Do You Know Where Your Time Is Going?

Mobile and cloud-based time tracking systems have come a long way in a short period of time. From very basic beginnings these applications have become increasingly sophisticated, utilizing the latest technology to quickly and accurately track labor time, equipment time, and other jobsite information.These programs have consistently provided significant improvement in worker efficiency and productivity, but they are not free. Any purchase of or subscription to a mobile time and attendance system should come only after a thorough analysis of the return on investment (ROI) on such a program.

In order to do a proper ROI analysis, it is critical to know just where company employees are spending their time. With field staff, hopefully most of their time is spent productively on construction. However, with some contractors, field managers and superintendents are spending far too much of their time on administrative tasks. They may be required to pick up paper timesheets from the office at the beginning of the pay period and carry them along wherever they go, manually add the employees to the sheets, and periodically update the hours worked, jobs, phases, cost codes, notes and other information. Then, at the end of the pay period, they have to manually calculate employee hours, including overtime, gather all approvals needed, and deliver the timesheets back to the office. Knowing just how much time your field staff is spending on these types of non-productive activities is crucial in making the right decision to purchase or subscribe to a mobile time tracking application.

The same goes just as much for your office employees, including payroll clerks, payroll administrators, and financial managers. Office workers to need to know specifically what they are spending their time on. It is crucial to know this in order to identify where the potential savings of time may be if the company is to upgrade to a modern time tracking solution.

Here’s a suggestion for analyzing your time: for one month (or a period of time you deem appropriate) try recording the time you spend on duties involved in the collection, review, and approval of transactions generated in the field, including:

• Data entry
• Reviewing and approving time
• Employee revisions and communication
• Post-payroll corrections
• Generating reports
• Document and file sharing
• Tracking field transactions
• Tracking equipment, per diem, and production units
• Budget reviews and analysis
• Break and/or overtime calculations

At the end of the period, make a chart that shows exactly how your time was distributed each week, and another for the full four-week timeframe. Carefully review the amount of time you have spent on your entire payroll process, from collecting the time in the field to processing the checks. Analyze each component carefully to see where time could be saved. Be on the lookout for situations where mistakes have caused you to spend additional time on an activity. These are areas where a digital time clock system can almost surely save you time.

Modern mobile and cloud-based time tracking systems have much to offer today’s contractors, including better efficiency, improved productivity, and a higher degree of accuracy. Added together, this will generally result in a dramatic savings of time and money; the amount of savings will depend on each particular situation. Knowing how much time your current process requires will give you a much clearer picture of your savings potential. It allows you to compare the savings to the cost of a new system, and in turn, to more accurately know your potential return on investment.

Our experienced and knowledgeable sales professionals will be glad to assist you in doing a ROI analysis or can put you in touch with our satisfied customers who can speak to the value that we bring. See why more and more contractors are choosing mJob for their mobile time tracking needs.