Should You Use a Timesheet Automation Tool in Field Force Management System?

Managing field executives’ productivity reports without Timesheet Automation Tools from Field Force Management Systems is nearly impossible.

Are you tired of manually drawing your field executives’ timesheets? According to a survey, companies lose $7.4 billion a day in productivity and value due to inappropriate timesheet management. So, do you wish there was a better way to manage shifts and timesheets? Well, there is with field force management software! 

With the help of employee tracking software like TrackoField, you can automate the timesheet and attendance system for your team of field executives. Want to learn how doing that will come in handy for your business? Let’s learn in this blog! 

What is a Timesheet Automation System with Employee Tracking Software? 

Regardless of the work’s nature and size, every organization and team have timesheets – be they obvious or regular attendance rosters. Every employer needs to know how long their employees are working, and this need is accentuated in field teams. After all, managers need to know how to pay their executives, right? 

When you use timesheet automation tools from employee tracking software, you can forget about generating these timesheets. What the software essentially does is record your employee’s login and logout time. These timesheets might also calculate the deficit and overtime in the months for each executive. 

While timesheets can be maintained manually, digitizing the process is much simpler and more reliable in most cases. We’ll discuss why in the next section. 

How Important is Timesheet Automation Software for Field Operations Teams

Time management is a big factor that differentiates good field operative teams from decent to bad ones. When no one in the team is working from the same place, there is a high possibility that time management will be difficult to track manually. Therefore, some of the problems that arise can be:

• Time theft 
• Documentation accuracy 
• Lack of accounting for overtime 
• Difficulty in tracking productivity 
• Scheduling meetings 

There are several advantages of timesheet automation tools through your field force management software. The biggest one of them is that managers will not have to worry about manually documenting, calculating, checking, and analyzing attendance and service time records. 

Manual V/s Automatic Timesheets  

While the manual timesheet management process has worked for several years for a variety of reasons, it is slowly becoming obsolete. Let us check some important aspects of timesheet management and how manual and automatic timesheets justify each.

For Small Teams

If you have a small team, you will not need automatic timesheets. Why? Because anyone can maintain manual timesheets for 4-5 members. However, employing software for the same would be too expensive.
Winner: Manual timesheets

Scalability

Yes, manual timesheets are great for small teams. However, as soon as team size expands, they begin to crumble. If you want to grow your team, you surely need field force management software to make things simpler from the beginning. 
Winner: Timesheet automation software

Accuracy

Manual timesheets are prone to several human errors. People can write the wrong login and logout times or even make mistakes while doing it. Manual sheets are also much more prone to miscalculations and hence, cannot be completely reliable.
Winner: Timesheet automation systems

Cost

Automated timesheets require you to subscribe to field force management software and install hardware which can be a significant cost. With manual timesheets, all you need is some stationary. However, for normal to larger teams, automatic timesheets are much more cost-effective in the long run.
Winner: Manual timesheets

Admin Time

While maintaining manual timesheets, you need to devote a lot of time to supervising attendance entries. It also involves manually accessing and analyzing the data. However, automated timesheets remove all the hassles and let you obtain timesheets without doing a thing.
Winner: Timesheet automation tools

Data Analysis

With manual timesheets, it is almost impossible to analyze all the entries you have written down. However, with automated timesheets, the live tracking software for employees will analyze data automatically to get you insightful reports. You can then use them to improve your work.
Winner: Timesheet automation systems

Meeting Scheduling

When data is manually collected, it is next to impossible to schedule meetings and commitments. However, automatic timesheets give you an idea of everyone’s timings. They help in generating better planners and also make the workplace more organized.
Winner: Timesheet automation software 

Usability 

People are mostly used to maintaining manual timesheets. Therefore, the learning curve involved in automated timesheets might be cumbersome for some. However, it is important to note that manual timesheet management can be extremely uncomfortable for larger teams. Maximum after a week of using field force management software, there is no going back. 

Winner: Timesheet automation tools

Environmental Consciousness 

Manual timesheets involve paper and pens. While employee tracking software will also have some carbon footprint, it will not nearly be close to the cost of cutting trees. Automated timesheet management does the smallest bit required to save the environment for the future. 

Winner: Timesheet automation software

As you can see from the above factors, automated timesheets are now the new norm for ineffective attendance and timesheet management. While Manual timesheets might work for some, they are only limited to small teams that can afford some unproductivity and time theft. 

How Does TrackoField Help in Automating Timesheets?

So, now that you know automated timesheets are the way to go, how do you start using them? Well, the first thing to do is subscribe to a workforce tracking system that is inclusive of attendance management software. 

But, are you wondering how simple software help automate the entire attendance and timesheet process? Here’s how! 

• Fool-proof Attendance Collection: Attendance management software use tools such as battery and network status tracking, live tracking, geofencing, and geospatial verification among others to collect information. It is next to impossible to fool the system and hence, the attendance data it collects is always accurate. 

• Curate the Data: Once the attendance data is collected for each employee, software curates this data to form a comprehensive work roster. This way, attendance also becomes transparent since everyone can see the company-wide attendance records. 

• Analysis: After data collection and curation, the software goes on to analyze the data. Through this analysis, you can get insights into how much time employees devote, if they are stealing the company’s time, or if they are working overtime. You can pay and strategize accordingly then. 

Track Your Employees with TrackoField 

If you have a team of field operatives larger than five employees, you know that maintaining manual timesheets is killing your productivity, right? So, now is the time to add some life to your business admin tasks with field force management software. 

Try TrackoField to totally automate timesheets in your organization. This way, you will always have an accurate insight into employees’ attendance and performance. Seems like a win-win situation, right?