Time tracking blog

The gang over at LocalWisdom.com have been at it again.  They’ve published another edition of their video podcast ,\\Share, and this time they chose TSheets as their subject material!  We love it when our customers are talking about us – thanks guys!

Local Wisdom is a website development shop that uses TSheets to track their time both internally and for time spent on projects for their clients.  It’s wonderful to get a glimpse into how a customer is using our software, and now you can too! They’ve given a great overview of the ways that TSheets allows you to track time manually or in real-time with a single click of the mouse.  Stop on over and have a look!

Josh Stephens from Coax Jax is one of the first customers that we’ve heard from who is using Jott Integration to keep track of employees’ time. Listen to this interview as he speaks about how TSheets and Jott have saved his company time and money by taking him from paper timesheets to voice activated time tracking.

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“TSheets’ Jott Integration has saved me alone (not counting my employees) over 10 hours of administrative work every month!”

Josh Stephens (Coax Jax)

Here’s a bit from the Coax Jax website:

At Coax Jax, we are specialists at designing and implementing custom home theater systems, as well as custom lighting, motorized window treatments, and so much more. We will give you not only incredible home theater performance but also ease of use, so that you won’t feel lost. For the music and movie enthusiast, we will turn your home into a sight and sound paradise.

Today I had a Skype conversation with Jonathan Hamel of G-Netix about his experience with TSheets. Here’s how the conversation went:

A.J. – What kind of business do you have?
Johnathan - IT (consulting, web apps development, databases, hosting, etc.)

A.J. – How long have you been using TSheets?
Johnathan - 30 days or so

A.J. – How were you tracking timesheets before you started to use TSheets?
Johnathan - Manually

A.J. – What was the problem that you ran into, has TSheets solved and if so how?
Johnathan - Keeping everything up to date (multiple employees) etc. By being web-based, Tsheets solve a lot of problems since most of our employees are home-based

A.J. – What’s your favorite feature within TSheets?
Johnathan - web based clock in / out, one click review of multiple sheets, Mobile support is interesting (not tested)

A.J. – And what’s one thing that you wish TSheets could do?
Johnathan - Important thing, we must be able to set “week cycle”. I dont know if its possible right now. For example, our week is from monday to sunday, we pay on tuesday. We should be able to visually see those weeks on a calendar (different colors). Do you understand?  
A.J. – So you’d like a calendar view of mon-sun that shows which day you paid employees on . . . is that right?
Johnathan - No standard calendar, but our week cycles are visible
A.J. – Oh I see, tuesday to tuesday? that cycle . . .
Johnathan - whichever cycle you set in your parameters, some use other cycle
A.J. – Yeah, I see now. Great idea!

A.J. – So would you recommend TSheets to others?
Johnathan - definitly

“(TSheets) is a great and affordable application to track time.”

Jonathan Hamel (G-NeTiX)

A.J. – What would you tell someone who you were talking to about TSheets?
Johnathan - i dont really understand the question
A.J. – Haha, no problem. If you were telling someone about TSheets what would you tell them?
Johnathan - ok. A great and affordable applications to track time, Flexible since web-based, good overall price vs benefits

A.J. – Wow, that’s great! Thanks so much for speaking with me today!

There are a lot of great things about working at TSheets.com.  Everything from the free bagel Fridays to the unlimited weekend of use of the corporate jet (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration).  TSheets is a great place to work.  One of the benefits of my job is that I get to talk to people.  I talk to A LOT of people.  Today I spoke with a gentleman who was just kind of frustrated. He was having a problem with his current time tracking system.  As I’ve heard all too many times before, he had originally started out by using regular old spreadsheets for his employees to fill out.

At the end of a given period he would compile the spreadsheets into one large document and run all of his reports. However, as his business grew he continued to run into a “creative” type of employee who would make his own spreadsheet.

While Michaelangelo’s “creative work” would usually look cute, it failed to meet the formatting of the larger master document. Forced to pull the reigns in on this young team member, he couldn’t help but step on toes and hurt feelings. This combined with the tedious process of compiling spreadsheets lead this business owner to realize that his process was ready for some much needed improvement.

Following the advice of his accountants he decided to try out the Peach Tree software that they recommended for him.  After experiencing several difficulties with this system, he became aware that the very accountants that recommended him use this software, weren’t using it. This left him shocked and even more frustrated.   He thought to himself, “If the product isn’t good enough for them, why are they telling me to use it?”

Needless to say he quickly discovered that Peaches should remain in the cobbler and started a new hunt for the “perfect” solution to his time tracking nightmare.  He’s looking for a way to track the employees of his small consulting firm while they work from several locations for several different companies.

A difficult conundrum that anyone interested in improving their business has no doubt at one point or another faced.

Here’s how TSheets could help someone in this situation:

1. First and foremost, JOB CODES brother!  Set up Job Codes to represent each company that your firm was working for.
2. Track those lil’ doggies!  Add your employees, give them access to work for their designated clients (ie. assign them to the appropriate Job Codes.)
3. You are now Authorized.  Once your employees have been added set up your authorization so that your employees can clock in from anywhere (you as the master administrator would set your security settings to Open.)

Three painless steps to sorting out months of nightmares?  Not only does it seem like the sensible thing to do, but also the fiscally responsible one as well.

To learn more about cases just like this one and how TSheets can save not only your sanity but your bottom line as well, sign up for a free test drive.  Take your best shot at TSheets and see if it’s the product for you.  If so, awesome, if not. . . no hard feelings, we’ll send you a postcard from our annual vacation to Jamaica.

