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

Dive in to know how timesheet automation in a field force management system helps to accurately monitor employee productivity, measure their on-duty hours, and track their attendance.

Timesheets are an essential part of any organisation. Some businesses prefer manual paper timesheets while others rely on automated digital timesheets. However, using manual sheets, whether it’s paper-based or on Excel, is not practical in the 21st century. It can be prone to errors and lead to misreported work hours, raising questions about your teams’ actual productivity.

The alternative is using a field force management system with a digital timesheet feature so you can track field teams’ time and billable hours efficiently. It adds accuracy while tracking your field teams’ clock-ins and clock-outs, time spent on tasks, overtime, and more.

Dive in to learn all about how timesheet automation works in a field force management system to simplify attendance and productive hours reporting.

Timesheet Automation in Field Force Management System – What is it?

Every company, no matter how small or big, uses timesheets to maintain an accurate record of employees’ total time or working hours. A timesheet is composed of several time entries. Time entry logs the start and end time of an employee’s task or project. Timesheets also record the attendance data of employees, how many hours they logged in a day, late comings, overtime, etc.

You must be wondering what is the use of a timesheet. To put it simply, a timesheet is an in-built feature that tracks field agents’ total hours spent on duty. It displays employees’ time entries as:

• Log-in and log-out times
• Total working hours
• Total leaves availed
• Number of late check-ins
• Overtime
• Task start and completion time

This data is used to process their productivity and process payroll data. Timesheets are also essential to maintain accountability and utilise work hours efficiently.

Why Do Field Businesses Need Timesheet Automation?

Not all field employees are reimbursed via the same payment structure. Some are salaried, some are paid per task, some receive commissions and some are paid by the hour.

Field employees or gig workers operate out of the office and often work on an hourly basis. This necessitates an accurate timesheet management system to track their performance and work hours. Otherwise payroll processing could be challenging. Timesheets are also necessary to keep tabs on employee productivity and maintain accountability.

However, using paper-based or manual spreadsheets as timesheets to log daily work hours and tasks is not practical for field executives. Their focus should be on core tasks like client visits or sales instead of manually filing every time entry. Plus, it’s tough for managers and HR teams to spare time to validate timesheet data manually.

This is where TrackoField, a field force management system comes in handy. It offers timesheet automation which allows managers to sit back and let the software automatically record employees’ work hours, attendance data, task timeline, etc to get self-curated time sheets. Below are some of the challenges that can be tackled using automated sheets.

• Time theft
• Documentation inaccuracy
• Improper accounting of  overtime
• Difficulty in tracking daily productive hours
• Lack of accountability and transparency
• Payroll hours and data disputes

💡Trivia As per a survey by Insightful, companies using paper timesheets and punch cards report needing to correct 80% of the timesheets they receive.

Manual V/s Automatic Timesheets

There are pros and cons of both manual and automatic timesheets. But considering the rapid expansion of field businesses, automated sheets seem more feasible. Manual timesheets are slowly becoming obsolete. Here is a comparison between the two to help you choose the best type of timesheet for your business.

a) For Small Teams

If you have a small team, you will not need automatic timesheets. Why? Because anyone can maintain manual sheets for 4-5 members. However, employing software for the same would be too expensive. Most software solutions require a minimum user count to justify their cost.

🏆Winner: Manual timesheets

b) 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 a field force management system to handle your team’s growing requirements.

🏆 Winner: Timesheet automation software

c) Accuracy

Manual timesheets can be prone to human errors. People can write the wrong login and logout times or even make mistakes while doing it. A wrong formula in an Excel-based sheet can render the entire data unusable. On the other hand, automated timesheets use advanced algorithms and software programs to record data.

🏆 Winner: Timesheet automation systems

d) Cost

Automated timesheets require you to subscribe to a field force management system and install hardware which can be a significant cost. With manual sheets, 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

e) 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 sheets with just a click.

🏆 Winner: Timesheet automation tools

f) Data Analysis

With manual sheets, 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

g) 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 organised.

🏆Winner: Timesheet automation software 

h) 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 sheet management can be extremely uncomfortable for larger teams. Maximum after a week of using a field force management system, there is no going back.

🏆 Winner: Timesheet automation tools

i) Environmental Consciousness

Manual timesheets involve paper and pens. While field 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 sheets 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, are you looking for the best field force management system that supports timesheet automation?
TrackoField is one such system. This powerful field force management software can expand as field attendance management software to auto-compute and monitor precise work hours and time. Plus, it also manages tasks and orders for field executives.

Let’s take a look at how timesheet automation works in TrackoField.

Step 1: Fool-proof geo-verified attendance collection

There is no point in timesheet automation if the attendance data is inaccurate. So, the first step in the process is to ensure fool-proof employee attendance. TrackoField achieves this using GPS tracking and geocoded attendance marking. Biometric verification further helps authenticate the attendance and prevent buddy punching.

Step 2: Consolidation of location-verified attendance & task data

TrackoField also offers a unique feature that lets managers link employees’ attendance to tasks. This happens by geofencing a task site. Hence, employees can only mark in and start a task after reaching the designated site. Plus, the software automatically tracks the time spent on every task and logs out the employee once their shift ends.

Step 3: In-depth data analysis of time spent at work

FFM software can provide insight into your employees’ workplace behaviours and time utilisation habits. It does so by analysing employees’ tasks, activity, and attendance data. Software like TrackoField can even perform historical data analysis and generate various reports like:

• Target vs achievement report
• Task completion rate report
• Stoppage reports
• Unreachable reports

These reports allow managers to:

• View the exact working hours of each employee
• Check overtime requests
• Review the task completion rate and time spent per task
• View late arrivals or extended breaks
• Spot discrepancies in clock-in and clock-out times
• Make data-driven decisions to improve employees’ performance

Using timesheet automation, managers can easily monitor the workplace habits of employees to identify bottlenecks and areas of improvement. Such precise and comprehensive timesheet compilation helps you with accurate and smooth payroll calculations.

Wrapping Up!

Whether you manage a small or sizeable team of field employees and are using manual timesheets, you are most likely killing your company’s growth. As we have established in the above blog, automated timesheets are more suitable for field businesses. It not only records field teams’ work hours but also helps identify the overall productive hours. Further, it helps streamline the attendance data management and time-tracking processes.

It’s proven that choosing the top field force management system with automated timesheets is the key. When managers cut to the chase, and choose software likeTrackoField, they get better visibility on attendance trends and employees stay focused on using their time well. The latter can focus more on their core tasks while the former can better manage payroll and compliance. The software also provides insight into your employees’ attendance and performance.
We see no reason why you shouldn’t be using timesheet automation. But if you’re still on the fence, do contact the TrackoField staff to get more details.

FAQs on Timesheet Automation in Field Force Management

• What are timesheets and how are they automated?

  Timesheets are a type of employee attendance record. Organisations use sheets with a field force management system to monitor the productivity of their staff. Timesheets display the following data.
  Total hours worked
  Total leaves availed
  Log-in and log-out times
  Number of late check-ins
  This data is useful to calculate accurate salaries, maintain transparency and tackle time theft in your organisation. Such sheets also help get rid of errors associated with manual timesheets.

• How does a field force management system automate timesheet generation?

  Field force management system uses GPS and geofencing to log accurate employee attendance. It archives employee data like their clock-in times, overtime, leaves, and more. The software consolidates all this data to generate insightful timesheets.