Time Management Tools and Strategies for More Efficient Client Work

You’re here looking for time management tools, so you don’t need to be reminded about the value of time.

Whether you’re looking to reduce bottlenecks in your workflows or want a better picture of your team’s billable time, we’re ready to help you find the time management solutions your team needs. 

Below, we’ll cover the benefits of improving time management, some popular strategies for controlling your time and recommendations for the best tools to support successful time management in your client work. 

The Benefits of Better Time Management 

When it comes to our personal lives, we know better time management often comes with less stress, less procrastination and more control over the hours in a day. These ring true for the workplace too, but businesses need to know the return on investment before dedicating more time or resources to better time management for their business. 

Luckily, there are clear benefits for businesses that adopt positive time management strategies.

Improved Productivity

Teams can improve their overall productivity and find better solutions for balancing multiple tasks by implementing time management tips or finding tools to support more effective workflows.

You may find that your team is more motivated with clear goals to work towards. If this is the case, a platform that can track goal progress could lead to improved productivity overall. Other teams may just need a solution for better communication to reduce back-and-forth and leave more time in the day for completing tasks.

No matter the challenge or solution, by implementing better time management skills, your team can maximize productivity — one of the most important outcomes.   

Better Work-Life Balance

When your team has better control of its time, the benefits will extend beyond the typical workday. By prioritizing tasks and making more efficient use of the hours in a day, your employees will be able to establish clear boundaries between work and personal life. 

And while this is a clear win for employees, the benefits also extend to your business. A focus on employee well-being can reduce burnout risk, limit turnover and help employees perform their best. 

Increased Profitability

It’s no surprise that more productive teams are able to accomplish more — and often better — work. More successful work often leads to more profits, and this is especially true for client-based businesses that provide services at an hourly rate. 

These teams use time management skills to make the most of their time — and accurately track time with a time-tracking tool. As a result, they gain better insight into their overall profitability and can make better decisions about projects and clients. 

While better time management is a goal for most businesses, the method to achieve it — and the tools to support the effort — will vary greatly. Below we’ll cover some of the best tools for various time management needs, including client work, project management, time tracking, billing and invoicing, employee time management, team collaboration and productivity.

Accelo: The Best Tool for Client Work Management

Accelo is an end-to-end client work management platform built to help professional services businesses automate tasks, improve visibility and increase profits. 

The platform offers advanced time-tracking features across all stages of client work, from sales to projects and tickets, and effortlessly connects your employee time data to your billing system for more accurate billing and to improve insights on project profitability. 

Features 

• An end-to-end solution for managing client work including sales, projects, tickets, billing and retainers
• Accurate time tracking that logs time across product areas to track billable and non-billable hours 
• Custom workflows to automate your business processes
• Collaborative tools like the Activity Stream with a complete history of client and project interactions

Pros

• A built-in CRM connects your projects to a contact or company record, seamlessly merging your client information and time-tracking data across the entire platform — simplifying billing and improving team collaboration 
• Accelo’s automated time tracking collects important data with no additional work and feeds into the platform’s robust reporting capabilities that offer advanced forecasting tools, including revenue analysis, a team member performance dashboard and client profitability reports

Cons

• Because Accelo is most effective for teams of five or more, it may not be the best fit for smaller teams or solopreneurs
• Teams just seeking time-tracking tools may not need Accelo’s end-to-end solution for managing all aspects of client work

Start a free trial to explore Accelo or schedule a demo to speak with a product expert and learn about the custom solutions for your professional services team.

Asana: The Best Tool for Project Managers

Asana is a project management app designed to help teams track and manage unlimited projects and help employees manage individual tasks. With collaborative features and multiple task and project views, including lists, Kanban boards, calendars and timelines, the platform offers flexibility for project managers to create and manage more efficient projects and easily collaborate with project contributors.

Features 

• Rule-based automations to organize tasks and save time
• Task and project templates to automate recurring work
• Custom fields to categorize and prioritize tasks
• Goal setting that tracks company, team and individual goals

Pros

• Customizations allow for easy adaptation to a variety of project types and industries
• Supports form creation for better task organization and enhanced cross-departmental workflows

Cons

• Integrations needed to track employee time spent on tasks 
• Some users claim tasks and notifications are overwhelming

Read Accelo vs. Asana to learn more.

Clockify: The Best Free Tool to Track Time

Clockify is a free time-tracking app that helps teams and individuals log time spent on tasks and projects using a combination of automatic timers and manual entry. The option to create teams can help project managers oversee the total time on a project. Clockify can be used to calculate payroll and billable hours.

