Introduction Hubstaff Jira Cloud

When picking a time tracking tool, it is important to comprehend the various types of tools available. Tools such as Mavenlink, Wrike, and Zoho Projects all feature robust time monitoring features for professional services businesses. On the other hand, the time monitoring features in these tools are available only as part of bigger project management (PM) suites. As a result, you’re paying much more money for things like file storage, in-app chat, progress reports, and shift management. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you will discover pure play time monitoring tools such as Hubstaff (which begins at $5 per month per user) and TSheets, our Editors’ Choice tool for time tracking. Hubstaff Jira Cloud

Characteristics and Utilization

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

There are two methods to put in time in Hubstaff: You can build manual timesheets with previous hours worked, or you can use the stopwatch feature on Hubstaff’s native desktop program. With the timesheet attribute, you log in your hours as you likely did with pen and paper through the analog era of time tracking. Essentially, you work your change, you add time to your timesheet, and you also sign off on it. This is a fairly standard method of tracking time. Unfortunately, because Hubstaff does not allow you to add future time, you can’t use the platform for a shift planner. Administrators can allow users manually edit formerly submitted timesheets, and they’re able to induce users to need a motive to guarantee they’re really adding hours they worked. Admins may also set up the system to let users to begin tracking time should they haven’t clocked to the machine in a little while.

The next, and most frustrating, way of tracking moment in Hubstaff is using the stopwatch feature. In every solution we analyzed, this element is available within the confines of your web browserevery solution that is, except for Hubstaff. With Hubstaff, you are expected to download an native desktop application that resides within a separate window. In it, you can select your project, press Start, and your own timer will begin counting. When you’re done, your activity and your screenshots will be transmitted to the principal hub. The native program is going to take a picture at random periods of up to three shots per hour based on how often the admin wants to spy on employees. Screenshots can be partly blurred not to capture sensitive information on every catch, but a lot of this display is left unsullied you’ll still get a sense of whether the screen is on work-related or play-related content. This is an annoyingly complex and complicated way to manually track time, particularly if you’re jumping from task to task through the day. Hubstaff must discover a way to bring the stopwatch and screengrab elements 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 is on the desktop program. The mobile apps let admins monitor movements via GPS monitoring. This gives you an summary of how much movement was performed by your worker by capturing location data at distinct stages.

The Schedules tab enables you to assign dates and times for workers to work. You can set a minimum number of hours to work, a lunch break interval, and you’ll be able to allow it to be a recurring change. The tool’s reporting software is horribly basic: You’ll receive access to weekly, daily, project, and member view reports as well as a”habit” report which lets you filter data from the above reports. When compared to the PM solutions in this class, Hubstaff’s coverage is downright embarrassing so, if your goal is to learn and evolve based on when and how your employees manage 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 funding limits. Invoices are automatically calculated and made based on the time each worker worked, in addition to their associated pay rate. It is possible to set up automatic payroll through PayPal, which lets you automate payments based on time monitored inside the tool. Remember: Consumers don’t need to send time through for approval, so automatic payments will be made whether employees were right or wrong about the number of hours they worked. There is no reminder for managers to double-check every timesheet before automatic payments go out thus, if you’re worried about making bogus payments, then you can set PayPal payments to manual. Hubstaff Jira Cloud

Cost And Options

Hubstaff has been built to give you Big Brother-level oversight into when employees are working, what they’re doing while they operate, and what you really need to pay them as soon as the work is finished. The Basic $5-per-month plan gives you access to easy time tracking tools, a worker payment schedule manager, 24/7 support, and user settings that can be handled on an employee-by-employee basis. Additionally, this plan lets you keep tabs on whether or not your employees are operating by letting you document screenshots while they function in addition to monitor mouse and keyboard action during shifts. Of the five tools we’ve tested, Hubstaff is the only tool which offered this amount of insight into how employees are progressing. Although keyboard and screen monitoring are helpful (albeit over-reaching) features for a change monitor, Hubstaff’s implementation leaves much to be desired (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 get access to Hubstaff’s application programming interface (API) to integrate the tool with other third-party software. The Premium bundle also comes with a lightweight schedulingtool that gives administrators the capability to assign shifts and assign tasks from within the console. Premium clients may also use the tool to create invoices and create PayPal payments mechanically. Clients that pay annually will receive two months free (for both price tiers).

