Collecting time-track data is essential in many industries and occupations. While it’s typical for the office environments, it’s also necessary at many positions that imply travel, such as field workers, one of the least predictable activities in the work routine.
Today, there are many timekeeping systems with mobile apps that are designed for keeping record of work time on the go. Some of them include location tracking, clock-in and out, some are based on just manual recording. Specific features depend on industry and company’s practices, but the key point is ensuring accurate billable time calculation.
Both companies and self-employed professionals need clear, transparent and accurate timekeeping. For various professions, calculating billable time on the go is indispensable, as client billing is based on the collected time-track data and performance levels are influenced by time spent traveling to and from clients’ locations. So, what are the professions that require an on-the-go timekeeping process?
Field workers
Field works are one of the hardest activities to manage. Besides the two basic components – quality management and keeping track of deadlines – it requires controlling attendance, ensuring time data accuracy, and managing remote staff’s productivity. Each of these tasks is challenging enough even in the office environment, let alone remote workforce – but there are convenient solutions for them.
A time tracking system that allows employees to track time on the go is the most efficient solution for managing all aspects of field work productivity. The ability to track time offline and sync it later is one of the key features of a timekeeping system for field workforce: often, workers are located in areas without data coverage and still need to keep accurate records of their work time.
A mobile app for offline time recording simplifies collection of exact time data. Automated time count methods such as timer are also helpful for preventing time theft, avoiding rounding up hours and achieving greater accuracy.
Maintenance engineers
Maintenance performed on the client’s site is usually billed by hour. That’s why keeping record of time spent on them is indispensable for specialists who travel to the clients’ locations for performing technical works. Just like field workers, maintenance engineers spend significant amounts of time on the go and need a convenient way to record work time in remote locations without Internet connection.
Mobile timesheet apps solve the problem of accurate timekeeping, both online and offline. The ability to categorize time by specific clients and projects is also important here: it ensures convenient calculation of billable amounts, providing clarity and transparency in communication with clients.
Real estate agents
While in many other fields revenue depends on hours worked (and billed), real estate agents’ income is not tied to the time they’ve worked. Contract earnings is the usual revenue scheme for them. But it’s still reasonable to keep record of how much time work takes – mainly for estimating efficiency of work.
With their travel job, real estate agents often have difficulties with evaluating time they spend for work. Taking into account that travel time is basically work time too, the time-revenue ratio is not as predictable as in many other professions. Timekeeping apps for tracking time on the go help increase predictability of this data: they allow to calculate time spent on travel, communication with clients, and paperwork. This data provides valuable insights into how and where work routine can be optimized.
Personal assistants
Personal assistants’ work routine is all about efficiency. That’s why, it is essential to know exactly how much time regular tasks take. This is the key parameter for assessing their productivity and improving work results.
Keeping track of time spent on irregular tasks, especially those that involve travel, is one of the major challenges for those who combine office and travel responsibilities. A time tracking app for mobile devices helps get valuable data on how long tasks take by tracking time on the go. This data can be used for performance analysis: it allows professionals to figure out what activities take unreasonably large amounts of time and how to optimize them.
Time Tracking for Field Workers
Logging work time on the go is essential for professionals in many industries. Field workers, maintenance specialists who travel to clients’ sites, real estate agents for whom traveling is an indispensable part of the job, personal assistants that sometimes perform assignments that require travel, and employees of other professions use timekeeping data to get actionable insights on their work process. Time tracking systems with mobile apps are increasingly being used by companies and self-employed professionals in many fields for revealing work process flaws and optimizing work time structure.
