7 Time Tracking Best Practices

For instance, if a subtask is in “Development,” it should be billed at the development rate.

Use Case📚💡A graphic designer creates a project in TMetric titled “Logo Design for New Startup.”

They set up two subtasks: “Concept Development” and “Revision Rounds.”

They assign a billing rate of $85/hour to the “Concept Development” subtask and $65/hour to the “Revision Rounds” subtask.

As the designer works on the project, they track their time under the appropriate subtasks and billing categories.

This allows them to generate accurate invoices and reflect the complexity of the project.

Document Task Details

Utilize Automated Suggestions

Train your time tracking software to recognize your specific workflow and generate tailored suggestions.

Add Detailed Notes to Time Entries

Include relevant details, such as links to documents, ticket numbers, or client communication.

Clearly identify the task or project you’re working on to ensure accurate billing and reporting.

Use the screenshot feature to visually document your work progress, especially for tasks that involve design, coding, or creative work.

Provide Evidence of Effort

Screenshots can serve as evidence of the time and effort you’ve invested in a particular task.

Use Case📚💡A content writer is working on a blog post about AI in healthcare.

They use TMetric to track their time and add detailed notes to each time entry.

The notes of effort evidence may include several points.

Research Phase: “Reviewed articles on AI in healthcare, medical AI startups, and ethical implications of AI in medicine. Sources: [link1], [link2], [link3].”

Drafting: “Wrote the introduction and first two sections of the blog post. Word count: 1500.”

Editing and Proofreading: “Edited the draft for clarity, coherence, and style. Added relevant keywords and optimized the title tag and meta description.”

Set Clear Boundaries

Define Core Working Hours

Establish specific core working hours in your time tracking tool to maintain a consistent work schedule.

Utilize the Pomodoro Technique

Use the Pomodoro timer to enforce regular work and break intervals.

Classify Activities as Productive or Non-Productive

Define which applications are considered “productive” (e.g., coding, writing) and which are “non-productive” (e.g., social media, email).

Use Case📚💡A freelance developer uses TMetric to track their work time.

They set their core working hours to 9 AM – 5 PM and integrate a Pomodoro technique to work in 25-minute intervals.

They also label applications like their code editor and project management tools as “productive” and social media and email as “non-productive.”

Review Daily Records

Visualize Your Time Usage

Use your time tracking tool timeline view to see your daily or weekly work patterns.

Spot gaps or overlaps in your time entries to identify areas where you mismanage time or double-count efforts.

Use end-of-day notifications to prompt you to review and complete any missing time entries.

Leverage Data Validation Tools

Use your time tracking tool to generate weekly summary reports that highlight unusual patterns.

Review these reports to ensure that your time entries are accurate and consistent with your actual work activities.

Use Case📚💡A consultant keeps track of the time they spend on different client projects with TMetric.

Each night, they go over their daily schedule to make sure that all of their meetings, calls with clients, and follow-up work are properly categorized and paid.

They also use the weekly review reports to find any mistakes or problems with the way they’ve recorded their time.

Generate Regular Reports

Tailor Reports to Specific Needs

Design custom report templates for client invoicing, personal productivity analysis, or team performance tracking.

Customize Data Fields and Formats

Include relevant data fields, such as project name, task description, hours worked, and billing rate, and format the report for readability.

Automate Report Scheduling

Schedule automated email reports to clients weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

Automated reports provide clients with regular updates on project progress and build trust.

Streamline Billing and Payroll

Integrate your time tracking tool with your accounting software to seamlessly transfer time and expense data.

Use Case📚💡A freelance marketer uses TMetric to track their time spent on multiple client projects.

They create a custom report template that shows the time distribution across different tasks like:

content creation
social media management
client meetings.

They schedule sending a monthly report to clients.

In this scenario, automation saves time and provides clients with valuable insights into the freelancer’s work.

Maintain Consistent Habits

Use a desktop widget to display a mini timer.

Integrate Time Tracker in Your Calendar

Connect your time tracking tool to your calendar to automatically start and stop timers based on scheduled events.

Use a time tracking tool that seamlessly syncs between your desktop and mobile devices.

Use Case📚💡A contractor uses TMetric to track their time spent on client projects.

They integrate TMetric with Google Calendar to automatically start and stop timers based on scheduled client meetings.

When they’re on-site visits, they use the TMetric mobile app to track their time and add detailed notes.

By using a combination of desktop and mobile time tracking, the contractor can ensure that all their billable hours are accurately captured and reported.

Establish Clear Policies

Clearly communicate time tracking policies to all team members and outline expectations for accuracy and protocols of communication.

Offer guidance on how to categorize tasks, use tags, and add detailed notes to time entries.

Utilize Customizable Policy Templates

Use customizable policy templates to create role-specific guidelines for developers, designers, managers, and other team members.

Enforce consistent time tracking practices across all departments of your organization.

