How it gets recorded

Accuracy falls sharply with the delay between the work and the entry, which is the one variable you can actually change. Everything else in this section is about reducing it.

6 notes

Manual Entry

The oldest method, still the most common, and the one whose accuracy depends almost entirely on how soon after the work it happens.

Analysis

Timers

Starting and stopping a clock is more accurate than recollection and fails in specific, predictable ways.

Procedure

Automatic Capture

Inferring time from activity removes the recording burden and requires capturing what someone was doing. The trade, stated plainly.

Analysis

Clock-In Systems

Terminals, badges, apps and biometric readers. What each records, what each costs, and where the biometric option changes the analysis entirely.

Reference

Capturing From the Tools People Use

Calendars, tickets and version control already know a good deal about where effort went. Using that without turning it into monitoring.

Procedure

Shift Work and Rotas

Where hours are scheduled rather than chosen, the recording questions change: handovers, call-outs, and the gap between the rota and what happened.

Reference