Time tracking isn’t a novel concept. Throughout the history of business, managers have been trying to gain a better understanding of time usage and make the most of the working hours.

The time tracking industry has been affected by rapid technology development, so today we can find an array of AI-based time tracking solutions that help companies map out and allocate the time spent on different tasks and projects.

But, how did it all start?

And where is time tracking technology heading for? 

What can we expect in the future?

We’ll try and offer answers to these questions, revealing how the evolution of time-tracking practices has contributed to the optimized business processes. 

How It All Started 

Companies used punch card machines in the late 1800s to track employees’ attendance and time spent at work. These systems required each employee to have a corresponding punch card that they would punch in the machine every time they got to or from work. 

However, this system contained many cracks, allowing for various hacks like “buddy punching” to spread fast. Namely, employees started to “fight” this time tracking system by punching the cards for each other, leaving managers in the dark when it comes to their attendance or the accurate number of billable hours. 

Managers, who needed to calculate the working hours manually, couldn’t do much to prevent buddy punching until the self-calculating system appeared on the market and revolutionized the entire time tracking industry. 

However, the appearance of the time tracking software on the business market more than a century later successfully replaced mechanical time tracking, taking this common business practice to the next level. This software has allowed employers to keep track of their employees’ work hours using stripe cards, bar codes, and even biometric readers. Shortly put, old-fashioned clock in and out cards have become history.

The Importance of the Time Tracking Systems Development

This rapid technological advancement of the time tracking industry has led towards improved accuracy and time management that significantly affected employees engagement and productivity. 

Namely, most advanced time tracking solutions can effectively tackle some burning issues that numerous employers may have struggled with. This said, by using different time trackers, managers will successfully prevent buddy punching, providing clear and accurate attendance and billing records. 

At the same time, these time-keeping tools will also eliminate mistakes in calculating working hours that happen either due to buddy counting or as a result of a human error. 

Finally, by incorporating a trustworthy time tracking system into their workflows, managers from numerous countries will comply with the law saying that the working hours of each employee need to be recorded accurately.

Automatic Tracking Software – The Next Stage of Time Tracking Evolution

Nowadays, you can find an array of automatic employee time tracking software that’ll allow you to keep time records without interrupting your workflow. But, there’s a lot more to this advanced digital solution than automatic attendance records. 

Some of these effective digital systems rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to record the time your employees spend on various tasks and projects. This information will allow you to bill your clients for every moment spent on their project.

What’s more important, you’ll be able to make data-based decisions related to the workload distribution, taking some of the load off the employees who may be overwhelmed and transferring it to those team members who have more time on their hands.

Automatic time tracking will help you focus on meaningful work, requiring deep focus, without having to worry whether your employees have clocked in successfully, or turned on trackers when they switched tasks.

For all these reasons you need to consider involving advanced time-tracking solutions into your business, making sure that you’re up to date with their further development.