How Freelance Job Posters Are Using Monitoring Apps To Ensure Quality & Timeliness?
Freelancing and independent work has gotten quite common over the last few years because it offers more freedom to job seekers especially those who work in creative fields. Recruiters from all over the world use platforms like Upwork, Flexiple, and Freelancer to hire full-stack developers, freelance photographers, graphic designers, and writers. And these are just a few of the professional freelance careers that are benefitting hugely from online freelancing platforms. And it is no surprise. When these professionals know that they can be more productive working from the comfort of their own homes, there is no point sticking to a 9 to 5 routine and sitting behind a desk in a cubicle all day. Therefore, these professionals are having a great time taking advantage of the boom in the freelance landscape. However, on the other end of the spectrum are job posters who are struggling to land the right candidates for the job or ensure that the people they have hired are working with 100 percent commitment. To overcome this, employers have to rely on different monitoring tools such as time-tracking software for the timely delivery of projects and tasks without compromising on quality. They can use either platform-specific tracking software or third-party monitoring software to keep track of things. What Are The Limitations Of Native Time Tracking Tools On Freelance Websites? The core features of all native time-tracking tools that freelance websites offer are pretty similar and they operate on the basic principle of tracking the time according to the amount of work put in by the freelancer. They all include manual pausing and unpausing the time tracking options and they also automatically pause when there is no keyboard or mouse input detected. It means that when the freelancer assigned with work is sitting idle or is away from their computer, the time tracker tool automatically pauses. It, therefore, doesn’t count toward their minutes spent working on the project or task assigned. But apart from these, native time-tracking tools have their fair share of limitations. 1. Costly Native time-tracking tools can be quite costly, especially those that have advanced time-tracking features. And this can be a problem for job posters who are operating on a tight budget. And sometimes the job poster has to pay for extra functionality that they do not need and will not use in any scenario. Plus, many of these time tracking systems on freelancing platforms don’t have a free option or a free trial period. 2. Difficult To Learn Since most of the native tracking tools on freelancing platforms don’t see any major change in their UI or color scheme, they can feel pretty outdated and difficult to learn and feel unintuitive to use. 3. Inadequate & Inaccurate Billing Options The most common reason for job posters to use time tracking tools is so that they can pay according to the hours put in by the freelancer. And native time tracking software is notoriously bad at generating the billed hours equating to the amount of work done. So not only are job posters uncertain about the amount they owe their workers, they can’t accurately assess the time their projects took to complete. And when you don’t know how the freelancer spent their time, you cannot analyze their habits and inform them of what needs to be improved. Moreover, if you are tracking time using an accurate time-tracking tool, you can accurately bill projects and you will know the amount of time required for similar projects in the future. And since native tools do not offer detailed monitoring, you cannot break down the hourly billing section nor use time-stamped screenshots to make advanced time-tracking decisions. For streamlined invoice creation, utilize the freelance invoice template, ensuring efficient management of financial transactions and fostering flexibility in invoicing processes though make sure you learn when to send an invoice vs receipt which gives an confirmation of payment received 4. Can Cause Mistrust Trust is essential in any business agreement and it isn’t any different when working with freelancers. But when working with native tracking tools, certain mistrust and doubt can present themselves because the job poster is unsure how much time was put into work. And this mistrust is amplified when you are working with someone new. 5. Can Cause Miscommunication When time isn’t being accurately tracked, it can cause a lot of miscommunication between the job poster and the freelancer. Miscommunication can lead to misunderstandings, delays, and work that is subpar. It happens all because of inaccurate time tracking. Since the timely completion of the project is underestimated, the job poster can pre-assign more work, creating further pressure on the freelancer to meet the deadline and start on the new task. And when this happens, your specific vision for the project fails to meet expectations, leading to disappointment and further mistrust. Many a time, freelancers lose gigs because of inaccurate timing and miscommunications. 6. No Flexibility Most native time tracking tools only work when they are connected to the Internet and will only capture PC data. They are not flexible enough to work on freelancers’ smartphones or track time when an internet connection isn’t available. At other times, the time managing apps do not integrate with certain other apps, thereby unable to register the time the freelancer spent using those apps to finish a project. This becomes an even bigger problem when these time management apps cannot integrate with third-party project management systems that are necessary for finishing certain projects. The 3 Best Alternatives To Freelance Time Tracking Apps Now that we have gone over the problems associated with native time tracking tools available on freelance websites, let’s check at 3 third-party productivity software that freelance job posters are using. 1. XNSPY XNSPY is a remote monitoring tool that works as a supplementary app to native time tracking tools since it monitors smartphones instead of work computers. It has several advanced features that job posters can utilize to ensure an active and efficient freelance team. One of
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