The Hidden Costs of Your Outdated Timesheet Template

Technology changes in the blink of an eye. Or so it seems these days. Today’s latest and greatest can be obsolete in just one year.

In an environment like this, it’s hard to know when you truly need to upgrade your tools. But new technology can give your company a competitive advantage. It can also help you better service customers and operate more efficiently.

And not upgrading can have big implications on your medical business’s reputation, according to a 2013 Microsoft study. It reports that more than 90% of consumers would consider taking their business elsewhere rather than work with a company using outdated technology.

It’s something you may not have considered before. But using obsolete technology not only costs you in lost productivity and revenue – but in client loyalty, as well. Today’s customers know modern technology is critical to the success of a business. They also know that when a company is lagging behind in technology, then quality and service may suffer, as well.

This is certainly true in the case of timesheet templates. They provide an easy way to record time and attendance. But looks can be deceiving.

Why your Excel timesheets are holding your business back

Managing your workforce using Excel timesheet templates will inevitably lead to employee frustration, invoicing mistakes, redundant data entry and angry customers.

You want to grow your business and spend time on what matters (booking more screenings and appointments), not on putting out fires and placating frustrated people from all sides.

Plus, you have to invest hours to run a simple report. When you can automate tasks like these, such an outdated method is inefficient and unnecessary.

The 6 ways timesheet templates are costing you

Think of Excel timesheets like dial-up Internet. They’re slow, waste time and don’t deliver any value. Plus they’re costing you money in the form of:

Security holes

Security risks are the number one danger of older technology. And when it comes to timesheet templates, it’s hard to keep them both secure and accessible.

Even if you’ve “updated” your spreadsheets to the cloud on a system like Google Docs, security can still be a challenge. There’s no audit trail or security levels. You don’t want to risk a trust issue with employees, customers, or potential investors.

Lost revenue

Consider this scenario: You use an Excel timesheet template to track employee hours. An employee enters in their hours after your bookkeeper invoices a customer, but doesn’t notice. Those hours are effectively lost since they were never billed.

System downtime

How much time do you lose when Excel crashes, hangs, freezes, or stops working? And it’s not just time that’s wasted. The money spent on fixing crashes and downtime could be invested elsewhere in your business. In something that could’ve contributed to growth more directly.

Decreased productivity

Employees and managers alike are slowed down by old software solutions. Technology has come a long way and outdated tools are clunkier and harder to use than modern options.

It’s also hard get the information you need without putting in a ticket with IT, resulting in frustration, delays and diminished productivity.

Loss of data

The power goes out. You close the file without saving it. Or Excel crashes. The list of spreadsheet hazards is endless, but the result is the same: severe data loss. You don’t want to deal with doing the same work twice or risking inaccuracies due to tech problems.

Compliance issues

If someone changes spreadsheet value, you can’t see the history of who made the change, the date and time the edit was made, the old and new values entered and the reason the change was made. This can put your company at risk for compliance fines.

And in the healthcare industry, violations of HIPAA security standards cost up to $50,000 per infraction. Talk about a reputation problem – and one that could kill your company’s bottom line.

So you know you need to update and automate. After all, what business owner doesn’t want to increase productivity, enhance efficiency and drive growth? It’s time to to invest in systems that will help you better manage your workforce.