Remote work has exploded ever since the pandemic. Even now that the pandemic is over, large swaths of workers are still fully/partially remote. This has led to many different companies trying to figure out the best way to track time for remote workers. There are several problems with trying to track time for remote workers such as:

• Trust Issues: Potential mistrust between employers and employees with feelings of constant surveillance.
• Varied Time Zones: Coordinating synchronous work or meetings across different time zones can be challenging.
• Accurate Reporting: Manual reporting can be error-prone, especially with time zone differences.
• Technical Issues: Vulnerability to software glitches, crashes, and connectivity disruptions.
• Invasion of Privacy: Over-monitoring can lead to significant privacy concerns.
• Reliability of Self-reporting: Inaccuracies or intentional misreporting by employees.
• Cost Implications: Investment in tools and training can be expensive.
• Data Security: Risks associated with storing and managing time-tracking data.

However, a lot of these concerns can be negated with the right tools to track time for remote workers. Here’s how to track time for remote workers.

Popular Time-Tracking Methods for Remote Workers

There are two main ways of time tracking for remote workers. This includes specific time-tracking software and project management software with built-in time-tracking software. These methods have their benefits and drawbacks.

Specific Time Tracking Software:

Solutions designed specifically for tracking time. Many of them come with features such as automatic timers, reporting tools, and integrations with other applications.

Benefits:

• Easily track time and automate the recording of time
• Usage of GPS to verify when an employee enters/leaves a job site
• Real-time tracking
• Smartphone compatible

Project Management Software with Built-in Time Tracking:

This method focuses on using project management software to tackle multiple tasks within one platform. This allows employees to track time and check off tasks as they are completed.

Benefits:

• Unified Platform: Manage tasks and track time in one place, reducing the need for multiple tools.
• Collaborative Features: Team members can view project progress and time logs. Managers can gain insights into how long specific tasks.
• Detailed Reporting: Provides insights into how much time is spent on specific tasks.

Benefits of Effective Remote Time-Tracking

Organizations and employees alike can benefit from time tracking for remote workers if it’s done right. Here are some of the most important benefits of effective remote time-tracking.

Improved Productivity: Employees can uncover areas of inefficiency and streamline their work processes by knowing how time is spent. Managers can also use it to find project bottlenecks.

Enhanced Project Management: Time tracking offers useful information that can be utilized to more accurately predict project durations, assign resources, and meet deadlines. It provides a clearer image of how long tasks take, which aids in preparing for the future.

Work-Life Balance: By tracking work hours, employees can ensure they’re not overworking and can maintain a healthy work-life balance. It sets clear boundaries between ‘work time’ and ‘personal time’.

Budget Management: Understanding how much time is spent on various jobs can assist firms with budget allocation and pricing.

Accountability: Companies can track when employees are working and how projects are being completed. This means employers are able to hold employees accountable for hours worked.

Enhanced Client Trust: When clients have access to transparent time logs for their projects, confidence is built. They can see exactly where employee time was spent, providing openness and strengthening the client-business relationship.

Setting Realistic Expectations: With a clear understanding of how long tasks take, businesses can set more realistic expectations for clients, leading to fewer over-promises and under-deliveries.

Legal Compliance: There are regulations governing working hours, overtime, and breaks in particular sectors and regions. Businesses can stay legal and compliant by maintaining effective time monitoring.

Popular Time-Tracking Applications

Listed below are some popular options for time-tracking applications that can help companies track remote workers.

	Key Features	Best For	Price
BambooHR	– Easy time & attendance tracking – Project tracking – One-click approval – Mobile app with geolocation	Businesses seeking geolocation-based tracking	Custom Pricing
Time Doctor	– Genuine transparency – Productivity enhancement – Proof of work – Real-time dashboards	Remote teams focusing on transparency	$8.40/user/month on the standard plan
Harvest	– Simple timesheets – Desktop & mobile apps – 50+ integrations	Teams using multiple software tools	$10.80/per seat/month on the pro plan
Clockify	– Intuitive timekeeping – Desktop & mobile apps – Extensive integrations	Budget-conscious businesses	Free
Hubstaff	– Productivity monitoring – Employee monitoring – Expense and cost management	Comprehensive workforce management	$10/user/month on the teams plan
RescueTime	– Automated timesheets – Distraction blocking – Focus insights – RescueTime Assistant	Individuals seeking focus improvement	Free Trial with Custom Pricing
WorkforceHub	– Simple Time & Attendance – Scheduling – PTO management – Compliance	Modern time and people management tools designed for small companies.	Free Trial & Plans start at $4 PEPM

BambooHR

BambooHR simplifies the process of tracking hours for businesses by providing a time and attendance tracking solution. Employees can punch in and out directly from the BambooHR home screen or their mobile devices. Timesheet approvals, automatic reminders, and project-specific time tracking are also included.

