Looking for a Time & Project solution? Here is what you should consider...

Technologies have evolved so most companies are no longer relying on paper systems to track time, but surprisingly there is still a large number of companies relying on disjointed and inefficient systems such as – such as spreadsheets – to enter their hours. Which as companies expand into new geographies, employ a greater number of employees Particularly remote, or part time.

They need to look at integrating the time and project data with payroll such as Sage payroll or accounts packages  such as the widely used sage ranges to minimize inefficiencies, and improve accuracy therefore using a software time and project solution is a clear choice.

The benefits soon become apparent – as well as saving time, using a timesheet solution can significantly minimize human error when it comes to entering hours and projects, can identify where time is being lost, clients over serviced and not time being not correctly charged billed

Also ensures compliance against wage and hours obligations, controls holidays and also provides a valuable insight on staff efficiency and resource availability.

Finding the right solution is therefore vital and not always straightforward, the timesheet software system when correctly used will be the business backbone for all project hours payroll software feed, project monitoring and performance and staff productivity and can provide the key members of your management team vital performance and monitoring information.

With many timesheet software solutions in the market, how do you make the correct choice for this vital investment?

Key considerations should include:

·   Number  of employees in the organization – including particularly the number of fee earners, full-time employees and independent contractors need to be considered, once above 10 spreadsheets become a useless tool.

·   Location of the team – identify the system users and where they are located – whether it’s one office or a number of remote sites, even office locations overseas

·  Configurable software - professional services firms have a varying way of controlling staff and projects and valuing WIP the level of granularity required to monitor hours against specific projects to drive out profitability and utilization

·  Cloud vs. on-premise solutions – a significant number of companies express preference for a cloud solution so that it provides easy remote access particularly for remote sites and workers and alos a cost effective monthly cost model. But most companies still opt for and on premise solution for the additional control and security this provides, and easier interfacing to other systems.

·  Mobile access  – Mobile devices are ideal for quick and simple time entry particularly for remote workers which then allows easy approval for time submitted can facilitate faster system processing and provide real-time updates on time usage.

·  Integration into other third party systems – timesheet systems need to be fully integrated to other systems such as sage to provide full management overviews of the business.

·  Supplier – Is the supplier large and stable? Is the support locally based? Is a hotline available? Are upgrades included in the support care package?

· Capacity – Is the package scalable and capable of holding large data volumes.

Sage coretime from onesys is a time and project solution which meets the above criteria. Easy to implement and use– from a no pressure evaluation to productive use resulting in rapid payback. With hundreds of companies from multinationals to small professional service organisations and third sector, tens of thousands of users are relying on it to run their organisations.

Of course being backed by the world’s 3^rd largest business software supplier, it is simply the safest and best choice in the market today.