Time Tracking Programs

Time Tracking Program is a sort of tools used for controlling and measuring working time in business. Such programs are widely used to organize project workgroups – to explain time constraints to employees, to map out timeline of the project, etc. Technologies used to drive some samples of these tools can function as gadgets (individual utility connected to a single central point called “server”) permanently running on personal computers of employees, and are used as interfaces for instant reporting on working tasks to managers. Those programs may employ such important features:

• These programs act like journals. All the variety of workloads is allotted (by project or business manager) among the workgroup members, so that everyone is assigned to his/her specific tasks. During the day people report their tasks via interfaces of their utilities (client applications) – these data pieces get recorded into a shared database that is like a journal that can be accessed and reviewed by the supervisors;

• They provide employees with different forms. The point of such forms is to associate working tasks with their parameters, and they may appear as calendars, timesheets, WBS, etc. While being working on computer of an employee, a gadget may provide him/her with such an electronic form (suiting current needs of employee) helping to formalize reports and record them in a solely systematized database;

• These programs give the superiors possibilities for analyzing logs. This helps them to define efficiency of their job management policies, as with a help of checking logs they are able to examine if all tasks were completed on time, and if not, then whom of the employees assume the most severe or critical procrastinations, etc. This analysis can be done with a help of charts showing the actual time compared against the planned one; 

Specific example of time tracking program for business:

VIP Task Manager is a client-server program that allows communicating reports from employees to managers in real-time regime. This software provides its users with three agile modes for managing and sharing their tasks (Task List, Task Tree and Calendar modes), and also it features time tracking charts (Pie diagram, Column diagram, etc). This is not a free program, but it is an effective commercial solution with free trial version (30 days) and live-chat/email support service.