10 Best Employee Monitoring Software

Source: Pexels

A recent FlexJobs study shows a 159% increase in the number of workers working remote since 2005. The study also found that these 4.7 million people in the U.S who currently telecommute, are not the only Americans interested. 89% of those who replied to the survey said that they’d prefer to telecommute up to 100% of the time. 

With a more mature remote-work culture emerging, it’s also a great time for employers to take a closer look at what a fully remote workforce may entail. There are a lot of resources now available from articles illustrating “10 Ways to Improve Employee Efficiency” to conferences where business owners can learn from others who have successfully navigated the (smooth) waters like Running Remote (who also happens to have a very popular podcast).

Many of these savvy business owners know that one of the most important tools they can rely on is an employee time tracking app and we’ve done the research to outline the 10 best employee monitoring software for you, below. 

1. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is the leader in the industry when it comes to employee monitoring software. Time Doctor makes managing a distributed team a synch with easy to use employee tools and robust employer management resources. 

Features

Time Tracking

The timer is easy to use when an employee starts a new task or project, with just one-click, they are on their way. Managers can track the time spent by each employee categorized by client, project or task. This allows the manager to easily make changes to workload, project assignments and more. 

API and Integrations

Have other web applications that you use to manage your business or team? Great, Time Doctor has a seamless and fast API that allows both reading and writing abilities to plug directly into your other systems. You’ll have powerful information right at your fingertips with useful insights into your employee time tracking app and your other platforms that speak directly to each other through the API. Time Doctor integrates with all leading project management and accounting tools including JIRA, Asana, Trello, GitHub, Basecamp, Slack, Salesforce, Teamwork.com, Todoist, Podio, QuickBooks, Freshdesk, Redmine, Google Apps, Zoho, Yammer, and more.

Billing

You can automatically calculate your payroll using either fixed salaries or the hours that have been tracked. You can also manage client billing, down to the minute – allowing you ultimate productivity as well!

Time Use Alerts

If an employee sits idle for too long, they will receive a pop alert asking if they need to make an adjustment to their time card. This pop up also appears if an employee strays onto a non-work related website or app, helping to keep the employee engaged and focused. 

Web and App Usage

You’ll get a clear and accurate picture of the websites and apps your employees are using so you can take the opportunity to coach them proactively. If you see that an employee is spending too long a particular site, there may be a need for additional training. Being proactive can help reduce friction later.

Powerful Reporting

Time Doctor allows you to receive daily and weekly reports that give you insight into hours, website and app usage, tasks worked on, client breakdowns and much more. Employees also receive these powerful insights in order to identify productivity-wasting behaviors and make adjustments in order to stay on track. 

Pricing

With costs as low as $9.99/month per user, Time Doctor is the best choice for your employee time tracking app needs as it has the most robust feature set. They also offer a 14 day free trial to test the platform that does not require a credit card.

2. Toggl

Toggl is an employee time tracking app that is also an affordable choice mostly for small teams and freelancers. 

Features

Time Tracking

Toggl has a one-click time tracking app that allows easy toggling between projects that can be super useful for the freelancer who likes to switch between projects and clients often.

100+ App Integrations

With over 100 integrations that embed the Toggl Button inside other online apps, this employee monitoring software, seamlessly integrates.

Tracking Reminders

The Toggl Button and Desktop app not only remind employees that they may have forgotten to start a timer but it also tracks idle time to let the employee and potentially, manager know that the employee has been idle. These nudges can be great for productivity. 

Profits vs Labor Costs

Data visualization is super easy with Toggl. You can easily see which projects are most profitable with their simple reporting tools. 

Team Dashboard

The dashboard feature allows you to make sure that no individual employee has more work than they can handle and helps you redistribute as necessary. 

Pricing

Toggl offers a free 30-day trial and pricing starts at $10 a month for monthly plans and goes up from there.

3. Everhour

Everhour is an employee time tracking app that can be used for billing, payroll and more. It works inside many popular project management platforms.

Features

One-click time tracking

Employees can utilize the simple one-click timer to start and stop tracking when working on multiple tasks or projects at once. There is also a manual recording option.

Copy recent

Everhour allows employees to save time by copying recent timecards for recurring projects, tasks or clients.

Timeline

Employees can view their day at a glance through the handy timeline feature. They can then see if they have any gaps and easily adjust.

Pricing

Pricing for teams is $7/user per month with a minimum of $35/month (5 users). Pricing for individual users is $8/month. Learn more here.

4. Hours

Hours recently became a contender for teams as this employee monitoring software now allows for better collaboration. 

Features

Real time tracking

You can have multiple projects running at one time which is helpful for employees who like to switch between projects instead of taking a single project to completion before moving on to the next.

Reports

Helpful reports allow for you to see what all your employees are working on and better manage the workflow. 

Timeline

Making adjustments to a workday is easy by viewing the timeline view. The employee can see any gaps or misreporting to easily adjust. 

