Are your employees working the entire schedule? Come to think of it, that’s not possible. Your human resources need breaks. So they will take breaks. Other than that, every time your resources are not doing any activity, that’s their idle time. Believe it or not, you also need to account for this time, when calculating expenses and payroll.
That’s where idle time tracking software comes into play. The software solution is a tool package, which takes all the hard work of calculating idle time from you, ensuring that you have enough time to do essential work that matters. According to an expert survey, automated work-hour tracking can save you $666400 lost yearly wages due to errors and inefficiencies.
So in today’s blog post, I will take you through all of this including a deep understanding of idle time and ways to calculate and automate it. Plus, you will also get many useful insights related to this topic. With that being said, let me dive right into it.
What is Idle Time?
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As I mentioned before, your employees are not working all the time. So whenever they take a break or your resources are not active, it counts as idle time for your business. During your idle hours, you are usually involved in some form of relaxation and entertainment. As per my expertise, it’s good for your efficiency and productivity. Nonetheless, there are a few types of idleness in hours:
- Break time (including meetings where any actual work is not done)
- When resources, teams, and employees are not productivity
- Positive idle hours (when the employees’ minds are being rejuvenated)
- Negative idle hours (when the employees are frustrated or are passing the time)
Moreover, you need to account for all of these idle hours, when processing payroll because that’s the time when no work was done and you are not entitled to pay your employees for this time. Moreover, your work-hour tracking policies and guidelines also affect this.
Another thing to understand is the idle time threshold, which is nothing but the time after which, a system switches from active to idle for a period of inactivity (such as no mouse or keyboard movement). Plus, you also need to account for how much idle time are you willing to allow. Nonetheless, here are a few reasons for idle time:
- When an employee is prepared to and willing to work but can’t due to uncontrollable external factors.
- An employee can’t do something productive because the decision is in their manager’s hands.
- An employee becomes idle when their work processes get interrupted due to a system error.
- An employee can also become idle due to a lack of skills or knowledge, which stalls their work.
- An employee can also become idle when they have to wait for specific events before they can start work.
3 Ways to Calculate Idle Time
When talking about idle time, there will also be various tools for tracking idle time. However, before I talk about them, you also need to know about the different ways to calculate them. About 3 to be precise.
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This one is scheduled productive time – actual productive time. For instance, if an employee was productive for only 1 out of the scheduled 9 hours, then 8 hours went idle. |
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Since calculating idle hours using the first method is time-consuming, I recommend using a free online idle hours calculator instead. This at least ensures that there are no errors and saves some time. |
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Using an idle time tracker software solution is the best way to calculate idle hours. The tool not only provides you with accurate data but also automates the process, saves time, and provides you with insightful reports. |
What is Team Idle Time?
The idle hours you will calculate for teams using your time tracker for idle time will be different than what you get for individual employees. The team idle hours are the total idle time of each team member. So when it comes to teamwork, idle employees are the ones who never participate in anything.
Or even worse, partially contribute to the work, tasks, meetings, and conversations. Overall, what I have experienced so far is that this often leads to disturbed workflows, causing the following issues:
- Communication gaps
- Project delays
- Imbalanced workloads
- Reduced productivity
What is Idle Time Tracking Software?
So far so good. Now you and I know what it is and how to calculate the idle hours of employees. However, what if there was a way to speed up this process, save time, and also get work-time utilization reports? Well, I use idle time tracking software for this purpose. This feature-rich tool gives me all the functionalities I need to:
- Automate hours tracking
- Report time into different categories including total, work, and productive, and not just idle time.
- Provide me with useful data to make better decisions to boost employee efficiency, productivity, and work performance.
5 Key Features of Idle Time Tracking Software
I have mentioned this several times. Software for tracking idle time is feature-rich. These are very intuitive, practical, and useful. To get started, I will first show interest in the key features of the tool.
1. Employee Activity Tracking
It’s obvious that idle time tracking software automatically calculates idle hours. However, how does it do that? To be 100% precise with the idle-hour reporting, the tool first tracks employee system activities according to your set metrics and software configurations. Out of these different tasks, the software divides the time into many categories including idle hours.
2. App & URL Usage Tracking
Likewise, the tool for tracking idle time also tracks various offline and online tasks such as the apps and URLs your employees browse. Out of these tasks:
- All non-useful apps and URLs used are sorted into unproductive hours.
- Every time there is no user activity for a certain period of hours, the time is logged as idle and so on.
You get the idea. Right?
3. Customizable Idle Buffer
As per my expertise and experience, the best idle time tracking software solutions also allow business HRs and owners to set flexible durations after which the system will start counting down the idle time. As I mentioned before, this is based on your policies, guidelines, rules, and different metrics.
4. Analytics & Reporting
As I mentioned before, idle time tracker apps also provide you with many useful time usage insights. This is through the analytics and reporting functionality of the tool.