Features 

• Timesheets categorized by activity
• Automatically tracks time for synced calendar events
• Integrates with popular project management apps
• Visible location history, multi-device clock-in kiosk and team check-ins for on-site work

Pros

• Free for unlimited users
• Simple, user-friendly interface 

Cons

• Some users point out that reports lack detail
• Others report difficulty with activity and task sorting

Hiveage: The Best Invoicing Software With a Built-In Time Tracker 

Hiveage is an invoicing software solution with built-in time tracking that helps businesses manage their money and billable time, their team and their customers. The platform offers quote creation, invoice creation and recurring billing management. 

Features 

• Task management with the option to create and categorize recurring tasks
• Online time entry methods 
• Ability to set billable rates by task type
• Generates invoices based on tasks and tracked billable time

Pros

• There is a free version of the platform available for up to five users
• Users share that the platform has a simple, easy-to-use interface 

Cons

• One user shares that both accounting and reporting features are limited
• Credit card payment acceptance is limited to US-based subscribers

Hubstaff: The Best Employee Time Management Software

Hubstaff is a time-tracking and employee-monitoring software with productivity features meant to help businesses gain improved insights into employee workload. The time management app tracks time through manual and automated tools, sets employee time limits and collects data for detailed timesheets and time reports.  

Features 

• Automated timesheets generated by built-in time trackers
• Geofence time tracking to automate employees clocking in and out
• An employee time clock app for easy clocking in and out
• Customizable time reports to track hours and understand a project's profitability

Pros

• An employee productivity dashboard shows your entire team’s productivity in one view
• Custom invoice templates make it easy to create branded invoices based on billable and non-billable employee time and project expenses 

Cons

• As Hubstaff is primarily for employee monitoring and time management, businesses will require integrations to be able to fully support all other aspects of their work — like a CRM or billing system
• Multiple users share their privacy concerns while using the product due to the app’s location tracking and screen captures 

Notion: The Best Team Collaboration Platform

Notion is an all-in-one productivity app that combines notes, documents, project management and a custom wiki feature to help teams share information, communicate and stay informed. A centralized space for collaboration supports small to enterprise businesses and a variety of industry needs.

Features 

• Workflows that support more efficient work across teams
• Templates to simplify the creation of multiple tasks and projects
• Shareable documents to improve collaboration
• Customizable wikis to distribute company-wide information

Pros

• A free plan is available for up to 10 users per month
• Supports remote teams and employees on the go with tools available via web, desktop app and mobile app for iOS and Android

Cons

• Some users share that it can be difficult to navigate the platform and there is a steep learning curve for new users
• While the tool is helpful for managing time spent on internal work, it’s not well suited to support client work and sharing projects with external users

Smartsheet: The Best Productivity Tool

Smartsheet is a project management tool that helps organizations and teams plan, execute and report on their work. Its capabilities include workflow and resource management, team scheduling and digital asset management tools, creating more efficient processes and providing a tool for implementing time management strategies.

Features 

• Automated time tracking, including mobile time-tracking capabilities
• Project reporting, including real-time budget updates and planned vs. actual hours reports
• A portal that creates custom project views for different teams or departments
• Content management tools, including a digital asset management system

Pros

• Proofing tools streamline the process of reviewing, revising and approving content
• Public-facing reports and dashboards make it easier to share outcomes with stakeholders outside of the platform

Cons

• While Smartsheet is a popular solution for project management, resource management and time tracking, many of its features are only available with the purchase of an add-on license
• Due to the size and cost, the platform is most commonly used by enterprise accounts, so it may not be the best fit for small to medium-sized organizations

READ NEXT: 28 Surprising Time-Tracking Statistics

Protect Your Team’s Time With Accelo

Better time management will benefit your employees, your clients and your business’s bottom line, so make sure you have the right tools to support your efforts.

For supporting client work, an end-to-end client work management system like Accelo is the best choice for managing your time and ensuring you get paid accurately for the work you do. With built-in time tracking connected to your projects, tickets and billing, you can efficiently manage your client journey without the additional time — and cost— of added integrations.

Explore Accelo yourself with a free trial and then request a demo to get an in-depth look at the time management solutions the platform could bring to your business.

About the Author

Kit Lewis is a Content Manager at Accelo, where she manages content projects, social media and content reporting. With a decade of writing for industries ranging from education to tech, past experience supporting client work and a commitment to building efficient systems, she is passionate about creating valuable content to help professional services teams.