Your IT teams may be working for multiple clients and projects at a time. To effectively manage their productivity, you’ll need to ensure they accurately track their work hours.
Today’s time tracking tools come with features like accurate time tracking, payroll, and project management. They can drastically boost your team’s productivity and increase company profitability.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the top benefits of tracking your IT team’s work hours. We’ll also explore 10 IT time tracking software and the top three features to look out for in a time tracking solution.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
- Top 3 benefits of IT time tracking
- 10 robust IT time tracking software
- 3 essential features of IT time tracking software
Top 3 benefits of IT time tracking
In this section, we’ll discuss the pros of using time tracking software for your IT team.
1. Track team productivity
Since a single IT project has numerous tasks and employees, it can get challenging to measure the productivity of individual members.
But using an advanced tracking solution with productivity tracking features can help you add a layer of accountability for every team member, thus improving efficiency levels.
For example, you can get to know what your employees accomplished that day, which tasks they’re struggling with, etc. Extensive productivity reports can help you identify training needs and reward those employees that perform well.
2. Improve project management
You can identify how much time your employees took for each task within a tech project, team performance, project budget, and how well the team is meeting its goals.
With this data, you can streamline future tasks by allotting the required resources.
3. Prevent employee burnout
IT projects are typically tedious and may require employees to put in extra hours for multiple rounds of changes. However, if they regularly work overtime or without breaks in between, it can quickly lead to burnout.
Tracking employee time accurately can help them realize when they’ve worked long stretches and schedule breaks accordingly.
Managers can also easily identify overworked employees and reallocate tasks if needed to maintain productivity and harmony in the team.
Wondering what kind of tools will help you reap all these benefits?
Check our detailed guide on how to reduce employee burnout and create a better work-life balance.
Let’s take a look at the best time tracking tools for your IT team.
10 robust IT time tracking software
Here’s a list of some of the best IT time tracking software for your organization.
1. Time Doctor
Time Doctor is a powerful employee time tracking and productivity management tool. It’s used by big companies like Ericsson and Verizon, as well as small organizations like Firehouse Subs, to increase employee productivity.
The software also has advanced payroll and performance management features, making it a top time tracking software for your IT team. The software is available as a desktop app and a mobile app.
Key features
Here are some of Time Doctor’s key features that make it a valuable tool for IT teams:
A. Time tracking
The app offers manual and automatic time tracking modes.
To use the manual time tracking mode, you need to:
- Add or create a new task under the relevant project.
- Press ‘Start’ when you want to start tracking time.
- Press ‘Stop’ to stop tracking time or if you want to take a break.
The automatic time tracking mode runs silently in the background when employees start their systems. It helps your team members to concentrate better on their tasks without worrying about tracking time every time they start their system.
B. Idle time tracking
Time Doctor helps you track when an employee remains idle for a particular amount of time.
With this functionality, Time Doctor sends a gentle reminder to your employees to re-focus on their task after a certain period (can be specified by the admin) of inactivity.
Note: Time Doctor isn’t a keystroke logger. It will only check if a user pressed any keys or mouse buttons to determine idle time.
C. Screencasts (Optional)
Time Doctor’s screencasts feature lets you check whether your team members are working on a task or not. The app takes screenshots of a user’s screen periodically.
The most important benefit of this feature is that it deters employees from engaging in non-work-related activities since they’re aware that you’re monitoring their screen activities.
Note: Screenshots are only taken when an employee indicates that they’re working. This feature is optional and can be enabled or disabled for a particular user. The admin can blur or delete the screenshots to maintain privacy.
D. Productivity ratings
Time Doctor lets you set productivity ratings for different apps and websites, depending on an employee’s job function and which sites and apps they’re required to use.
The productivity ratings are classified as:
- Productive.
- Unproductive.
- Neutral.
- Unrated.
For example, if your IT team member uses Reddit to run a search for coding solutions, you can mark the website as productive.
E. Extensive productivity reports
Time Doctor generates multiple comprehensive reports that you can view in real-time.
Here are some of the reports available:
- Hours tracked report: Shows how many hours or minutes your employees have worked per week, workday, or the date range you select.
- Timeline report: Shows how much time your employees work daily or weekly.
- Web and app usage reports: Reflects how many hours your team spends on different websites and applications.
- Activity summary report: Shows active seconds, active minutes, unproductive, or mobile time of your employee’s time.
F. Payroll management
Time Doctor also provides powerful payroll management features along with time tracking.
You can integrate Time Doctor with payment gateways like Gusto, Paypal, ADP, or Wise to pay your employees directly.
You can customize payroll details like:
- Payment currency.
- Payment method.
- Pay period.
G. Robust chrome extension
You can integrate Time Doctor’s powerful Chrome extension with other productivity and task management tools like Trello, Asana, Zoho Projects, etc.
With the help of this feature, your IT team can use the Time Doctor’s timer button to log time on these other apps — so that they don’t have to switch between multiple windows or tabs.
For more details, check out Time Doctor’s features page.
Pricing
Time Doctor provides a 14-day free trial (no credit card required). Its paid plan starts at $7/user per month.
Customer ratings
- G2: 4.4/5 (270+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (400+ reviews)
2. Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch is an online timecard and time tracking tool for your IT team. The app has an intuitive UI (User Interface) and provides cloud-based scheduling.
Key features
- Pre-populates reports for payroll with the help of its cloud-based time clock.
- Clock in and out using the web app, Android app, or iOS app – available from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
- Supports Paid-Time-Off (PTO) tracking.
