Have you ever heard of a parenting hack to get kids to eat their food? 

Involves having the kid take ownership of the meal by letting them help choose what they get to eat and using their own hands to make the food. There is something about the ownership aspect that makes kids want to eat. They are now fully invested in that meal sitting on their plate. So why is this kid/food analogy relevant? Professionally speaking, it’s amazing what a little ownership in a project will do for you, right? You’ve invested time, energy, creativity, and emotion into your project. You want this thing to work, and to be successful.

And when you’re an entrepreneur this really couldn’t be more true. Your company is your baby, your dream, and your passion. Nobody else is making it happen for you. It’s all on you, and everything you do matters. It’s your personal investment and you must make it work. 

As an entrepreneur, there is no denying that time is money, and accurate time tracking is non-negotiable for your success. Whether you are managing your own solo business or leading a team of employees, having an organized approach to tracking your time can provide insights into how your business is performing, help you make better decisions, and free up more time for growth-focused activities.

Today, we’re going to explore the importance of time tracking for entrepreneurs, why it should be a key part of your system, and how to get started with effective time tracking.

Why is time tracking important for entrepreneurs?

Time tracking is an important part of staying productive and organized, both professionally and personally. It can help you understand where your time goes and how it’s best spent. These tools ensure that tasks are addressed in a timely manner and help organizations measure productivity, efficiency levels, staffing needs, and much more.

When it comes to business, time tracking provides vital insights into how long it takes to complete important tasks. It also helps to identify key areas that need improvement such as bottlenecks within organizational processes.

Employers can use time tracking data to provide more clarity on project estimates for clients. This benefits all stakeholders of the organization by creating cleaner expectations for performance milestones and outcomes. Understanding how employees spend their work day can provide valuable insight into how associated tasks are performed within the organization – helping employers address lagging performance before any critical issues arise.

Time tracking is important for entrepreneurs because it helps them stay organized and monitor their progress. With accurate time tracking, you can easily measure where you’re spending the majority of your work hours. This data can help you identify areas where you need to streamline processes and become more efficient. Tracking your time helps you understand how tasks are impacting your bottom line and makes sure that you’re investing your time where it matters most.

Time tracking software allows entrepreneurs to stay on top of their projects, manage deadlines, and ensure that goals are met on time. When tasks are tracked accurately, you can identify any potential issues early on and take action before they become bigger problems. Avoiding those kinds of headaches is reason enough to start monitoring where your time is being allocated. 

Additionally, managing your time can help you keep track of any changes in the scope of your project and make sure that all stakeholders are on the same page with deliverables and timelines.

Getting started with effective time tracking doesn’t have to be complicated. There are several tools available that can help you stay organized and monitor progress without having to manually input your data. (Imagine how great it would be to have everything you need in one tool, like Harvest.)

Time tracking is essential for entrepreneurs who want to be successful. It helps you stay organized, monitor progress, and make sure that tasks are being completed on time. Again, time is money. By tracking your time accurately and using the right tools to stay on top of projects, you can ensure that you’re investing your time appropriately and reaping the rewards.

Forecast future trends and allocate resources

Time tracking is also beneficial for entrepreneurs because it can help them forecast future trends in their business. By monitoring the time spent on various tasks, you can better predict how much time certain projects are likely to require in the future. 

This information can help you plan ahead and allocate resources accordingly. When your resources are put in the most beneficial places, it can keep you from investing your budget in the wrong places. 

Additionally, accurate time tracking can provide valuable insights into which processes need to be improved so that they are more efficient and productive. Again, making improvements in the efficiency and productivity of your business will save you both money and time. 

Ultimately, time tracking is a key ingredient for entrepreneurs who want to maximize their success and make informed decisions. By accurately monitoring how you’re spending your time and using the right tools to stay organized, you can ensure that your efforts are focused on areas that will have a positive impact on your business.

Complete tasks on time

Time tracking is also an effective way to stay accountable and ensure that tasks are being completed on time. With accurate time tracking, you can set realistic deadlines and track progress. 

