Relax while working with AStime functionality

Andriy   Petrenko administrator 66 0 0

Nowadays everything is going faster than it was several years ago. Industries are being changed, new products come and have an effect on people and society.  

These circumstances form new requirements for employees all over the world. The level of responsibility becomes higher and the competition as well.So how to relax while working ? Let’s investigate it together.

Advantages of AStime usage

Today there are a lot of time tracking/logging software on the market. We’re living in a good time when offers are much more than demand. A user can choose and behave like a director. On the one hand, it’s a good option to choose among tools the best for you. But on the other hand, it may be a competitor’s race between them instead of helping users to resolve their problems. 

Of course, any tool cares about problem-solving. But sometimes the focus may be lost and users may not receive solutions in full because of financial goals.

So, there is something to discuss. Let’s explore it together :)‎

I think the beginning of the topic could be a general discussion about what time-tracking software is, what types of time-tracking software are, and how this all works.

We highlighted 4 types

The first type

In industries that manufacture some details for house buildings, cars, etc, employees may have a card. This card works as a pass to let an employee inside a building. 

This pass works also like a START TIME button. For example, an employee comes in at 8:00 AM and comes out at 5:00 PM. This means the employee worked 9 hours that day. There might be a lunch pause, or the employee may have done nothing. But technically this employee worked 9 hours. 

At the end of each month, a responsible person can review these hours to make a conclusion according to internal rules or processes. This is in a nutshell how it works.

The second type

There are solutions that people can use on their laptops or phones. Such solutions have interfaces, menus, different user roles, and many other functions such as screenshots making, work activity tracking, GPS tracking, etc. In the majority, it’s used in the IT industry with remote work model.

Mostly, people define such solutions as Time Trackers. Because everything is monitored, it’s not so comfortable to work. People don’t like such control and usually don’t accept offers from companies that implement Time Trackers.

As was told in one movie @the problem is choise@. In this situation, employees can be understood, but employers implement time trackers mostly because of bad working activities from employees that affect revenue. 

So, it’s a two-side meaning, and in many cases such solutions work.

The third type

We can define it as a more-less compromised solution between employers and employees that is mostly used in the IT industry. For example, there is a client who orders an IT project from a vendor. The vendor allocates a team with a team leader, tech leader, managers, and developers. 

Lead people should decompose each task, investigate it, and make an estimation. This way each task is sold to the client. 

When everything is done, each programmer executes a task and logs spent hours in a system. It may be an internal software, Jira, or a Google sheet.

Looks good, isn’t it? However, there are points that should be popped up.

Pros: employees feel comfortable, they don’t need to click buttons START and STOP timers, etc.

But, there are cons. Let’s consider them

Cons:

1 A company should have lead persons exactly with experience to break down projects and make estimations for each task;

– not every company has such a specialist and even if a company has such person/s, the number of projects may be bigger than the specialists are able to handle

2 If a specialist is not able to perform a task within an estimation, he/she must overtime for own costs. Because the estimation has been sold and a client will not pay more;

– here is another side of working with this model, however without a time tracker that is hated by many people. The choice is yours.

3 Project managers have a situation when it’s difficult to control deadlines. Because a deadline consists of many small deadlines that are task estimations. Internal tools may be good for accountants or developers, but not convenient at all for project managers.

So, it’s in a nutshell about the third type of time-tracking activities.

And there is the fourth type that we consider as the best compromise for employees and employers.

The fourth type

This is a hybrid web solution that helps employees to log their work time quickly and in comfortable ways. Employers are able to monitor a workload of each employee and provide clients with access to their projects and statistics with the ability to have their own accounts. The app doesn’t make screenshots and doesn’t track activity index like amount of clicks and mouse movements. The app cares about microclimat between employees and employers.

The solution is called AStime tracker. 

No more creating hourly reports from tables or accountant programs and then sending them into emails and tons of chats. Your cleints have their accounts with all statistics and ability to download a report in 1 click.

AStime tracker also cares about the internal space of employees and makes the work process relaxing. Employees do work activities and log the time comfortably inside AStime tracker.

Those project managers who copied tasks from Jira and past them to an internal platform for developers to log their time are free of it. AStime tracker has the unique 2 side integration with Jira. All tasks a project manager assigns in Jira come to assigned employees to AStime tracker automatically. 