- Offers integrations with payroll solutions like QuickBooks Time, ADP, Paychex, and SurePayroll.
Pricing
Buddy Punch has a free trial for new users. Its paid plans start at $3.49/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.8/5 (120+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (660+ reviews)
3. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a simple time tracking software suitable for IT and software teams. It is available on all major platforms like Android, Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems.
Key features
- Track your team member’s work time for each task and project using the manual time tracker.
- Export timesheets and reports to CSV format.
- Geofencing features let your team track time as soon as they enter a designated job site.
- Generate 17 different types of productivity reports.
Pricing
The tool offers a free plan for a single user. Hubstaff’s paid plan starts from $7/user per month (minimum two users).
Ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (390+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (1220+ reviews)
4. Toggl Track
Toggl Track is a powerful yet user-friendly time tracking app that lets you start tracking time in just a few clicks.
Key features
- Track time using the simple manual time tracker.
- Offers timesheets that populate logged time data automatically through the Google Calendar integration.
- Exports time tracking data to your preferred accounting software for payroll and invoicing.
- Provides integration with popular workplace apps like Github and Jira for effective workflow management.
Pricing
Toggl Track offers a limited free plan. Paid plans start at $10/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.6/5 (1490+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (1770+ reviews)
5. Clockify
Clockify is a timesheet software for tracking time spent on various tasks and projects. It has a built-in Pomodoro timer and other useful features like project scheduling and time tracking reports.
Key features
- Track time automatically or manually using a stopwatch.
- Create tasks and projects and categorize them by clients.
- Track and approve leave requests within the app.
- Generate detailed billing reports that can be exported as PDF, Excel, or CSV.
Pricing
The app offers a free plan for unlimited users and unlimited projects. Its paid plan starts at $4.99/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (100+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (2900+ reviews)
6. DeskTime
DeskTime is an employee monitoring solution suitable for teams and freelancers. It also offers workflow management and attendance tracking features.
Key features
- Automatically track time worked across apps and websites.
- Records offline billable hours spent attending meetings, calls, brainstorming sessions, etc.
- The Private Time feature allows your employees to pause time tracking when engaged in non-work activities like social media browsing.
- Integrates with popular work management software like Trello and Google Calendar to ensure uninterrupted workflow.
Pricing
DeskTime offers a free plan with limited benefits. Its paid plans start at $7/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.6/5 (30+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (230+ reviews)
7. Harvest
Harvest is a free time tracking tool for time management, budgeting, invoicing, and more.
Key features
- Track employee time consistently using automated reminders.
- Check how many work hours your team spends on each project with visual reports.
- Track expenses and automatically convert them into invoices.
- Optimize your entire workflow by integrating with other productivity apps like Jira and Zendesk.
Pricing
Harvest offers a forever free limited plan for a single user. The app’s paid plan starts at $12/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.3/5 (730+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (460+ reviews)
8. Quickbooks Time (TSheets)
QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) is a robust time tracking and task management tool suitable for IT, finance, and other service-based teams.
Key features
- Track billable hours and automatically add them to invoices using the QuickBooks Online app.
- Create sales receipts as well as custom and professional invoices.
- Conduct income and expense tracking for 30 or 90-day periods.
- Integrations are available with payment gateways like Gusto, ADP, Square Payroll, etc.
Pricing
QuickBooks Time offers a 30-day free trial. Its paid plans start at $10/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.5/5 (1390+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (5520+ reviews)
9. TimeCamp
TimeCamp is an employee time tracking software designed to help your team monitor and optimize their efficiency.
Key features
- Track time on each project and quickly create a timesheet based on hours worked.
- Use GPS tracking for remote time entry if your team is working out of the office.
- Tracks project profitability and offer other project management features.
- Receive a notification each time a client views an invoice generated on the app.
Pricing
The app offers a free plan with limited functionality. Its paid plans start at $7/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.7/5 (170+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (540+ reviews)
10. Timely
Timely is an automatic time management solution with simple functionality to help you keep track of your team’s productivity.
Key features
- Track your billable working hours across several devices. The app supports web, desktop, and mobile time tracking.
- View your team’s activity on a single dashboard.
- Record time spent on video calls, client meetings, and all digital communication.
- Helps you with budget allocation with the scheduler functionality.
Pricing
Timely provide a 14-day free trial for new users. Its paid plans start at $10/user per month.
Ratings
- G2: 4.8/5 (200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (630+ reviews)
Clearly, the market is full of excellent time tracking software. So what features must you look out for?
3 essential features of IT time tracking software
Here are some key features you need to look for before you invest in a time tracking solution:
- Efficient time tracking: This feature enables you to record the estimated and actual time spent on tasks and projects. Look for tools that have both manual and automated time tracking options.
- Performance management: Features like the ability to take screenshots, productivity reports, and web and app tracking should give you an accurate picture of employees spend their work hours.
- Payroll and invoicing functionality: Some time tracking tools offer invoicing and payroll. By integrating with software like PayPal and Quickbooks, these tools can streamline processes efficiently.
Above all, your IT time tracking tool must be easy-to-use so that your team spends less time learning it and more time on what’s important.
Wrapping up
Time tracking tools help your IT team to focus on their core tasks without wasting time on manual time entries. Over time, you can use the time usage data to streamline the team’s workflows and maintain peak productivity.
You can use this guide to choose the best time tracking software that suits your needs.
However, if you’re looking for a user-friendly and effective time management tool for your IT team, Time Doctor is your best bet.
So why not sign up for Time Doctor’s free trial to boost your team’s productivity right away?
