Top Five Timesheet Management Systems

What is a timesheet?

A timesheet is a virtual tool that enables you to track and record your worked time. By using a timesheet, you can follow or see precisely how many hours you have accomplished. Using a timesheet as an employer, you can also track how many hours each employee has worked.

The purpose of a timesheet

In a working environment, a timesheet is an essential tool. The primary use of a timesheet is for payroll, accounting, and human resource management. A timesheet works like a database that contains all the information needed for employers, and it helps to pay workers fairly.

Best timesheet management systems

There are many timesheet management systems which are essential to managing your time. Some of them are listed below:

1- Time Doctor

The best timesheet software programs not only keep track of your time, but they also maximize your productivity and profitability level, and the time doctor is one of them.

It is an automated time tracking software that enables you to generate automated timesheets in the form of various reports. There are also free timesheet calculators available, one of such is provided by dremployee.



For employees, they need to press a start button on the application to start a timer, which starts tracking their time they are spending on a task. Time doctor ensures that employees don't have to fill in timesheets manually. It is accessible on desktops, tablets, and even on mobile phones.

2- TSheets

For the employees who are always on the move, can keep track of time. It allows you to track employee time accurately from any device. Tsheets is a handy tool for sales and support teams, freelancers on long term projects for the company, and remote sides of all sizes. Tsheets can be used on desktops, tablets, and mobile phones as well. 

It also has a GPS option that helps to track your employees when they clock in or clock out. Tsheets is a great tool to increase employee accountability. Another useful feature Tsheets has that the employee can attach a photo of the completed task and attach it to the timesheet.

Tsheets also has permissions and restrictions option, and you can grant permissions and restrictions to your employees based on the job.

3- Clicktime

Another useful app is to click time that allows businesses to track and monitor employee time usage and billable time. It also maximizes the productivity level and profitability. 

Clicktime is available on desktops, web, and mobile devices, including windows, mac, Linux, ios, blackberry, and android. Clicktime is a comprehensive app that has various other features, and its customer support team can help you to integrate these features.

4- Hubstaff

Hubstaff is another valuable tool that allows you to track and monitor employee activities during working hours. It helps you to see how productively employees are spending their time at work. 

Hubstaff is best for small, medium businesses and with remote teams and provides you highly accurate timesheets. It shows you a better understanding of your team's capacity. It also linked to payroll, and you don't have to do manual calculations to pay your freelancers who bill you by the hour.

Hubstaff is accessible on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

5- Everhour

Everhour is another well-designed and straightforward tool that can be used for reporting and invoicing. It is a valuable tool for freelancers and small and medium businesses. It creates highly customizable reports for you.

Everhour has many features, including a monthly timesheet, an over-time report, and a real-time dashboard. It also has a reminder option that reminds you to track time on working days if you haven't recorded time yet.

Everhour is accessible on Chrome, iOS, Windows, and Mac.

Things to Consider When Choosing Business Broadband

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Fast Internet has become vital in the age of digital communication and business. However, figuring out the best deals can be tricky. The wrong choice can leave you paying a lot but receiving little. To start with, always consider the following.

1. Download Limits

Your data requirements are set by the type of business you run. Some businesses can save money by opting for a set limit but for larger businesses or anyone dealing with large files like video, unlimited downloads are essential.

2. Location

Find out which provider offers the best service in your area. The best deals may come from Vodafone, SSE or someone you would not expect so research every option. If your business is located somewhere rural you will have fewer options and it is even more important that you find a reliable broadband provider.

3. Price

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. Finding the balance between quality and price is important. Saving money does not help if the service does not function. The question you need to ask is whether your business can afford to have an unreliable Internet connection. If the answer is "no" then pay extra.

4. Cloud Storage

If your business relies upon cloud storage then you need to ensure your Internet connection can handle it. The space you require depends on the size of your business and the type of file you need to store. The last thing anyone needs is to suddenly run out of cloud storage when you are part way through an important backup.

5. Customer Service

Businesses have much more complex requirements than home users. High-quality tech support is the only way to deal with certain issues. When your internet is down, you need companies that you can rely on potentially at any time of the day so it may be worth prioritizing a larger company like Vodafone or SSE.

6. Download and Upload Speed

Paying for a download speed of hundreds of megabytes per second is pointless if your company will never utilize it. If the only files you need to transmit are text documents and spreadsheets then pick a cheaper package instead of paying for the very best.

7. Contract Length

Despite your best efforts, you may still end up with a contract that is less than perfectly suited to your business. You do not want to be tied to the same contract for years after discovering it is wrong for you. If you are less than totally sure about your requirements and whether the contracts you are considering can fulfill them, it may be best to opt for a shorter contract so you have the freedom to change sooner rather than later.

