Time tracking within projects: why combine tasks and a tracker in one service

Many teams start with two separate services: tasks live in a task manager, and time is calculated in a tracker or, even worse, in a table where employees enter hours from memory once a week. While there are few projects, this scheme seems convenient. But as the team grows, it turns out that task and time data live their own lives, and they can only be brought together manually.

Where does the “tasks separately, time separately” scheme break down?.

The first problem is binding. In a separate tracker, time is often written for a project or category, but not for a specific task.. As a result, it is clear that the client spent 120 hours, but it is unclear how many of them were design edits and how many were approvals.

The second is discipline.. Switching between two windows is inconvenient, so people forget to turn on the timer and then reset the clock retroactively. The accuracy of such data is low.

Third - reporting. To get a “plan versus fact” picture, the manager uploads two tables and brings them together manually. It takes time and creates discrepancies every time.

What does time tracking directly in tasks provide?.

When a timer is started from a task card, the time automatically goes to the right project, to the right performer and to the right stage. This opens up several possibilities:.

compare task estimates with actual costs and plan future projects more accurately;

see the workload of each employee not by sensations, but by numbers;

bill clients by real hours if you work on an hourly model;

notice projects that “eat up” the budget before they go into the red.

To whom is this especially important?.

The big winners are agencies, development and design studios, consulting companies—everyone who sells specialists’ time. For them, an hour of work is literally equal to money, and ten minutes lost per day per employee over the course of a year turns into a tangible amount.

But it’s also useful for internal teams.. A product team that understands how much it actually costs to develop a feature makes better decisions about priorities..

What to look for when choosing.

Not every service that “has a timer” is equally convenient. Check a few things:.

Is the timer launched in one click from a task and is it possible to add time manually if you forgot to turn it on?.

Are there reports on projects, people and periods with export to Excel or CSV?.

Is it possible to set hourly rates and compare the planned budget with the actual one?.

Does the manager see the workload of the entire team on one screen?.

Is time tracking available on the basic tariff: in some services the tracker is only available on paid plans.

Agency example.

Let's imagine a studio that makes a website for a client at a fixed price. The manager estimated the project at 200 hours. When time is taken into account directly in tasks, by the middle of the work it is clear that the design took a third more than planned, and the main reason is three rounds of edits to the main page. With such data, the manager can discuss an additional budget with the client in time or limit the number of iterations, rather than find out about cost overruns at the end of the project. In the next commercial proposal, the studio will include edits as a separate line and will not repeat the same mistake.

How to switch to a unified system.

If you currently have two services, you don’t have to transfer everything at once. Start with new projects: start them only in a system where tasks and time are linked, and finish old ones in familiar tools. Save the accounting history for previous periods in the upload - it will be useful for comparing estimates. In a couple of months you will have comparable data, and it will become clear how much more accurate your planning has become.

Bottom line.

Combining tasks and time tracking is not about control for the sake of control, but about honest data for planning and settlements with clients. Before transferring processes, compare which project manager with time tracking function closes your scenarios: somewhere the reports are stronger, somewhere the timer is more convenient, somewhere budgets are better implemented. A small pilot on one project will show the difference faster than any reviews. Time tracking within projects: why combine tasks and a tracker in one service, read on the HiTech website. Expert.