What’s new in Hubstaff and Hubstaff Tasks: September 2020

It’s been awhile since we shared product updates so here’s a closer look at what we’ve been working on lately.

New in Hubstaff:

• A new look for timesheets
• Job site notifications
• Mobile map improvements
• Cleaner setting dialogs
• Expense tracking
• New and updated integrations:
  • Zapier
  • Slack
  • ClickUp
  • Quickbooks Online

New in Hubstaff Tasks:

• Timeline view
• Roadmaps
• Recurring tasks
• My plan
• Notification center

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A new look for timesheets

Who doesn’t love a refresh? 🙋‍♀️

We updated the look and functionality of our timesheets, which is a big deal because it’s a feature that most of our customers use daily.

Timesheets are now all on one page, with three views to toggle between: daily, weekly and calendar.

We’ve also added a daily time bar at the top of the page to give you a visual summary of your day.

Adding and editing time is also easier with a clear dialog. Check out the new look in the Hubstaff web dashboard and mobile app.

Job site notifications

If you’re managing field crews or mobile teams, you likely know the pain of having to stop working just to check in on your crews.

Driving around from job site to job site is not the greatest use of your time. In fact, over half of managers spend an average of 11 hours each week traveling between job sites to check on their construction crews.

But, knowing where your team is throughout the day is crucial in order to make sure projects are getting done on time and as planned.

That’s where Job site notifications come in. Now, you can get alerts when your team members enter or exit a location you set.

This means you can:

• Keep working and get automatically notified
• Avoid worrying about team members — Hubstaff will let you know if they’re on-site or not
• Answer client questions easily

To use this feature, turn it on in your job site settings.

Speaking of managing mobile teams…

Mobile map improvements

Hubstaff’s mobile app now shows you a map view with all of your team members, and lets you select individuals to learn more about their activity.

Now you can:

• Visualize routes for the day
• See where all of your team members are currently
• Click on a team member to see their past routes and more details

When a client calls, you can quickly reference where your team is right from your mobile device. This also helps with route planning, and can cut down on the time you spend tracking down your team.

Just like job site notifications, this feature gives you more insight into your team’s workday without having to drive all over town.

Cleaner setting dialogs

Since so many of our features can be set on a per-user basis, being able to easily modify your settings is important.

With this update, it’s now easier to modify Member settings.

Everything is available in one place and will be consistent across settings, so it’s easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Stay tuned for updates to your Project and Client settings, too.

Expense tracking

Another crucial part of managing project budgets is tracking expenses. With this new feature, it’s easier than ever to keep an eye on costs in Hubstaff.

You can now:

• Add expenses
• Categorize expenses
• Attach them to a certain project
• Connect to invoices
• View detailed reports on expenses

When you create an invoice, you’re able to bring in those expenses you’ve added. The same goes for project budgets.

What’s new in integrations? Quite a bit.

New! Zapier

This is a big one. You can now make Zaps using Hubstaff triggers and actions.

Being able to use Hubstaff and Zapier together means you can now connect a nearly unlimited number of apps.

Here are a few examples to show you what we mean:

The possibilities are endless. Here are all the possible triggers and actions for Hubstaff. Keep in mind that this is just the beginning.

Triggers	Actions
New project New to-do Task completed New client Schedule added, updated, or deleted Shifts started late, early, abandoned, missed, or on time Started timer Stopped timer	Create project Create to-do Create client

What Zaps will you create with Hubstaff? Let us know in the comments.

Coming soon! Slack

We continuously seek customer feedback so that we’re building the features and integrations that matter most to them.

We’re thrilled to announce our upcoming Slack integration for this reason. It’s a highly requested integration that we think is going to help teams stay in touch no matter where they are.

How it works:

• Receive real-time notifications when a team member starts working on a task
• Get notified when to-do items and tasks are marked complete
• Customize which notifications to enable in Slack
• Choose which people or channels see these notifications

If you’re like us and are all about embracing transparency, these notifications can help keep teams up-to-date and notified as tasks are worked on and completed.