8. Security

Cyber security is essential for any modern business of any size and your broadband provider can provide assistance. Some packages come with extras like security packages that can offer firewalls, anti-virus software, spam filters and more. Remember that since you will need to invest in security anyway, it may be cheaper to get it as part of an Internet package.

9. Mobile Data

High-speed mobile data is now available in most places across the country. This helps as smartphones and tablets have become more and more ubiquitous for doing business on the move. If you need to travel often or need to use mobile devices regularly for any other reason, then it is in your best interest to find a broadband provider that can offer a decent mobile connection in addition to the landline.

How Your Facilities Reflect on Your Business

Your facilities most definitely reflect on your business. No matter how well run your business is, how great your products, and even how well priced, if your business facilities are untidy or under par they will negatively impact your business. Appearances count, so do first impressions. Big time! 

So what do you do if your business facilities aren’t quite up to scratch and you really can’t afford to upgrade them? What if you only have clients intermittently, so you can’t justify the expense of upgrading your business facility? There is a solution. Servcorp Australia are available from companies like Servcorp, either as part of a virtual office service, or for one-off use for that especially important business meeting. You can impress your clients with beautifully appointed meeting rooms, boardrooms and fancy foyers.
What You See Is What You Get

Human nature being what it is; we are hardwired to absorb visual information and form mental judgements based on what we see. If we see a shabby office we will unconsciously interpret that visual into an assessment that the company inhabiting the facility is also shabby; believing automatically that they probably offer shabby service and shabby merchandise. We really do believe that we see is what we will get. So if you hold that important business meeting in a less than adequate facility, chances are you will not clinch the deal – no matter how whiz bang your presentation is. Shabby does not say successful and it is not likely to engender a response of – I just really want to partner with this company. 

Colours and Layouts Create an Impression

When you are fitting out and painting your facility you really need to consider the impression you are trying to create. Colours and office layout will play a major role in how clients perceive your business, so think about what impression you want them to take away and set about creating it. For instance an open plan layout and shorter office partitioning will create a sense of communication and openness – the right look and feel for an ad agency, but highly unsuitable for a legal office where confidentiality is important. 

Get an Outside Opinion

Because we spend so much time at work, we get very used to our surroundings at work. Just because you are used to the look and feel of your business facility, and feel reasonably comfortable with it, does not mean it will create a good impression on clients. It is a good idea to get an outside opinion when trying to assess the adequacy of your business facility. Ask a number of people, friends and family, business associates and also an expert – an office designer for example. Getting a good cross-section of opinions will give you the best chance to get an unbiased opinion of your facility. They will help your see your space with fresh eyes.

First impressions are vitally important and nowhere more so than in the office where visitors will decide whether or not to do business with you based on what they see.

How to Find a Barter WebSite

Bartering is not an activity confined to Victorian England where goods were exchanged between companies for the same value because it is still practised today. In the digital age, there are many barter sites which are used by scores of organisations around the world. The services which it provides can be exchanged for what other companies or individuals specialise in. Tracking down a barter site can be difficult but here’s how to find one:

Ask contacts 

The contacts which an organisation has can be asked about the bartering sites they use. By asking multiple contacts, they could be given information about various bartering websites. When the same bartering website is mentioned, it is very popular and could be what an organisation joins.

Before choosing a bartering website based on such recommendations, ask contacts about their experience. If they have encountered any problems, an organisation will know what they are. In fact, there can be no faults with some websites or any of them. Consequently, these bartering websites could be used because of such positive feedback.

Post a message in an online forum

There are many online forums which enable organisations to pose questions to each other. By asking a question about a recommended barter site, an organisation could be inundated with replies. Although some bartering sites might not be trustworthy, the same logic here applies as with asking contacts – when the same bartering website is suggested several times, this indicates that it is popular.

Ask friends

Not only can a business contact be asked regarding the bartering sites which they recommend but also friends. The skills which a friend has can be bartered for goods between other people. The bartering sites which friends suggest could be entirely different than what various contacts mentioned and these can also be considered. 

Some of the bartering websites which are mentioned by friends could be the same as what an organisation’s contacts said which, therefore, further demonstrates their popularity. By investigating all of the sites that friends and other loved ones suggest, the merits of each can be written down. If there is one which seems to stand out from the rest, it can be added to another list that contains the sites which look very impressive and could be the most beneficial.

Search on video sharing websites

Many barter sites have released promotional videos stating the benefits of choosing it over their rivals. Explaining how easy it is to barter goods and services, videos for many bartering websites can be watched on such video sharing websites as YouTube and Vimeo. By entering ‘bartering site’ onto these and any other video sharing websites, several promotional videos can be found. 

