How to Choose Timesheet Software

Client Billings in Chaos? Project Costs Unknown? Nine Critical Characteristics To Demand From Your Timesheet Vendor... Can They Do This? If you’ve outgrown your current paper-based or homegrown timesheet system, or if you have multiple installed time collection systems that produce inconsistent data, it gets hard to understand project costs, to figure out what people are working on, and to send correct and timely bills out to your customers. It also can make payroll very frustrating. How can you be sure you’ll get a system that works for your company and is immune to the most common problems people experience when buying a timesheet collection automation system?

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• An open mind, a computer, and an ability to dig past the marketing hype.

1. The Most Common Mistake In Buying Timesheet Software -
   Don’t fall for a deceptive demo.
   
   You have the power to demand that any vendor absolutely, completely prove beyond a
   shadow of a doubt that their solution will solve your company’s specific business
   problem. You deserve a detailed demonstration that uses your employee list, your
   customer list, your project list, your company’s logo and color scheme and that shows
   you reports on your data that will prove to you that your business problem is solved. If a
   vendor can't make you 100% certain that the solution will work for your specific business
   needs, then walk. Period. Canned demos are designed to deceive. Don't believe them.
   
   What To Ask Competitors – “Can you absolutely prove to me that you will solve my
   business problem, using my employees, departments, projects, etc. and then show me the
   reports I need to see?”
   
   How We Do It - At Journyx our demonstration will not be a ‘movie’ that you just sit back
   and watch. You’ll have free use of the full package yourself. And we’ll show you
   exactly how our application can solve your problems. After the demo is over, we’ll leave
   it up and live – still loaded with all of your data - so you can log into it afterward and
   show other people in your company how it works.
2. How To Know If You Will Get Responsive Support:
   
   Most vendors provide a static outdated FAQ list and support staff that are often part of
   the sales team. When support is part of the sales force you only get help as a prospect.
   Once they've got your money, getting help … well … it’s ‘iffy’- at best.
   
   What To Ask Competitors – “How many cases do you have published in your
   automated helpdesk tool? Is your support staff part of the sales team? In what time can
   you guarantee me responses? Can I talk to 3 recent customers that are happy with your
   support? What is your average response time? What did your most recent support poll
   turn up as the overall satisfaction level for your supported customers? Do you even do
   such polling? What percentage of your customers renew their maintenance contracts
   each year?”
3. Web-Based or Web-Enabled? And Why It Matters.
   
   Many timesheet systems that claim to be web-based are in fact only web-enabled.
   
   The fact is that your company’s chosen operating systems and chosen browsers will
   change over time, and if a vendor doesn’t support all systems and browsers today, then it
   might not support whatever you choose in the future.Web-based software works on all browsers on all operating systems, and every aspect of the software can be administered via the web. This enables real-time accurate data
   collection and management worldwide without the difficulties of maintaining special
   software on client machines. Web-enabled means that only some aspects of the software
   work via a browser, or that it doesn’t work well with certain browsers or operating
   systems.
4. ASP Flexibility Allows Early Rollouts, Server Protection and
   Easier Upgrades.
   
   Most timesheet software companies either sell software or sell an ASP service, not both.
   
   What To Ask Competitors – “What sort of backup generator do you have in case of a power outage at your ASP site and where is it hosted? How much does server protection cost? Can I rollout on your ASP servers and later transfer the data to my own servers? Where are ASP backup tapes stored?"
   The majority sell only licenses.
   ASP means 'application service provider'. It means you can rent access to our 100% web-based software that's running on one of our servers instead of installing it on a server
   at your office. This allows early rollouts, server protection and easier upgrades.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't fall for the 15 day trial version - that's not long enough to evaluate the software.
• Choose a vendor that's been in business for a while - companies come and go in this industry.
• Watch out for software that only runs on Windows! Linux, Mac OSX and other operating systems are coming on strong and Microsoft may not be the best choice for the future. Make sure the vendor runs on several systems.