Configure Mandatory Fields

Set up mandatory fields for time entries, such as project code, client name, and task description.

Implement Approval Workflows

Set up multi-level approval processes to review and verify time entries to prevent errors, fraud, and unauthorized time entries.

Use Case📚💡A digital agency uses TMetric to track the time spent on various client projects.

They have established clear time tracking policies that require all team members to include the project code and client reference in their time entries.

They also configured TMetric to make these fields mandatory, – it ensured that all time entries fall under specific categories.

Standardize Time Categories

Develop pre-built project templates with common tasks and subtasks to streamline the project setup process.

Standardize project structures to maintain consistency in project time tracking.

• Build a Shared Task Library

Create a shared task library with a common vocabulary for tasks and activities.

• Leverage Rules-Based Automation

Set up rules to automatically categorize time entries based on the applications used or the projects in progress.

Automation can save time and reduce the risk of human error.

Use Case📚💡A software development team uses TMetric to track their project time.

They have created a standardized project template for software development projects that includes tasks like:

• requirements discussion
• design stage
• development stage
• testing stage
• deployment.

They have also created a shared task library with common task descriptions, such as “coding,” “debugging,” and “unit testing.”

Additionally, they have set up rules to automatically categorize time entries based on the specific applications used, such as their IDE, version control system, and testing tools.

With these simple tasks, the team can ensure accurate and consistent time tracking and meet project deadlines.

Implement Team-Wide Tools

Configure different permission levels for team members, project managers, and administrators.

Use a team dashboard to gain real-time insights into team members’ activities, project progress, and productivity.

Spot issues by tracking team members’ workload and project timelines.

• Integrate with Other Tools & Streamline Workflows

Enrich your team time tracking experience with 50+ TMetric integrations including JIRA, ClickUp, Asana, Salesforce, Trello.

Use Case📚💡 A marketing agency uses TMetric to track time spent on marketing campaigns.

They integrate TMetric with Asana to automatically create time entries based on specific campaign tasks.

When a team member starts working on a task in Asana, a corresponding time entry is automatically created in TMetric.

This integration enables marketers to accurately track time spent on each campaign and generate detailed reports for clients.

Best Practices to Use Time Tracking in a Team of Any Size

Time tracking for teams saves time and money without compromising the quality of performance. And with the list of practices we introduce, you can elevate time tracking experience of your team to a new level.

Regular Team Reporting

• Compare Productivity Patterns

Use time tracking data to compare productivity patterns across different teams and projects.

Analyze data to see trends in productivity (periods of high or low productivity).

• Plan Capacity Effectively

Use visual reports to understand resource and time utilization across capacity.

• Optimize Resource Allocation

Make informed decisions on project planning.

Set up automated weekly progress reports to keep clients informed on the team progress.

Improve accountability by providing regular updates on work.

Use Case📚💡A project manager uses TMetric’s team dashboard to monitor the workload of their team members.

By analyzing the time entries, they can identify team members who are consistently working long hours or taking on too many tasks.

They can then adjust the workload to prevent burnout and improve overall team productivity.

Furthermore, the project manager can leverage TMetric to create and send automated weekly progress reports directly to clients.

Monitor Workload Distribution

• Utilize a Resource Calendar

Employ a resource calendar to visualize team member availability and commitments.

See potential bottlenecks and overallocation of resources to ensure balanced workload distribution.

Set up automated notifications to alert project managers or team leads when team members exceed normal working hours.

• Promote Work-Life Balance

Encourage healthy work-life balance with fair workload.

• Optimize Skill Utilization

Track time against specific skills to find skill gaps.

Assign tasks to the most qualified team members to optimize project efficiency.

Use Case📚💡 An engineering team uses TMetric workload view to monitor the workload of their engineers.

They can easily see if the engineers are overbooked or underutilized.

By looking at the time sheets and skill-based tracking, the team can make sure that their best engineers aren’t given too many jobs and that their skills are being used well.

This helps the team keep up their high level of productivity and finish jobs on time and well.

Encourage Transparency

• Foster a Culture of Openness

Create a culture of openness and collaboration by sharing key performance indicators and progress updates.

Allocate time for knowledge sharing among team members.

Use time tracking data to inform team capacity planning sessions and resource allocation decisions.

• Optimize Resource Utilization

Ensure that team members are working on the most important tasks and that their skills are being utilized effectively.

Use Case📚💡A remote team uses TMetric shared dashboards to conduct daily stand-up meetings.

During these meetings, team members can view each other’s progress, identify potential roadblocks, and discuss any necessary adjustments to their plans.

Provide Regular Training

Make videos or interactive lessons to show new team members how to track their time.

• Simplify the Learning Curve

Use clear and concise explanations to make the onboarding process efficient.

Establish a central repository for time tracking best practices, tips, and troubleshooting guides.

Empower team members to find answers to common questions independently.

Schedule regular team sessions to review time tracking best practices.