Although not every video has to be watched because it can take a long time, the ones that have the most hits can be viewed instead. When a video has been watched thousands of times, the site which it promotes can be investigated further and could be what an organisation finally chooses.

Author Bio

Bartercard is one the leading barter sites that offer businesses a platform to exchange goods and services rather than part with currency such as cash. Find out more by visiting http://www.bartercard.co.uk today.

Small-Scale Outsourcing: Lucrative?

Early on in his first term, President Obama’s administration made some claims that they will be bringing the jobs back home and putting some pressure on outsourcing by ending tax breaks to US companies that engage in heavy outsourcing operations.

A lot of companies didn’t agree with clamping down on outsourcing as a means to get our people back to work once again; if anything it could even work against the small entrepreneurs and startups by making the financial barriers to profitability that much harder to scale.

Further examination of this issue doesn’t make it any more sensible. We all belong to a wholly global economy now, and utilizing manpower and resources overseas to accomplish business goals on your home country is a practice that isn’t going away.

Inevitable and Profitable

One way or the other, we have to outsource, and the solution to getting people employed here once again is not to prevent outsourcing, but to create new ways to do business that take advantage of the rich availability of offshore manpower and resources.

For the small entrepreneur such as myself, I have had some moderate success in farming out tasks and even entire projects to contractors outside the country. It has gotten to a point that I have decided to expedite forming an LLC that offers outsourced services to my fellow small entrepreneurs.

For as long as they have stable internet connectivity and have a solid command of the English language (either that, or you yourself know how to speak their native tongue), this could be the way to grow your business without getting mired in overhead costs. Below are some distinct points that highlight the advantages and dispel some negative myths on small-scale outsourcing.

Competent Professionals are Available

Just as there are incompetent people in just about every nook and cranny all over the civilized (and even uncivilized) world, there are those who exhibit excellence in their work. You, as a business owner, would like to be able to get the best talent you can afford. To compromise on that by getting a higher paid, less-qualified individual because he/she just happens to be from the same country isn’t good business sense.

No doubt, you’ve heard of some horror stories of outsourced projects going awry thanks to people who don’t know what they’re doing, but the reason for these failures aren’t mainly due to the fact that the work or tasks were outsourced, but because they were outsourced to the wrong people, or ill-managed by the project managers that were in charge of monitoring their progress.

Not Everything Has to be Outsourced

This is something most alarmists aren’t considering when they proclaim the evils of outsourcing and how it takes food away from the American family’s dinner table and provides some terrorist the funds to buy their bombs. You’d think this is an overly gross exaggeration of some people’s sentiments, but look around the internet for a bit and you’ll see this kind of thinking being propagated.

As I mentioned, the key is to utilize the offshore resources to create even better jobs for the local professionals. It takes some out-of-the-box thinking and a broad perspective on what is possible, and that’s something that makes a pioneering entrepreneur stand out amongst his/her peers.
With these insights, I enjoin all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there to partake of the best of what the world has to offer, and grow their dream businesses using the power of outsourcing!

About the Author

Stacey Thompson is a professional writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and a lover of weird little animals. She is based in San Diego, California, and maintains a blog with her gal pals, Word Baristas.

Measures to minimize cyber security threats

For all companies, there are several potential cyber security threats. As a matter of fact, a lot of businesses are unaware of security measures they can take to help them in protecting their technology. Some of the things that a business may do to minimize the threats include;

Raising awareness

Ensure that all the staffs comprehend the importance of being curious with emails. Not to automatically supply information, check who they send emails to prior to clicking "send". This should be a continuous process because problems are bound to change.

Use defensive technology

Ensure that all the protections are up-to-date. Ensuring that defensive software is properly installed and functioning and programs are updated. This can prevent hackers from gaining access or finding weaknesses to the company's systems.

Secure the physical assets of the company

Make sure the office computers are guarded from theft. The main server should be locked away securely and they should be alarmed and adequately secured. It will be catastrophic if a person gets into your system and destroy your data. Make sure there is an effective back-up system tested routinely, stored correctly and taken regularly.

Safeguard remote and mobile access

Ensure all the data are correctly transferred especially the ones which are sensitive. Data can easily be protected on the move by the use of encryption. This means additional programs scramble data and that only a key (Password or a PIN) can typically unlock it.

Review personal devices

It is worthwhile to have an idea of the personal devices used by staffs especially if they are using them to connect to the business network. If the staffs are utilizing their own devices, the devices should be protected and properly secured.

