Mobile time tracking – how to find the right mobile time tracking app for you

Mobile employee time tracking is becoming important for an ever-in­creas­ing number of companies. When a company’s employees regularly work in the field or in a home office, they need to be able to record their work hours from other locations, prefer­ably in a way that does not neg­at­ively affect their pro­ductiv­ity and allows employees to enter their hours con­sist­ently and reliably.

In many companies, time tracking is an important tool for staff schedul­ing to optimise the use of employees and increase pro­ductiv­ity through regular eval­u­ations.

Tra­di­tion­ally, time tracking is carried out in a fixed location where employees log in to a time tracking program on a computer or record them at a fixed terminal using a smart card or fin­ger­print scanner upon entering the company building. The stop time for their work hours is recorded in the same way. However, with the growing flex­ib­il­ity of the workplace, this method is no longer adequate. Mobile time tracking is now gaining traction in the day-do-day op­er­a­tions of busi­nesses.

There is nothing new about the concept of mobile time tracking per se. After all, there is no re­quire­ment for it to be digitised. It can also be done with pen and paper, which is still standard in many companies.

When people talk about mobile time tracking tools today, they are usually referring to digital ap­plic­a­tions used on smart­phones, tablets or special mobile devices. However, there are other solutions based on texting or the use of cell phones. These ap­plic­a­tions use PINs, biometric data (e.g. fin­ger­prints), TAN processes and cus­tom­ised RFID chips to provide users with unique iden­ti­fi­ers.

Mobile ap­plic­a­tions have a variety of ad­vant­ages. Here are five reasons why you should choose a mobile time tracking app:

1. Increased ef­fi­ciency: Doc­u­ment­ing work hours takes only a fraction of the time it would take to do it with pen and paper.
    
2. Fewer errors: Errors are less likely to be made when inputting or sending data through mobile time trackers. An employee in the field can indicate the start of their work with a single click in the app and the end with another click.
    
3. No internet con­nec­tion required: When using modern apps, the device typically does not need to be connected to the internet. The data is stored locally and auto­mat­ic­ally syn­chro­ni­aes with the company’s IT in­fra­struc­ture as soon as an internet con­nec­tion is es­tab­lished.
    
4. No specific device required: In many cases, mobile time tracking apps can be used on company-owned devices as well as on personal devices for companies with a BYOD policy as long as the required apps can be installed on any mobile device.
    
5. In­tel­li­gent analysis: Mobile devices can send the user’s location. This helps the company establish greater trans­par­ency and oversight. In addition, the data is made available to the company for eval­u­ation with little or no delay and can easily be used in further eval­u­ations to optimise business processes.

Digital time tracking tools which can only be accessed on the web cannot compete with this level of con­veni­ence. It takes too many steps to use them. When working away from the company’s office, employees have to turn on their computer first and connect to the internet. Then, they need to follow several steps to log in to the company’s internal system. With such a com­plic­ated user interface, errors are likely to occur which must then be corrected by the HR de­part­ment. These kinds of tools do not integrate seam­lessly with daily business op­er­a­tions.

Meanwhile, mobile time tracking apps focus on the essential functions, can be opened within seconds, are for the most part easy to use and save the HR de­part­ment from needing to put resources into pro­cessing work hour reports.

On the surface, it may appear that digital mobile time tracking only has ad­vant­ages. However, upon closer in­spec­tion, you will see that it poses new chal­lenges which do not guarantee a quick ROI for the company.

• Com­mu­nic­a­tion re­quire­ments: You need a high rate of adoption among employees to be able to reap the benefits offered by mobile time tracking apps. If your employees are not using the apps con­sist­ently and reliably or are not carrying their tracking devices with them, even the best tech­no­logy will be useless. Employees may ap­pre­ci­ate having a con­veni­ent way to input their data, but many are also sceptical because they do not like the feeling of being con­stantly watched.
   
• Com­pli­ance with legal reg­u­la­tions: Companies must do their part to ensure trans­par­ency and to clearly com­mu­nic­ate what the data is being used for. They also need to make sure that their employees are properly informed and consent to their personal data being processed in order to comply with legal reg­u­la­tions on data pro­tec­tion
   
• In­vest­ments and running costs: When starting out, you need to take into account that there will be ad­di­tion­al ex­pendit­ures for the time tracking tools. In addition to the cost of the software, you also need to factor in costs for training employees on how to use the app as well as costs for data analysis. If you have only tracked work hours with pen and paper in the past, you will now have to be prepared for regular costs related to the servicing and main­ten­ance of these digital tools and in some cases licensing fees.
   
• The perfect ap­plic­a­tion (usually) does not exist: When it comes to choosing a mobile time tracking app, the number of ap­plic­a­tions out there is over­whelm­ing. Nav­ig­at­ing this choice is not a simple task for companies. Therefore, it is re­com­men­ded to invest in a con­sulta­tion, which becomes another cost to factor in. However, there is usually not an ap­plic­a­tion available which can meet all re­quire­ments set by a company. While it was easy to add notes to a piece of paper, it is not so simple to add ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion when using an app. As a result, ad­di­tion­al costs are usually incurred to customise standard apps or to design a bespoke app from the ground up.

If you decide to adopt a mobile time tracking app within your company, you should ask yourself the following key questions in order to find the right solution for you from the multitude of offers out there:

1. What kind of data do you want to collect? Do you want to track general regular work hours or only overtime or project-related hours?
2. What do you want to learn from tracking work hours? What are you going to analyse?
3. What is your budget for the im­ple­ment­a­tion and main­ten­ance of the time tracking app?

Here are some ad­di­tion­al relevant questions to ask yourself when con­sid­er­ing whether a mobile time tracking app is right for you:

4. What kind of device will you be using the time tracking app on (e.g. PDA, smart­phone, tablet)?
5. What is the maximum duration that will be recorded?
6. Which time intervals do you want to use (e.g. seconds, minutes)?
7. Should the app be able to track your location and log tasks?
8. What kind of ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion will you need to enter?
9. How will the data be syn­chron­ised with the IT in­fra­struc­ture (e.g. offline use)?
10. Which other programs does it need to be able to interface with?

This is not a com­pre­hens­ive list of questions relevant to your search, but it is a good starting point for creating your own list of re­quire­ments. For example, you can use it when reviewing potential products online to create a shortlist. Af­ter­wards, you can discuss with the suppliers which of these solutions best meets your re­quire­ments in a personal con­sulta­tion.