Developer time tracking software is a critical for software teams providing their services to clients. However, getting your team to submit time presents it’s own unique challenges. This article will discuss how the nature of software development impacts time tracking and how project managers can tackle it.

Time management: essential to the productivity of a team

At its core, time management in software development teams is about making the most out of yourself and your people, so that you can deliver projects on time and get the best financial outcome for your firm.

Well-managed time at an individual and organisational level always leads to better outcomes. The challenge lies in how the individuals are communicating where they’re spending their time.

This line of communication can be established with the right time-tracking tool. Once you’re accurately tracking the individual's time, you are then in a good position to accurately track other key business and performance metrics, such as the utilisation rate.

Time tracking should be reliable without being demanding. Employees should be able to easily enter their work hours, and it should be simple for managers to see the results.

Ideally, this time information can be integrated into other areas, such as payroll and invoicing, for improved efficiency and added value.

Importance of time tracking for software developers

It’s fair to say that software teams are expensive. They’re in demand, and highly skilled, which makes time management of these valuable resources critical to the success of projects and, ultimately, the fiscal success of your company.

Just as any successful business closely tracks how funds are spent, successful software development teams track exactly how their most precious resource is spent - their time.

Measure developer productivity

Individual developer time tracking data allows managers to identify how long it takes staff to complete specific tasks. The time spent on a task can help you as a project manager to identify the strengths and weaknesses of an individual, which will assist future decision-making and inform development plans for your people.

With time-tracking, you’ll have a clear understanding of who can do which tasks best, optimising your resource allocation, which inevitably leads to less bench time and higher project margins.

Provide seamless invoices for clients

Real time time tracking opens up the possibility of doing time-based billing, which can help to ensure you never accidentally run projects at a loss. Furthermore, accurate time-tracking leads to accurate billing by ensuring time dedicated to specific work is reflected correctly when you bill clients.

Since the pandemic, the volume of automated Finance & Accounting processes increased by 199% - Workato, Work Automation Research Results.

Combined with a task management web app such as Jira or DevOps, it allows firms to automatically itemise invoices based on a breakdown of timecodes that comprise the total hours spent working for a particular client.

Allow for smooth payroll processing

In the same way, that time tracking informs invoicing, developer time tracking information can feed into internal payroll systems to ensure contractors are paid correctly.

The top challenge in North America for project management is manual processes causing timesheet and billing/payroll errors - Replicon, The New Normal - What Does it Mean for Service Businesses?

This is particularly beneficial when working with contractors who are paid on an hourly basis. It also provides a safeguard that ensures billable hours mirror the time you’re paying your staff for and that contractors are not billing you for time they can’t thoroughly account for.

Boost developer accountability

Software developers often work remotely, potentially across borders with bespoke work schedules and in different time zones. Time tracker software makes individual workloads visible, where ever they are in the world, and whenever they choose to work. If you have ever wondered what your team has been up to, time-tracking that is detailed down to the task or timecode level, can turn on the light in a dark room.

Allow for the prioritation of projects

In software development, time-tracking systems enable you to include deadlines for different pieces of work.

Software developers commonly have multiple pieces of work on their plate at one time. Having improved visibility over when each task is due allows them to prioritise their time accordingly.

Help improve project schedules

It’s easy for developers to lose track of how much time they’ve spent working on something, especially if they’ve chopped and changed between different things multiple times during the day.

If your time-tracking or project management software includes a stop-start timer, you can check in and check out as you would when playing a game of speed chess. Time tracking apps ensure time is apportioned to the right project, which updates project timelines and delivers correct billing.

Why do software teams dislike time tracking?

All project management tools are only reliable when used correctly. Unfortunately, many systems for tracking time are either overly complicated or need more capabilities to support professional service firms. A slight inconsistency with your team's time tracking can slowly add up to a significant loss for your business.

Companies lose $50,000 per employee as a result of employees not tracking time spent on replying to client emails - The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies. McKinsey Global Institute (2012).

Once you have the time logged and gain visibility into where time is spent, a lot hangs on what you do next. Do you accuse employees of time-wasting and start micro-managing them? Or is it possible to use time-tracking to empower employees?

Here are a few tips on how to fit time-tracking into your culture to create a great bottom line and culture.

• Ask questions to your employees that put the power to improve into their hands. For example, “when you look back over your time entries, do you see any areas you would like to improve?”
• Look at the trends, and then double-click on areas that raise questions. For instance, when you see a specific part of a project wildly exceeded the time planned. You could ask those involved, “what can we learn from this so we can avoid this overage next time?
• Remind staff of the impact of timely timesheet submissions with concrete examples. For example, when timesheets are not entered on time, clients get surprised later by invoices, which creates a negative client experience. A couple of potent examples of impact can go a lot further than constant nagging reminders.

While time tracking is one aspect of performance, it only tells part of the story. Time tracking, when used as a part of a healthy culture of coaching, not micro-managing, will contribute to providing autonomy to staff, encouraging mastery of their craft, and giving their work a purpose.

Effective time-tracking practices enable developers to gain control over how they spend their time and inform project managers to motivate them to perform better.

This aspect is helped considerably by having managers who understand how much time goes into certain pieces of work. Realistic timelines can become incentives.

If managers don’t have hands-on experience, you can involve team members in setting timelines. Rather than guess what might be an appropriate deadline, involving staff by asking what’s reasonable gives them a better chance of delivering work on time.

Choose a time-tracking software that delivers detailed reports

Identify key features that may be crucial to your business but remain open to slight changes in process. Stay focused on the impact and benefits you will receive from quality time tracking.

Some aspects to consider:

• A stop-start timer vs. entry of time blocks (or both).
• The ability to “pin” timecodes to timesheets.
• Keyboard optimisation.
• The ability to flip between daily and weekly views.
• Embedded in a system that helps you make sense of the time.
• Time that’s connected to a view of your budget burn.