Randy Noxon from ModernDanish.com sent in a homemade video about his experience with TSheets.  For this, we are promoting him as our feature customer of the month.  Randy made it into our eNewsletter and will also be given a few more kudos, for his support and love for TSheets.

“TSheets ensures that employees are being paid for what they’re actually working and makes sure that they aren’t being shorted any hours or time.”

Randy Noxon (ModernDanish.com)

Thanks Randy!  Here’s to you!!

Here’s a little bit about Randy’s company ModernDanish.com

ModernDanish.com attributes it’s success to a broad selection of Modern and Contemporary Kitchen and Bathroom fixtures; centering heavily on European design. Growing their market share rapidly with the wide acceptance of vessel sinks and other specialty fixturing, ModernDanish.com has led other providers by merging style and function. Through their continued relationship with their manufacturer, Artesian Brand Products, ModernDanish.com sells products via eBay!, NexTag, Shopping.com, and many other online selling platforms.

Artesian Brand continues to source additional licensed re-sellers of their private-label products. Their continued aggressive pursuit of different materials used in manufacturing continues to challenge the conventional fixtures and produce some of the most unique spaces as seen in architectural and design magazines alike.

Here’s a nice note from one of our customers who is using TSheets‘ timesheet software for his telemarketing company.  Thanks Nick!!

To Whom It May Concern:

Results Telemarketing provides business-to-business telemarketing services for companies across the country. We have employees in our Phoenix corporate office and in various cities.

Managing hours worked and calculating totals for payroll started to become too time consuming to do manually and we were also thinking that there were errors in estimates that were costing us unnecessary dollars.

We began a trial of TSheets a few months ago and were pleased with the results. After the first week, we clearly spotted and corrected time and attendance issues. The software has been very easy to use for both management and employees and the reports help us to identify potential problems.

“After the first week, we clearly spotted and corrected time and attendance issues.”

Nick McCallion (Results Telemarketing)

The TSheets support staff is readily available and has always helped us promptly and with professionalism whenever we have questions.

I can confidently say that the savings from only paying actual hours worked and from the reduction in administrative time has paid for TSheets many times over.

We will continue to expand our use of TSheets and highly recommend it to any business that wants to automate this task and reduce payroll costs.

Nick McCallion
Sales Director
Results Telemarketing
602.264.2540
www.resultstelemarketing.com

Do you have a story about improving the effectiveness/productivity of your company that other business owners should know about?  You can either share it below or let us know and we’ll post it on our blog.

Today I had the privilege to interview one of our Customers, Russ Harris, Owner/CEO of Show On The Road Productions, Inc. in Warrenville and Schaumburg, Illinois. (Check out his website to learn a bit more about his company.)

Here’s how our conversation went:

Q. What kind of business is Show On The Road?

A. Show on the Road is a mobile disc jockey company that services over 800 events and has 2 locations.

Q. How long have you been a TSheets Customer?

A. We’ve been using TSheets since late 2006.

Q. What kind of time tracking system were you using before TSheets?

A. Before we engaged with TSheets we were using a simple punch card system that we still use at one of our locations since I’m always on site.

Q. What problems did you face that caused you to look for an online timesheet like TSheets? And did TSheets solve this problem?

A. When our company grew to the point where we had two separate locations, the logistics of having to ensure that our employees’ time was accurately managed became more than a paper timesheet could handle. I needed something where my employees from either location could just get online and clock in and out. This is where TSheets helped me the most.

“I only have to jump on for a couple of minutes every two weeks to run reports and don’t need much more.”

Russ Harris (Show on the Road)

Q. What’s your favorite TSheets feature?

A. My favorite feature has to be the quick reporting, this gives me the ability to hop online, run the report that I need and get off in a matter of moments.

Q. What feature would you like to see TSheets add to it’s application?

A. I don’t think I’d add anything. As I said before, I only have to jump on for a couple of minutes every two weeks to run reports and don’t need much more. I think it’s good how it is.

Q. Would you recommend TSheets to a friend or colleague in your own personal network?

A. Absolutely, I think TSheets is a great solution for any company that needs to track its employees’ time.

Today I spoke with Vernita about her time tracking needs. This wonderful lady works for a tax company that is going to be monitoring and tracking time for their clients. These clients range from truck drivers to day cares, and as you can image they vary quite immensely in their employee time tracking needs. (shamless self plug: and this is where TSheets steps in)

Thanks to TSheets, tracking the broad range of needs demonstrated by these different companies is no sweat. Here’s what we would do.

1. First we would set up Groups to represent each company that had employees needing to be tracked.
2. Next we would give the truck drivers Permission to clock in/out from their mobile devices.
3. Lastly we would set up their Security Authorization so that employees could clock in at each location by network (IP) address.

Now, just like that, this company is in business. They can not only track the times of all of their client’s employees but they can also run individual company reports. This is just one of the many ways TSheets integrates into a real businesses to solve real needs.

In TSheets’ very first Case Study, John Hardesty, CEO of Tricycle, is interviewed by A.J. Stallones. John tells the world about how he uses TSheets. He also shares with us what his favorite feature is and what he would like TSheets to be able to do in the future.

“Time is our inventory. If we can’t track it our business dies, so the biggest part is the fact that we could start using TSheets right away.”

John Hardesty (Tricycle)