Still using spreadsheets for time tracking? Here’s what it’s costing you
Spreadsheets might seem like a “free” and simple solution for time tracking – after all, they’re easy to use and already on your computer. But in reality, using them can be way more expensive than you think.
Manual time tracking leads to mistakes – people forget to log hours, guesstimate, or miss entries altogether. That means billable hours are slipping through the cracks, and you’re losing out on revenue without even realizing it.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Add up the time spent fixing errors, chasing down timesheets, and manually pulling together reports, and you’ll see that what seems like a “free” solution is costing you far more than a proper time tracking tool ever would.
Think spreadsheets are saving you money? Let’s break it down and show you what they’re really costing you – and how to fix it.
Real costs of manual time tracking
Here’s the deal: manual time tracking may seem simple, but it’s full of hidden costs. Let’s look at the expenses you might be overlooking.
- Lost revenue from untracked billable hours
When hours get forgotten or miscalculated, you’re essentially working for free. Those billable hours that don’t make it to your invoice? They’re money slipping through your fingers.
- A pile of data, but no useful insights
Your team’s filling in spreadsheets, but that data doesn’t help you improve or optimize. Without the right tool, you’re just logging hours instead of getting real insights to boost your performance.
- Inaccurate time logs lead to unreliable project estimates
If your time tracking’s off, your project time estimates will be too. Guessing your project budget can lead to overcharging or undercharging clients, which hurts relationships and impacts deadlines.
- Manual time tracking eats into productive hours
Every hour spent filling out timesheets is an hour your team’s not using to solve problems or get work done. Over time, those “few minutes” add up.
- When your team’s late on timesheets, your payments are late too
If timesheets aren’t submitted on time, invoices get delayed – and so does your cash flow. Chasing down timesheets causes a domino effect of delays.
- Frustrated employees
Nobody wakes up excited to fill in a spreadsheet. When the process is tedious and error-prone, your team starts to avoid it. That frustration leads to lower accuracy and higher chances of skipping tracking altogether.
- Lost data creates compliance headaches for the team
A single missed entry or deleted record can throw everything off. Forgetting an hour or deleting a timesheet can lead to problems with payroll, overtime, or even violate labor regulations.
- Inconsistent time tracking data results in missed opportunities for improvement
When teams track time differently, it’s hard to spot inefficiencies or problems. Without consistent data, you won’t know where to improve, and you’ll miss chances to optimize.
How much are you really losing?
Let’s calculate the true cost of tracking time in spreadsheets. I’ll break it down into just three examples:
- Wasted time
Each employee spends around 25 minutes a day manually filling out their timesheet. Across a 10-person team, that’s 1,040 hours per year of purely administrative work — time that could be spent on actual project work.
At an average rate of $40/hour, that’s $41,600 down the drain.
- Uncaptured billable hours
Manual tracking is rarely accurate — employees forget, round down, or miss tasks altogether. If each person underreports just 15 minutes a day, that’s 625 billable hours lost per year.
At $100/hour, that’s $62,500 in revenue gone.
- Admin overhead
On top of that, someone has to chase down timesheets, fix errors, and compile reports — easily taking up 2 hours a week.
That adds up to 100 hours a year of tedious admin work, costing you another $3,000 annually.
| Source | Hours lost | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Timesheet completion | 1,040 hrs | $41,600 |
| Missed billables | 625 hrs | $62,500 |
| Admin overhead | 100 hrs | $3,000 |
| TOTAL | 1,765 hrs | $107,100/year |
Another problem: Spreadsheets don’t scale with your business – and here is why
- Managing time for 5 people is doable. For 50? Not a chance.
When your team is small, spreadsheet time tracking might seem like a good fit. But as your team grows, it gets harder to keep everything organized. Tracking hours for 50 people manually is a recipe for errors, confusion, and missed entries. The more you try to manage, the more things slip through the cracks.
