The Complete Guide to Time Manager Apps (2024)

Increasing productivity and efficiency in your workplace all depends on one thing: time management. Time management is all about effectively organizing and planning your day to complete all the necessary tasks on your must-do list. When your time management skills are top-notch, you’re more productive. 

Excellent time management skills are only one part of becoming a time management expert. Finding the right time manager app to support you is essential. To help you work smarter, not harder, we’ve put together a guide to show you everything you need to know about time management, including the top time management apps for 2024. Tick tock—the clock's ticking, so let's dive in.

What is time manager software?

Time manager software, or time tracking software, allows employers to track employees’ time working. Some time manager apps also allow you to track which tasks and projects employees work on during their shifts. Many businesses use time manager software to track start and end times for their employees. A lot of different industries benefit from using time manager software, including freelancers, contractors, hourly workers, and those who use billable time, like accountants, house cleaners, and lawyers. 

Why is time management important for businesses?

Whether it’s something you’re consciously aware of or not, time management can significantly impact your business. Suppose you have employees who are great at their jobs and keep customers happy, but consistently run behind on their inventory duties or show up late. In that case, it will majorly impact your business and the relationships you’ve built with your customers. 

Time management isn’t about pushing your employees to work harder and longer. It’s quite the opposite—time management is about encouraging your employees to work smarter. With good time management skills, you organize workloads and shift management to let employees finish their work without racking up overtime. 

By managing time well, employees can improve productivity, become more efficient, and complete tasks during their shifts. Time management can also help improve job satisfaction—when you can get your work done on time, you stress less, which has a ripple effect through all aspects of your job.  

6 key benefits of good time management

The many benefits of good time management can positively affect you, your employees, and your business. We touched on some of them above, but let’s take a look at six key benefits that time management skills can provide to your business:

1. Encourages productivity and efficiency: Time management skills teach employers and employees how to properly prioritize their work, which helps to improve productivity and efficiency. It’s all about working harder, not smarter.
2. Helps employees stress less: Being buried under work that you can’t seem to get on top of will no doubt cause you some stress. Being stressed at work impacts the quality of work employees deliver, and has a negative effect on their health. Equipping employees with time management skills makes them more likely to reduce their stress levels.
3. Improves the quality of work: When you have good time management skills, you can effectively plan your days so you have ample time to complete each task. Employees can deliver a higher quality of work when they have enough time to complete it correctly.
4. Boost confidence: When employees are on top of their work, it gives them confidence in their abilities in the workplace. Time management skills help them stay on track and complete tasks by the deadline.
5. Improve work-life balance: If employees have to stay late to finish tasks, it can impact employees’ work-life balance, and employers risk paying out overtime. But when employees can finish their shift and leave all thoughts of work at work, they can recharge their energy and return to work ready to deliver outstanding results.
6. Completing tasks on time: Perhaps the most obvious of all the benefits, time management skills help employees meet their deadlines and keep them punctual for their shifts.   

Why businesses need a time management app 

Employers can’t underestimate the benefits of time management. But how can you, as a business owner, help your employees improve their time management skills?The most efficient and effective way to start building time management skills in your team is to start using a time management app. A time management app allows you to reduce stress, increase productivity, boost confidence, and complete essential work responsibilities on time. And with the right app, the power to do that (and so much more) is right at your fingertips. Not only does a time management app help you accomplish everything on your to-do list, it also saves you time and money in the long run. A time management app can help you eliminate the inefficient use of time and resources, meaning you can take that time and resources and reinvest them elsewhere in your business. 

What to look for in a time manager software 

Finding time manager software that meets your needs is essential. Software that doesn’t match your business needs will give you more issues than it solves. The bare minimum is a reliable app that fits your budget and comes with everything you need to make work more efficient at your business.Look for these five features to get the right time manager software for your business. 

Consider ease of use

If you’re expecting your entire team to use the time management software, it’s important to find a solution that's easy to use. Look for a system with a clean design and intuitive interface that is simple to use. You need to use time management software for it to be effective. To ensure your team is using it, the barrier to use needs to be low. Look for a time manager solution that’ll be quick and easy for employees to use every time they clock in and out of their shifts. 

Connects to your payroll system

A time management system that connects directly with your payroll system can help you streamline your payroll processes. Look for a time management system that can automatically generate employee timesheets. Then, these timesheets can be fed directly into the integrated payroll system.An integrated system will help you save time as you and your employees won’t have to calculate hours and input them into another software system manually. Having your time management, timesheets, and payroll live in the same place can keep things transparent for you and your employees. Additionally, automating payroll helps minimize mistakes introduced by human error when calculating payroll.