5. Integrations
Here’s the thing. You and I know that employees work using different tools and apps. So for certain situations, there is also a requirement to obtain the idle hours based on the configurations of these apps and tools. For example, you might want to calculate idle time based on your schedule from the calendar app. So integrating your idle time tracking software with your calendar will make this process streamlined and automated.
5 Benefits of Using Idle Time Tracking Software for Your Business
So now you know the features of software for tracking idle time. If you properly use these features and functionalities, then you will avail of these benefits, leading to more success for your organization.
1. Productivity Boosts
Idle time regardless of its type adds to reduced productivity, which you and I don’t want. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, your idle time tracking software will provide you with insightful reports to help you:
- Identify too much idle time and prevent it from happening.
- Identify whether there are any employee pain points or insider threats and eliminate them.
- Unusual work-time utilisation reports are also a sign of lack of skill, waiting for resources, or employees being idle because the decision to work is in someone else’s hands. Probably, the unlikable stupid manager.
2. Eliminates Obstructions
Unusual work-time utilisation reports from the tool for tracking idle time are also an indication that something is stalling the project. This data will help you get rid of the obstructions and achieve success.
3. Accurate Billing
Based on the idle time reports from your idle time tracking software, you will get an accurate estimate of the total hours worked. This will ensure that you calculate accurate bills for your clients.
4. Improved Time Management
Based on reports from your idle time tracker, you and your employees will improve time management by identifying where most of the time goes.
5. Prevents Time Theft
Time theft can cost you billions and millions of dollars in revenue. However, with your idle time tracking software, you will get accurate data on the time your employees spend doing different tasks. So you will know exactly:
- Who is overworked or doing overtime?
- Who is pretending to work?
- Who are the average employees?
Read Also: Top 15 Attendance Apps for Employees in 2025
5 Industries Benefitting from Idle Time Tracking Software
It is also essential to identify whether you need software for tracking idle time in the first place. To help you with that, I shortlisted how the tool helps these 5 industries. The idea is to let you know whether your business qualifies for the requirement of such a software solution or not.
1. Remote & Hybrid
When talking about remote and hybrid teams, it’s easier for many idle hours to slip past you, unnoticed. This can cost you unnecessary expenses. However, with your idle time tracking software, you will know exactly when an employee has exceeded the allowed break time, thanks to real-time notifications and alerts.
2. Customer Support & Call Centers
Here’s the thing about customer support and call centres. They are busy and can’t be idle for longer than a few minutes at a time. The real-time time tracking feature of the tool helps here as it detects and notifies about idle time on the go.
3. Production & Manufacturing
There can be many reasons for idle time in the production and manufacturing industry including:
- Workers sleeping on the job.
- A malfunction in machinery or computer system.
- Managers clocking in late.
No matter the reason, your software for tracking idle time will help you prevent all this non-working time with powerful and practical features.
4. Software Development & IT
Idle time in the software development and IT industry is a very complex thing. Your employees can take short breaks due to getting tired of complicated coding. However, with your idle time tracking software, you can spot exactly how many idle hours you should allow. For instance, if the productivity insights show a higher productivity, then you can let it be.
5. Contractors & Freelancers
idle time tracker software solutions are useful for contractors and freelancers as well. Since these professionals handle multiple projects simultaneously, accurately billing clients is a challenge for them and is time-confusing. On the other hand, the tool can quickly generate multiple reports with accurate idle times. Also, did I mention that integrating it with the payroll tool can also automate invoicing?
5 Steps to Choose the Best Idle Time Tracking Software
Now that you know the features, benefits, and industries of it, you would want to jump straight into selecting an idle time tracking software solution for your business. However, wait, you need to select the right tool that fulfils your requirements. Otherwise, it will just be a waste of your investment. So if you have a dedicated team, time, and resources for it, it only takes a few steps.
1. Requirement Analysis
Requirement analysis involves various checks such as the size of your business, your number of teams and your industry. Based on this data, your R&D team will decide the number of software for tracking idle time licenses required.
2. Feature Check
The next step is to check which features you need from your idle time tracking software. You must identify whether you only need to detect idle hours or you also want other functionalities as well such as work-time utilization analysis and reporting.
3. Shortlisting
Based on the above checks, you will make a shortlist of a few tools for tracking idle time. If you have done everything right so far, your list will only have the best software solutions.
4. Testing
Now you need to know which of the idle time tracking software solutions are more scalable, flexible, and adaptable to your working environment. When selecting my software for this job of tracking idle hours, I did the following:
- Test the tools with free trials and demos.
- Ask the ones who are already using it in similar industries.
- Read reviews.
This should help you narrow down your best software option to track idle hours.
- Finalizing
Now all that’s left for you to do is finalize the right idle time tracker software as per your needs and implement it.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Collaboration Software for Small Businesses
Top 10 Idle Time Tracking Software for Your Business
Are you saying that I don’t have an R&D team? Not to worry as I thought this through as well. Here are 10 of the best idle time tracking software solutions for you to choose your preferred option.