- Project complexity increases – spreadsheets fall apart
As your projects get bigger and more complex, spreadsheets just can’t keep up. With multiple tasks, deadlines, and teams, trying to track every detail in a spreadsheet leads to overwhelming clutter. It’s like trying to juggle too many balls – eventually, something’s going to drop.
- Collaboration suffers – too many versions, no single source of truth
Spreadsheets quickly become a game of “who has the latest version?” Multiple people making edits means a constant back-and-forth, with no single source of truth. Collaboration breaks down, confusion builds up, and important details can get lost in the shuffle.
- You can’t automate anything: approvals, payroll, reports
Manual spreadsheets don’t give you the luxury of automation. You can’t streamline approvals, payroll, or generate accurate reports with just a few clicks. Every time you need a report, you’re stuck manually entering data. It’s time-consuming, tedious, and prone to mistakes.
How time tracking software solves the problem
Time tracking software like EARLY takes everything that spreadsheets mess up and fixes it. No more tedious manual entries, no more battling with inconsistent versions, and definitely no more chasing down incomplete timesheets.
With automatic tracking, a single source of data, and easy-to-generate reports, your team stays organized and your business gets way more efficient.
Here is how it works:
| Time tracking in spreadsheets – the old way | Time tracking in a dedicated software – the better way |
| Requires manual entry, which is prone to errors, and time-consuming (20-40 minutes a day). | Automatically tracks time, reducing errors and eliminating manual data entry. Takes 1 minute a day. |
| Multiple versions of data can lead to inconsistencies. | Centralized data provides a single source of truth, ensuring accuracy and consistency. |
| Manual data analysis is needed, often leading to incomplete or inaccurate insights. | Automatically generates reports and insights, offering real-time visibility into performance. |
| Tracking billable hours can be challenging and prone to mistakes. | Automatically tracks billable and non-billable hours, simplifying invoicing. |
| Filling out timesheets is tedious and error-prone. | Streamlined, user-friendly process, with some tools offering gamification to make timesheets more engaging. |
| Data stored in individual files, with minimal protection, risking loss or corruption. | Data is securely stored and encrypted, with access controls to protect sensitive information. |
| Requires manual follow-ups to track down incomplete timesheets. | Automated reminders ensure timely timesheet submissions, reducing follow-up tasks. |
How businesses similar to yours replaced spreadsheets with time tracking software
- Growth Ninjas, consultancy
Before switching to a time tracking tool, Growth Ninjas was using Google Sheets. Time was slipping through the cracks, and a backlog of up to 3 weeks was hurting profitability. With EARLY, they track billable hours and internal time efficiently, keeping everything organized.
- avocado, a software engineering company
avocado, a 12-person software engineering team, was manually tracking their time. Now, they use EARLY in different ways: some use the Tracker, others use the QuickTrack shortcut. It’s more efficient, and it helps the team stay engaged with time tracking.
The right tool makes all the difference
Time tracking doesn’t have to be a pain. That’s where EARLY comes in. It’s built to make time tracking easier, faster, and way less frustrating for teams and individuals. Here’s how it works:
- Automated time tracking: Your team doesn’t have to remember to log their hours. EARLY does it automatically so they can focus on their work instead of wasting time on timesheets.
- Physical time tracker: For a more hands-on approach, the EARLY 8-sided cube lets your team track time with a simple flip, making it easier to build a consistent time tracking habit.
- Keyboard shortcuts: Need to track a new task fast? Just hit a shortcut, and you’re good to go—no clicking through menus or wasting time.
No more switching between systems or entering data manually. With EARLY, everything from billable hours to project budgets is calculated and organized in one place, making your team’s life easier and your processes smoother.
Book a demo and check out how EARLY can save you time and headaches.
It’s time to stop losing money and start tracking time the right way
By now, it’s clear: tracking time in spreadsheets isn’t saving you anything. It’s costing you time chasing down errors, missed billable hours, and frustration. Switching to a dedicated time tracking tool streamlines the process, helps you capture every hour accurately, and frees up your team to focus on more important tasks. Are you ready to make a change?