Why Every Freelancer Should Have Employee Time Tracking Software

The way we work has changed drastically in the past couple of decades. What used to be a model of a typical working day - coming to the office at 9 and leaving at 5 - is getting harder and harder to come across these days. One of the most popular new forms of performing your work is freelancing.

There are numerous reasons why this is so, probably as many as there are freelancers. But one of the most common ones is the fact that today’s workforce appreciates the freedom and flexibility to organize their own time and workload. However, even though this sounds perfect for many people, it actually turns out to be pretty hard work, and very few people end up managing to sustain their freelancing careers long term.

Fortunately, now you can easily find a tool that can help you better understand your performance, organize your time and manage your clients and projects. We are, of course, talking about employee time tracking software.

So, let’s see what web based time tracking is, how it works and why it’s so useful for freelancers.

What Is Employee Time Tracking Software?

First things first, let’s get into a bit more detail on what exactly this tool is. In short, it’s a program that allows you to track your time on different tasks and assign those tasks to various projects. It’s called employee time tracking software because it’s typically used in companies to give managers an overview of what their employees are working on, but the system can be just as useful for freelancers who wish to track their own time on projects.

What’s particularly handy is that, in most cases, it can be installed as web based time tracking software, which means that all of your data is stored on a secure cloud provided by the software company and you can access all that data online.

Now that you’re familiar with how this software works, your next question might be: What’s the point of being able to track my time online? With this question in mind, we’re going to outline some of the most important benefits that online time tracking software can offer to freelancers.

Client Management

The first advantage of being able to keep track of hours worked online is that you can share the relevant data with your clients. This is useful for two reasons - managing their expectations, and billing them properly.

Firstly, once you get used to using employee time tracking software as a regular part of your work routine, you’ll have plenty of historical data on how long it usually takes you to do certain types of tasks and even how long you typically need to complete your projects. This will make it easier to estimate the duration and deadlines for all future projects. Plus, you can share your current progress with your clients at any time, including which task you’re working on, how long you’ve spent on the project so far, etc.

And secondly, employee time tracking software allows you to track billable, non-billable and unproductive time separately, which is great when the time comes to get paid. Having hard data that shows exactly how much time you’ve spent on billable tasks is going to ensure that you always get paid fairly.

Performance Improvements

Another extremely important benefit for freelancers that we’re going to mention here is its potential to help you improve your efficiency and productivity. And there are many ways in which you can approach this task.

For example, you could look at the data on your overall productivity. The first thing you might notice is that you have dips in productivity at certain times during the day. One thing to do is look at what you tend to do during this time, more specifically which websites you’re visiting. These are your main distractions. Now that you’ve discovered them, you can work on decreasing the time you waste on them. Alternatively, you can conclude that you’re not particularly productive late in the afternoon, for instance, and try to organize your work so that you do the most important and urgent tasks in the morning.

Conclusion

Hopefully, by now you have a better idea of how employee time tracking software can help your freelancing career in some pretty meaningful ways. By improving your efficiency, project estimates and billing practices, you’re ensuring a long-lasting effect that’s going to make you an even more successful freelancer.