Time tracking software for freelancers available at zero costs has become super easy to track time. But, still, many businesses struggle to do so and end up in huge losses. Still, most businesses use spreadsheets and are wary of using time tracking software. Not only does it reduce manual burden, but it also saves you from the burden of estimating.
Also, when it comes to billing, you can easily estimate your tracker with online invoice payment processing software. Here are a few tips you must follow to know how much time you are spending on each task.
1. Don’t Track Every Thing
Tracking time is seldom an activity enjoyed by anyone. The more precision it requires, the greater the chance your staff will leave it inaccurate. For the purpose of ease, record tasks that take more than 15 mins.
For example, if you’re taking a washroom break, you can just add it to the project time. At the same time, if you are on a lunch break, either don’t track it or put it under the “break” tag.
This rule also applies to freelancers and solopreneurs. For example, you need not track communication unless chats and meetings require you to schedule them. On the other hand, if you are dedicating whole time blocks, then it makes sense to track them.
Another example is research, which takes a lot of time. If it lies beyond your expertise, you can charge it after tracking it with your time tracking software.
2. Track Non-billable Activities
It’s a good practice to track your time on thinking, researching, communicating, and other non-billable activities.
As mentioned above, communication, research, and other non-billable need not be mentioned in your online payment software, but they are extremely important in calculating your hourly rate.
For instance, you might charge a client for 50 h, but when you calculate the extra time spent on feedback, administration, and correspondence, you’ve effectively spent 80 h. This will bring your hourly rate down.
But, once you know the time it takes, you can choose whether a project is worth doing, how inaccurate your estimates are, and if you should change your hourly rate.
3. Stay Project Centric
There is no point in using time tracking software for freelancers or online payment software if you cannot make comprehensive reports. Thus, it is important to have projects or create tasks around which you can group entries.
You can create projects for almost everything and then categorize them in buckets. This could be departments, matters, work orders, clients, activities, jobs, processes, etc. You can also choose to categorize projects around clients too.
Another way is to divide projects by departments. You will need to ensure that one client can have multiple projects, but a project can be dedicated to one client only.
4. Use Tags
You can also choose to break projects down into tasks with your time tracking software. Tasks can be any activity like coding, designing, or specific, like designing the homepage, writing project proposals, or anything else.
To gain more control over categorization, you can use tags. They are a great way to add additional information and filter them.
For example, you can use tags like “invoiced,” “activity,” “in process,” or other parameters that can be applied to any time entry.
5. Categorize Time
The best time to categorize your time entries is when you record them. If you do it right, you’ll save yourself from hassles later.
To make this a habit, you can define the minimum information level before submitting a time entry. For example, you can make a rule that each entry needs to have a project attached with another, or else your team will not be able to add time in the absence of one.
This will help keep your reports clean. If you don’t practice this, you may end up with wrong reports. This will be because it hasn’t been properly labeled and isn’t available where it should be.
Wrapping Up
These were some tips that can come in handy when you use your time tracking software and online payment software for calculating payments. Not only will they help you plan better, but they will also let you reduce the burden on your employees.
Are you still looking for a viable time-tracking solution? Then, let us help you find one!