Tracking time and productivity is pivotal for construction businesses, driving performance, goal tracking/setting, project management, and data-informed decisions. This article offers insights into how robust time-tracking tools like those from ExakTime help streamline construction operations and boost efficiency.
The Importance of Tracking and Measuring Goals and Time
Tracking and measuring key goals and time data is crucial for construction businesses to optimize performance and productivity. Well-defined metrics provide transparency into progress and pinpoint areas needing improvement.
Setting clear benchmarks for both quantitative project goals and employee time tracking enables data-driven management. Rather than flying blind, managers have actionable analytics.
Quantifying goals like safety incident reduction, on-time project delivery, and billable utilization clarifies objectives across units. Meanwhile, time tracking highlights both productive and wasted time.
Combined, goal and time data reveal how efficiently crews are converting time into progress. Activities falling short of targets indicate changes may be needed. Accurate tracking fosters accountability.
Analytics around whether goals are met for schedules, budgets, quality, and safety highlight roadblocks early when still correctable. Time audits help identify beneficial process improvement
With reliable tracking, successes can also be repeated and leveraged across projects. Time and goal performance tracking together provide a complete picture for managing a competitive construction business.
The Role of Time Tracking in Construction
Time tracking is essential in construction for tracking billable hours across projects, ensuring accurate payroll, maintaining compliance with prevailing wage laws, and gaining visibility into field productivity. Manual timecards are a major pain point, considering they are prone to errors and inefficiency. Construction firms often lose 10% or more of revenue annually due to inaccurate time tracking.
Automated time tracking provides complete transparency into true labor costs, project profitability, and field oversight. Data on hours worked, allocated across cost codes and projects, generates actionable insights for optimizing decisions.
Accurately tracking job hours improves payroll processing, billing accuracy, and trust in budgeting. Compliance with labor laws around breaks, hourly wages, overtime, and prevailing wage is easily demonstrated, avoiding litigation.
Connecting field teams directly into centralized time tracking removes bottlenecks. Management gains real-time visibility rather than waiting for paper time cards. Ultimately, automated time tracking becomes a core pillar of efficient construction operations.
Leveraging Time Data for Construction Project Management
Time-tracking measurement data enables vital project management functionality for construction firms. Tracking billable time by employee and project generates insights into resource allocation across jobs. Monitoring overtime indicates projects at risk of going over budget.
Activities without enough tracked time can identify missed billable hours. Analyzing time tracked against budgets improves future cost planning. This data facilitates realistic scheduling and budgeting to optimize profitability.
Project managers can track task progress based on hours logged, not just relying on visual observation. They gain data to negotiate change orders accurately. Projects stay on track and on budget with preventative action when time measurement tracking analytics pinpoint any deviations.
Increase Oversight of Field Productivity
Connecting crews in the field to project management with time tracking allows monitoring productivity and employee performance in real-time. Features like GPS tracking, geofencing, and photo verification confirm workers are present at job sites during scheduled shifts.
Monitoring time tracking compliance identifies potential issues like buddy punching instantly rather than weeks later. Alerts for unexpected absences or overtime allow immediate follow-up.
With all field data flowing into centralized systems, data capture and reporting provide a full audit trail for any project’s labor hours. Time tracking analytics helps identify opportunities to improve field productivity, like adjusting crew sizes or assignments.
Simplify Payroll Processing
Automated time tracking integrates directly with payroll systems, ensuring workers are accurately paid based on hours worked across projects and work types. This eliminates payroll errors and delays from manual data entry.
Workers can validate hours remotely via mobile apps. Management controls confirm and export data with a single click. Construction companies gain payroll cycle efficiencies through automation.
Reporting validates worker hours against projects, avoiding incorrect cost allocations. Overtime pay adheres precisely to hours tracked above 40 per week. All labor rates integrate, facilitating accurate processing of prevailing wage jobs.
Time tracking data provides audit-ready records, protecting firms during payroll audits or union reviews.
Maintain Labor Law and Prevailing Wage Compliance
Time tracking creates definitive records for demonstrating compliance with labor laws around breaks, hourly wages, time off, and overtime pay – avoiding penalties or litigation. Alerts can be set up to notify if breaks are missed.
Tracking prevailing wage projects helps guarantee correct payment for government contracts. Automated workflows simplify managing different pay and overtime rules across the workforce. Firms avoid fines by having data proving proper payment.
Having an auditable log of hours worked provides evidence if questions arise over labor law adherence. For example, disputes about forced overtime or missed lunches can be cleared up definitively. Time tracking analytics identifies compliance risk areas.
Adopt User-Friendly Construction Time Tracking
Look for time-tracking solutions designed specifically for ease of use by construction crews, such as robust mobile apps with features like photo verification, equipment tracking, and field notes. Choosing a simplified solution increases adoption.
Construction teams already face abundant technology complexity on job sites. Time tracking should integrate seamlessly into existing workflows. When designed for construction, frontline adoption is high.
Reduce training requirements by selecting time-tracking tools with straightforward crew interfaces and built-in gamification like visible contribution scores. Look for photo-verified clock in/out, GPS stamps, and geofence mapping to confirm presence.
Prioritize automated time-tracking integrations with complementary field solutions like scheduling, equipment tracking, PTO administration and field notes. The goal is a unified platform experience for the field and office.
Select Construction-Tailored Features
Seek time-tracking tools built for the needs of construction firms. Capabilities like payroll integrations, equipment tracking, prevailing wage support, and custom alerts showcase targeted functionality versus generic software.
Flexible cost coding improves time allocation accuracy when employees work across multiple subcontractors, projects, activities, or funding sources during a shift.
Robust reporting on overtime, billable hours, unapproved time edits, and missed clock-ins allows the pinpointing of inefficiencies and for tacking/measuring goals. Ask about integration and data export capabilities to connect time insights with other platforms.
Evaluate the breadth of labor types and cost codes supported to handle diverse workforces and job types. Review how system permissions, data access, and settings can be configured to reflect organizational structures.
Leverage Ongoing Management Insights
Time tracking analytics provides an incredible ongoing source of operational insights beyond just validating payroll. But the data must be centralized, organized, and accessible visually to maximize value.
Look for dynamic dashboards that surface trends, averages, and outliers through temporal drill-downs and filtering. Interactive charts should align to business KPIs and user needs.
Expect regular platform upgrades that add functionality for leveraging time data, like new integrated reports, analytics tools and API access
How to Measure Success with ExakTime’s Time Tracking Solutions
ExakTime offers industry-leading time tracking solutions designed specifically for construction. Its tools integrate seamlessly with payroll, provide real-time insights into field productivity, and help optimize labor costs.
With ExakTime, firms gain automated insights to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and compliance. Its construction-optimized features make time tracking simple for employees and managers alike.
Some differentiating capabilities include:
- Real-time visibility into workforce location and engagement
- Customizable alerts for overtime, missed breaks, absenteeism
- Photo verification and geofencing to confirm on-site presence
- Advanced analytics for enhanced decision-making
- Prevailing wage support for certified payroll
- Seamless integration with leading construction software
- Built-in workflows for simplified administrative processes
- Accessible mobile apps for easy field use
Construction firms looking to boost productivity, oversight, and growth should consider ExakTime as an invaluable partner for industry-leading solutions that transform time tracking into a source of operational insights and competitive advantage.
