Manage Job Costing for Contractors with Time Clock Software
Small businesses face many challenges in meeting the demands of increasingly sophisticated job management. One of the simplest solutions for construction and other field service companies is choosing the right project management software.
Thanks to time clock solutions, you no longer have to buy bulky equipment to manage time tracking functions, and you can enable your crews and on-demand labor to clock in or out at one or more job sites.
That benefit alone can prove extremely useful for multiple reasons. However, the most significant advantage of using the top time clock software is that it allows you to manage labor costs with professionalism, accuracy, and efficiency.
Efficient Job Costing
Today’s increasingly mobile and flexible workforce can create a nightmare for staff members who handle job tracking and forecasting manually.
Field service and construction businesses often hire temporary and daily labor, and the prospect of messy, inaccurate accounting systems makes the job all but impossible.
In fact, mobile job costing software doesn’t just track time worked – the technology can track the type of work job or labor codes, project, and other critical information. The benefits of employee time clock software include:
Secure, Safe, and Accurate Time Tracking: Get electronic data includes where staff works, project tracking that includes project progress and details, performance statistics which can prove invaluable in construction accounting, and time worked at each job with pinpoint accuracy.
Easy to Use: Streamline clock ins and outs to the point of near automation with user-friendly technology. Even less than tech-savvy team members can make use of mobile apps on their iOS or Android, all without disrupting workflow.
Ability to Change Jobs: Workers can quickly change orders and jobs on their phones each time they’re reassigned to a different work task. With time clock software, construction companies can change tasks in just a few taps.
Eliminate Exaggerated Work Times: Consequently, manual time tracking is prone to employee exaggeration and guesses that seldom benefit the company. With time clock software, time manipulation can be eliminated.
Faster, More Accurate Job Estimates: You can use the software and data from other jobs to prepare more accurate estimates that are based on a team’s past performance.
Integrate with Other Business Software: Most time clock software options integrate easily with other applications – such as CRM, ERP, and payroll like Quickbooks or ADP. The data automatically goes where it’s needed for company reports, payroll calculations, government reports, and other company initiatives like marketing.
When using time clock software solutions, there are many benefits that you’ll reap. This includes being able to more accurately determine your budget and viewing job data in a real-time capacity.
Additional Benefits
Ability to Generate Custom Report: Imagine how easy it would be to generate customizable costing reports by merely pressing a button. You don’t need to imagine it; you can do it with the right time clock software. For example, management can generate reports by criteria that you set and monitor performance by the day, week, month or project. You can view current information in real-time – without waiting for this week’s payroll calculations.
Search for Job Tasks: Managers, supervisors, and staff often waste lots of time searching for jobs that need doing or that they’ve been assigned. Consequently, nobody likes scrolling through long lists to find an assignment. Smart time clocks keep a record of jobs and tasks, and you can search within each category by typing a few letters to bring up the appropriate group.
Real-Time Accuracy: Equally important as the benefits mentioned above, with a digital time clock app record time-keeping information in real-time. You can use the software to increase accuracy, find where someone is working in real-time, and make labor adjustments.
Limit the Jobs that Employees Can View: Of course, every job has some tasks that are easier than others, and digital efficiency enables your employees to seek out the cushiest jobs. You can limit what each employee sees to generate fairer work assignments or hide jobs for which some workers don’t qualify.
Other Key Benefits of Time Clock Software
The benefits of digital time-keeping software include many business advantages for the small business owner. Some of the most valuable include eliminating the frustrations of manual processing, improving job costing, scheduling staff more accurately, and automating many business processes. The specific benefits include:
- Real-time accuracy for generating instant reports
- Fewer hours of labor to complete administrative work
- Increased employee satisfaction by eliminating human error and enabling employees to monitor their records
- Ability to offer employees more flexible work options
- Better work scheduling
- Ability to view work schedule and request time off or vacation time 24/7
- Easier audit trails
- Remote administration capability
Not only can time clock software improve job costing, but it can also help you bring in higher-level candidates by providing more accurate time cards and in turn pay.
How Time Clock Software Benefits for Your Entire Company
The benefits of an online timecard system extend to every area of your company. The technology allows managers and administrators to gather real-time data for billing, inventory management, logistics, and payroll.
For example, office workers can save time by doing less repetitive processing. Workers spend less time standing around, waiting for an assignment. Instant report-generating options benefit all departments. Payroll becomes more manageable, more predictable, and highly accurate.
Of course, everyone appreciates the ease of using the technology – it’s about as difficult as getting money from an ATM. Employees get greater access to their personal records and an easier way to request time off, shift switches, vacation time, and changes to their withholding.
Costs, Bids, and Estimates
Your company is only as profitable as your bidding strategy. If you charge too much, you won’t be competitive. Charge too little, and you could cut your profit margin razor-thin.
Luckily, time tracking software ensures that you charge accurately for your services – especially the labor involved. You can produce reports that detail exactly who worked on each project and how many hours each person worked.
Of course, the more accurate your labor information is, the more precise your bids and estimates will be. Customer invoices can include detailed logs of the time spent on the job, which reduces billing questions and complaints.
You can generate bids based on real data and not just guesswork. Additionally, your company can also improve team performance by offering incentives and fine-tuning work assignments.
Improve Your Job Recruiting
Automated time tracking is the first step to empower your company to recruit at a higher level. Finding skilled labor is increasingly difficult for all labor-intensive jobs. For example, a recent study showed that there had been more jobs than skilled workers for more than two decades.
However, more aggressive recruiting by the healthcare, restaurant, and hospitality industries complicates the problem. More and more people are returning to school to get better jobs. Therefore, those who do work skilled labor jobs are more demanding than ever.
It’s an employee’s market, and skilled laborers can demand exclusive perks, such as flexible shifts, independent contracting jobs, shared working arrangements, and other employer concessions. Time clock software allows you to manage a flexible, on-demand workforce as easily as a small staff in a brick-and-mortar store.
Therefore, responsive time tracking technology increases employee satisfaction and loyalty by offering more transparent work schedules. It also, offers the ability to onboard and offboard easily, and flexible work arrangements. The effect of this on your job recruiting should not be underestimated.
It is time to let go of old outdated time tracking methods that only complicate processes and waste money.
Letting Go of Strategies that No Longer Work
It seems that every thought leader in a business environment praises personalization, work flexibility, and digital technology. There isn’t much to be said in favor of sloppy time-keeping, illegible handwritten timesheets, and guesswork to assign job and labor codes to work performed.
In summary, time clock software takes less than half the time and is more accurate. Embracing time tracking technology raises your game, increases profit, strengthens employee relations, and reduces payroll and administrative costs.
