Spreadsheets would possibly seem to be a “free” and easy answer for time monitoring – in any case, they’re straightforward to make use of and already in your pc. However in actuality, utilizing them might be far more costly than you suppose.
Guide time monitoring results in errors – individuals overlook to log hours, guesstimate, or miss entries altogether. Meaning billable hours are slipping via the cracks, and also you’re shedding out on income with out even realizing it.
And that’s simply the tip of the iceberg. Add up the time spent fixing errors, chasing down timesheets, and manually pulling collectively stories, and also you’ll see that what looks as if a “free” answer is costing you way over a correct time monitoring instrument ever would.
Assume spreadsheets are saving you cash? Let’s break it down and present you what they’re actually costing you – and the best way to repair it.
Actual prices of guide time monitoring
Right here’s the deal: guide time monitoring could appear easy, nevertheless it’s stuffed with hidden prices. Let’s have a look at the bills you is likely to be overlooking.
- Misplaced income from untracked billable hours
When hours get forgotten or miscalculated, you’re basically working at no cost. These billable hours that don’t make it to your bill? They’re cash slipping via your fingers.
- A pile of information, however no helpful insights
Your crew’s filling in spreadsheets, however that knowledge doesn’t provide help to enhance or optimize. With out the best instrument, you’re simply logging hours as a substitute of getting actual insights to spice up your efficiency.
- Inaccurate time logs result in unreliable challenge estimates
In case your time monitoring’s off, your challenge time estimates shall be too. Guessing your challenge price range can result in overcharging or undercharging shoppers, which hurts relationships and impacts deadlines.
- Guide time monitoring eats into productive hours
Each hour spent filling out timesheets is an hour your crew’s not utilizing to unravel issues or get work completed. Over time, these “jiffy” add up.
- When your crew’s late on timesheets, your funds are late too
If timesheets aren’t submitted on time, invoices get delayed – and so does your money stream. Chasing down timesheets causes a domino impact of delays.
No one wakes up excited to fill in a spreadsheet. When the method is tedious and error-prone, your crew begins to keep away from it. That frustration results in decrease accuracy and better possibilities of skipping monitoring altogether.
- Misplaced knowledge creates compliance complications for the crew
A single missed entry or deleted file can throw all the pieces off. Forgetting an hour or deleting a timesheet can result in issues with payroll, time beyond regulation, and even violate labor laws.
- Inconsistent time monitoring knowledge ends in missed alternatives for enchancment
When groups monitor time otherwise, it’s laborious to identify inefficiencies or issues. With out constant knowledge, you gained’t know the place to enhance, and also you’ll miss probabilities to optimize.
How a lot are you actually shedding?
Let’s calculate the true price of monitoring time in spreadsheets. I’ll break it down into simply three examples:
Every worker spends round 25 minutes a day manually filling out their timesheet. Throughout a 10-person crew, that’s 1,040 hours per yr of purely administrative work — time that could possibly be spent on precise challenge work.
At a mean price of $40/hour, that’s $41,600 down the drain.
- Uncaptured billable hours
Guide monitoring is never correct — staff overlook, spherical down, or miss duties altogether. If every particular person underreports simply quarter-hour a day, that’s 625 billable hours misplaced per yr.
At $100/hour, that’s $62,500 in income gone.
On prime of that, somebody has to chase down timesheets, repair errors, and compile stories — simply taking on 2 hours per week.
That provides as much as 100 hours a yr of tedious admin work, costing you one other $3,000 yearly.
| Supply | Hours misplaced | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Timesheet completion | 1,040 hrs | $41,600 |
| Missed billables | 625 hrs | $62,500 |
| Admin overhead | 100 hrs | $3,000 |
| TOTAL | 1,765 hrs | $107,100/yr |
One other downside: Spreadsheets don’t scale with your corporation – and right here is why
- Managing time for five individuals is doable. For 50? Not an opportunity.
When your crew is small, spreadsheet time monitoring would possibly seem to be match. However as your crew grows, it will get tougher to maintain all the pieces organized. Monitoring hours for 50 individuals manually is a recipe for errors, confusion, and missed entries. The extra you attempt to handle, the extra issues slip via the cracks.
