The 7 Best Employee Productivity Tracking Software For SMBs

With the advent of technology and thanks in part to the global Covid pandemic, it has now become commonplace for businesses, irrespective of their scale or vertical, to work with remote teams and with freelancers. 

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This throws up a new challenge, especially for small and medium business owners.

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Tracking the productivity of your remote team, and making sure they are putting in optimum efforts can be nigh impossible without using the right work performance monitoring tools. This holds doubly true if you’re working with freelance contractors.

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Thankfully, there are plenty of time and productivity tracking tools in the market, but that only makes picking the right one difficult. 

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We’ve compiled a list of the best employee productivity tracking software for small and medium businesses to help narrow down your choices. 

What is employee productivity tracking software?

An employee productivity tracking software is a software tool designed to help business owners increase their team productivity by analyzing the time taken by an individual or a team to work on a project or a task. 

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The software studies the amount of time spent using software and other business tools to actually work on the task in question, how those tools were used, and what that employee or freelancer was doing while not using those tools. 

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This data helps managers and business owners optimize their team’s productivity and streamline employee performance. The data from these tools will also give insights into any process gaps that may exist, and eventually help increase revenue.

Benefits of employee productivity tracking software

You may be wondering if a small business actually needs employee productivity tracking software. Well, the benefits of using one are immense, and we’d like to bring some of these to your attention.

Set objectives

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One of the main reasons why businesses suffer from a lack of productivity is because there isn’t enough clarity as to what things need to be done first and why. 

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A productivity tracker will help make it clear to your team members or to the freelancers working with you what their priorities on a daily basis ought to be and how they ought to tackle them. 

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This is done by analyzing the way they utilize their time and the resources at their disposal.

Boost productivity

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There are two aspects in which productivity trackers can help improve your team’s productivity. 

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By analyzing the data generated by these tools, managers can spot gaps in the process that may be impeding productivity, and rectify the process, thereby improving productivity.

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These tools also show employees where they may be lagging behind on visual graphs, making it easy for them to change their approach to improve productivity. 

Bring visibility

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By using a productivity tracker, employees or freelancers are immediately aware of what tasks are assigned to them and how long they have to complete them. 

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Similarly, the dashboards on these tools give managers and business owners clear visibility of where their projects stand, allowing them to make changes or add more resources if needed to get it completed on schedule. 

Task prioritization

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A productivity dashboard enables managers to allocate tasks based on priority and set project milestones accordingly. It also allows employees to organize their schedules based on these priorities and deadlines.

Simplify billing in the case of freelancers

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While your business may get paid a certain amount for a project or for providing a service, the freelancers you employ may need to be paid an hourly rate. 

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A productivity tracker is the best way to manage billing your customers as well as knowing what your freelance contractors are owed. 

The best software for employee productivity tracking

Now that you have a fair idea of how small and medium-sized businesses benefit from using productivity trackers, let’s take a look at our top picks.

Prio Time Tracking

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We at Prio have a pretty comprehensive time-tracking tool that can see you through the entire cycle of a project, right from tracking billable hours to receiving payments, all while giving you analytical insights.

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Even before you invite team members or the freelancers you’re working with to start using the tool, you can define their title, their role, and how much access to the tool they will be allowed.

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You can get them to start using the tool by simply sending them a link to their email. In the case of freelancers, you can even set an hourly billable rate that will apply when they start tracking their progress. 

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That way, even your contractors will be aware that they need to use the tool in order for them to get paid accurately.

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The user interface itself is easy to navigate, with options to both enter times manually or to start the automatic timer when they begin working and stop when they end for the day.

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The tool can also generate useful reports for you, including cost vs income reports, all of which can be exported. The best part is you can get access to Prio’s amazing time-tracking tool by subscribing to it absolutely free! 

Whatfix

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Whatfix addresses productivity not by time tracking, but by providing employees with on-demand training related to the tools, technology, and processes they use to perform their jobs. 

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While the training and support functions are enabled by guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, flows, pop-ups, beacons, and more, the DAP also has an automatic tasklist progression monitor that allows managers to track progress and productivity while giving the employees checklists to adhere to.

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Whatfix natively integrates with LMS systems and can work seamlessly on top of most CRM, ERP, and HCM applications. 

Time Doctor

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Time Doctor helps employees improve productivity while giving business owners and managers an insight into how their team is performing as well as areas with scope for improvement.

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The tool allows employees to track their productivity and send their managers daily or weekly productivity reports. It also gives managers details such as how much time each team member spends using on-the-job tools, what websites they visit for how long, and more. 

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While Time Doctor empowers employees to work on their productivity and track their attendance, it also alerts managers when things go awry. It also similarly alerts managers of excessive workload and chances of burnout.

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The tool is capable of payroll management and processing billing, in addition to being able to integrate with more than 60 project management, communication, and accounting software.

Timely

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Timely is a simple tool that shows you exactly how much time a freelancer or team member spends on a particular task. 

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It shows you how much time was spent on the task in question and how much time was spent on other distractions like social media websites or low-priority tasks such as daily meetings, administrative chores, and answering emails.

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By giving you access to this information, Timely allows you to identify and plug the obvious gaps in productivity.

Proof Hub

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Proof Hub helps increase productivity by addressing communication gaps and presenting possible solutions to roadblocks. The tool has an easy-to-use interface that integrates multiple project management tools. 

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Internal communication tools like slack, Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and more are available in a single dashboard, allowing managers to get an overview of where ongoing projects stand and what tasks are still pending. 

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Proof Hub also helps team members find solutions by offering them contextual files and process documentation thanks to the in-built organizational tools. Your team’s workflow can also be integrated with different formats like PDF and an all-in-one platform.

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Integrating chat platforms makes communication and collaboration with clients easier and more transparent. You can even customize your account to reflect your brand’s identity by adding your logo

Trello

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Trello helps small and medium business owners and managers keep track of their team's productivity thanks to its Kanban board view, which allows you to get a birds-eye view of the status of projects on one page.

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Team members can time track their progress, and change the status of their tasks once they are done. Managers can schedule, assign and edit tasks by simply dragging and dropping them. 

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Trello also has easy file-sharing capabilities and a calendar view, making it easier to manage projects.

Everhour

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Everhour is a productivity and time management tool that works brilliantly when you need to manage remote teams. You can use it to manage payrolls, invoices, and budgeting thanks to its integrations with tools like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, and Clickup.

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In addition to time tracking, you can also set time estimates to chart progress, and even set deadline reminders for team members.

Get started with Prio’s time tracking today

While we have introduced you to some of the best productivity tracking devices used by small and medium businesses, we’d like to suggest that you begin by trying Prio’s free time tracking tool first. 

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You’d be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive time-tracking tool that comes with no financial commitments. And while you’re at it, check out some of the other amazing solutions aimed specifically at freelancers and entrepreneurs like yourself. 

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