Time is Money: How to Become Resilient with Planfix Time Tracking for Small Business

It’s no secret that small businesses are often in a weaker position compared to larger companies. With limited financial and human resources, small businesses must constantly be on guard and optimize their use of those resources. However, some tools can help mitigate weaknesses, increase work efficiency, and allow these companies to compete with the big players in their industry. One such software tool is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with time-tracking features.

Why is time tracking so crucial for small businesses?

Time tracking plays a crucial role in the efficient management of resources and the distribution of tasks. According to a study by AffinityLive, the American Payroll Association, and TSheets, businesses lose nearly 7.4 billion dollars daily due to untracked work activities. This is why tracking time for small businesses, where every worked hour matters, is essential. Not only does it allow companies to monitor time spent on tasks, but it also allows them to optimize work processes and identify bottlenecks and problematic areas.

Resource management: If a company knows how much time is spent on tasks and projects, it can redistribute the workload and use its team’s resources more efficiently.

Financial insights: Time-tracking software for small business can provide valuable data for budgeting and financial resource management.

Employee productivity: Project time tracking helps employees focus on their tasks, while team leaders and supervisors receive reports on the time and money spent on various activities.

Motivation and control: By keeping track of your employees’ working hours, you can motivate them to be self-disciplined, help HR develop motivation systems, and prevent team procrastination.

This is only a small part of how time management can increase workflow efficiency and optimize business processes.

How can small businesses optimize time tracking?

To optimize business processes and build an individual business environment for time and resource management, there are several options available. Each time tracking tool with its own features and benefits. Here is an overview:

Traditional time-tracking methods

Sure, traditional timekeeping methods may be a bit outdated, but they’re still in use. Think of Excel spreadsheets, paper logs, or even dedicated time-tracking machines. The downside? These methods often don’t provide a comprehensive overview of time spent on projects or tasks, and the accuracy of the data collected can be questionable.

Time tracking software

This specialized time tracking software for small business allows employees to track their working hours, including start and end times, breaks, and activities on various tasks. The market has options such as Toggl Track, HourStack, Timely, TrackingTime, and Clockify. While they are very powerful, the downside is the time and resources it takes to integrate with existing task management systems; as a result, the number of programs employees must use increases.

Mobile time tracking apps

Some apps allow employees to track their work hours using mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. These time tracking apps for small business usually offer a user-friendly and straightforward interface for time tracking and additional functions. However, not all employees are happy to install such apps on their devices. These apps may not provide a complete picture without seamless integration into an organization’s business processes.

CRM-integrated time-tracking systems

Specific CRM systems like Planfix, monday.com, ClickUp, and Wrike offer time-tracking features on their platforms. The time tracking systems for small business allow to monitor time spent on customer communication, task completion, and other activities directly in the customer management system. This option is the optimal approach to seamlessly integrating time tracking for small business into the daily workflow.

Choosing the right time-tracking solution can significantly increase productivity and operational efficiency, especially for small businesses dealing with the complexities of resource management.

Increase the efficiency of your small business with Planfix

The Planfix CRM system is a powerful tool for managing small businesses. It’s more than just a platform for effective customer relations management and project and task processing; it also includes a time-tracking feature that helps monitor time spent on tasks.

Benefits of using Planfix for workflow optimization

Planfix is a business management system, but beyond this it’s also a unique CRM transformer. With Planfix, you can track the time spent on a variety of tasks, as well as:

• Organize work: The system allows you to structure tasks, create projects, and set deadlines. This increases productivity and adherence to deadlines and helps identify project bottlenecks and minimize risks.
• Flexibly customize workspaces: With Planfix, you can tailor business processes for the entire company or specific departments or teams. You decide what data to track and analyze – whether it’s time, financial spending, resource usage, etc.
• Track and log time: The time tracking feature records the time spent on each task or project, making it easier to analyze work efficiency and optimize time allocation.
• Manage resources: Planfix provides tools for managing team resources, assigning tasks, monitoring their progress, and controlling time and resource expenditure.

Thanks to Planfix flexibility and comprehensive features, it can grow and scale with the needs of your business.

Tools for optimizing the workflow in Planfix

With respect to time and resource tracking, Planfix stands out with its built-in tracker and analysis tools that allow you to track virtually any resource.

• Planfix Timer: This feature allows you to accurately track employees’ time on individual tasks or project-related activities. You can generate various reports from the data collected, from time spent to project cost calculations and bonus allocations. Thanks to the intuitive user interface, you don’t have to invest time in training or onboarding your employees. The timer can be activated directly in the system or via browser extensions.
• Time tracking: Planfix’s data tags provide a comprehensive overview of working hours, broken down by tasks, projects, team working hours, and workload. This data facilitates the management and optimization of business processes and enables an accurate calculation of hours worked, the awarding of bonuses, and insight into actual expenses in various categories.
• Accounting and data tags: Beyond work hours, Planfix allows you to track all the data you manage in the system. You decide what to track; data can be collected on projects, tasks, and employee performance. Calculate a project’s ROI, the time and resources required to develop a product or service, forecast revenue, and factor in customer and overhead costs or office maintenance.

Conclusion

Implementing a CRM system with time-tracking features like Planfix can significantly increase small businesses’ operational efficiency. It helps monitor time and resources, optimize work processes, and increase team productivity. In this way, small companies can remain competitive in the market and grow successfully.