Business owners have the difficult task of implementing new processes and procedures within their company. Take, for example, new time-tracking software for your workforce. When integrating time-tracking software with the company, the responsibility will fall to you to ensure your employees understand the new process and use it accordingly.

If you are a small, medium, or large business owner looking to implement time tracking software within your company and workforce, then we can help.

Here’s how you can get your employees to start tracking time.

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Integrating Time Tracking Software into Your Business

If you have decided to start using new software to track and record your employees’ work hours, you have made the first step in the integration process. Begin researching the products on the market and choose a quality time tracking system that will account for work hours, employee scheduling, and project costing and tracking, such as QuickBooks Time.

Having your employees use timesheets for work means more accurate time tracking, less time wasted, and greater productivity and accountability for your whole workforce. Tracking hours worked and knowing when your employees start and end a shift helps your company in multiple ways. First, your crew stays on track and keeps productive while on the clock. And second, it guarantees your employees receive the proper remuneration for their hard work.

By using such software, you can improve your team’s productivity while also increasing trust between you and your employees. You know they are hard at work, while they know they will be adequately compensated for their hard work within your business.

Communicate the Why With Your Employees

Once you’ve settled on the right software for your business, you will need to communicate to your team what you plan to do and why you are doing it. That’s why it’s crucial to have an open and honest discussion with your team when beginning the integration process of a new employee time tracking app.

As the owner and manager, it is essential to keep an open path of communication with your employees. By explaining the reason behind the new software implementation and opening it up for discussion, you are showing your team that you care about their input. You need their willingness to learn and use the new software; otherwise, it would be hard to integrate properly into your internal processes.

A simple explanation can go a long way. Let your employees know you are adding tracking software to the company’s procedures as it is beneficial to both them and you. Once this line of communication is established, you can start to get your employees to track time accordingly.

Introduce a Pilot Program

When implementing a new internal process within your business, you will want to start on a smaller scale. Inform your employees that a new approach is underway, so they know what is coming. But begin small and work your way up to the company-wide implementation.

Select a small group of employees to participate in a pilot program of the software. This can help you hammer out the kinks in the system and process before implementing the software used on a larger scale.

To run an effective pilot program, you will first need to state what your goal of the program is: the successful implementation of new tracking software in your workforce. Second, you will need to set a timeframe for how long this program will take place. Typically a few weeks or one month is a good run for a pilot program. Once complete, you will need to analyze the process and how your team adapted to its use.

With all of this information at hand, you can see what processes worked best and scrap what didn’t work for your team. Take the best parts of the program to use in the implementation on a greater scale.

Choose One Employee to Oversee the Integration

Once the pilot program is complete, now is the time to onboard the rest of your team members with this new software. Select one of your managers or employees to oversee this new integration.

Maybe they were the ones who ran your pilot program or were at least part of the program, so they have first-hand knowledge and experience using the time tracking tool in question. This appointed manager will then be responsible for helping the other team members adjust to the software, getting employees to track time in no time at all. They can help implement the process and ensure employees are clocking in and out and handing in their timesheets when needed.

Submit Timesheets at End of Day, Not End of Week

When starting the integration, you will need to remind your team to submit their timesheets for work at the end of the day instead of at the end of the week. The person you have chosen to help oversee the implementation of your employees’ proper time tracking processes can be in charge of this task.

With the mobile timesheet app, it should be easy for your workforce to track and submit their hours worked directly from their phone. Online time cards provide another easy way to track hours on a daily basis. These mobile apps make recording and collecting time tracking data that much easier.

Getting your employees accustomed to checking and submitting their timesheets for work at the end of the day means they are executing this task five times a week, instead of one. Daily submissions will make the new software seem like an old process in no time, as your employees get comfortable with the software with every use.

Keep Data Entry as Simple as Possible

When adding new tasks to an employee’s day-to-day responsibilities, that task should be large and important enough to remember to do it, but not too large that it becomes too overwhelming when starting out. Therefore, you will want to keep your time tracking data entry and integrated tasks simple and straightforward, making it easier to implement into already existing processes.

QuickBooks Time time tracking tool streamlines this process by providing a mobile app that allows employees to clock in and out with just one click. Even the timesheets are straightforward to use, easy to fill in and look over before submitting to management.

As for the one in charge of checking the numbers and getting the payroll process underway, QuickBooks Time offers an intuitive desktop interface for simple and easy use. This time tracking app works on mobile devices and desktop computers to automate the timesheet process and employee scheduling, which helps streamline the payroll process.

Choose User-Friendly Software

To make this entire integration process as stress-free and easy as possible, consider software that offers an intuitive interface and easy-to-use features. A comprehensive application with thousands of features seems excellent. Still, if no one can figure out how to work or run the system, this software solution becomes a problem.

Integrating time tracker software with your workforce becomes more manageable when the software itself is easy to learn and use. The effort to complete this new task should take less time and effort the more it is done- this is the learning curve theory. You will want to implement internal processes with a short learning curve, so it takes less time for your employees to pick up this new, required, daily task.

Finding a time tracking system that works for your company can be challenging enough. Implementing such software and procedures into your workforce’s routine is a whole other undertaking. To help make this process easier, start tracking employee hours with QuickBooks Time for an easy-to-use time tracking service.

Try it free today and get your pilot program underway!

<<Back: What are Timesheets and How Do They Work?

Next: 5 Issues That Time Tracking Software Can Solve>>