Assess redundant equipment

Photocopiers, printers and computers all store data even after everything is deleted. It is vital to find a reputable firm to dispose all equipment to make sure all the data in them is destroyed. 

By enhancing vigilance and implementing all these measures, you will greatly minimize cyber security threats to the company and safeguard the assets.

Shared Office Space: The Incubator of the Internet Age

There was a time, not too long ago, when every business that dared to call itself legitimate had an office. This necessity created many of the images that we associate with business success today. Who doesn’t imagine the friendly secretary in the lobby, the coveted corner office, or the wood-paneled boardroom when they think about what it must be like to have a successful company? These are nearly universal images, but they have less and less to do with business now that the information age is reaching maturity. 

Many modern businesses don’t have offices, and more of them are being founded every day in coffee shops, libraries, and living rooms. An internet connection is one of the only barriers left between a merchant and a consumer, and the global recession has encouraged even large companies to re-examine what a traditional office actually offers them. There are several distinct advantages to abandoning office space.

First, there are very few communication problems left. Even the most complex teams can be easily managed with collaboration software, and these teams can now be located all over the world. Second, most interactions with both customers and clients will occur online, anyway. Finally, office space is a major expense considering both the previous points. It’s certainly too much of an expense for most start-ups that are still trying to get off the ground.

That said, there are many advantages that an office offers. Most significantly, it is a place for people with similar interests and expertise to connect and develop. The kind of spontaneous collaboration that happens in offices is hard to replicate when communication is done online. However, there is a way to capture the best of both worlds through shared office space.

Those who run internet businesses probably don’t have enough employees to make office space worth it. That doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy a space dedicated to work, and being around people who share the same interests and industries. 

What is Shared Office Space?

Shared office space comes in many different forms. Typically, when someone who owns office space has trouble renting the property whole, he or she will experiment with selling access to space within the office instead. Sometimes, businesses will end up with more space than they need, and try to use up the rest of the space by sub-letting it to other small ventures or individuals. Other times, the office space will be specifically designed so that it can be used as shared office space.

The result is the same. Many different people, affiliated with many different businesses, will end up enjoying the same office space. In most cases, only a few businesses will be represented. However, some offices will be shared between dozens of different people working independently on their own businesses. The shared office may be organized so that everyone has their own enclosed room, or as an open space where territory is only defined by the position of the desks.

This arrangement can sound very confusing to those who haven’t experienced it, yet. However, shared office space offers several serious benefits to the people who take advantage of it. 

What Benefit Does Shared Office Space Offer to Start-Ups?

There are several important benefits that shared office space offers to startups and other small businesses. For many people, shared office space is attractive because of the cost. Shared office space is very cheap, often only a fraction of the price of normal offices. This makes a huge difference in major hubs like New York and London. Most start-ups would not be able to have any space where they could meet people professionally if they were not able to take advantage of shared office space.

The most significant benefit of sharing office space is likely the opportunity it offers to meet forward-thinking people who are in the same industries. Many shared office spaces try to develop a “culture”. That is to say, they try to lease shared office space to people that share the same interests. Some shared office spaces are populated almost entirely be people who are running social media businesses. Others may be focused on accounting or finance.

It was never easy for small business owners to meet one another. It can be a very lonely life. Shared office space is one of the first modern developments to allow these business owners to meet and work with each other on a daily basis. Many people who have tried shared office space say it works like an incubator. It’s much easier to learn and develop in an industry when you are surrounded by people who share both your interests and your motivations.

It may not be easy to find shared office space where all the tenants are in the same industry as you, but it is at least easy to find shared office space all over the world. 

Where Can Shared Office Space Be Found?

Shared office space can be found in almost any major city, and it is also showing up in a lot of smaller towns as well. Shared office space can be found through traditional classifieds like those on craigslist, but there are also some websites that now specialize in matching people who want office space with those that are setting up shared arrangements. 

Should You Consider Shared Office Space?

Shared office space might be a good fit for you depending on your situation. If you only have a few employees, it can be a great way to save some money on full office space. If you are self-employed as the only person in your business, you may benefit from having a change of scenery and somewhere you can focus only on work with no interruptions.

You should also consider what you have to gain by meeting other people who could help you with your business. It can be very hard to find mentors and people who share your vision. Sharing office space could give you that opportunity.


About Simeon Howard

Simeon G Howard, born in Hampstead London, started his first business at age 21. By age 25, this serial entrepreneur had founded Your City Office Ltd, a Virtual Office and Office Space brokerage firm. Drawing from his past experiences, he and his partners have quickly built and developed one of the UKs leading organizations in this industry.

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