Time Doctor Employee Time Tracking Review

Time Doctor Review
3.8
3.8 of 5 stars 1 review
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Pros

  • Robust time tracking features
  • Powerful employee monitoring tools
  • Helpful productivity reminders
  • GPS-tracking-enabled mobile app
  • User-friendly interface

Cons

  • Need to download both web and desktop applications for full functionality
  • Employee monitoring features can seem big-brother to employees

ABOUT

What do you get when you match a medical doctor with an academic professor, both of whom are probable Doctor Who fans? You get software called Time Doctor! As improbable as it sounds, that’s precisely what happened when Rob Rawson (the doctor) met Liam Martin (the professor). Both serial entrepreneurs bonded over their start-up experiences and a shared vision that remote work was the future. To make this vision a reality, this unlikely pair created Time Doctor, a time tracking and efficiency app that can help teams, even remote ones, stay productive no matter where they are. The company now has 85 employees working from 31 different countries.

The software is a time, project, task, and productivity management tool all rolled into one. Perhaps it is this rich feature set that has made the app popular. Currently, it has over 80,000 users worldwide. What’s more, it has an impressive client list, boasting of names such as Apple, Home Depot, Verizon, Allstate, and Ericsson.

Who is Time Doctor For?

Its imposing clientele can fool you into thinking that Time Doctor is only suitable for enterprise-level corporations. But, in fact, due to its affordable pricing that starts at $12 per month, it is well suited for small to medium-sized businesses. Even solo entrepreneurs who need to show thier clients how they spend their time on a project will find it useful. With features such as GPS and URL tracking, it is especially beneficial to businesses that have a substantial remote workforce.

PRICING

Time Doctor has two pricing plans. These are for businesses that have anywhere between 1 to 50 employees. Corporations that have more than 50 employees can contact the company for customized pricing plans. The software has a monthly, pay-as-you-go pricing model and does not have annual subscriptions. Crucially, it offers users a credit-card-free, 14-day free trial they can use to put the app’s features through the paces.

Here is a comparative look at Time Doctor’s pricing plans:

Plan

Business

Enterprise

Price/Month

1-10 Users: $12 – $99

$100 for every 10 users thereafter

1-10 Users: $24 – $199

$200 for every 10 users thereafter

Time Tracking

Yes

Yes

Project Management

Yes

Yes

Screenshots

Yes

Yes

Keyboard & Mouse Tracking

Yes

Yes

Website & Application Tracking

Yes

Yes

Payroll

Yes

Yes

Manager Approval

Yes

Yes

Client Login

Yes

Unlimited Data Retention

Yes

Account Setup Help

Yes

Video Screen Capture

Yes

Group Functionality

Yes

FEATURES​

  1. Time Tracking
  2. Employee Monitoring
  3. Project Management
  4. Payroll
  5. Client Login
  6. Reports

1. Time Tracking

To start tracking time on Time Doctor, you will need to download the software’s chrome extension or install its desktop app (available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu). Once you and your employees have done that, you can start recording time by simply hitting the play or go button on the stopwatch. The platform tracks how much time each person spends on a task as well as the total time they spend working every day. Notably, Time Doctor records time even when there is no internet connection and uploads the tracked data from its local cache once you are back online.

The software also makes it easy to record break times. It does this in two ways. If an employee wants to take a break, they just need to hit the break or stop button. The software will then stop tracking time and will track the break instead. Alternatively, if the browser is idle for a long time, a pop-up box will appear, asking the employee if they are still on the job. If the query is not answered, the app will automatically initiate a break time.

Time Doctor also allows employees to record time manually, a backup option in case they have forgotten to start time tracking. Importantly, however, the software shows manual time entries in a different color, so managers are always able to distinguish between them. Manual time entries also need manager approval before they are recorded.

2. Employee Monitoring

The software offers several methods for monitoring employees. First, Time Doctor monitors your employee’s internet and application usage. Then, it not only gives you a report of the websites they’ve visited but also how much time they’ve spent on it. Further, once you have selected which apps and websites are productive, the software generates productivity reports on all your employees. Crucially, the software only tracks internet usage when your employees are on the clock, and not when they’re taking a break.

Second, the app can capture screenshots of your employee’s screens at regular intervals of 3 to 30 minutes, as you deem necessary. While this can seem like an invasion of privacy, the feature allows users to delete a screenshot they do not want their managers to see. However, any time associated with the screenshot will also be deleted. Enterprise plan subscribers can even capture short 3-minute videos of their employee’s screens.

Third, Time Doctor monitors keyboard and mouse activity. Importantly, it only tracks the activity, and does not record the actual keys pressed, offsetting any privacy concerns. If it detects extended periods of inactivity, helpfully, the software gives employees a productivity reminder notice, serving as a gentle nudge for them to get back on track.

Another crucial feature is that you can choose to monitor your employees without them knowing about it. Time Doctor calls this the ‘Silent Mode.’ However, you will need to own all the computers your employees work on to do this. It is also advisable that you check your state’s privacy laws before you enable this mode.

