The difference between Timesheet and Project Management, Explained!

Don’t let the similarities fool you. The difference between Project Management and Timesheet is very, very real. 

Project Management 

A project is a temporary set of plans that exist to get desired outcomes. Each project will have a defined plan, budget, timescale, deliverables, and tasks. Different people from different teams might work together depending upon requirements. 

What is project management? 

Project management tools are about applying a set of principles and ideas to initiate, plan, execute and manage the initiatives inside a project. It’s different from business management. Business management is a continuous process and involves creating a new plan once goals are changed. Project management is much streamlined towards a set of outcomes in a stipulated deadline. 

 Agile and Lean project management are two widely used approaches. 

Key components of project management are: 

• Time – Duration of the work in a project. 
• Cost – Allocated budget in a project. 
• Scope – What innovations or outcomes that the project will deliver. 
• Quality – Analyzing the standard of the results in a project. 

Project Management Stages 

There are several project management methodologies and approaches. However, most include the following stages: 

• Initiating the project – Define what the project will achieve after its completion and set everything in place according to that plan. Work with project stakeholders to carve out a set of specific deliverables. 
• Planning – Once the tasks and steps are decided, it’s helpful to assign deadlines for all the tasks, and distribute them to the relevant stakeholders. 
• Execution – Teams are built, and resources are allocated to take action. During execution, the allocation of resources effectively can decide the success of the entire project. 
• Monitoring – The progress of the project is tracked and measured continuously. If something is affecting the project plans then necessary steps are taken to solve the problem. 
• Closing – The outputs are delivered, and if accepted by the business/client, it’s time to close down the project team. 

In today’s world, Project Management Tool needs the help of a timesheet app to deliver outstanding results.

Timesheet 

A timesheet software evaluates and records the amount of time an employee has spent at work or a project, working for a specific duration of time. Initially, this information was recorded on paper. Now, timesheet software has replaced paper with technology. By keeping track of an employee’s time, the timesheet helps in calculating pay for the day, week, or month. Timesheet software is beneficial for service-based organizations with a larger temporary or project-based workforce. 

Timesheets not only calculate the number of hours and process payroll based on that information. They’ve evolved beyond that and calculate things like resource allocation, management, project analytics, invoices, and much more. Highly effective for billing purposes, timesheets help an organization analyze activities in a project and the amount of time taken to finish them along with the budget part. 

Purpose of timesheets 

Timesheet can help businesses in meeting deadlines, maintain budgets and achieve success by using time and resources effectively. No need to keep records because the software will do that.  

Benefits of Timesheet Software: 

Reduce time wastage 

Timesheets help you assess where your labor resources are being wasted. Tasks that no longer require attention are weeded out and more focus is towards optimizing tasks. 

Bill accurately 

Timesheets help you in billing accurately. No need to check where the money is being allocated and for how much duration, because all this information is available on the dashboard. Info like how much time is dedicated to a project is clearly visible so this serves as proof for accurate billing. 

Improve Project Management 

Timesheets help in effective project management: 

• By tracking time, they help in identifying best-performing employees for a new project based on previous performance. 
• Helps in identifying a process in a project where workers take more time than allocated to finish. 
• They help in measuring the overall efficiency of your project.  
• They help in monitoring progress and anticipate delays. 

Save Money 

Timesheet calculator tracks efficiency, hours, outputs and does this well. You can spot employees who aren’t performing well despite spending hours at work, thus saving you resources and time. 

Project Management vs. Timesheet

The bottom line… 

With technology becoming an able ally, timesheet management is more powerful than ever for any business. Good timesheet software: 

• Tracks time and resource utilization. 
• Tracks time on past and active projects, log hours, and approval requests. 
• Tracks project revenue. 
• Provides customized time approval processes for stakeholders. 
• Manages resource allocation.

With effortless timesheet login capabilities, Keka’s timesheet tool does all of the above and more. Time to say goodbye to paper and manual processes. Say hello to fully automated tracking.