Integrates with other business tools

While an ideal time management system will connect directly with payroll and other business tools, you and your team may already be comfortable with certain business tools you plan to continue using. If this sounds like you, finding a time manager app that integrates with other business tools is key. Think about the software and business tools that are currently helping your business run smoothly— consider your point-of-sale, marketing tools, communication tools, and more. Once you’ve got a list of your essentials, look for time management software that integrates with your specific business tools.

Helps you manage your compliance requirements for local labor laws

When it comes to time tracking and keeping track of hours worked, there are local, state, and federal regulations to keep in mind. Using a time management system that keeps track of hourly wages and hours worked can help ensure you comply with local labor laws.Another thing to keep in mind is that laws are often changing. Look for time manager software that alerts you when there are changes to labor laws. That way, you'll always be keeping compliancy top of mind.

Includes a mobile app for on-the-go use

When we walk about ease of use, we’ve got to talk about mobile apps. Even for people who aren't glued to their phones, not all employees work from one location, like contractors, landscapers, or delivery drivers. A time management system with a mobile app means most of your employees will be able to access it. A mobile app also lets you and your employees access the system no matter where you’re working from. This is essential for remote teams who are constantly on the move, but it’s also a great feature for most small businesses. A mobile app means you can easily access, view, and edit time entries, no matter where you are. 

5 recommended time manager apps for 2024

You can run your business like a fine-tuned machine with the right time manager tools in your toolkit. If you’re still on the fence or unsure which time manager app is best for your business, let’s look at our top five picks for 2024. 

Todoist 

Todoist is one of the more robust offerings on our list. You can use Todoist to reach personal and business goals with personal and business accounts. Create and track tasks, assign tasks to others, and quickly prioritize and communicate with your team. Todoist integrates with tools like Gmail and Slack, helping streamline your team communications. The intuitive interface makes it easy to use. And, it’s available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and more, so you can use it on almost any device and easily move from your phone to your computer. If you’re looking for a solution that tracks clock-in and clock-out times, Todoist may not be the right fit as it is strictly a task management app. A free plan is available with limited capabilities—paid plans start at $4 per month.

Asana

Another task management software, Asana, is designed to improve your team’s time management. It streamlines team collaboration so your team can manage projects and tasks and see what everyone is working on.Asana has a long list of apps and programs it integrates with, from Microsoft Teams and Salesforce to Google Suite and Canva. It doesn’t have a built-in timesheet or payroll integration. Asana doesn’t track hours worked and can’t create monthly work schedules based on shifts. Instead, it’s a good choice for businesses that need a project management solution, and is best for office-based workers.

Clockify

Clockify is a time tracker and time management app perfect for contractors, freelancers, and other solopreneurs. It lets you track your time on different tasks and breaks it down by task, project, and client. When you track your work hours in Clockify, you can calculate billable hours, schedule tasks, and generate reports to help you create client invoices. Clockify has over eighty integrations, including QuickBooks, Trello, Asana, Jira, and many more. There are some limitations with Clockify for small businesses—it’s harder to collaborate with team members, and tracking clocking in and out isn’t possible in Clockify.

Toggl

Toggl is a time-tracking software that benefits from additional features and integrations that expand its capabilities. It creates accurate time reports with easy-to-use filtering and sorting options for data.Toggl has a drop-and-drop scheduling feature that is simple to use, and the reporting dashboards provide insights into project, team, and date-specific time entries. It also integrates with popular business apps like Evernote, Google Calendar, and Asana but doesn’t have a built-in invoicing tool or any integrations with invoicing tools.Toggl is free for up to five users; paid plans start at $10 monthly. 

Homebase

Homebase, one of the most comprehensive time management apps on the market, allows employees to clock in and out of their shifts and automatically converts that data into timesheets. This streamlines the process of tracking hours worked, breaks taken, and overtime, ultimately making it easy to run payroll. But Homebase goes beyond time tracking and time management. It has a whole suite of tools that help your small business run smoothly. Plus, it's specifically created for small businesses owners as a whole. 

• Easy employee scheduling that auto-populates, timetables ensures proper coverage, and takes vacations and PTO into account.
• Self-scheduling tools for employees to claim open shifts, arrange trades and covers, and request time off quickly and efficiently. 
• Time tracking for precise tracking of hours worked, including breaks and overtime.
• Team communication app so you and your employees can stay on the same page.
• The payroll management function integrates time tracking and timesheets to make payroll a breeze. 
• Labor law compliance tools to help keep you compliant with local, state, and federal regulations.  
• A mobile app that helps manage everyday tasks from anywhere.

Homebase offers various services at different price points, Including the basic or Free plan for one location and up to 20 employees with basic scheduling and time tracking, employee management tools like Messaging, point-of-sale integrations, and access to email support. Paid plans start at $24.95 per month per location. Having a time manager app is a no brainer, but having a time manager app that integrates with your other much-needed tools and software? Well. Now that's a gamechanger. Work with the software tool created specifically with small businesses in mind. Get started with Homebase today for free.