Introduction Superdrug Hub Staff
When choosing a time monitoring tool, it is important to comprehend the many different kinds of tools out there. Tools like Mavenlink, Wrike, and Zoho Projects all feature robust time monitoring features for professional services businesses. On the other hand, the time tracking features in these tools are available only as part of bigger project management (PM) suites. As a result, you are paying much more money for things such as file storage, in-app chat, progress reports, and shift management. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ll discover pure play time monitoring tools like Hubstaff (which starts at $5 a month per user) and TSheets, our Editors’ Choice tool for time tracking. Superdrug Hub Staff
Attributes and Utilization
Hubstaff’s user interface (UI) is designed with an attractive left-rail blue navigation bar that leaves plenty of room around the right-hand side of your display for data entry and analysis. When you log into the system, you will be taken to the main dashboard, which gives you an overview of how many 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 have been over the last week. This is a solid PM data visualization which allows you immediately differentiate between workhorses and do-nothings, and it instantly calls to attention projects which are getting more than enough focus and jobs that are being neglected.
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 app. With the timesheet feature, you log your hours since you likely did with pencil and paper through the analog age of time tracking. Essentially, you work your shift, you add time to your own timesheet, and you also sign off on it. This is a pretty standard procedure of monitoring time. Regrettably, because Hubstaff doesn’t let you add future time, you can not use the platform for a shift planner. Administrators can let users manually edit previously submitted timesheets, and they can force users to need a reason to ensure they’re actually adding hours they worked. Admins can also set up the system to let users to begin tracking time if they haven’t clocked to the system in a little while.
The second, and most frustrating, way of monitoring time in Hubstaff is by using the stopwatch feature. In every solution we tested, this element can be found within the boundaries of your web browser–every solution that is, except for Hubstaff. With Hubstaff, you’re required to download a native desktop application that resides within another window. In it, you can choose your job, press Start, and your own timer will start counting. When you are done, your activity and your screenshots will be transmitted to the main hub. The native app is going to take a picture at random intervals of up to 3 shots per hour depending on how frequently the admin would like to spy on workers. Screenshots can be partly blurred to not capture sensitive information on each catch, but enough of the display is left unsullied that you’ll still get a feeling of if the screen is on work-related or play-related content. This can be an annoyingly complex and complicated way to manually track time, particularly if you’re jumping from task to task throughout the day. Hubstaff must discover a way to add the stopwatch and also 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 apps let admins monitor motions via GPS tracking. This provides you an overview of just how much movement was done by your employee by capturing location information 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 allow it to be a recurring change. The tool’s reporting applications is horribly basic: You’ll receive access to weekly, daily, job, and penis view reports as well as a”custom” report that allows you filter data from the above reports. In comparison to the PM options within this course, Hubstaff’s coverage is utterly embarrassing consequently, if your target is to learn and evolve according to when and how your employees manage time, you would be much better off working using Zoho Projects, our Editors’ Choice for PM.
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Admins receive notifications once they’ve reached weekly staffing and funding limits. Invoices are automatically calculated and made depending on the time each worker worked, as well as their associated pay rate. You can set up automatic citizenship through PayPal, which enables you to automate payments based on time monitored inside the application. Remember: Consumers don’t have to send time for approval, therefore automatic payments will be made whether workers were wrong or right about the amount of hours they worked. There is not any reminder for supervisors to double-check each timesheet ahead of automatic payments go out so, if you’re worried about making bogus payments, then it is possible to set PayPal payments to guide. Superdrug Hub Staff
Price And Options
Hubstaff has been constructed to provide you with Big Brother-level oversight into when employees are working, what they are doing while they operate, and what you need to pay them when the job is finished. The Fundamental $5-per-month program provides you access to simple time tracking tools, an employee payment schedule manager, 24/7 support, and user settings which may be handled in an employee-by-employee basis. Additionally, this program lets you keep tabs on whether or not your employees are operating by allowing you document screenshots while they function as well as monitor keyboard and mouse action during shifts. Of the five tools we tested, Hubstaff is the only instrument which offered this level of insight into how employees are progressing. Although screen and keyboard tracking are helpful (albeit over-reaching) attributes for a shift monitor, Hubstaff’s implementation leaves much to be wanted (more on this later).
The $9-per-user-per-month Premium plan includes everything you’ll discover in the Basic plan, but you’ll also get access to Hubstaff’s application programming interface (API) to integrate the application with other third-party software. The Premium package also comes with a lightweight schedulingtool that gives administrators the power to assign shifts and delegate tasks from within the console. Premium customers may also use the tool to create invoices and create PayPal payments automatically. Clients that pay yearly will receive two months free (for both price tiers).