Key Features:

Easy Time and Attendance Tracking: On their mobile devices or the BambooHR home page, employees may sign in and out. They can also modify the hours they put in and keep track of the time spent on various jobs and projects.

Project Tracking: The software includes project tracking capabilities, allowing employees to log hours to specific categories such as projects, clients, locations, or tasks. This aids in creating detailed reports for resource distribution, billable vs. non-billable hours, and time management.

One-Click Approval: With just one click, managers can quickly approve timesheets, doing away with the need for drawn-out email discussions or manual timecard submissions.

Mobile App with Geolocation: The BambooHR mobile app allows employees to clock in and out on the go, view their timesheets, and log hours for specific clients. A feature of the mobile app is geolocation, which provides managers with a snapshot of where employees are clocking in and out from.

Automated Reminders: The software automatically reminds managers to approve revisions and employees to update their schedules, ensuring that both occur on time.

Overtime Tracking: BambooHR’s software has built-in overtime calculations for all 50 US states and territories.

Comprehensive Reporting: The payroll process is streamlined by the payroll hours report, which totals all regular, overtime, and PTO hours for a pay period.

How It Stands Out:

With functions like one-click approval and automated reminders, BambooHR’s time-tracking software places a strong emphasis on user-friendliness. Better hours monitoring is made possible by the mobile app’s inclusion of the geolocation capability. For companies trying to maintain compliance, the software’s capability to handle overtime computations for all US states and territories is a huge benefit.

Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a complete solution for managing remote teams that provides information on the performance and productivity of the workforce. It offers a set of tools that let companies keep tabs on and assess how remote employees spend their time, promoting transparency, productivity, and compliance.

Key Features:

Genuine Transparency: Time Doctor offers an employee-friendly way to monitor how remote staff allocate their time, ensuring attendance, productivity, and compliance.

Productivity Enhancement: The software offers precise data that aids firms in cost management and process improvement, ensuring the caliber of remote workers.

Performance Insights: Time Doctor surfaces insights into individual productivity, allowing remote workers to understand and improve their performance.

Proof of Work: The software offers accurate time tracking, giving managers a clear view of what their remote teams are doing. It verifies employee attendance and timesheets automatically, ensuring silent time tracking. This also includes offline tracking as well as internet connectivity tracking.

Real-time Dashboards: Managers and employees have access to real-time dashboards that track the websites and applications that employees use. Managers can view team activity in real-time with this functionality.

Staff Retention and Wellness: Time Doctor identifies employees who are at danger of burnout and recommends measures to encourage work-life balance. It also examines absence and attendance for signals of disengagement or potential health issues.

How It Stands Out:

Time Doctor prioritizes genuine openness in remote workforce management, ensuring that it is both employee-friendly and efficient. The platform’s emphasis is on delivering extensive insights into individual productivity, allowing remote workers to improve their performance. Furthermore, its features geared at boosting employee wellness and minimizing burnout demonstrate a comprehensive approach to remote team management.

Harvest

Harvest is a simple and user-friendly time-tracking solution that focuses on simplicity and integration. It includes capabilities for managing work hours, projects, and expenses, allowing teams to easily track billable hours.

Key Features:

Simple Timesheets: Harvest offers an intuitive solution for tracking work hours across mobile, desktop, and browser extensions.

Custom Reminders: Harvest aids in building consistent time-tracking habits by sending custom reminders and notifications to team members, prompting them to submit their timesheets.

Personal Reports: Harvest’s personal reports allow users to track both billable and non-billable hours, providing insights into team bandwidth and project load.

On-the-Go Time & Expenses: With the mobile app, users can track time while visiting clients or working offsite. Additionally, they can capture photos of receipts to monitor reimbursable expenses.

Time Tracking Integrations: Harvest integrates with various tools, allowing teams to track time without interruptions. Some notable integrations include Asana, Basecamp, Slack, Google Chrome, Trello, Jira, and more.

How It Stands Out:

Harvest’s strength lies in its simplicity and extensive integration capabilities. The platform is designed to be non-intrusive, ensuring that teams can focus on their work without being bogged down by complicated time-tracking processes. The ability to track time directly from popular tools like Asana, Slack, and Trello makes it a versatile choice for teams that use a variety of software in their daily operations.

Clockify

Clockify is a popular time-tracking and timesheet application for teams. It stresses simplicity by providing a platform for users to simply manage labor hours across several projects. Clockify stands out as a cost-effective solution for enterprises of all sizes due to its guarantee of being free forever for unlimited users. It is also used by some of the largest companies in the world including Amazon, Disney, Sony, etc.

Key Features:

Intuitive Timekeeping: Clockify offers both a timer to track work hours in real time and a weekly timesheet for manual time entry.