Pricing

Hours is free to get started and you can upgrade as needed to meet your team’s needs. Pricing can be determined by signing up on the Hours website. 

5. Harvest

Harvest is a popular employee monitoring software with creative agencies. Since 2006, Harvest has been helping companies track employee time and expenses. 

Features

Time tracking

Employees can track time using the mobile or desktop app and can also make adjustments to their timesheets as needed. 

Project Tools

Harvest allows you to set budgets for projects and assign time to the budgeted time which is super helpful for improving project scoping and management. 

Integrations

As expected from any employee time tracking app, Harvest has many integration partnerships to take advantage of. 

Expense tracking

Harvest allows employees to seamless track expenses along with their time, which is really useful for managing overall project costs and a feature that agencies really enjoy. 

Invoicing

Invoicing clients is very easy through the Harvest tool and will simplify accounting processes. 

Pricing

One person with up to two projects is free using Harvest and if you need more, prices start at $12/month per user. Harvest also offers a free 30-day trial.

6. TSheets

With more than 20,000 five-star reviews, TSheets employee monitoring software can track time on any device and help streamline both payroll and invoicing.

Features

Time Tracking

Employees using TSheets can easily switch between job codes, record breaks, and clock in and out with one click. 

GPS Tracking

In scenarios when a dispatcher needs to know which employee can have the fastest response time; GPS tracking comes in very handy. 

Overtime

Do you have issues with paying too much overtime? TSheets has a useful feature to alert both you and your employee when the employee is close to going into overtime to help manage costs and expectations.

Scheduling

Easily edit shifts and post schedules for the team to see using the scheduling feature. 

Pricing

With a 14-day free trial you can see if TSheets meets the needs of your team. Prices include a base fee plus a per-user fee per month and can alternatively be paid annually. Visit their website for more detailed pricing.

7. Tick

Tick is an employee time tracking app that was created for the service industry and believes that time should be tracked just like inventory. Think of Tick as you would any other inventory management solution.

Features

Timecards and Running Timers

Here’s how Tick works: select your project, select the task, and enter your time. Like many employee monitoring software, you can also enter notes and toggle between running timers. 

Budget feedback

You can easily view time-to-budget within each time tracker so employees can stay on top of the budget. 

Enter time from anywhere

Tick believes that you can track time to a project even when you’re away from your computer so they allow you to easily track time from any device. 

Pricing

The first project is free and then goes up from there from $19/month and beyond. They also offer a 30-Day free trial.

8. Timely

Timely records everything throughout a time period and then uses AI technology to learn what should be recorded and gets better and better at suggesting appropriate time spent. The employee can make adjustments to teach the employee time tracking app what it should be recording and everything else is discarded.

Features

Time tracking

Timely’s Memory Tracker records everything that an employee works on and presents a timeline for the employee to review. 

Suggest

Using AI, Timely suggests appropriate tags for work that was recorded. The suggested times can be edited so it can learn what should be tracked and based on the employee’s feedback, how time should be.

Train

The employee can teach Timely to be smarter by renaming tags, titles, and adjusting grouped activities. Overtime the employee trains Timely to accurately record the time it tracks. 

Project time management

This employee time tracking app also helps busy teams stay on top of their priorities and project budgets through their project time management feature. 

Pricing

Individual prices start at $7/month and teams starts at $99/month for 5 seats. 

9. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is an employee time tracking app that also has many useful features that can be added-on depending on the needs of the organization.

Features

Time tracking

Hubstaff offers a time tracking element to their software that works on desktop, web, or via mobile device like most of the employee monitoring software out there.

Calendar Views

You can check-in on your employee’s progress and productivity with daily or weekly views of their calendars. 

Online timesheets

Hubstaff has a feature that allows for simple timesheet management online, reducing the need to remind your team that it’s time to turn in their timesheets in order to get paid. 

Easy Payroll

By setting up employee pay rates, you can easily pay your team from the online timesheets, which will greatly simplify your bookkeeping time. 

Team Scheduling

Better plan and track employee attendance through this handy team-scheduling feature. You’ll have a simple picture of who is scheduled and who has shown up for their shift. 

Pricing

Pricing starts at $20/user per month depending on the features. For more information, check out their pricing page.

10. Clockify

Clockify has a free version of their employee time tracking app that you can utilize for unlimited users and projects. If you find you need additional features, you can pay to gain access to more. 

Features

Time Tracker

Employees can keep track of billable time easily as well as set up easy timers using the simple time tracker. 

Dashboard

You can view all of your team’s time output by using the dashboard. The dashboard shows charts and at-a-glance information to make it easy to get a quick update on what your team is up to. 

Pricing

You can view the pricing and upgrade options on their website but their basic package is free of charge. 

Summary

Understanding how to get the most from your remote team is vital to running a profitable business. Adding an employee time tracking app to your toolbox will allow you to start with data and manage according to what your team is actually doing. Your employees likely want to be working remotely and with a time tracking app you can trust that they will still produce amazing results. Best of luck to you and your distributed workforce!