Even no need to create a report for a client. The report is already created and is inside a client’s account. Just think about it and how much time is required to do all these activities. This free time that AStime tracker makes may be directed to any wish of a project manager.

Sounds fascinating? Just test AStime tracker for FREE here https://astime-tracker.com/ 

Let’s consider why ASTime tracker is different.

1 Synchronization with JIRA

Two-way synchronization with JIRA. AStime takes data from JIRA such as: project name, employee assignment, estimate, task name, task description, name of the column on the board in which the task is located. And AStime returns JIRA time data for each task directly to the task card in JIRA.

The key point – in other solutions, to connect the JIRA account to the time logging platform, you need to be tech-savvy in many ways, register API keys, and so on. In AStime, you just need to press the NEXT button a couple of times, and synchronization takes place. Even a child can do it.

2 Adding clients

In AStime, you can easily add clients who have their own accounts and can see the time spent on their projects in two clicks by specific project and time period. Also, there is a calculator function right in the account, where they can multiply the hours and minutes of specialists who worked on their project by the hourly rate and calculate the payment according to an invoice. You don’t need to hire an accountant or use Excel to do this. Also, right here, you can download an hourly report with a detailed breakdown by time.
It’s FREE to check the app, please do it here here https://astime-tracker.com/ 

3 Adding a project to a client

A convenient system for assigning projects to a client, so the client can see his project and the time that is spent on it. This is done in two clicks

4 Functionality of workspaces

Mostly workspaces are defined as a new project or a new board. Forget it 🙂 Inside AStime it’s a completely different. This allows you to be an administrator, employee and client within one account without leaving the account. You just need to go to the workspace, where there will be a separate infrastructure, projects, tasks. If another admin invites you as an employee despite the fact that you are an admin in your company, then you will see the workspace of the employee and, if necessary, you will enter there, work and contribute time.

A user can have employee, client accounts as much as the user has been invited by other admins. Or create your own admin account and build some activities there.

5 Functionality of linking projects and their time to JIRA projects

Thus, time from different projects can be tied to any JIRA project and a client sees all participants within the one project. It is convenient for the client to make mutual settlements and it is convenient for the company to make mutual settlements within or among subcontractors or freelancers.

For team leads and tech leads, who can also switch between projects for help, code reviews or customer calls, there is an option to create a personal project. In it, create tasks for different projects and then link each task and its time to different projects from Jira. When logging time for calls and various activities, the time goes to a specific client for payment. Thus, accurate mutual calculations take place.

6 Task tracking bar

For professionals such as business analysts and managers, there is a taskbar with 4 recent tasks. To quickly switch between projects, you only need to press one button. In this taskbar, it is also shown how much time the employee worked per day in general, it is very convenient to know the intermediate result and to observe work-life balance

7 Download reports

You can download reports in PDF and JSON format. This is a unique functionality that is available only in AStime on the market

Please, see the article https://medium.com/@yarax/common-format-for-time-tracking-first-steps-293b00ca3a84 

8 Convenience and usability

The main feature of the system is phenomenal ease of use and usability. Everything is thought out, tested and configured. The level of intuitiveness of working with the application is very high. In the first few minutes, it is already clear where to go and what to press. The most important thing is that the application solves the problems and pains that exist today, and not those that existed 10 years ago, when the instruments were different and so were the problems.

9 Language versions of the platform

The platform is translated into 7 languages: English, Ukrainian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic. It provides ease of use for users from all over the world.

10 Marking of hours as Billable and unbillable

The platform has 3 types of projects: Jira, personal and managerial. In each of these types of projects, there may be a need to remove a specific employee’s hours from the project so that the client does not see them and does not pay for them. The system allows you to perform this action in two clicks and keep the relationship with the client transparent.

To be honest, AStime tracker is a modern solution that resolves old pain points and modern pains as well unlike other solutions that were done 5 or 10 years ago.

A user can create an account in 1 click for FREE here https://astime-tracker.com/ and check the application.

AStime tracker will definitely surprise you by the intuitive level of usage and you may find the functionality you were looking for a lot of times but unsuccessfully. But now you don’t have to look for it. It’s here and it works for your comfort, calmness, success, and revenue.

Is it worth to have a look? If you want to be ahead, don’t spend time at all to create hourly reports, etc yes, the answer is YES.

Thank you for your time. Be productive and see you!