The timesheet market is incredibly crowded – there are more business tools today than ever before that can help you capture your hours, manage your time, and improve your productivity.

While technologies have evolved so that we’re no longer relying on paper-based systems to track time, there is still a heavy reliance by people on systems – such as spreadsheets – to enter their hours. But as companies expand into new geographies, hire a more diversified number of employees (which could include remote, on-premise, exempt and non-exempt workers), look to integrate the data with payroll, as well as minimize inefficiencies, using an automated time and attendance solution is a clear choice.

The benefits are also apparent – along with saving time, using a timesheet can minimize human error when it comes to entering hours and projects, can identify possible time theft issues and ensure compliance against wage and hour obligations. However, finding the right solution is not always straightforward – the system serves as the backbone for all payroll, labor compliance and productivity and also has multiple stakeholders with various business goals – including HR, payroll, finance and IT.

With so many solutions in the market, how do you make the right decision?

When identifying the right time tracking software, some of the key considerations include:

• Number and types of employees in the organization – including whether there are exempt, non-exempt, full-time employees and independent contractors
• Size and location of the team – identify how many people will use the system and where they are located – whether it’s one office location, a number of remote sites, or multiple sites including office locations overseas
• Out-of-the-box versus configurable templates – particularly in professional services firms or companies with a shared services model, there can be a deeper level of granularity required to monitor hours against specific projects to understand profitability and utilization
• Cloud vs. on-premise solutions – most companies today prefer using the cloud so that it provides remote access both securely and cost effectively to the business
• Mobile access and approval – even office-bound employees today use mobile devices to work, and providing access and easy approval for time submitted can facilitate faster payroll processing and provide real-time insights on how time is spent
• Integration into other third party software – time tracking tools have evolved so that they are not siloed systems, but integrate with virtually any payroll, finance, HR or ERP application. It’s a good idea to look closely at how else critical workforce data can support the business.

Replicon prides itself on providing a simple, easy experience for its customers – from evaluating the right solution, rolling it out within a department or organization, and ensuring people can accurately use the system on a daily basis. Most recently, we were recognized by business software review platform G2 Crowd for scoring the highest ranking among over 100 other time tracking products. The G2 Crowd ranking was based on customer satisfaction reports by users and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products – with end users noting our simple interface, mobile application, continual uptime and customer support as just some of the reasons they chose Replicon.

How has capturing, managing and optimizing your time helped you do your job better – and even cascaded outside of work? We’d love to hear from you.