Background Time Logging Software
When picking a time tracking tool, it’s important to comprehend the many different kinds of tools available. Tools like Mavenlink, Wrike, and Zoho Projects all feature powerful time tracking features for professional services companies. On the other hand, the time tracking features in such tools are available only as part of bigger project management (PM) suites. Because of this, you are paying a lot 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 tracking tools like Hubstaff (which starts at $5 per month per user) and TSheets, our Editors’ Choice tool for time tracking. Time Logging Software
Characteristics and Usage
Hubstaff’s user interface (UI) was created with an attractive left-rail blue navigation bar that leaves lots of room on the side of your screen 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 past seven days. You will also see a list of every member, their latest jobs, and how active they’ve been over the past week. This is a strong PM data visualization which allows you immediately differentiate between workhorses and do-nothings, and it instantly calls to attention projects that are getting more than enough focus and projects that are being disregarded.
There are two methods to put in time in Hubstaff: You are able to construct manual timesheets with past 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 pencil and paper through the analog age of time monitoring. Basically, if you work your change, you add the time to your own timesheet, and you sign off on it. This is a pretty standard procedure of monitoring time. Unfortunately, because Hubstaff does not let you add future time, you can not 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 reason to ensure they’re really adding hours they worked. Admins may also set up the system to remind users to begin tracking time if they have not clocked to the machine in a little while.
The next, and most frustrating, way of monitoring time in Hubstaff is using the stopwatch feature. In each solution we tested, this element is available within the confines of your web browserevery alternative that’s, except for Hubstaff. With Hubstaff, you are expected to download a native desktop application that lives within a separate window. In it, you can select your job, press Start, along with your own timer will begin counting. When you are done, your action and your screenshots will be transmitted to the principal hub. The native program is going to take a picture at random intervals of up to three shots per hour depending on how frequently the admin would like to spy on workers. Screenshots can be partly fuzzy to not capture sensitive information on every catch, but enough of this screen is left unsullied you’ll still get a feeling of if the screen is on work-related or play-related content. This can be an annoyingly complicated and complicated way to manually track time, particularly if you’re jumping from task to task through the day. Hubstaff must find 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 apps is exactly the same as it’s on the desktop app. The mobile apps let admins monitor motions via GPS tracking. This provides you an summary of just how much motion was done by your worker by capturing location information at distinct stages.
The Schedules tab enables you to assign times and dates for workers to do the job. It is possible to put a minimum number of hours to operate, a lunch break interval, and you’ll be able to make it a recurring change. The program’s reporting software is terribly basic: You will receive access to weekly, daily, job, and penis view reports in addition to a”custom” report which lets you filter data from the above reports. In comparison to the PM options within this class, Hubstaff’s reporting is utterly embarrassing consequently, if your target is to understand and evolve according to if 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 when they’ve attained weekly staffing and funding limits. Invoices are automatically calculated and made depending on the time each employee worked, in addition to their related pay rate. You can set up automatic payroll through PayPal, which lets you automate payments based on time monitored inside the tool. Remember: Consumers don’t have to send time for acceptance, therefore automatic payments will be made whether workers were wrong or right concerning the number of hours they worked. There’s no reminder for supervisors to double-check every timesheet ahead of automatic payments go out so, if you’re worried about making false payments, then it is possible to place PayPal payments to guide. Time Logging Software
Cost And Alternatives
Hubstaff has been built to provide you with Big Brother-level oversight into when employees are working, what they are doing while they work, and what you want to cover them when the work is done. The Basic $5-per-month plan provides you access to easy time tracking tools, an employee payment schedule manager, 24/7 support, and user settings which can be managed on an employee-by-employee basis. Additionally, this plan enables you to keep track of whether or not your employees are working by allowing you document screenshots while they work in addition to monitor mouse and keyboard action during changes. Of the five tools we tested, Hubstaff is the only instrument which offered this level of insight into how workers are progressing. Although keyboard and screen tracking are useful (albeit over-reaching) attributes 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 everything you’ll discover 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 bundle also has a lightweight schedulingtool that provides administrators the capability to assign changes and assign tasks from within the console. Premium customers can also use the application to make invoices and create PayPal payments automatically. Customers that pay yearly will get two weeks free (for both cost tiers).
