A video review and interview about time tracking, funneling team focus, and building trust with clients.

TimeDoctor helped US create and curate reports for every task set. Everything goes smoother with everyone on the same page. Starring Liam Martin, co-founder of TimeDoctor.com and Staff.com, and USource project managers, Jen and Rea.

Liam: Hi, this is Liam from TimeDoctor.com. And I’m here with Rea and Jenny from USource.me. They are a company that helps really figure out, number 1, do you need someone that can help you remotely to deal with virtual assistant type tasks, and number 2, they’re gonna provide you with those types of Virtual Assistants, and, they are actually Virtual Assistants.

They are in the Philippines, I’m in Canada, that’s technology, it’s very cool, we’re literally communicating on opposite sides of the planet right now. So, we’re gonna grab them, have a couple of questions about how and what USource does, and what what their company is about, and maybe even some interesting stuff about the Philippines. I’m gonna be in the Philippines for the next month of July and I’m very excited to go down and maybe they have some suggestions as well. So, thank you for taking the time to meet with me.

Rea: Hi Liam, we’re very interested in knowing more about you and this Skype chat about Time Doctor. We’re really excited about the chat so, thanks for taking the time out to interview us.

Liam: Don’t worry about it. This is my job. I love interviewing people. So, the first question:

Number 1. What does USource do? Maybe you could encapsulate that into a single sentence?

Rea: USource is a dedicated and growing group of professional, virtual professionals with expertise in different areas of Administration Tasks, Customer Support, Online Marketing, SEO, SMM, you know virtually any job that can be completed on the internet. We provide services to small business owners, entrepreneurs, start-ups who want to outsource some of their to-do list and to support them — ensuring their business success.

Jenny: Yeah, in short USource is, we allow our clients to get their time back so giving them more time for themselves.

Rea: Maybe spend some quality time with their family.

Jenny: Yeah, that’s what we do. To give them more time with their family.

Liam: Okay, cool. Alright. Well that actually solves the second question for me. Third question, does everyone at USource work from home or do they work from an office or do you guys do both?

Rea: We actually do both. Majority of our talent pool is working from home but we’ve recently added a physical location so we are in the same place, to improve the communication within our team so new additions (employees) to the USource Team are working together, in the same location.

Jenny: But at the same time it’s very flexible and every time a virtual assistant or one of the team, if they want to work from home, they can do so. But if it is really important that they have to go to the office, yeah, they go to the office. So, it’s really flexible and that’s what we love with what we’re doing. We have the time, we have our time to work wherever we want.

Liam: So you have your team time where you can hang-out together and then you also have your time where you can just be at home and work from basically wherever you want.

Rea and Jenny: Yeah, that’s right.

Liam: Great!

Jenny: The beauty of online work!

Liam: Right, so, when you guys are using Time Doctor, what’s your main purpose in using TimeDoctor within USource?

Rea: The main purpose is to track the productivity of each of our members (employees), billing clients and tracking productivity in general. But it is not only here in USource, because I also worked outside USource before. I used Time Doctor to easily see where, if I am over servicing or under servicing a client at the end of the month or billing period. I was able to provide a more accurate report if I felt they needed it. And if the client asked for a breakdown of what I have done for them in say, a month or a week, and how long a project took then I had information at hand, when needed. So, using Time Doctor, I am more confident in providing them with an accurate picture of where they’re actual budget went. So, it’s billing and tracking productivity.

Jenny: Exactly. It’s more transparency between the client and the one who is doing the work for that certain person.

So, that’s the main purpose for us. In online work, you have to really show what you’re doing and Time Doctor helps us in both ways, for us as a worker and also for them as the client. They really see what’s going on.

Liam: Interesting. What would you say are the main features that you used on a daily basis within Time Doctor? If you have to choose, let us say, the top three reports that you used within Time Doctor, what do you use on a regular basis?

Rea: On a regular basis, I use the timesheet, and I also look at the daily work that breaks down
the tasks and the screenshots because it helps us see if one of the staff is just playing around, not really doing the work. So that’s the main features we use. The screenshot and the daily time sheet.

Jenny: Yeah and also, in Time Doctor, you are able to see all the things they have visited in a certain time frame, so that’s really cool because we know if it’s related to that certain task, that they’re working on. So, it’s good that we can see the minutes or hours they spend on that task.