- Challenge complexity will increase – spreadsheets crumble
As your initiatives get greater and extra complicated, spreadsheets simply can’t sustain. With a number of duties, deadlines, and groups, attempting to trace each element in a spreadsheet results in overwhelming litter. It’s like attempting to juggle too many balls – finally, one thing’s going to drop.
- Collaboration suffers – too many variations, no single supply of fact
Spreadsheets rapidly develop into a sport of “who has the newest model?” A number of individuals making edits means a continuing back-and-forth, with no single supply of fact. Collaboration breaks down, confusion builds up, and essential particulars can get misplaced within the shuffle.
- You possibly can’t automate something: approvals, payroll, stories
Guide spreadsheets don’t provide the luxurious of automation. You possibly can’t streamline approvals, payroll, or generate correct stories with just some clicks. Each time you want a report, you’re caught manually getting into knowledge. It’s time-consuming, tedious, and vulnerable to errors.
How time monitoring software program solves the issue
Time monitoring software program like EARLY takes all the pieces that spreadsheets mess up and fixes it. No extra tedious guide entries, no extra battling with inconsistent variations, and positively no extra chasing down incomplete timesheets.
With computerized monitoring, a single supply of information, and easy-to-generate stories, your crew stays organized and your corporation will get far more environment friendly.
Right here is the way it works:
| Time monitoring in spreadsheets – the outdated approach | Time monitoring in a devoted software program – the higher approach |
| Requires guide entry, which is vulnerable to errors, and time-consuming (20-40 minutes a day). | Mechanically tracks time, decreasing errors and eliminating guide knowledge entry. Takes 1 minute a day. |
| A number of variations of information can result in inconsistencies. | Centralized knowledge gives a single supply of fact, making certain accuracy and consistency. |
| Guide knowledge evaluation is required, usually resulting in incomplete or inaccurate insights. | Mechanically generates stories and insights, providing real-time visibility into efficiency. |
| Monitoring billable hours might be difficult and vulnerable to errors. | Mechanically tracks billable and non-billable hours, simplifying invoicing. |
| Filling out timesheets is tedious and error-prone. | Streamlined, user-friendly course of, with some instruments providing gamification to make timesheets extra partaking. |
| Knowledge saved in particular person information, with minimal safety, risking loss or corruption. | Knowledge is securely saved and encrypted, with entry controls to guard delicate data. |
| Requires guide follow-ups to trace down incomplete timesheets. | Automated reminders guarantee well timed timesheet submissions, decreasing follow-up duties. |
How companies much like yours changed spreadsheets with time monitoring software program
- Progress Ninjas, consultancy
Earlier than switching to a time monitoring instrument, Progress Ninjas was utilizing Google Sheets. Time was slipping via the cracks, and a backlog of as much as 3 weeks was hurting profitability. With EARLY, they monitor billable hours and inner time effectively, holding all the pieces organized.
Learn extra right here
- avocado, a software program engineering firm
avocado, a 12-person software program engineering crew, was manually monitoring their time. Now, they use EARLY in numerous methods: some use the Tracker, others use the QuickTrack shortcut. It’s extra environment friendly, and it helps the crew keep engaged with time monitoring.
Learn extra right here
The appropriate instrument makes all of the distinction
Time monitoring doesn’t need to be a ache. That’s the place EARLY is available in. It’s constructed to make time monitoring simpler, quicker, and approach much less irritating for groups and people. Right here’s the way it works:
- Automated time monitoring: Your crew doesn’t have to recollect to log their hours. EARLY does it mechanically to allow them to concentrate on their work as a substitute of losing time on timesheets.
- Bodily time tracker: For a extra hands-on strategy, the EARLY 8-sided dice lets your crew monitor time with a easy flip, making it simpler to construct a constant time monitoring behavior.
- Keyboard shortcuts: Want to trace a brand new process quick? Simply hit a shortcut, and also you’re good to go—no clicking via menus or losing time.
No extra switching between techniques or getting into knowledge manually. With EARLY, all the pieces from billable hours to challenge budgets is calculated and arranged in a single place, making your crew’s life simpler and your processes smoother.
It’s time to cease shedding cash and begin monitoring time the best approach
By now, it’s clear: monitoring time in spreadsheets isn’t saving you something. It’s costing you time chasing down errors, missed billable hours, and frustration. Switching to a devoted time monitoring instrument streamlines the method, helps you seize each hour precisely, and frees up your crew to concentrate on extra essential duties. Are you able to make a change?
