The benefits of time and expense software
Better time management: With time and expense management software, managers can keep better track of time spent by team members on individual tasks as well as overall projects. These solutions can provide insightful overviews of where employees are spending most of their time, making it easier to effectively organize, schedule tasks, and assign resources for projects.
Avoid budget overruns: This software helps define budgets for individual tasks and projects. Users can set alerts to keep project expenses within budget and readjust resources whenever budgets are about to be exceeded.
Accurate employee payroll and client billing: Time and expense management software enables managers to define billable and nonbillable tasks, along with hourly wages. Having predefined values allow businesses to accurately bill clients and calculate payroll for employees based on number of hours spent on assigned tasks.
Boosts collaboration and accountability: This software lets users assign tasks and define associated timelines in one centralized platform, increasing their sense of accountability to other team members as everyone is aware of each other’s level of contribution to the overall project. These platforms also allow users to collaborate with each other and collectively contribute to overall project success.
Typical features of time and expense software
Time and activity tracking: Track time spent by team members while completing tasks and activities on various projects.
Expense tracking: Monitor and log costs incurred by employees and tools used on specific projects.
Billing and invoicing: Manage monetary transactions between your business and your clients, including invoice generation.
Project tracking: Monitor the progress of various project from beginning to end, including individual tasks.
Reimbursement management: Track out-of-pocket expenses incurred by employees, clients, or consultants during a project lifecycle and manage reimbursement for eligible expenses.
The cost of time and expense software
Most products in the market are priced on a per user, per month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.
Price ranges*:
*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites on July 15, 2019. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.
The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as group-based access, custom security policies, single sign-on, billing workbench, and project status editor.
Considerations when purchasing time and expense software
Compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): The FLSA compels employers to keep proper records of overtime hours to ensure employees are paid for any overtime work. An FLSA-compliant solution limits organizations' exposure to associated risks and penalties by helping ensure compliance. Determine whether the software on your shortlist aids FLSA compliance.
Integration with current applications: Before investing in time and expense software, determine whether the solution you’re considering integrates with any existing payroll, accounting, and project management software you use to avoid errors, repeated work, and facilitate streamlined processes and workflows.
Multiple time-tracking modes: The software you choose should offer different time-tracking modes, such as daily timesheets, a timeclock, overtime scenarios, and project timesheets. Each mode offers a different tracking method, and multiple options allows your business to pick the mode that best suits the needs of your team members, clients, and projects.
Relevant time and expense software trends
Effective regulation of expense frauds with AI and ML: According to international studies, one out of every five expense reports is fraudulent. In the coming years, as businesses demand greater transparency in expense reporting, AI-powered time and expense solutions will allow companies to monitor, track, and approve expenses by automatically flagging and discarding expenses with associated discrepancies. Most vendors have already added AI capabilities to their time and expense solutions; expect more vendors to do the same.
Mobility is gaining popularity: An independent report states that 47% of businesses feel that mobile apps are critical for time and expense software. Having a dedicated mobile app enables traveling employees and remote workers to easily submit and approve time and expense reports from their mobile devices. Some solutions allow time and expense management through on-the-go through mobile apps; expect adoption rates of mobile-supported solutions to continue growing.
Sources
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra’s directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra’s directory that offer them.
The following sources were used for this document:
1. How will T&E Expense Management shape up in India in 2019: Trends & Predictions 2019 (Date accessed: August 29, 2019)
2. Expense Management Trends to Look for in 2019 (Date accessed: August 29, 2019)
3. Expense Management Trends Report (Date accessed: August 29, 2019)
4. Compliance Assistance - Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act (Date accessed: August 29, 2019)