Use Case📚💡 A growing startup creates custom TMetric video tutorials for different roles in their organization, such as developers, designers, and project managers.

These tutorials cover topics like how to start and stop timers, categorize time entries, and use project templates.

The startup also maintains a knowledge base with detailed instructions and troubleshooting tips.

Additionally, they schedule monthly team meetings to review time tracking practices, discuss any issues, and answer questions.

The startup makes sure that everyone on the team knows how to use TMetric and keep correct time records.

Common Time Tracking Poor Practices to Avoid

Retroactive Time Entry

Common Mistake: Waiting until Friday to fill in the entire week’s timesheet

Impact: Retrospective time entries are highly likely to have accuracy deviation

TMetric Solution:

• Use the desktop app for automatic time detection
• Enable smart notifications for untracked time periods
• Utilize the mobile app for immediate tracking when away from desk.
  

  Inconsistent Categories

  Common Mistake: Different team members using varied labels for the same work

  Impact: Makes project analysis unreliable and complicates client reporting

  TMetric Solution:

  • • Create standardized project templates
  • • Use dropdown menus for task categories
  • • Implement automated task classification rules.

  Neglect Non-Billable Time

  Common Mistake: Only tracking client-billable hours

  Impact: Incomplete picture of productivity and resource utilization

  TMetric Solution:

  • • Set up separate categories for billable and non-billable work
  • • Track internal meetings and administrative tasks
  • • Monitor professional development time.

  Poor Description Quality

  Common Mistake: Using vague descriptions like “working on project” or “client work”

  Impact: Difficult to justify bills or analyze productivity patterns

  TMetric Solution:

  • • Use description templates with required fields
  • • Enable task integration with project management tools
  • • Implement minimum description length requirements.

  Irregular Review Patterns

  Common Mistake: No systematic review of time entries

  Impact: Accumulated errors and missed billing opportunities

  TMetric Solution:

  • • Schedule automated daily summary reports
  • • Implement manager review workflows
  • • Set up weekly team time review meetings

  How to Implement Time Tracking Best Practices

  Assessment Phase

  2 Weeks

  Initial Audit:

  • • Document current time tracking methods
  • • Survey team pain points
  • • Analyze existing productivity metrics

  TMetric Implementation:

  • • Run parallel tracking with existing system
  • • Gather baseline metrics for comparison
  • • Identify integration requirements

  Tool Selection and Setup

  1 Week

  Technical Setup:

  • • Configure project hierarchies
  • • Set up team member profiles
  • • Establish billing rates and categories

  Integration Planning:

  • • Connect with existing project management tools
  • • Set up accounting software integration
  • • Configure email notifications.

  Policy Development

  1 Week

  Documentation Creation:

  • • Write clear tracking guidelines
  • • Define minimum tracking requirements
  • • Establish review procedures

  TMetric Configuration:

  • • Set up approval workflows
  • • Configure compliance settings
  • • Create reporting templates.

  Training Program

  2 Weeks

  Training Structure:

  • • Initial team workshop
  • • Role-specific training sessions
  • • Hands-on practice exercises

  Support System

  • • Designate TMetric champions
  • • Create troubleshooting guides
  • • Schedule follow-up sessions.

  Phased Implementation

  4 Weeks

  Rollout Stages

  • • Basic time tracking
  • • Project tracking and categorization
  • • Advanced features and integrations

  Milestone Tracking

  • • Monitor adoption rates
  • • Track accuracy improvements
  • • Measure productivity gains.

  Review and Optimization

  Ongoing

  Regular Assessment:

  • • Monthly usage analysis
  • • Quarterly policy reviews
  • • Annual process optimization

  Continuous Improvement:

  • • Gather team feedback
  • • Update procedures based on learnings
  • • Implement new TMetric features as released

  Measuring Success

  To ensure your time tracking implementation is effective, monitor these key metrics:

  • • Time entry accuracy (aim for <1 hour deviation per week)
  • • Adoption rate (target >95% consistent usage)
  • • Report generation time (reduced by 75% with automation)
  • • Billing cycle duration (typically shortened by 40%)
  • • Project estimation accuracy (improved by 35% after 3 months)

  Takeaways

  For businesses, using good time tracking methods changes the way they work fundamentally, leading to improvements across the whole company.

  • • Companies can better use their resources by looking at how they were used in the past.
  • • When businesses find and fix underbilling or lost time, they can get back more paid hours.
  • • Businesses can analyze their workflows in detail.
  • • Accurate time tracking data reduces risks of billing disputes and helps build trust in relationships with clients.
  • • Managers get the instrument for fair team workload and manage the workforce based on data.
  • • When teams know patterns in their time utilization, it helps them build personal development plans with clarity.
  • • Keeping track of time is also a great way to keep a healthy work-life balance because it helps you set clear limits on work time.

  💏Getting better at tracking time is an investment in both the success of your business and the health and happiness of your employees.