Today, there is no shortage of options for automating major business processes. Finding the best fit for your organization can be a painstaking, cumbersome task. One part of the evaluation, though, appears relatively easy. Even better, it is at the top of things you absolutely need. No, we are not talking about getting a good price—we are talking about usability.
After all, it does not matter what the capabilities of a system are if the user experience makes your people give up in frustration. Of course, most systems are not quite that bad, but too many waste users’ time and try their patience.
At DATABASICS, making our time and expense tracking solutions easy to use has become something of an obsession. We continually work with our customers to streamline the user experience to be as clear and efficient as possible. And then we refine a little further.
At DATABASICS, making our time and expense tracking solutions easy to use has become something of an obsession.
This commitment has led us to broaden the context of usability from its usual focus on screen design and process flow. Actually, usability also depends highly upon integration. Time tracking and expense reporting work far better together for the user, so we have updated our platform to make this possible.
The Importance of Integration
Integration is most critical to usability where apps significantly overlap in function and content. For our platform, this means unifying time tracking and expense reporting. Both apps deal with employees recording what they do in the process of carrying out their duties: Time logs attendance and activities, while expense focuses on employees’ spend associated with their work activities.
How does integration help? To give an example, both apps share something called “activity.” Separate systems might have different labels and different codes for an “activity.” Or one might be updated with a new code, while the other, on a different update cycle, might not have it yet. Not only is the user confused, but so is the approver. Accounting has to build a bridge between the codes in order to present customers with a unified bill or produce project cost reports. And the poor administrator for both systems (assuming there is a single team—even worse if they are separate) has to ensure that the two systems remain in sync. This doesn’t even cover issues related to fielding calls from frustrated users. Eliminating confusion, error, work-arounds, wasted time and stress is what usability is all about, and this is what we have done for time and expense reporting.
Functionality and Usability Together
Moving forward, it’s clear that companies will be asked to do more with less. At the same time, they will be adapting to a hybrid workforce that includes both on-site and remote workers. In this environment, digital solutions must be accessible, usable and accurate.
Simply put, functionality and usability need not be trade-offs. By bringing together our time tracking and expense reporting solutions, we are able to offer unmatched capability through a user experience that defines a new level of usability.
DATABASICS is driven to meet the most demanding time and expense management challenges through a combination of deep expertise, next-gen technology, and a focus on the unique needs of each customer. Powered by decades of experience, our team delivers world-class time and expense management solutions that are the right choice for today and easily adapt to the uncertainties of tomorrow.