One of the most obviously useful reasons to adopt Time Doctor is how we make it simple to track and analyze the time your team dedicates to various projects, clients and tasks. Without the need for separate project management tools, this makes it possible to understand workloads, accurately bill clients and correctly pay employees/contractors.
This incredibly valuable connection between time, tasks and invoicing/payments does require some work on the back-end. Each ‘task’ type an employee spends time on can be created within Time Doctor.
Previously this had to be done by a manager or system admin, but we’ve made a major update to allow any employee to create new tasks within existing projects they’re working on. The new Self-Assigned Tasks feature saves managers one small step, but will have big consequences for how your business benefits from using Time Doctor.
Why your team will love Self-Assigned Tasks, and how it improves project management
For managers & admins, Self-Assigned Tasks:
- Saves time on administrative processes while maintaining visibility of user-created tasks
- Ensures more detailed and accurate reporting, billing and payments
- Improves project management capabilities without the need for integrated tools
For employees, Self-Assigned Tasks:
- Provides control over essential workflows to independently self-manage
- Ensures fewer delays in meeting client needs and maintaining high performance
Some organizations have standard tasks that largely remain consistent across different clients or projects. Others are more adaptable to the needs of their customers, with many unique, ad hoc tasks that employees will work on from week to week.
Take the example of an outsourcing company that provides specialist IT knowledge workers — in this situation, employees’ outputs (and task types) will in large part be directed by various third-party clients and their managers.
When ‘new task’ creation needs are high, bottlenecks can arise when your Time Doctor admins are busy or have other more urgent priorities. Previously, employees either had to wait (potentially delaying important work), or find a workaround by using a task type that didn’t adequately describe the activity being done.
Now, with Self-Assigned Tasks, employees are empowered to add tasks themselves.
Why does task specificity matter?
- It helps you evaluate your projects/workloads more precisely, so you can improve resource allocation, planning and timing in future.
- Organizations need to know how to charge for different kinds of work performed and itemize invoices. Meaningful descriptors for tasks is an important way to build credibility and trust with customers reviewing their bills.
- Some organizations may want to offer different rates of pay for employees/contractors based on certain tasks.
How to set up and use Time Doctor’s new Self-Assigned Tasks feature?
Managers and admins can enable Self-Assigned Tasks for employees under ‘Settings / Users’ in the Time Doctor menu.
Once enabled, employees simply navigate to an existing relevant project type, then select the ‘Add Task’ option. Self-Assigned Tasks are then able to be found and selected by the employee within its corresponding project when the employee is tracking their workday.
How do employee-created tasks differ from manager-created tasks?:
- Only the individual employee that created the Self-Assigned Task can track time against that task — they’re creating the tasks for their own use, based on their specific workload or client needs.
- Users are also in control of marking self-assigned tasks they create as complete.
- Users can only assign a task under existing project types determined by managers/admins.
- Managers can see tasks that users have created in the Projects & Tasks Report.
Make projects more precise by empowering your team to create their own tasks
We know that organizations that use Time Doctor will see value in the new Self-Assigned Tasks feature, because it has been a much-requested update.
Discover more of Time Doctor’s project management capabilities and how we empower employees to control their workday and improve their productivity by booking a demo today.
Amy Owens is a product marketing enthusiast with a passion for writing content that communicates the features, values, and benefits of products.