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Expert Answers to Biz Questions

Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.

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How Do You Track Resources In Your Business?

 

One essential attribute of a successful projects is resource tracking. Businesses and organizations should have a way of tracking and monitoring the work that individual team members complete during and over the course of a project. This will not only help in determining how to allocate resources in future projects but will also give an insight into the participatory level of each team member involved in the project.

Gone are the days when businesses make use of bulky spreadsheets to keep records; these days, an electronic timesheet does the job easily, efficiently and perfectly. By looking at the filled electronic timesheet, you will get an accurate idea of how much time each resources actually spend in carrying out and completing the tasks they were assigned.

There are many advantages to combining an electronic timer software such as timesheet by Pro Result with your existing project management tool as you can then compare both to see if your original project projections are met.

If you don’t already do so, tracking resources is vital to the success of any project and the following 3 reasons will tell you why.

Improving accountability –

One advantage of using timesheets to track resources is that it helps you improve accountability across all tiers of the project. It becomes easier to reward employees who carry out their allotted tasks in the time specified and who produce results that are up to or more than the expected standard. Individuals who fail to pull their weight on the other hand can easily be identified. For instance, if you assign tasks to individual employees in a project and you find out that one person in particular always seem to take longer than necessary to complete his or her task, a timesheet can provide insight into the reason why – is the person working on more than one assigned task at the same time, is he or she qualified to the role or are there any other external factors affecting their delivery? Once you can answer these questions, you will know the best way to resolve the issue.

Improve project timing –

Are you allocating to much or too little time for a project, or tasks that make up a project? A lot of times, project managers guess how much time it will take to carry out and complete a particular project; they then use their estimate in the planning process. This can cause a lot of efficiency and time wasting. For instance, if a project should take 7 days, and you make an estimate of 3 days, at the end of the allotted time, you find out that you are running behind schedule simply because you made a rough estimate of the time needed. Using a timesheet, you can tell exactly how much time will be needed for a similar project in the future and so plan accordingly.

Evaluate value –

When you track time and resources in your projects, you will gain a better idea of which of the projects is actually valuable to your business and which can be allowed to take the backbench. At the end of the day, what you need are only projects that can improve the bottom line of your business and any tasks that take up your employees’ time without bringing valuable results may need to be reconsidered.

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