Employee Tracking Software for IT Companies: The Complete Guide

Introduction 

IT Companies are run differently than all other industries. Developers are able to push their commits no matter where they are in the world or even what time it is. Security engineers deal with millions of worth of source code. Remote teams communicate and collaborate using Jira, GitHub, and Slack. They work seamlessly across time zones and sometimes without being noticed. 

Most of the employee tracking articles treat IT companies the same as a call center or a retail store. 

This article is specifically for IT companies. It concerns software firms, SaaS businesses, IT services agencies, and development houses. Tracking these companies is also about protecting IP. It is also about proving to clients that the work is billable, managing remote engineers without using a micromanager approach, and protecting your company from legal issues with data protection laws like GDPR and SOC 2. 

This is the guide you need to know whether you are a CTO with 20 remote developers or an IT Director with 500 engineers on 3 different continents. 

What is Employee Tracking Software for IT Companies? 

This type of employee tracking software is a category of workforce management tools that are specifically made for IT companies and that helps in monitoring, measuring, and improving how technical teams use their time while at work. This is done across different apps and projects no matter where in the world they are and on what devices they are using. 

Standard HR software will not suffice for tracking IT employees. IT focused tracking solutions take into account developer workflows. They will integrate with GitHub, Jira, Azure DevOps, and VS Code. They will also know the difference between a developer who is idling and is being unproductive and a developer who is being productive even though he is not actively working on any tasks or is being unproductive. These systems can also alert you to suspicious activities on a code repository while not disrupting a developer's workflow. 

Core capabilities generally consist of: 

Tracking tasks and projects 

Record task, sprint, or client-related working hours. 

Monitoring app and website activity 

Identify tools used by developers and their usage time. 

Screenshot and screen recording capture 

Optional proof of work for client-related billing. 

Distinguishing idle time 

Identify Away from Keyboard versus active coding. 

Security-related event alerts 

Identify anomalous file transfers, out-of-normal work time database access, or code repository exports. 

Integrations 

Built-in connections to Jira, GitHub, Slack, Google Workspace, and Azure DevOps. 

Compliance reporting 

Audit trails for GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2. 

Unique Tracking Requirements of IT Companies 

1. Default Distributed and Remote Teams 

Tech companies' remote work mode is a continuing normal, not a pandemic exception. By 2026, over 60% of knowledge workers will be hybrid or fully remote. For tech companies, the number is even greater. 

Tracking across time zones is a challenge. Without tracking, project managers have to rely on self-reported hours, which studies show are incorrect by 30 - 50%. 

2. IT Companies Hold the Most Important Trade Secrets 

For IT companies, source code, client information, and product roadmaps are their most important trade secrets. A single disgruntled employee or misconfiguration can cause significant loss of trade secrets. 

Directly addressing this concern, IT companies' employee tracking monitors code repositories and tracks file access. It also sends alerts for out-of-normal access. 

3. Time Data Is Key to Client Billing Accuracy 

IT service firms and software agencies' profitability relies on billable hours. Time logs relying on memory or manual entries lead to incorrect client invoices, budgets being exceeded, and negative profit impacts. 

Automated time logging ties billable hours to client work, which improves billing accuracy. Industry metrics indicate this may also improve project delivery by as much as 45%. 

4. Developers Don’t Mind Monitoring So Long As It’s Transparent 

Surveillance on developers and monitoring on call center agents is a poor comparison. Developers will quit the company because of intrusive monitoring. 

The best employee tracking systems for IT companies is built around transparency and not surveillance. Developers can easily see their work progress on dashboards. Most monitoring is done on work hours. Time tracking is disclosed and not hidden. 

After analyzing the top-ranking websites for this keyword, we identified the top-tier content and what it does well compared to most IT company blogs. 

Top Competitors What They Do Why It Works 

Addresses IP Theft, Client Billing Offers solutions to IT-specific pain points Adding specificity beats generic content every time Includes real statistics (timeliness and gains in productivity) Built credibility and earned featured snippets Covers legal/compliance sections IT decision makers search for GDPT & Tracking Covers tool comparisons High-intent customers want to see comparisons Discusses development trust and work culture IT company leaders care about both Includes long-tail FAQs Captures "People Also Ask" boxes Covers remote + hybrid IT company work Offers solutions to developer tool integration Shows relevance to an IT audience by mentioning GitHub, JIRA Covers insider threats Security is an IT industry concern Covers ROI metrics Spending justification is a decision maker concern 

8 Key Benefits of Employee Tracking Software for IT Companies 

1. Accurate Time Tracking Across Sprints and Projects 

IT companies face unique challenges with timesheets. Developers generally don't fill out timesheets, and if they do, they fail to accurately note time spent on other tasks. 

Time spent on various developments and communication software is recorded. Increased accuracy of time tracked and the ability to better plan sprints and make work and client account led estimations is a huge benefit. 

2. Protecting Your IP and Code 

IT companies have different top monitoring concerns. Productivity comes second to protecting their built IP and code. 

Employee tracking software solves these problems by offering: 

Repository monitoring: 

Notifications when developers download or export large amounts of code 

Off-hours access detection: 

Notifies if someone logs into the system at an unusual time 

File transfer tracking: 

Covers USB monitoring and external file transfer 

Behavioral baselines: 

AI tools that learn behavioral patterns to recognize deviations 

Because of this, security teams can be proactive and recognize IP threats before they escalate. 

3. Remote Developer Visibility with No Micromanagement 

An overly visible monitoring system leads to the same issues (low morale, loss of employees) as unnecessary invasive monitoring. 

