspective on your project’s budget by managing your team’s tasks, hours, timesheets, and invoices, all through your central dashboard. When a project is complete, you can use the time and task data to better estimate future jobs — ensuring profitability for your company. It also integrates with many top apps so you can run your building projects, and business, more efficiently.

Features

Track location with GPS monitoring, identify roadblocks on the go to keep your projects moving forward—includes cool features like geofencing, which will start tracking time as soon as you or a team member gets to the job site. (Find out how this works)
Manage your job sites, create and organize projects by client. Add crew members to specific job sites for time tracking.
Integrates with over 30 apps including Basecamp, Trello, Asana, FreshBooks, QuickBooks, SalesForce, FreshDesk, ZenDesk, Github, and Paypal.
Manage your team’s schedule and tasks with the online and mobile scheduling tool. And combine project and time management with the agile project management tool Hubstaff Tasks.
High-level reports can be generated easily. From productivity and hours to budgets and invoices in one simple reports dashboard.

Screenshot

Client reviews

“Most time tracking software doesn’t give you the depth of data that Hubstaff does. They justify this by saying that “if you can trust your staff, no monitoring is necessary”. The reality is that remote teams have a hard time staying on top of who is working on what and who needs help. PM tools only go so far, but seeing where staff are struggling in real time allows us to be pro-active about priorities and getting everyone the information they need to get the job done without having to wait for them to ask.”

“Hubstaff is, hands down, the best time tracking platform on the market. My business would not function as efficiently, and I honestly wouldn’t be able to be as mobile as I am without it. My business model depends upon collaborations and Hubstaff makes that possible for me with very little time spent on administration. You simply can’t beat the cost for what you get!”

Works On

iOS, Android, and Desktop

Price

Plans range between $5-$10 per month per user. There is a 14-day free trial.

2. Timecamp

Either working solo or with a team, TimeCamp is a fantastic time tracking software for architects and contractors. The tool combines features of time tracking and project management software, ideal for a construction business. You can have this app track your time automatically or choose to fill out (your) timesheets manually. The reporting option is a great plus as they can help you figure out where you and your team are spending the most time, so you can schedule and plan effectively.

Features

The tool is available for all platforms and as a mobile app.
Bill your clients easily based on billable hours, tasks, or projects.
TimeCamp has a feature of creating invoices based on the reports and sending them to your clients instantly.
It has automatic time tracking with desktop app to save you time. You don’t have to switch between different tasks since the app follows your activities.
Use the extensive and detailed reports to inform you about your activities and find out which one are productive and which ones unproductive
You can track your team’s absences, sick leaves, or holidays, a nice feature when it comes to payoff and taxes.
Timecamp has powerful integrations to enhance your work with other tools and apps.

Screenshot

Client reviews

“As a single user and independent contractor, I’m really liking the clean, easy to use, yet robust UI and system of reporting.”

“It is very easy to use and allows me to calculate timesheets after the fact based on computer usage. The integrations to multiple systems allow me to bill against specific external tasks or tickets which makes invoicing a breeze. I especially like their shared reports feature as I can just email my clients a link with their invoice and they can inspect timesheets, without having to copy them to Excel or give them access to the platform.”

Works On

iOS,Android, and Desktop

Price

The solo plan is free, then the plans range from $5.25 per user per month to $7.50 per user per month.

3. ClickTime

ClickTime increases employee utilization, enables more accurate forecasting, and helps architecture teams maximize billable hours. From client lunches to tracking time on the building site—this app will help you keep all your expenses and logged time centralized to your mobile. The app can track your time on the go, track expenses, create expense sheets, and snaps photos of your receipts. Also, their pro expenses tool helps you make sure that you are tracking costs effectively.

Features

Allows you to log your time based on your clients, projects, and tasks while on the move.
Helps you assure you are paying your team fairly: easily track of sick days, vacation days, and holidays.
Records

Tsheets App For Mac