Introduction Free Time Tracking Software With Screenshots

When picking a time tracking tool, it’s important to understand the many different kinds of tools out there. Tools such as Mavenlink, Wrike, and Zoho Projects all feature powerful time monitoring features for professional services businesses. On the other hand, the time monitoring features in such tools are available only as part of larger project management (PM) suites. As a result, you are paying a lot more money for things such as file storage, in-app chat, progress reports, and shift administration. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you will discover pure play time tracking tools such as Hubstaff (which begins at $5 per month per user) and TSheets, our Editors’ Choice instrument for time tracking. Free Time Tracking Software With Screenshots

Characteristics and Utilization

Hubstaff’s user interface (UI) is designed with an attractive left-rail blue navigation bar which leaves plenty of room on the side of your screen for data entry and analysis. When you log into the system, you’ll be taken to the main dashboard, which gives you an overview of the number of hours your employees have worked this day and the number of hours they’ve worked over the previous seven days. You will also find a list of each member, their latest tasks, and how active they’ve been over the past week. This is a solid PM data visualization that lets you instantly differentiate between workhorses and do-nothings, and it immediately calls to attention projects which are getting more than sufficient focus and projects that are being neglected.

There are two methods to add time in Hubstaff: You are able to construct manual timesheets with previous hours worked, or you can use the stopwatch feature on Hubstaff’s native desktop program. Together with the timesheet feature, you log your hours since you probably did with pen and paper during the analog age of time monitoring. Essentially, you work your shift, you add the time to your timesheet, and you sign off on it. This is a pretty standard procedure of tracking time. Unfortunately, because Hubstaff does not let you add future time, you can’t use the platform for a shift planner. Administrators can let users manually edit formerly submitted timesheets, and they can force users to require a reason to guarantee they’re actually adding hours that they worked. Admins can also set the system up to let users to begin monitoring time should they haven’t clocked into the system in a little while.

The next, and most bothersome, way of tracking moment in Hubstaff is by using the stopwatch feature. In each solution we tested, this component can be found within the boundaries of your web browserevery alternative that is, except for Hubstaff. With Hubstaff, you are expected to download an native desktop application that lives within another window. In it, you can select your job, press Start, along with your own timer will begin counting. When you’re done, your activity and your screenshots will be sent to the main hub. The native program is going to take a photo at random periods of up to three shots per hour based on how often the admin would like to spy on employees. Screenshots can be partially blurred to not record sensitive information on every catch, but enough of the display is left unsullied you’ll still get a feeling of whether the display is on work-related or play-related content. This can be an annoyingly complex and convoluted way to manually monitor time, especially if you’re jumping from task to task throughout the day. Hubstaff must discover a way to bring the stopwatch and screengrab components to the cloud-based architecture to simplify ease of use.

Tracking time in real time on Hubstaff’s Android and iOS programs is exactly the same as it’s on the desktop program. The mobile programs let admins monitor motions via GPS tracking. This provides you an summary of just how much movement was done by your employee by capturing location data at different stages.

The Schedules tab lets you assign dates and times for employees to do the job. You can set a minimum number of hours to operate, a lunch break duration, and you can make it a recurring change. The program’s reporting software is horribly basic: You’ll get access to weekly, daily, job, and member view reports in addition to a”custom” report which allows you filter information from the above reports. In comparison to the PM options within this course, Hubstaff’s reporting is downright embarrassing so, if your goal is to learn and evolve according to when and how your employees handle time, you’d be better off working with Zoho Projects, our Editors’ Choice for PM.

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Admins receive notifications once they’ve attained weekly staffing and budget limitations. Invoices are automatically calculated and made based on the time each employee worked, in addition to his or her related pay rate. It is possible to set up automatic payroll through PayPal, which enables you to automate payments based on time tracked inside the tool. Keep in mind: Users do not have to send time through for acceptance, therefore automatic payments will be made whether workers were wrong or right concerning the number of hours that they worked. There is not any reminder for supervisors to double-check every timesheet before automatic payments go out so, if you are concerned about making bogus payments, then you can set PayPal payments to guide. Free Time Tracking Software With Screenshots

Cost And Alternatives

Hubstaff was built to give you Big Brother-level oversight into when employees are working, what they’re doing while they work, and what you really need to pay them when the work is done. The Basic $5-per-month program provides you access to simple time tracking tools, a worker payment program manager, 24/7 support, and user preferences that may be managed in an employee-by-employee basis. Additionally, this plan lets you keep track of whether your employees are working by letting you document screenshots while they work as well as monitor mouse and keyboard activity during changes. Of the five tools we analyzed, Hubstaff is the only tool which provided this amount of insight into the way that employees are progressing. Although keyboard and screen monitoring are helpful (albeit over-reaching) features for a change screen, Hubstaff’s implementation leaves much to be wanted (more about this later).

The $9-per-user-per-month Premium plan includes all you’ll find in the fundamental plan, but you will also have access to Hubstaff’s application programming interface (API) to integrate the application with other third party applications. The Premium package also comes with a lightweight schedulingtool that gives administrators the capability to assign changes and delegate tasks from within the console. Premium customers can also use the tool to create invoices and create PayPal payments mechanically. Clients that pay annually will receive two weeks free (for both cost tiers).

