Intro Online Time Tracker

When picking a time tracking tool, it is important to understand the many different kinds of tools out there. Tools such as Mavenlink, Wrike, and Zoho Projects all include robust time tracking features for professional services businesses. However, the time tracking features in these tools are available only as part of larger project management (PM) suites. As a result, you are paying a lot more cash for things such as file storage, in-app chat, progress reports, and shift management. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you will find pure play time monitoring tools such as Hubstaff (which begins at $5 per month per user) and TSheets, our Editors’ Choice instrument for time tracking. Online Time Tracker

Characteristics and Utilization

Hubstaff’s user interface (UI) was created with a appealing left-rail blue navigation bar which leaves plenty of room on the right-hand side of your display for data entry and analysis. When you first 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 see a list of every member, their most recent tasks, and how active they’ve been over the last week. This is a strong PM data visualization that lets you instantly differentiate between workhorses and do-nothings, and it instantly calls to focus projects that are becoming more than sufficient attention and jobs that are being disregarded.

There are two ways to add time in Hubstaff: You are able to build manual timesheets with previous hours worked, or you may use the stopwatch feature on Hubstaff’s native desktop app. Together with the timesheet feature, you log your hours as you probably did with pencil and paper during the analog era of time monitoring. Essentially, you work your shift, you add the time to your timesheet, and you also sign off on it. This is a pretty standard method of tracking time. Unfortunately, because Hubstaff doesn’t 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 can induce users to require a motive to ensure they’re really adding hours they worked. Admins may also set the system up to let users to begin monitoring time should they haven’t clocked into the system in a while.

The second, and most frustrating, way of monitoring moment in Hubstaff is using the stopwatch feature. In every solution we analyzed, this component can be found within the confines of your internet browser–every alternative that’s, except for Hubstaff. With Hubstaff, you are required to download an native desktop application that resides within a separate window. In it, you can select your job, press Start, and your own timer will start counting. When you are done, your action and your screenshots will be sent to the principal hub. The native app will take a photo at random intervals of up to three shots per hour based on how frequently the admin wants to spy on workers. Screenshots can be partially fuzzy not to record sensitive information on each catch, but a lot of this screen is left unsullied that 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 complicated way to manually monitor time, particularly if you’re jumping from task to task through 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 is on the desktop program. The mobile apps let admins monitor motions via GPS tracking. This provides you an overview of just how much movement was done by your worker by capturing location information at different stages.

The Schedules tab lets you assign dates and times for employees to do the job. You can put a minimum number of hours to work, a lunch break interval, and you’ll be able to make it a recurring change. The program’s reporting applications is terribly basic: You’ll receive access to weekly, daily, job, and member view reports in addition to a”custom” report that allows you filter information from the above reports. In comparison to the PM solutions in this course, Hubstaff’s coverage is utterly embarrassing so, if your goal is to understand and evolve according to if and how your employees handle time, you’d be much better off working using Zoho Projects, our Editors’ Choice for PM.

Click here to sign up for Hubstaff

Admins receive notifications once they have attained weekly staffing and budget limits. Invoices are automatically calculated and created based on the time each employee worked, in addition to his or her related pay rate. It is possible to set up automatic citizenship through PayPal, which lets you automate payments based on time monitored within the tool. Keep in mind: Consumers don’t have to send time through for approval, so automatic payments will be made whether employees were wrong or right concerning the number of hours that they worked. There’s no reminder for managers to double-check every timesheet ahead of automatic payments go out so, if you are worried about making bogus payments, then it is possible to set PayPal payments to guide. Online Time Tracker

Price And Options

Hubstaff has been built to give you Big Brother-level oversight into when workers are working, what they’re doing while they work, and what you want to pay them as soon as the work is done. The Fundamental $5-per-month plan provides you access to easy time tracking tools, a worker payment program manager, 24/7 support, and user settings which may be handled in an employee-by-employee basis. Additionally, this plan enables you to keep track of whether your employees are operating by letting you document screenshots while they work in addition to monitor keyboard and mouse action during shifts. Of the five tools we’ve tested, Hubstaff is the only tool which offered this amount of insight into how workers are progressing. Although keyboard and screen monitoring are useful (albeit over-reaching) features for a shift monitor, Hubstaff’s implementation leaves much to be desired (more on this later).

The $9-per-user-per-month Premium program includes all you’ll find in the fundamental program, but you’ll also have access to Hubstaff’s application programming interface (API) to integrate the application with other third-party applications. The Premium bundle also comes with a lightweight schedulingtool that gives administrators the power to assign shifts and assign tasks from within the console. Premium customers may also use the application to create invoices and create PayPal payments automatically. Customers that pay yearly will receive two months free (for both price tiers).

