Custom time tracking software: get a grip on hours

Why good time tracking makes you money

For service providers, installers, agencies and anyone who works by the hour, hours are your revenue. Hours that are not logged, or logged too late, often do not get invoiced. And without reliable hours, you do not know which jobs or customers are profitable.

• You invoice all hours worked, including the small jobs in between.
• You see per project or customer whether you are staying within budget.
• You can quote more accurately, because you know how long similar work really takes.
• Payroll and overtime add up, without discussion afterwards.
• You have evidence when a customer asks what the hours were spent on.

A small calculation makes it concrete. If each employee forgets to log half an hour a week, in a team of ten that quickly adds up to five hours a week you do not invoice. Over a year that is a sizeable amount, for work that was actually done. Work it out with your own hourly rate.

Signs your time tracking needs an upgrade

• Hours come in on paper, by email or via messages and have to be retyped.
• At the end of the month you spend days chasing and checking hours.
• You only know after a project ends whether it was profitable.
• Employees fill in their hours a week later and have to guess what they did.
• Hours, planning and invoicing live in three separate systems that do not talk to each other.
• Your standard package has no room for how you work, such as surcharges, shifts or fixed prices per job.

Which features belong in time tracking software?

The basics are simple: who worked how many hours on what, and when. Around that you build what your business needs.

• Entering hours per day, per project and per task, on phone and computer.
• A timer you start and stop, for people who prefer to track live.
• Different types of hours, such as billable, non-billable, travel time, overtime or leave.
• Rates per customer, project or employee.
• Approval by a manager or project lead.
• Overviews per project with budget, hours spent and what is left.
• Export to invoicing and payroll.
• Reminders for employees who have not filled in their hours yet.

For businesses with people working on site, extra features can be handy. Think of work orders signed by the customer, materials per job, or recording start and end times at the work address. Be careful with location data, though: tracking employees touches on their privacy and the GDPR (AVG in Dutch). If in doubt, get advice from a lawyer or check with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

Also think about the admin side. A project lead wants to see on one screen which hours still need approval. The accounts team wants a correct export every month. And you as the owner want to see per project how the hours compare with the budget, ideally while the project is still running. Those overviews are often the reason to go for a custom build.

Custom time tracking or a standard package?

There are lots of good standard time tracking packages. For a small team with simple projects, they are often a fine choice. You pay per user per month and can get started quickly.

Custom time tracking software is often better if:

• you work with complex rates, surcharges or collective labour agreement (cao) rules that a package cannot handle;
• hours need to link directly to your own planning, CRM or work orders;
• your employees need a very simple app without unnecessary buttons;
• you already pay for several packages that do not work well together;
• the cost per user rises steeply as your team grows.

Time tracking is often part of something bigger. If you also schedule people and jobs, read custom planning software. Want to understand the choice between buying and building better? Read custom or off-the-shelf software.

Linking hours to invoicing and accounting

The biggest time saving usually comes after the hours are entered. Approved hours can automatically create a draft invoice, per customer and per project. That then goes through an integration to your accounting software, so nobody retypes hours any more. In the same way, hours and overtime can go to payroll.

Such an integration usually works through your accounting software's API. You can read more about that in connecting your accounting software.

Agree clearly up front which system is leading. Are customers and projects kept in your CRM or in your accounting software? Where do you change a rate? If that is not clear, you get differences between systems and end up checking and retyping anyway.

How to make sure your team actually logs their hours

The best system does not work if nobody uses it. These points make the difference:

• Make logging quick. Ideally less than a minute a day, with that day's projects already set up.
• Let employees log hours there and then, on their phone.
• Send an automatic reminder at the end of the day or week.
• Show why it matters: correct hours mean correct invoices and fair overtime.
• Ask employees to help shape the design. They know where things get stuck now.
• Keep the number of required fields as small as possible.

Having custom time tracking software built by Violexa

At Violexa we build custom web applications for SMEs, such as systems for hours, planning and admin. A web application works in the browser on computer and phone and can connect to your accounting or other software. Custom web applications start from €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT). For a more extensive system with integrations, you get a fixed price in writing up front. Want to know how such a price is put together? Read how much a web application costs.

Curious what custom time tracking could do for your business? Book a free quickscan. In 30 minutes, online or on site, we discuss how you work now. Afterwards you get short written advice with a price estimate, with no obligation.

Frequently asked questions