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Compared to TSheets, its nearest competition in our roundup, Hubstaff is fairly priced, particularly given the extra monitoring features that are unavailable in competitive resources. TSheets supplies a fundamental free accounts, in addition to a $4-per-user-per-month accounts that charges a $16 base fee per month for groups with fewer than 100 users, and a $80 foundation fee monthly for teams with over 100 users. The base fee, which Hubstaff does not charge, makes TSheets marginally more costly than Hubstaff, even at Hubstaff’s Premium level.

If you’re more interested in these hulky PM alternatives, then you will need to pony up a little more cash. Mavenlink’s cheapest plan that includes time tracking costs $39 per user per month. Zoho’s cheapest time tracking plan is $25 per month for an unlimited number of users (that is a fairly good deal if you need all of the excess PM attributes ). Wrike’s lowest time tracking plan prices $24.80 per user per month.

What Ought to Be Added

Editor’s note: Since our first review of Hubstaff, the company has released a significant update in late 2018 that specifically addressed certain feature flaws or omissions, such as adding a internet timer, fleshing out reporting choices, and adding action levels and monitor monitoring. We’ll be testing these attributes shortly and you will see the results in an upcoming update to this review.

Aside from its draconian screengrab and keystroke tracking, Hubstaff does not do an excellent job allowing for deeper shift oversight. For example, Hubstaff does not allow advanced monitoring. If you operate a trucking business and you are less concerned about how many hours each trucker drove than the distance driven, then there is no way to manage this in Hubstaff. Users may add notes to a empty text area, but that information will not be mixed into reports. As a consequence, you can not use it to find out about who’s working, how they are working, and what they’re generating (aside from the number of hours tracked). TSheets not only provides you this option, it gives you the ability to create six extra customizable innovative monitoring fields. You might also add a query for every single clock-out (i.e.,”Was there an incident? Yes. No.”) And the system forces the user to reply to the queries at the end of every shift or they won’t be able to clock out.

As hardcore as Hubstaff is all about tracking work, the application doesn’t permit for IP address restrictions, which means your employees can say they’re working from the office but they could actually be working from a cruise boat in the Bahamas (unless they’re using the mobile program to track time). This is a standard feature that’s available in almost every other instrument we analyzed. Hubstaff also doesn’t enable admins to need users to snap a photo if they report to work. I suppose it’s overkill to generate somebody take a selfie right before you start recording their screen and tracking their keystrokes, but TSheets lets you set this as a necessity (which makes sense, particularly if you’re tracking tasks done outside of a computer, like retail, construction, or amusement work). The software also does not let users clock via a phone call, which is a component TSheets along with other service providers make readily available for employees who don’t have a smartphone.

Monitoring Employee Work

We have touched on how some of Hubstaff’s more Big Brother-like features factor into time monitoring. But the platform also has a lot of the hallmarks of employee tracking tools. Hubstaff’s employee tracking features include keystroke logging, URL and application tracking, GPS and place tracking, and activity screenshots.

As soon as you set your users and they download the timer app onto their machine, the desktop program not only monitors time but will require screenshots randomly or at custom intervals, such as three screenshots each minute. This applies not only to the user’s main display but any connected monitors as well. Hubstaff doesn’t log keys but it will track the action provided through the mouse and keyboard, providing employers a calculation of just how active the worker is. This info all winds up around the Hubstaff dashboard in the Activity tab. This is where you can then pick a user in the drop-down menu to see their screenshots connected with action data.

If it comes to application and URL monitoring, Hubstaff goes beyond simply tracking time to see what websites and apps a worker opened or visited and how long they were there. The Reports section may subsequently run custom questions on vectors like program usage mapped against time and action. Hubstaff integrates with project and job management tools such as Asana and Trello to filter reports by specific projects or tasks to track productivity.

1 unique employee tracking feature offered is GPS location monitoring through Hubstaff’s mobile program. While the mobile app can’t take screenshots or catch mobile app and site activity, it lets you monitor and log place for workers working in the field. While the depth of monitoring surveillance and data features can not measure up to a grid application for example Teramind, our Editors’ Choice for worker tracking, Hubstaff includes a helpful selection of features for employers that want a little more oversight. Free Time Tracking Software With Screenshots

Wrap-up

Hubstaff is an easy-to-administer, feature-rich, time monitoring tool. If you’re diligent about tracking employee behavior while on the clock, then there’s no better program accessible than Hubstaff. You will be able to log screenshots, track keystroke volume, and route movements via GPS tracking.

Regrettably, if you’re trying to find a platform which goes the excess mile to allow customization, irregular information entry, or even a much more advanced reporting structure, then Hubstaff won’t be perfect for you. Additionally, should you opt for another system, your employees will thank you for not needing them to obtain a secondary app for monitoring time–especially when you consider that every other instrument we examined makes this potential within the boundaries of their online UI. Free Time Tracking Software With Screenshots

Click here to sign up for Hubstaff