Click here to sign up for Hubstaff

Compared to TSheets, its closest competitor in our roundup, Hubstaff is reasonably priced, especially given the extra tracking features that are unavailable in competitive resources. TSheets offers a basic free accounts, in addition to a $4-per-user-per-month accounts that costs a $16 base fee per month for groups with fewer than 100 users, and a $80 foundation fee per month for teams with over 100 users. The base fee, which Hubstaff doesn’t charge, makes TSheets marginally more expensive than Hubstaff, even in Hubstaff’s Premium level.

If you are more interested in those hulky PM alternatives, then you’ll need to pony up a little more money. Mavenlink’s cheapest program that includes time tracking prices $39 per user per month. Zoho’s cheapest time tracking plan is $25 a month for an infinite number of users (that is a pretty solid deal if you want all of the extra PM attributes ). Wrike’s cheapest time tracking plan costs $24.80 per user per month.

What Should Be Added

Editor’s note: Since our first review of Hubstaff, the company has released a major update in late 2018 that specifically addressed specific feature weaknesses or omissions, including adding a internet timer, fleshing out reporting options, and adding action levels and screen monitoring. We are going to be analyzing these attributes shortly and you will see the results in an upcoming update to this review.

Besides its draconian screengrab and keystroke tracking, Hubstaff doesn’t do an excellent job allowing for deeper change supervision. For instance, Hubstaff doesn’t allow advanced monitoring. If you operate a trucking business and you are less concerned about the number of hours each trucker drove than the distance driven, then there’s no way to manage that in Hubstaff. Users may add notes to a empty text field, but that information won’t be mixed into accounts. This means you can’t use it to find out about who is functioning, how they’re functioning, and what they are generating (other than the number of hours monitored ). TSheets not only gives you this option, it provides you the ability to create six additional customizable innovative tracking fields. You can even add a query for every 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 each shift or else they won’t be able to clock out.

As hardcore as Hubstaff is about monitoring work, the tool does not allow for IP address limitations, which means your employees can say they are working from the workplace but they could actually be operating from a cruise ship in the Bahamas (unless they’re using the cell program to monitor time). This is a normal feature that’s available in virtually every other instrument we tested. Hubstaff also does not enable admins to require users to snap a photograph when they report to work. I suppose it’s overkill to generate somebody take a selfie before you start recording their display and tracking their keystrokes, but TSheets enables you to set this as a requirement (which makes sense, particularly if you’re monitoring tasks done outside of a computer, like electronic, construction, or amusement work). The software also does not allow users clock in via a phone call, which can be a component TSheets and other service providers make available for employees who don’t have a smartphone.

Tracking Employee Work

We’ve touched on how some of Hubstaff’s more Enormous Brother-like features factor into time tracking. But the platform also has many of the hallmarks of worker monitoring tools. Hubstaff’s employee tracking features include keystroke logging, URL and program tracking, GPS and place tracking, and activity screenshots.

As soon as you set your users and they download the timer app onto their server, the desktop program not only tracks time but will require screenshots randomly or in custom intervals, such as three screenshots each minute. This applies not just to the user’s most important display but any connected monitors as well. Hubstaff does not log keys however, it does track the action provided via the mouse and computer keyboard, providing companies a calculation of how active the employee is. This info all winds up on the Hubstaff dashboard in the Task tab. This is where you can then select a user from the drop-down menu to see their screenshots connected with action data.

If it comes to application and URL monitoring, Hubstaff goes beyond just tracking time to see what websites and apps an employee opened or visited and how long they were there. The Reports module can then run custom questions on vectors like app usage mapped against time and activity. Hubstaff integrates with project and job management tools such as Asana and Trello to filter reports from particular tasks or projects to track productivity.

1 unique employee monitoring feature supplied is GPS location monitoring through Hubstaff’s mobile program. While the mobile app can not take screenshots or catch mobile app and website activity, it allows you to monitor and log location for workers working in the area. While the depth of monitoring surveillance and data features can’t step up to a grid application for example Teramind, our Editors’ Choice for worker monitoring, Hubstaff includes a helpful choice of features for companies that want a bit more oversight. Online Time Tracker

Wrap-up

Hubstaff is a 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 software available than Hubstaff. You’ll have the ability to log screenshots, monitor keystroke volume, and route movements via GPS monitoring.

Regrettably, if you’re trying to find a platform that goes the extra mile to enable customization, atypical information entry, or a more sophisticated reporting arrangement, then Hubstaff will not be right for you. Additionally, should you choose a different system, your employees will thank you for not requiring them to obtain a secondary program for monitoring time–particularly when you consider that every other instrument we examined makes this possible within the boundaries of their online UI. Online Time Tracker

Click here to sign up for Hubstaff