Tradespeople - Timesheets

[pezza3434]

Hi all,


I've grown up with tradespeople, my dads’ a plumber and my granddads a plumber, but for some reason I never got the bug!

I actually took a slightly different route and became a software developer. (Still wondering why I’m posting on here right?) Over the past year I’ve been working with my dad on optimizing his processes – specifically his timesheets.

He has what you would probably call a medium sized plumbing business with around 20 plumbers working for him. The downside of this is that every month they submit piles of handwritten timesheets that then all need to be correlated together into one (in this case Microsoft excel) spreadsheet.

This takes a HUGE amount of time, around three full working days a month. However, what we have now built, is some software that automates all of this, with the small change that the plumbers submit their timesheets online. This benefits them because they can easily see all their previous submissions, and how much they’ve earnt – and it benefits my dad because it makes the process so much easier and quicker.

Before we started this we looked at other solutions (of which there aren’t many) and none of them met our requirements. They focused on every part of the business like invoices and inventory and didn’t do one thing well.

I’m convinced that other plumbers and companies must have this same problem but it’s extremely hard to validate that idea when I don’t know many plumbers myself.

Would software like this help you? I would love to talk to anybody that has any views on this topic.

Thank you all for your time.

 

[Tier1Logistics]

Hi Pezza3434,

Firstly welcome to UKBF, hope you enjoy your stay here.

I cannot say I do it myself within my company with my employees as I tell them to come in for 9am and sod off by half 5 etc.... ... I know from my mums point of view she loves it, no carrying round paper work, or trying to fax over or scan or email etc.... It does really work out well for her. She works within the NHS System so its really handy for her.

 

[Airgunner]

I like the sound of it, haulage firms could be another market place if you could modify it to suit their driving hours limitations.
Also maybe create an app that people could let their employees download so they can essentially clock in and out, it'll be also handy to allow gps links so the employer know where and when they finished ;-) honestly I'm not untrusting but I know what I'd do when working with my previous task master and thats clock out at home! (but he was an over working barstool)

 

[avalanche]

I use TSheets is it similar to that?

 

[ldjames]

What features are you thinking of implementing? A system that only does time sheets could be created in an afternoon by a good developer.

 

[Tech4Homes]

I'm an electrical contractor with 13 operatives on the road, time sheets are a nightmare as is a lot of things.

I have a great idea for a small business management suite for SME contractors, the existing software out there is clearly made by people who don't use it!!!

At the minute we're using Excel spreadsheets and google drives, it's not great but it's better than it was before.

I'd be interested in finding out more about your system.

 

[Matt1959]

I use timesheets, only on a minute scale and handwritten. I think this is a brilliant idea

 

[Robert Richardson]

I own a commercial cleaning company and have the same problem with a mountain of time sheets to delve through each month. Our managers spend far too much time correcting mistakes and trying to understand illegible hand writing. I am currently working on an App for android which will work with NFC chipped ID cards, where staff log into sites by simply tapping a mobile device. This is mainly aimed at fixed sites but could be implemented in other situations. Has anybody else used a similar sort of electronic time sheet?