Rea: I also love the integration features of Time Doctor because it is easy to set-up and since we use project management tools, we utilize that part of Time Doctor for Asana, Trello.

Liam: So, what integrations do you currently have inside of TimeDoctor that you’ve activated?

Rea: I actually have Asana activated. I love how fast it is to set-up and it is really organized for the tasks. It can easily just (Jenny: Click it) click the task and it will automatically be tracked. So it’s really very transparent. And it really helps us keep track if we are doing the right task or not, for us and also staff.

Liam: Was there ever a point that you weren’t using Time Doctor within the organization? Or have you always been using some type of tracking? I’d love to know how life has improved since using Time Doctor within your organization?

Rea: We actually started working with using a tracker here (USource). Because we didn’t use weekly time sheets for Seniors Discounts or Seniorpreneur. If you were able to read the ‘about us’ of USource, you will know the history of why we didn’t use trackers. We had an agreement based on trust — we commit to a certain amount of hours a week and client trusts that we do them. So, it is essentially a use-it-or-lose it approach.

Since we started USource, we use trackers because most of our time is tracked using oDesk/ Upwork, their trackers, but for clients outside Upwork, we use time trackers like Time Doctor (Jenny: Time Doctor), to accurately know how much time each assigned VA spends on each client. We found real benefits in accurately tracking the work, and where everyone spends time. Most notably in productivity gains and more confidence in the reporting for and how time is spent on a client’s project. Both features are especially important to promote transparency between clients and freelancers. So, it’s really productivity gain benefits using Time Doctor.

Liam: What advice would you have for people using Time Doctor to manage others? From a Management perspective, how do you guys use the tool? As you said before you’re looking primarily at the metrics, what they accomplished, their timesheets, their screenshots, that kinda stuff. Are there any particular strategies that you use to track the productivity of your team? Any sort of tricks that you use in terms of the way that you communicate or you look at the reports?

Jenny: Actually, there’s really no hidden tricks or things like that. What we suggest or advise to people is to maximize all the features. Time Doctor is a great option for those who are concerned about keeping track of work hours. In case of both employees and employers, I love the user interface (UI) of Time Doctor, which makes things easier. So you don’t have to worry about getting lost in the system, and I would highly recommend Time Doctor if you are looking for a solution that can increase your productivity. There’s nothing tricky, it just gives transparency using the tracker.

Rea: Yeah, maximize all the features because they’re really worth looking at and if everyone wants to be on the same page. So, using Time Doctor is really helpful if you are managing people remotely.

Jenny: Yeah, because it really creates trust with each other, between the client and employee.

Liam: So, any general tips for working remotely? There’s probably a lot of people that are gonna watch this video that are working remotely right now and it sounds the like two of you are having a great time with it. I know for me, I work remotely as well, but I have an office that I go to. There’s about five employees within Time Doctor in my city in Canada but, I maybe see one or two of them in a week. We actually have a central office that we use almost as a hang-out spot, and then we work from home, the majority of the time. I would go to the office, probably the person that goes to the office the most, but generally, everyone can go to the office whenever they wanna hang out, as long as they get their work done.

So, tips from you. What kind of tips and tricks would you give somebody who is thinking about working remotely?

Rea: I think the best tip would be to find or accept the right job because if you love what you’re doing, you’ll do of it better. Before accepting the offer make sure it doesn’t steer you in a direction that will lead you to a psychological, emotional and spiritual dead end. Give yourself the permission to truly investigate the job offer and know if it is the right one for you and your client, and you will end up thriving.

Jenny: That’s right.

Liam: Do you have any great places that I should go to in Manila or Cebu? Great places.

Rea: There are great places in Cebu. It is far from Batangas.

Jenny: You have to travel via via plane.

Rea: Batangas selling point is the beaches. But, in Cebu, there are a lot of scenic spots there
too. I have been there before but, I haven’t really got the time to really roam around so, I don’t have any recommendations.

Jenny: And Manila is the city of the country so, you will see a lot ot of buildings but, if you are in to nightlife, and want to enjoy the nightlife in Manila, you have to go there. But, if you want something peaceful, Cebu and Batangas are some of the best place in the Philippines.

Rea and Jenny: It’s more fun in the Philippines!

Liam: Well, thank you very much for taking the time. I appreciate it and the URL is USource.me, right?

Rea: Yes, that’s right.

Liam: And, if you want more information about TimeDoctor, it’s a TimeDoctor.com.