This integration offers real-time, accurate notifications that help teams work asynchronously and stay alerted to who is doing what.

New! ClickUp

Time tracking and project management should always work well together. That’s what makes our new ClickUp integration so powerful for remote teams or those in office settings.

Using the two apps together allows you to:

• Sync projects and tasks with Hubstaff
• Have tasks and projects show up in all of the Hubstaff time tracking apps
• Track time directly to tasks or projects
• Mark tasks complete in Hubstaff
• See time logs as a comment within ClickUp

Are you using a project management integration? Let us know which one in the comments, or what you want to see added next.

An update to Quickbooks Online

A bit of good news for those of you using Quickbooks Online: Easier, faster syncing between apps.

You can now easily send timesheets and pay rates to Quickbooks Online, where you can issue payments or send invoices.

We’ve smoothed out the steps from tracking time to running payroll, so you don’t have to enter pay rates and time manually.

Hubstaff Tasks features

Did you think that was everything? Buckle up, because we’re just getting started.

Here’s what’s new in our Agile project management tool, Hubstaff Tasks.

Timeline view

Managing resources and balancing workloads can eat up a lot of your week. Especially if you’re manually tracking what everyone is working on.

The timeline view can help with this. Now you can visualize every task’s start and end date and view by team members or lists.

Here’s a summary of how it works.

With timelines, you can:

• See if due dates are conflicting or unattainable
• Predict how many people are needed to work on a project based on workloads
• Map out the timeframe to give clients more accurate delivery dates
• Drag and drop tasks to move them on the timeline
• View by person or project list

Please note: This is a premium feature of Hubstaff Tasks. See what else is included in a premium plan.

Roadmaps

Timelines let you see all tasks within the selected project. But with the new roadmap, you can get an organization-level view of all tasks, across all projects.

This gives you more oversight for better resource and project planning. Assess what’s on your plate and your team members’, and move tasks around as needed.

You’ll have the same functionality as you do with timelines, but with a broader view of your organization that makes for more thoughtful project management.

Recurring tasks

Nearly every professional on the planet has a task they have to complete each month or week. And usually, you need to reference previous tasks while you’re working on the current one.

Recurring tasks are the solution to this challenge.

Instead of having to recreate time-consuming tasks, you can create it once and set it to auto-generate at the frequency you choose.

Everything you put in the original task will be copied, including:

• Followers
• Description
• Checklists

Save yourself time and work smarter with recurring tasks. What’s the first task you’re going to automate? Let us know in the comments.

My plan

Coming soon

One major hurdle to productive work is having so much to-do that you don’t know where to focus. On top of that, the feeling of not getting the work done that you wanted to can sap your drive and energy at the end of the day.

To combat this, some people will create separate to-do lists for that day only, so that at least those tasks get accomplished.

There’s now another way: using My plan in Hubstaff Tasks.

Think of this feature as your starting point for the day. You can plan out what you’re going to get done, and be more efficient as you go.

Building your to-do list in Hubstaff Tasks allows you to:

• Combine tasks, checklist items, and your personal to-do list
• Schedule these items
• Create two lists: Today and Coming up
• Prioritize work and commit to what’s achievable for today
• Amaze yourself with how much you can accomplish in a day

Notification center

Coming soon

When you’re working quickly, it’s possible to miss an important update. Notifications can get overlooked, or they can be opened quickly and forgotten.

The notification center in Hubstaff Tasks allows you to:

• View all notifications in one place
• See what’s new and keep notifications unread so you’re in control of what stays visible
• Expand beyond the ten initial notifications to view history
• Check off the notifications you want to dismiss

What do you think?

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. Be sure to let us know which features you’re looking for and what you think of these.

Want a direct line to our product team? Sign up for our customer feedback group and get early access to features and other perks just for sharing your thoughts.