Construction professionals waste about 35% of their time on unproductive manual data entry, including the infamous paper timesheet. That means more than one-third of their time is spent on work that adds no real value and does nothing to make the company money.
No matter the size of your company, that costs you. It’s time that could be spent supervising crews, coordinating schedules, solving problems, managing risk, communicating with clients, and keeping projects moving.
It’s Not Just Inefficient. It Creates Friction.
In addition to wasting time and money, manual time entry puts a strain on employees. It creates conflict between the people chasing down timesheets and the people who are already overwhelmed, buried in deadlines, jumping between priorities, or who simply forgot. That kind of friction adds up. It creates a negative work environment, unhappy employees, and eventually higher turnover.
On top of that, 37% of payroll errors are tied to manual entry. That’s 37% of errors that could be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, by changing the process.
If This Sounds Familiar, It’s a Problem
How often do you see timesheets filled out at the end of the week from memory?
Are they scribbled on paper and hard to read?
Are there days when your office staff is hunting down timesheets from across the company?
Do you ever have someone waiting at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday to submit payroll because someone forgot to turn theirs in before heading out of town?
How often do you wonder:
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Did everyone arrive on time?
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Take their lunch break?
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Leave when they were supposed to?
If any of this sounds familiar, it may be time to think about moving to digital, automated processes.
A Better Way to Handle Time Tracking
Now let’s flip it.
What if there were a way to reduce errors, save time, increase profitability, and improve workplace culture?
Creating a simple sign-in app is one of the easiest ways to get started.
Field employees can sign in and out of a jobsite right from their phone. Think of it as a simple custom app they download, nothing complicated. You can set parameters to make sure they are actually on-site when they check in. They can record lunch breaks, request edits if they miss a punch, and even enter time later if they are working in an area with poor service.
Instead of chasing down timesheets at the end of the week, the data is captured once and sent back to the office in real time. No duplicate entry. No guessing. No cleanup.
It sounds simple, and it is, but it can completely change how your team operates.
“My Crews Won’t Use It.”
Now, you’re probably thinking of all the reasons this would not work. The most common one we hear is, “My crews won’t use it.” And that’s fair.
But this is built to reduce the work they already do not want to do. A sign-in that takes less than 10 seconds is a lot easier than getting the inevitable Friday message:
“Hey…did you forget to fill out your timesheet?”
Questions about multiple jobsites, different pay scales, or existing systems usually come next. Those are all valid, and they are all solvable. That is where working with a Microsoft Partner makes a difference.
Same Problem, Different Process
Take our case study with PC Construction as an example. We built an onboarding app to improve efficiency by automating how employee data and information were captured and tracked. Before that, they were dealing with the same issue we see on jobsites every day: information collected in one place, re-entered somewhere else, and details getting lost in between.
Different process, same problem.
This is just one example, but it points to a much bigger opportunity. Instead of continuing to lose time and money to manual processes, companies have a chance to simplify and standardize how they operate.
It Goes Far Beyond Timesheets
And this goes far beyond timesheets.
Manual data entry, daily reports, safety reporting, inventory tracking, scheduling, the list goes on.
That’s where a certified Microsoft Partner like Aerie comes in. We take a close look at how your business operates today and help identify practical ways to make it more efficient, more productive, and more profitable.
Ready to Make the Shift?
If you’re ready to take that step, schedule a time to connect with us. This is where your digital transformation starts.
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