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In comparison 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 supplies a fundamental free accounts, in addition to a $4-per-user-per-month accounts that charges a $16 base fee a month for groups with fewer than 100 users, along with an $80 base fee per month for groups with over a hundred users. The base fee, which Hubstaff does not charge, makes TSheets slightly more expensive than Hubstaff, even at Hubstaff’s Premium level.
If you are more interested in these hulky PM solutions, then you’ll need to pony up a little more cash. Mavenlink’s cheapest plan that includes time monitoring prices $39 per user per month. Zoho’s cheapest time tracking plan is $25 a month for an unlimited number of consumers (that is a pretty good deal if you need all the extra PM features). Wrike’s lowest time monitoring plan prices $24.80 per user per month.
What Should Be Added
Editor’s note: Since our first review of Hubstaff, the business has released a significant update in late 2018 that specifically addressed specific feature weaknesses or omissions, including adding a internet timer, fleshing out reporting choices, and adding action levels and monitor tracking. We’ll 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 instance, Hubstaff doesn’t allow advanced monitoring. If you run a trucking business and you are 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 a empty text area, but that information won’t be blended into reports. As a consequence, that you can not use it to find out about who’s working, how they’re functioning, and what they’re producing (aside from the amount of hours tracked). TSheets not only gives you this option, it provides you the ability to make six additional customizable advanced monitoring fields. You can even add a question for every single clock-out (i.e.,”Was there an episode? Yes. No.”) And the system forces the consumer to respond to the questions at the end of each change or else they won’t have the ability to clock out.
As hardcore as Hubstaff is all about tracking work, the tool does not permit for IP address restrictions, so your employees can say they’re working from the workplace but they can actually be operating from a cruise ship in the Bahamas (unless they are using the mobile program 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 need users to snap a photo when they report to work. I suppose it’s overkill to make someone take a selfie before you get started recording their screen and tracking their keystrokes, but TSheets lets you set this as a necessity (which makes sense, especially if you’re tracking tasks done out of a computer, like retail, building, or amusement work). The program also does not allow users clock in via a phone call, which is an element TSheets and other service providers make available for employees who do not have a smartphone.
Tracking Employee Work
We have touched on how some of Hubstaff’s more Enormous Brother-like attributes factor into time monitoring. However, the platform also offers a lot of the hallmarks of worker tracking tools. Hubstaff’s employee monitoring attributes include keystroke logging, URL and program monitoring, GPS and place monitoring, and action screenshots.
As soon as you place your customers and they download the timer app onto their machine, the desktop app not only tracks time but will require screenshots randomly or in custom intervals, for example three screenshots each minute. This applies not just to the user’s most important screen but any attached monitors too. Hubstaff does not log keys however, it will monitor the activity provided via the mouse and computer keyboard, giving companies a calculation of just how busy the worker is. This info all winds up around the Hubstaff dashboard from the Task tab. This is where you can then pick an individual in the drop-down menu to see their screenshots correlated with activity data.
If it comes to application and URL monitoring, Hubstaff goes beyond just tracking time to see what sites and apps a worker opened or visited and how long they had been there. The Reports section may subsequently run custom queries on vectors such as app usage mapped against time and action. Hubstaff integrates with job and task management tools such as Asana and Trello to filter reports from particular tasks or projects to track productivity.
One unique employee tracking feature offered is GPS location monitoring through Hubstaff’s mobile app. While the mobile app can’t take screenshots or capture mobile app and site activity, it allows you to monitor and log location for workers working in the area. While the thickness of monitoring data and surveillance features can not measure up to a powerhouse tool such as Teramind, our Editors’ Choice for employee monitoring, Hubstaff includes a useful choice of attributes for companies that want a little more oversight. Time Logging Software
Wrap-up
Hubstaff is a easy-to-administer, feature-rich, time monitoring tool. If you’re diligent about tracking employee behavior while on the clockthen there’s no better program accessible than Hubstaff. You’ll have the ability to log screenshots, monitor keystroke volume, and route movements via GPS tracking.
Regrettably, if you’re looking for a platform that goes the extra mile to allow customization, irregular data entry, or a much more advanced reporting structure, then Hubstaff won’t be perfect for you. In addition, in case you opt for a different program, your employees will thank you for not needing them to obtain a secondary program for tracking time–especially when you consider that every other tool we examined makes this possible within the confines of their online UI. Time Logging Software
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