- DeskTrack
- Toggl Track
- Clockify
- Hubstaff
- Time Doctor
- DeskTime
- TMetric
- TrackingTime
- Everhour
- My Hours
Idle Time Tracking Software: Implementation Challenges
According to my experience and expertise, I know that employees always have the mindset to live and let live. So be prepared to face some idle time tracker implementation challenges. As per my expertise and experience, I had to overcome these challenges.
- Employee Privacy Concerns: The first thing you need to be concerned about is that the privacy of your employees always comes first. So buy software that tracks idle hours only and comes equipped with strong data security measures to protect the privacy of your employees and teams.
- Resistance: As I mentioned before, the typical employee mindset is to live and let live. So your employees will show resistance when implementing software for tracking idle hours. Simply put, your employees will equate it to spying. So I recommend clarifying the benefits to them first.
- Balancing with Employee Trust: The last issue is that if you start completely relying on idle hours’ software data, then you will lose employee trust. For instance, if one of your employees did overtime but the idle hours’ software didn’t count that time due to some configuration issue, then complete software reliance will result in underpayment and eventual employee recognition. So at times, you need to believe what you see, based on your experience.
Idle Time Tracking Software: Best Practices
Before I wrap this up, I will also tell you how you can overcome these idle time tracking software implementation challenges. According to my expertise, I have sorted out the best and most practical solutions for you to perfectly implement idle hours software to get more success and profits.
1. Transparent communication
When implementing a time tracker for idle time, the first rule is to make everything clear between your employees and teams. They need to know:
- The information it will track.
- Why it will track it.
- How it works.
- What you and the software (reporting and analytics) will do with this information.
The rule of thumb is to set boundaries and neither over-track nor monitor any confidential, sensitive, or personal data with your idle time tracking software. You need to discuss all this via proper two-way communication and have the written consent of your employees unless you want to be sued by them for employee spying.
2. Clarity in Policies
The next rule when implementing a tool for tracking idle time is to have transparent policies and guidelines, which your employees need to be clear about. Simply put, unless your employees don’t trust you, you can’t track their idle hours.
3. Proper Data Usage
Another rule I must mention is proper data usage. That is you need to use the idle time tracking software data to analyze employee work-time utilization only and implement non-biased performance reviews and not to support micromanagement and employer favouritism.
4. Reviews & Adjustment
Here’s a scenario. You install the software for tracking idle time, configure it, and relax. However, what if it’s generating wrong data or the data is accurate but the analysis and reports aren’t? This is a situation, which you don’t want to face. Instead, a better alternative is to regularly review the output from the software and make necessary adjustments to its settings and configurations after surveying your employees to get the expected results.
5. No Tracking Day
Too many daily idle hours tracking can still be overwhelming for you and your employees, even if automated. What I usually do is have a no-tracking day once a year, where I let my employees be. Of course, I still track their tasks in real-time with my project management software to streamline the workflow and boost team efficiency and productivity.
Conclusion
With that, I have successfully conveyed what I know about idle time tracking software and its benefits to you. As a final word, it’s essential for you to also account for the idle hours of your employees when calculating expenses and payrolls for utmost accuracy. Since now you know that untracked idle hours can cost you billions of dollars every year, it is evident that you implement the right software to monitor, analyse, and report idle hours. However, what if you need more than just a tool to track employees and team idleness? I strongly suggest you use DeskTrack, which is the best all-in-one hours tracking (not just idle time), project management, productivity monitoring, and real-time employee activity tracking software.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is Idle Time Tracking Software?
Ans. Idle hours tracking software solutions are feature-rich tools that speed up and automate the process of tracking idle time, save hours, and also provide work-time utilization reports.
Q. What are the Features of an Idle Time Tracker Tool?
Ans. Idle time tracker apps track and report accurate work hours using these key features.
- Employee Activity Tracking
- App & URL Usage Tracking
- Customizable Idle Buffer
- Analytics & Reporting
- Integrations
Q. What are the Benefits of Using Idle Time Tracker Apps?
Ans. Implementing idle hours tracking apps can provide many benefits to businesses and organizations worldwide including:
- Productivity Boosts
- Eliminates Obstructions
- Accurate Billing
- Improved Time Management
- Prevents Time Theft
Q. How to Choose the Top Idle Time Tracker for Your Business?
Ans. To end up with the best idle hours tracking software as per your requirements, I recommend following these steps.
- Requirement Analysis
- Feature Check
- Shortlisting
- Testing
- Finalizing
Q. Which are the Best Idle Time Tracking Software Solutions?
Ans. To help you choose your best option, I listed the top 10 Idle time tracking software solutions.
- DeskTrack
- Toggl Track
- Clockify
- Hubstaff
- Time Doctor
- DeskTime
- TMetric
- TrackingTime
- Everhour
- My Hours
Q. What are the Best Practices for Implementing Idle Hours Tracker Software?
Ans. Here are some best practices I used to implement idle time tracking software for increased accuracy and employee efficiency.
- Transparent communication
- Clarity in Policies
- Proper Data Usage
- Reviews & Adjustment
- Don’t Track Idle Hours Once a Year