3. Project Management

This platform allows you to create an unlimited number of projects and tasks. You can also assign team members to a project. Additionally, if you do a lot of similar projects, Time Doctor lets you clone a project, so you don’t have to waste time recreating and re-assigning repetitive tasks. As such, the software’s project management capabilities are geared towards tracking cumulative time spent on a project and nothing else. For example, you cannot assign employees to specific tasks, set a start or end date to one, or allot priorities to them. Thankfully, the software integrates with several project management apps such as Asana, Trello, and Wrike that allow you to do that.

4. Payroll

Using the software’s payroll feature, you can pay employees for time registered in the system. You can also add pay rates or use fixed payment rates, and add adjustments such as tax cuts or paid time off to each payroll. Furthermore, you can set limits on hours billed and the amount paid every payroll, so you always stay within your allocated budget.

Time Doctor has several payment options with which to pay your employees. These include TransferWise, PayPal, and Payoneer. The software supports payments in over 60 different currencies. Importantly, it does not charge any additional fees for them. Once payroll is generated, you can export it as a CSV file.

5. Client Login

This useful feature can be used to show your clients how far their project has progressed. Importantly, clients can only view projects you are doing for them and nothing else. The client login gives them access to project-related reports, billable hours, payments made, and screenshots taken along with a birds’ eye view of completed tasks. If you want to make the client portal look like your domain, Time Doctor allows you to do so by white labeling it with your company’s branding.

6. Reports

Time Doctor has several pre-designed reports in 6 different categories. These are:

  • Activity summary
  • Hours tracked
  • Productivity reports
  • Projects and tasks
  • Timeline summary
  • Timeline detailed
  • Web and app usage

You can customize the report views by changing users or by switching to a daily, weekly, or monthly view. Additionally, the main dashboard gives managers an overview of their team’s performance with data, such as total time tracked, employees with the highest productive time, or those with the lowest recorded hours.

INTEGRATIONS

With over 45 integrations, Time Doctor boasts of a modest number of connections. Most of these integrations are to third-party project management, accounting, and CRM apps. In addition, the software has open APIs in JSON and XML formats with ‘read’ and ‘write’ capabilities, so you can seamlessly integrate it with your software.

Here are some of Time Doctor’s important integrations:

  • Zapier
  • Google Drive
  • Google Calendar
  • Gusto
  • FreshBooks
  • Slack
  • Salesforce
  • WordPress
  • Zendesk
  • Zoho Tasks
  • Asana
  • Basecamp
  • Freshdesk

More About Time Doctor Employee Time Tracking

Set Up And Ease Of Use

The main issue with setting up Time Doctor is that you must install either the Chrome extension or web app along with the desktop app to get all its functionality. Why they didn’t make all the functions available on one of the two apps is unexplained. That said, once you get downloading and the installations out of the way, the software is easy to set up. Helpfully, the app takes you on a virtual tour of its essential features the first time you log in, detailing how to set up and use them. Once set up, the software is user-friendly with intuitive menus and user dashboards.

Device Compatibility

Desktop Browser App

Android App

iOS App

Windows Phone App

Apple Watch App

X

X

Although it is not as functional as the desktop version, both the Android and iOS apps allow users to track time away from the computer. This is particularly useful for employees who are frequently on the go, such as medical or sales reps. One of the mobile app’s outstanding features is its GPS tracking tool. With it, you can pinpoint the location of your remote staff, which is a helpful feature for construction crews and house cleaning staff. As with the employee monitoring features, the software tracks an employee’s location only when he or she is on the clock.

Customer Service

Time Doctor offers email and live chat support to subscribers of both its plans, although preference is given to users of the Enterprise plan. Yet another way to get in touch with the company’s reps is by reaching out to them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as they have an active presence on these platforms. Besides these, the software has a moderately-endowed self-help center that has several getting-started articles, how-to guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting documents. The knowledge base also has video tutorials, but it is a small collection of only four videos.

Online Security

With features such as screen and video capture, there are bound to be some concerns about privacy and security on the customer side. Time Doctor placates these apprehensions in several ways. For one, it allows employees to choose which screenshots to share. For another, it only records when employees are working and not when they are on a break. Lastly, for employees who deal with sensitive data, you can choose to make the screenshots blurry. The software also follows several security protocols to ensure that customer information is secure. These include SSL encryption for all data in transit, including screenshots, 24/7 surveillance at their data centers, and regular firewall updates.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

  • Robust time tracking features
  • Powerful employee monitoring tools
  • Helpful productivity reminders
  • GPS-tracking-enabled mobile app
  • User-friendly interface

CONS

  • Need to download both web and desktop applications for full functionality
  • Employee monitoring features can seem big-brother like to employees

CONCLUSION

Time doctor’s founders set out to equip businesses with the tools they need to make remote work a viable and productive option. It certainly does that with its employee monitoring features that can help your staff stay focused on the task at hand. It also simplifies the time-tracking process, giving you plenty of insight into how your team manages their time along the way. However, having to install two apps (even though the software shifts automatically to the desktop app when you start tracking time) goes against the productivity grain. It can also get pricey if you have a team of over 15. Luckily, the software offers a 14-day free trial to help you test if it makes your business more productive.

Check out our list of the best Employee Monitoring Software companies

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