Click here to sign up for Hubstaff
Compared to TSheets, its nearest competitor in our roundup, Hubstaff is fairly priced, especially given the extra tracking features that are unavailable in competitive tools. TSheets supplies a basic free accounts, in addition to a $4-per-user-per-month account that costs a $16 base fee per month for teams who have fewer than 100 users, along with an $80 foundation fee monthly for groups with more than a hundred 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 solutions, then you’ll want to pony up a bit more money. Mavenlink’s cheapest program that includes time tracking costs $39 per user per month. Zoho’s cheapest time tracking plan is $25 a month for an unlimited number of consumers (which is a pretty solid deal if you need all of the extra PM attributes ). Wrike’s lowest time monitoring plan prices $24.80 per user per month.
What Ought to Be Added
Editor’s note: Since our first review of Hubstaff, the business has released a major update in late 2018 that specifically addressed specific feature flaws or omissions, such as adding a web timer, fleshing out reporting choices, and adding activity levels and monitor tracking. 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 monitoring, Hubstaff does not do an excellent job allowing for deeper change oversight. By way of example, Hubstaff does not allow advanced tracking. If you operate a trucking business and you’re less concerned about the number of hours a trucker drove than the distance driven, then there is no way to manage that in Hubstaff. Users can add notes to an empty text field, but that information will not be mixed into accounts. This means you can’t use it to learn about who is working, how they are functioning, and what they are producing (aside from the amount of hours tracked). TSheets not only provides you this option, it provides you the ability to create six additional customizable innovative tracking fields. You can also add a query for every clock-out (i.e.,”Was there an incident? Yes. No.”) And the system forces the consumer to reply to the queries at the close of each shift or they won’t have the ability to clock out.
As hardcore as Hubstaff is all about monitoring work, the application does not 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 cell program to track time). This is a standard feature that’s available in almost every other instrument we tested. Hubstaff also doesn’t enable admins to need users to snap a photograph if they report to work. I suppose it’s overkill to make somebody take a selfie right before you start recording their screen and monitoring their keystrokes, but TSheets enables you to place this as a necessity (which makes sense, particularly if you’re tracking tasks done outside of a computer, such as retail, construction, or entertainment work). The software also doesn’t allow users clock via a phone call, which is a component TSheets along with other service providers make available for workers who don’t have a smartphone.
Monitoring Employee Work
We’ve touched on how some of Hubstaff’s more Big Brother-like attributes factor into time tracking. However, the platform also offers many of the hallmarks of employee tracking tools. Hubstaff’s employee tracking attributes include keystroke logging, URL and application monitoring, GPS and place monitoring, and action screenshots.
Once you place your users and they download the timer program onto their machine, the desktop program not only monitors time but will take screenshots randomly or in custom intervals, such as three screenshots each minute. This applies not only to the user’s main screen but any attached monitors as well. Hubstaff does not log keys however, it does monitor the activity provided through the mouse and computer keyboard, providing employers a calculation of how busy the worker 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 correlated with activity data.
When it comes to application and URL tracking, Hubstaff goes beyond simply tracking time to learn what sites and programs a worker visited or opened and how long they were there. The Reports section can subsequently run custom questions on vectors such as app usage mapped against time and activity. Hubstaff integrates with job and task management tools such as Asana and Trello to filter reports by specific tasks or projects to monitor productivity.
1 unique employee tracking feature offered is GPS location monitoring through Hubstaff’s mobile app. While the cellular app can’t take screenshots or capture mobile app and site activity, it allows you to track 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 such as Teramind, our Editors’ Choice for employee tracking, Hubstaff includes a useful choice of attributes for companies that want a bit more oversight. Superdrug Hub Staff
Summary
Hubstaff is a easy-to-administer, feature-rich, time monitoring tool. If you are diligent about monitoring employee behavior while on the clock, then there’s no better software available than Hubstaff. You will have the ability to log screenshots, monitor keystroke volume, and route movements via GPS monitoring.
Regrettably, if you’re trying to find a platform which goes the extra mile to allow customization, irregular data entry, or a much more sophisticated reporting arrangement, then Hubstaff won’t be right for you. In addition, in case you opt for a different system, your employees will thank you for not requiring them to download a secondary program for tracking time–particularly when you consider that every other instrument we examined makes this potential within the boundaries of their online UI. Superdrug Hub Staff
Click here to sign up for Hubstaff