By John Martin
Time tracking is important, I get it. Scheduling, team management, reporting and billing can all fall victim to poor time tracking. Choosing the right time and attendance tracking software can have a huge impact on the bottom line of any business. There’s a vast range of time tracking apps available these days but navigating the murky waters of which one best suits your needs can be a time-consuming and infuriating task.
One thing is for sure, you need accurate time tracking that saves time and money…. right?
Many people rely on TSheets by Quickbooks; launched in 2006 as an alternative to a paper timesheet or punch cards the application has gained popularity with approximately 35,000 customers in more than 60 countries. That kind of popularity brings in a staggering amount of revenue, thought to be in excess of $40 million per year from their customers.
Eyebrows raised in our office when we saw such an eye watering figure, it sounded like a lot and so I decided to do some digging into how their pricing works.
TSheets offer a free trial for 14 days, after which the minimum fee for their “Premium” subscription comes in at $8 per user per month, with an additional $20 base paid monthly. For users looking to unlock all of the applications features, there is the option to upgrade to the “Elite” subscription, billed at $10 per user per month, with a $40 base fee paid monthly. Discounts of 20% are offered for customers that pay their annual subscription up front.
Now it’s fair to say that TSheets offers a few more features than similar competitor solutions such as Jibble, but can this really justify the substantial increase in cost?
Let’s compare each application on core features that are most important to the majority of small to medium sized companies:
| Product Features | Jibble | TSheets |
|---|---|---|
| Biometric Recognition | Yes | Yes |
| Messaging | X | Yes |
| Mobile Access | Yes | Yes |
| Online Punch Card | Yes | Yes |
| Payroll Management | Yes | Yes |
| Punch Cards | X | X |
| Reporting/Analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Salaried Employee Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Sick Leave Tracking | X | Yes |
| Time Sheet Management | Yes | Yes |
| Vacation/Leave Tracking | X | Yes |
| Workstation Tracking | X | Yes |
| Scheduling | X | Yes |
Planned updates to Jibble in the coming months will boost their functionality to include two of the omissions from the list, namely vacation/leave tracking and sick leave tracking. The features seem to be very similar, but the monthly costs are not.
Jibble contains enough features to suit most businesses and they don’t just offer a free 14-day trial, they offer a free forever plan. You heard that right, Jibble have a base plan that is completely free to use – forever.
Even the highest subscription level “Desktop Pro” is billed at just $4 per active user per month – unlocking facial recognition, geofencing, overtime calculation and the ability to monitor & analyse desktop activity.
Jibble offers the core features needed to get a grip of a company’s time tracking, with the option of unlocking additional features for a tiny monthly cost, giving their users the opportunity to reach a ROI on the cost of their solution system much faster.
It can be extremely daunting once you have committed to an application and integrated it into your way of working to facilitate a change – leaving residual monthly subscription costs lingering on the balance sheet for longer than you might like.
For most small to medium sized companies controlling expenditure is vital. To these businesses my recommendation would be to review very carefully the features you need to run your business, chances are Jibble covers your core requirements.
If you want to keep your overheads as lean as possible and don’t need some of the more abstract features offered by TSheets then Jibble offers a user friendly alternative with enough core features to suit most businesses and $0 cost of entry.
I’d say that’s worth a try!
