Recording time and activities

What is time and activity recording?

Time and activity recording is an important part of work organisation and project planning. It enables companies to document hours worked and services performed in a structured way, creating a reliable data basis for other business processes.

Especially in project-based industries such as construction, traceable time and activity recording plays an important role. Different projects, changing job sites and a variety of tasks place particular demands on how the work performed is documented.

Reliable time and activity recording starts with capturing all relevant hours and activities completely and as simply as possible.

Time and activities – why do you need both?

Classic working time recording focuses on when and for how long employees worked. In the construction industry in particular, however, documenting working hours alone is often not enough. For organising and running projects, it also matters what the working time was spent on and which services were performed as part of a project.

Time and activity recording therefore combines the documentation of working hours with project-related information. In addition to working and travel times, this can include tasks, expenses, materials used or reports.

Benefits of structured time and activity recording

Structured time and activity recording creates transparency about how much working time is spent on individual projects and tasks, and what other costs arise along the way. It thus forms an important data basis for payroll, project costing and post-calculation.

At the same time, actual effort can be compared with the original plan, making projects easier to manage. The recorded data not only helps companies document work already done, but also provides insights for planning future projects and deploying employees and resources efficiently.

What matters when recording time and activities?

Good time and activity recording should fit into everyday work as easily as possible. The less effort it takes for employees, the more reliably and completely time and activities can be documented.

• Simple and intuitive recording: Documentation should require as few manual entries as possible and be easy for employees to do.

• Mobile availability: Especially with changing locations and on construction sites, it should be possible to record time and activities regardless of workplace, directly on site.

• Project-based recording: Recorded time and activities should be clearly assignable to the respective projects. This creates a traceable data basis for further processing.

• Differentiated time recording: Different types of time, such as working hours, travel time and absences, should be documented separately.

• Recording of other services: Besides time, other project-related services and costs such as expenses, materials or reports should also be documentable.

• Digital processes and automation: Digital solutions can bring information together centrally, reduce manual transfers and automate recurring entries.

Recording time and activities with Vanillaplan

With Vanillaplan, working hours and other project-related services can be recorded digitally, right in the course of everyday work. Deployment planning and time and activity recording are directly linked: deployments that have already been planned can be transferred to time recording automatically. With the mobile app, employees can also document their time and activities easily, wherever they are.

Recording working hours easily

⏱️ Transfer working hours from deployment planning: Planned deployments are automatically transferred to time recording. Employees can confirm the stored working time with one click or adjust it if needed. This eliminates entering already planned working hours twice.

📱 Record working hours with start-stop: Alternatively, employees can start and stop their working time directly in the mobile app. This makes it easy to record working hours on the go or right on the construction site.

🌴 Document absences: In addition to working hours, absences such as holidays or sickness can also be recorded, including the reason for absence. This way, working time and absences are documented together.

Recording travel time and expenses

🚗 Record travel time separately: Travel time can be documented separately from the actual working hours and assigned to the respective project. This keeps travel time and working time clearly distinguishable.

💳 Record expenses including receipts: Project-related expenses can be recorded including the receipt and assigned directly to the respective project.

✨ Transfer travel time and expenses automatically: Recurring travel time and expenses can be transferred to the recording automatically based on deployment planning. This reduces manual entries and simplifies documentation for employees.

Documenting materials and reports

🧱 Record material consumption per project: Materials used can be assigned directly to a project and documented including their price. Recurring materials can be stored as catalogue items and selected when recording.

📝 Capture project progress in reports: Employees can document information on work and project progress directly in reports. That way, relevant information is recorded in the same place as the associated time and activities.

Recording tasks

🔨 Assign working hours to specific tasks: Companies can define tasks to which employees assign their recorded working hours. This shows not only how much time was spent on a project, but also what that working time was used for. The result is a more detailed basis for post-calculation and future planning.