This data will help you identify any potential problems before they become bigger issues and reduce the amount of work that needs to be done at the end. Tracking your time can provide valuable insights into how long certain tasks take and allow you to adjust your timeline accordingly.

With accurate time tracking, you can easily measure progress, plan ahead, and make informed decisions.

Make informed decisions

Having accurate information about how much time is being spent on certain tasks enables companies to make calculated decisions about employee compensation and budget resources accordingly. It also allows you to re-evaluate how valuable their projects, tasks, and services are in comparison to each other. 

Some projects may require investing copious amounts of your time but result in minuscule returns, which forces you to examine more closely where their most profitable resources are being allocated. Time wasted is equal to dollars wasted.

Not only can tracking time inform bottom lines, but it can also provide insight into employees’ motivation levels as well. As the owner, you can track the number of hours worked per week by each of your employees and determine if any need a morale boost or require extra help with managing their workloads. Likewise, if you are a solopreneur, you can track how much time you are spending on each part of your business.

It further helps you identify your productive teams versus your nonproductive teams so they can restructure work more efficiently and effectively. When used correctly, time tracking is an ideal way for businesses of all sizes to keep track of their resources in order to minimize costs and maximize success.

More benefits of time tracking

For individual employees, understanding where their time is being spent can be an eye-opening experience. Are you or your team members really spending part of your day wandering around the web, unproductively browsing emails, or sifting through your folders? It will probably come as no surprise that all these minor daily activities tend to take up more time than initially thought.

For your business, there are even more benefits to time tracking such as gaining visibility over how long tasks take, increasing transparency in billable hours for your clients, and improving your client service quality. It also allows you and/or your managers to identify any areas of inefficiency and easily make changes to optimize workflows. 

According to Harvard Business Review’s survey on filling out timesheets, it helps avoid wasting $7.4 billion a day in productivity simply because individuals haven't taken measures to accurately record their hours — or to record their hours at all. It’s clear that effective use of time tracking gives your business unparalleled insight into staff performance and aids efficiency improvements overall, which is why having a true record of time is invaluable in today's competitive working environment.

Transparency into work processes

The benefits of transparency in the work process have never been more evident. Having full insight into your team’s work habits is invaluable for improved time management and workflow organization. By making time registrations part of your daily routine, you have access to real-time information about the activities being completed and the hours being spent on each task. This not only allows you to understand which tasks are assigned to whom but also gives you an outlook on how efficiently projects are proceeding.

Time tracking can help employees recognize their progress, identify ineffective parts of the system, and set future goals accordingly. It can provide a roadmap that guides daily activity, understanding what needs to be done before it becomes too late. 

Employees receive feedback on their efforts allowing them to make changes, become more proactive, and strive for improvement. A higher level of transparency generated through time tracking leads to more clarity among fellow colleagues who rely on coworkers’ work to proceed with their own projects. Increased accountability among employees

More and more businesses are considering time tracking as a tool for increasing accountability for their employees. By inputting their time, employees become more focused as they know they have to report every hour spent on a job, task, or project. This allows them to be aware of the clock as they try to be productive as much as possible and make better use of their time.

Aside from providing data about how efficient and effective team members are in performing tasks, it also provides insights about how to better meet objectives. Through tracking time, everyone can identify patterns in their work habits and take steps to improve them. 

It encourages employees to think carefully about how their time is spent, allowing them to ask themselves if the task or project was useful or beneficial towards a bigger goal (e.g., the business mission). As such, it helps people work more efficiently and purposefully toward achieving long-term success. Entrepreneurs want success - time tracking software helps

Time tracking is clearly important for the success of your business. It saves you time, money, and unnecessary headaches. It finds weak spots and the things that aren’t working, and it points you to what is working. 


If you find all the hunting and searching for the right time tracking app a frustrating endeavor, you have come to the right place. Harvest offers a free 30-day trial for all first-time users — sign up today to see how Harvest’s platform can propel your business forward.