Desktop & Mobile Apps: Users can track time across devices, ensuring flexibility and convenience.

Extensive Integrations: Clockify can be integrated with over 50 tools, allowing users to track time directly from their favorite applications.

Custom Reminders: The platform sends custom reminders and notifications to users, promoting consistent time-tracking habits.

Personal Reports: Reports can be generated by users to track both billable and non-billable hours, providing insights into individual and team productivity.

Time Tracking from Calendar: Users can connect their calendars to Clockify, simplifying the time entry process by reflecting on how they’ve spent their day.

How It Stands Out:

Clockify’s commitment to providing free access to users distinguishes them in the time-tracking software market. Users may easily include time tracking into their everyday processes thanks to the platform’s emphasis on simplicity and wide integration features. Furthermore, favorable feedback and testimonials from a wide range of consumers emphasize its effectiveness and use.

Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a comprehensive platform designed to increase team efficiency, whether they work in-office or remotely. The program automates time-tracking processes, manages workforces, and generates productivity indicators, making it a trusted choice for over 95,000 companies.

Key Features:

Productivity Monitoring: Hubstaff offers real-time insights to keep both in-office and remote teams on track, providing actionable productivity data.

Time Tracking: Users can gain insights into their productivity, track billable hours, manage project costs, and set budgets.

Employee Monitoring: Hubstaff provides features to balance workloads, reduce burnout, set work limits, and customize shifts policies.

Expense and Cost Management: The platform allows users to track expenses, set weekly budgets, and receive alerts when projects exceed the budget.

Integrations: Hubstaff can be connected to over 30 business applications.

Reports: Hubstaff creates reports that highlight the most profitable projects as well as those that take up a large amount of time, allowing organizations to prioritize more effectively.

Enterprise Features: For larger teams, Hubstaff offers advanced features like custom roles, advanced reporting, GDPR compliance, and more.

How It Stands Out:

Hubstaff technology not only counts time but also provides insights into how it is used, ensuring that teams stay focused and effective. The capacity of the program to identify projects or clients that may be affecting profit margins is very useful for organizations wanting to optimize their operations. Furthermore, the platform’s versatility and efficacy are emphasized by testimonials and case studies from diverse industries.

RescueTime

RescueTime is a robust time management application that seeks to give users back control over their time and responsibilities. The software, which focuses on automation, provides tools for tracking time, blocking distractions, and providing insights into everyday productivity patterns. Millions rely on it to simplify their lives and optimize their job habits. While not as big as other options, they can be found in both small/large organizations.

Key Features:

Automated Timesheets: RescueTime’s timesheets are designed to be intuitive and need minimum manual entry because of the integration of AI. The software splits your time automatically between projects or clients, becoming smarter as you use it more.

Distraction Blocking: Users can initiate a “focus session” to block websites and applications that often divert their attention, ensuring uninterrupted work periods.

Focus Insights: RescueTime delivers feedback at the end of each focus session on how successfully the user maintained their concentration and the quantity of work completed.

RescueTime Assistant: This feature offers daily forecasts to help users plan their day effectively. It provides insights into meeting schedules and suggests optimal times for focused work.

Comprehensive Time Management: Beyond just tracking time, RescueTime offers tools to improve focus, manage meeting schedules, and provide accurate time tracking.

Integration with Popular Platforms: RescueTime is compatible with services such as Spotify and provides a virtual workspace for collaborative focus sessions.

How It Stands Out:

RescueTime’s main selling point is its all-encompassing approach to time management. While many apps only track time, RescueTime addresses the broader issues of staying focused, managing distractions, and streamlining daily routines. The incorporation of AI to automate timesheet creation, as well as the emphasis on giving actionable information, distinguishes it as a standout solution for individuals and enterprises looking to boost productivity.

WorkforceHub

WorkforceHub is a modern time and people management tool designed for small companies. It connects timekeeping, scheduling, HR management, and hiring in one unified solution that can scale with business growth and changes. With its modern and intuitive user interface, WorkforceHub makes it easy to get up and running quickly.

Key Features:

Time and people management built for small business: WorkforceHub is tailored to, built, and priced for small business employers. It connects Timekeeping, Scheduling, Hiring, and HR Management into a unified solution that scales as you grow.

Time & Attendance for onsite, offsite, and remote workers: Businesses can embed modern time tracking directly into their existing platforms, ensuring accurate timekeeping, easy-to-manage PTO/overtime, and compliance.

Free WorkforceHub Timekeeping Trial: Get a free 30-day trial of timekeeping, overtime, and PTO management solutions tailored for small businesses. No credit cards, no red tape, and no difficult learning curve.

How It Stands Out:

WorkforceHub is time & attendance designed for hourly staff that tracks worked time, PTO, holidays, and more with mobile, virtual, or physical clocks.

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