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Compared to TSheets, its nearest competitor in our roundup, Hubstaff is fairly priced, especially given the extra tracking features that are unavailable in competitive resources. TSheets offers a fundamental free account, as well as a $4-per-user-per-month account that costs a $16 base fee a month for groups who have fewer than 100 users, along with an $80 base fee monthly for groups with over 100 users. The base fee, which Hubstaff does not charge, makes TSheets slightly more expensive than Hubstaff, even in Hubstaff’s Premium degree.

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

What Ought to Be Added

Editor’s note: Since our first overview of Hubstaff, the company has released a significant upgrade in late 2018 that specifically addressed specific feature flaws or omissions, including adding a web timer, fleshing out reporting options, and adding activity levels and monitor tracking. We are going to be testing these features shortly and you’ll see the results in an upcoming update to this review.

Aside from its draconian screengrab and keystroke monitoring, Hubstaff does not do an excellent job allowing for deeper shift oversight. For example, Hubstaff doesn’t allow advanced monitoring. If you operate a trucking business and you’re less concerned about how many hours a trucker drove than the distance driven, then there is no way to manage this in Hubstaff. Users can add notes to an empty text field, but that information won’t be mixed into accounts. As a consequence, you can’t use it to find out about who is working, how they are functioning, and what they are generating (other than the amount of hours monitored ). TSheets not only gives you this choice, it gives you the ability to create six additional customizable advanced monitoring fields. You might also put in a question for every single clock-out (i.e.,”Was there an episode? Yes. No.”) And the system forces the consumer to reply to the questions at the end of every shift or they won’t have the ability to clock out.

As hardcore as Hubstaff is all about tracking work, the application doesn’t allow for IP address limitations, so your employees can say they’re working from the workplace but they could actually be operating from a cruise boat in the Bahamas (unless they are using the cell app to track time). This is a normal feature that’s available in almost every other instrument we analyzed. Hubstaff also does not enable admins to require users to snap a photograph when they report to work. I guess it is overkill to generate someone take a selfie before you get started recording their display and tracking their keystrokes, but TSheets lets you set this as a necessity (which makes sense, especially if you’re monitoring tasks done out of a computer, like retail, building, or amusement work). The software also doesn’t let users clock in via a phone call, which can be a component TSheets along with other service providers make available for employees who do not have a smartphone.

Tracking Employee Work

We have touched on how a number of Hubstaff’s more Enormous Brother-like features factor into time monitoring. But the platform also offers a lot of the hallmarks of employee tracking tools. Hubstaff’s employee tracking attributes include keystroke logging, URL and program tracking, GPS and place monitoring, and action screenshots.

Once you set your users and they download the timer app onto their server, the desktop app not only monitors time but will require screenshots randomly or in custom intervals, such as three screenshots each minute. This applies not only to the user’s main display but any attached monitors as well. Hubstaff doesn’t log keys but it does monitor the action provided through the mouse and keyboard, providing companies a calculation of just how active the employee is. This data all winds up around the Hubstaff dashboard in the Task tab. This is where you can then pick an individual in the drop-down menu to view their screenshots correlated with activity data.

When it comes to program and URL tracking, Hubstaff goes beyond simply tracking time to learn what websites and apps an employee opened or visited and how long they were there. The Reports section may subsequently run custom questions on vectors such as app usage mapped against time and activity. Hubstaff incorporates with job and job management tools like Asana and Trello to filter reports by particular projects or tasks to monitor productivity.

1 unique employee monitoring feature supplied is GPS location tracking through Hubstaff’s mobile program. While the mobile app can’t take screenshots or capture mobile app and site activity, it lets you monitor and log place for employees working in the field. While the depth of monitoring data and surveillance features can not measure up to a powerhouse tool for example Teramind, our Editors’ Choice for employee tracking, Hubstaff includes a helpful selection of features for companies that want a little more oversight. Hubstaff Jira Cloud

Wrap-up

Hubstaff is an easy-to-administer, feature-rich, time tracking tool. If you’re diligent about tracking employee behaviour while on the clockthen there’s no better program available than Hubstaff. You’ll be able to log screenshots, monitor keystroke volume, and path movements via GPS tracking.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a platform that goes the excess mile to allow customization, irregular data entry, or even a more advanced reporting structure, then Hubstaff will not be perfect for you. In addition, should you choose another system, your employees will thank you for not requiring them to download a secondary app for monitoring time–particularly once you consider that every other tool we reviewed makes this possible within the boundaries of their online UI. Hubstaff Jira Cloud

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