Leadtime aims to improve productivity in the company systematically. To do this, we need to quantify productivity exactly – and the most obvious unit for that is time.
Especially for a service company, time is an extremely valuable resource: The business model basically is about selling employees’ working time to customers. Every activity in the company takes up time – whether it’s work on a customer project or just a chat in the hallway. And obviously not all those activities are equally productive. That’s why the management should really get a deep understanding of how all the working time in the company is used. And because of that, we just can’t get around full time tracking.
In our experience, a lot of companies in this industry only use time tracking inconsistently – for example, just for billing customer projects. The reason is that time tracking is often unpopular with employees; it just feels a bit like being watched and controlled. And we don’t even want to deny that argument: Of course that’s exactly what it’s about. We want to get a full picture of how all the working time in the company is being used – after all, we do pay for it in terms of salaries. But our goal isn’t to call out individual employees. What we really want is to analyze the structures of how time is spent in the company and figure out where we can improve overall productivity.
It's obvious: Keeping accurate time records is super useful and insightful for any organization; still, a lot of businesses don't use this powerful tool consistently, or don't use it at all. These are the most common reasons:
A lot of employees see time tracking as a form of micromanagement, which can make them uncomfortable and lead to pushback. People often value having some autonomy over how they work. If it feels like these new measures are meant for supervision and control, it can really undermine the trust between management and staff. Instead of being seen as a tool to boost efficiency and productivity, time tracking might be taken as a sign that their professionalism isn't respected.
Using a task-based time tracker can feel awkward or inconvenient to employees. You only get truly meaningful data if people log what they're doing in real time. And if they have to keep switching between apps just to do it, it can totally break their workflow. This hits extra hard in creative or super focused jobs like coding, where any interruption can be super frustrating. Time tracking then just feels like unnecessary extra work that doesn't really help with productivity or the quality of what gets done.
Management often underestimates how useful properly recorded time tracking data would actually be for running the company and making strategic decisions. Time tracking gives you valuable insights into workflows, team capacity, and project efficiency. This info is critical for making smart choices about resources, budgets, and streamlining how things get done.
Assuming that a company doesn't need any formal time tracking systems in the future just because it has been successful without them so far is a cognitive bias that can hurt the organization's ability to adapt and its future competitiveness. This argument ignores how dynamic the business environment is and the ever-growing demands for efficiency and productivity. In the early days, an informal or ad-hoc approach to time management might have been enough. But as the company grows, hires more people, and projects get more complicated, a systematic way to track time becomes more and more important and powerful. The loss of work hours caused by inefficient processes and pointless meetings multiplies with every new hire.
So, we strongly suggest you bring your team along when introducing time tracking. Ideally, set up a presentation where you lay out the main benefits and introduce the system. Here are the main arguments for keeping track of time consistently:
More mindful use of time. Documenting your own time usage helps you be more aware of how you spend it. Team members realize how much time goes into unproductive things like aimless browsing or using social media.
Clearer focus. Tracking time helps you focus on single tasks instead of doing ineffective multitasking. This makes it easier to work in manageable chunks and feel good about your workflow.
Less stress. Getting a clearer picture of how much you can do and how much work you really have helps you set priorities and realistic goals, which cuts down on stress.
More ownership. Knowing every minute matters boosts your focus and motivation, leading to greater job satisfaction.
Team sync. Time tracking makes sure everyone is up to date on the same info, which is key for sticking to deadlines and coordinating team activities.
Measuring progress. Leaders can keep track of how the team is doing and make adjustments if needed.
Better workload distribution. By tracking working hours, you can spot and adjust uneven work distribution. This helps make sure the workload is spread out fairly.
Spotting room for improvement. Analyzing working hours helps you find areas where the team or individual members can be more efficient and productive.
Stronger quotes. When you track the exact time spent on tasks and projects, companies can make more and more accurate cost estimates over time. This helps them create realistic and competitive quotes that work for the business and for the customer. Clear invoices boost customer trust in your efficiency and fairness, and show professionalism and reliability.
Making sure projects are profitable. Even companies that set flat fees need to track time. Without it, you might not notice that some projects eat up more resources than they bring in. Accurate time tracking makes sure every project isn’t just good for your clients, but also stays financially healthy.
If you’re introducing time tracking for everyone, it’s important to take your team’s worries and concerns seriously. Stress that it’s a necessary organizational step toward being more professional. Make it clear that once a company reaches a certain size, you just can’t manage it effectively without something like this. Point out any current organizational pain points your company is experiencing. And most of all: lead by example. If the boss doesn’t track their time properly, that sloppy attitude will rub off on the rest of the team.
Leadtime builds time tracking right into the daily workflow and makes recording time easy and intuitive. Some of the most important Leadtime features for time tracking are:
Task-based tracking: Employees log their working hours directly to specific tasks and projects, so every deliverable is recorded and assigned accurately.
Automatic reminders: Leadtime automatically reminds team members to log their time—so no one forgets, and the tracking stays complete.
Comprehensive reports: Leadtime gives you valuable reports and analytics that help management understand productivity, project profitability, and team workload.
Customizable settings: You can tweak Leadtime to match your company’s specific needs, like defining different activity types or creating individual time accounts for each employee.