The software that balances this provides: 

The ability to see where time was spent and what applications were used without invasive keystroke tracking 

A system that captures process milestones without surveillance 

The ability for employees to see what managers see 

The ability for employees to pause tracking during breaks 

This software tracks and allows visibility to work patterns and process milestones and does not track individual steps or keystrokes. 

4. GDPR, SOC 2, and Compliance Audit Trails 

The employee tracking software of IT companies that store client data especially if they service heavily regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, or government, will be able to demonstrate compliance because it creates the audit trails that cover: 

Access logs: 

Who viewed which files and when 

Behavioral anomaly reports: 

Reports of deviations of behavioral access patterns 

Data processing logs: 

verifiable proof of GDPR compliance and tracking data processing 

Tracking would not be as easy and less invasive without employee tracking software. 

5. Better Planning Through Better Resource Allocation 

IT directors often struggle with the same problem: some teams are overloaded and burned out while others have spare capacity. This is often invisible without data. 

Employee tracking software demonstrates the imbalance with: 

Burnout risk through analysis of working hours that have no recorded breaks 

Workload balance reporting 

Capacity data that informs recruiting and project planning decisions 

Meeting analysis showing the time developers spend in meetings rather than coding 

With this data, teams become more efficient and recover formerly lost developer hours. 

6. Proof of Work Builds Client Relationships 

Providing clear evidence of work done and of time spent helps build client trust and improves relationships. 

For IT agencies and managed service providers this is crucial. When a client asks "What has your team done this month?", employee tracking software answers this. 

Exportable time reports 

Screenshots tied to time recorded and deliverables 

Time reported by phase for each developer and project 

Tracking time and using it to automatically create invoices means disputes about billing will not happen and clients will want to use your services longer. 

7. Fair and Just Performance Assessments 

Performance reviews done from gut feel create legal exposure and bad morale. 

Using developer performance tracking data can structure objective conversations around developer performance: 

How work is completed on a day-to-day basis is more important than the week of the evaluation 

Patterns of contribution across different projects 

How quickly tasks are completed and in what capacity 

How an individual compares to the team average 

This becomes important for IT teams whose leads have limited opportunities to interface with them in person. 

The financial justification for workforce tracking software in the IT sector is also strong. 

Time lost to being idle: 

Industry stats indicate that the average member of a team loses 1.5 to 3 hours of the workday to being idle and context switching. Tracking enables the identification of this. 

SaaS subscriptions: 

Tracking the tools used by teams can show unnecessary expenditure in tech subscriptions. 

Client invoicing: 

Lower the over-reporting in round numbers on client invoices and gain a revenue boost right away. 

Retention: 

Transparent tracking correlates to a higher level of satisfaction. 

Important Features to Consider When Choosing IT-Focused Employee Tracking Software 

Many tracking tools fail to understand the developer workflow. When looking at alternatives, pay attention to the following features: 

Integration with Developer Tools 

Tracking tools should fully integrate with the following: GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket, Jira/Linear/Azure DevOps, VS Code and other prominent IDEs, Slack and Microsoft Teams, Google and MS Office. 

Automatic Time Assignment 

Time should be automatically assigned to specific projects, sprints, and tasks, rather than recorded as “active time.” 

Productivity Definition by Role 

The time that a developer spends on VS Code and GitHub is considered “productive,” whereas a project manager may view their time spent on Jira and Confluence as “productive.” The tool should accommodate this different classification. 

Tracking Scope and Control 

To keep developer talent, tools should include employee dashboards, tracking of employees during working hours only, and a clearly defined scope of what is tracked. 

Repository Tracking and Security 

Monitoring employee access to repositories, sending alerts for off-hour monitoring and file transfers, and tracking behavioral changes. 

Data Handling and Tracking Compliance 

GDPR data handling, compliance audits of tracking policies and data retention. 

How to Use Employee Tracking and Still Retain Developer Trust 

This is where most IT companies fail. They implement tracking tools only to justify/optimize their internal processes and suffer high turnover and low employee engagement. 

Step 1: Identify the goal before choosing the tracking tool 

Is the goal to track time for better estimation of project time and tasks, to bill the client more accurately, or to protect IP? The goal will determine how tracking is implemented. 

Step 2: Opt for transparency over stealth 

Despite the legality of stealth monitoring in many locales, IT companies risk trust violations when these methods are uncovered. Opt for transparent tools that allow developers to see what information is being collected. 

Step 3: Notify prior to implementation 

Conduct a team-wide meeting to discuss the reasons, and methods of upcoming monitoring. Be clear on what data collection practices will be in place and what areas will remain private (personal web usage on breaks, use of personal devices). 

Step 4: Allow developers to see the data you collect on them 

When monitoring tools are accessed by employees, the purpose of monitoring shifts from surveillance to the productivity tool of the team. 

Step 5: Collect data to support, not to hurt 

Tracking employee data to identify risk of burnout, bottlenecked workflows, and determining gaps in required training should be the primary goals in the early use of collected data. 

Step 6: Regularly check and improve 

Monitoring policies should be responsive to team feedback and evolve as the team does. Gather feedback every 3 months and adjust monitoring policies. 

Legal Concerns for IT Companies Monitoring Employees 

Most countries allow for monitoring employees as part of business operations, but tracking employees in an IT company that is operating internationally can pose legal challenges. 

GDPR (European Union) 

Monitoring employees in IT companies that operate in the EU or if client processing involves EU, citizen data can trigger strict GDPR compliance. Some of the requirements include justifying the legal basis for monitoring, employee rights to be informed and to provide consent, monitoring be limited to the purpose, set data retention limits, and employees have the right to access their data. 

US Federal and State Laws 

The US has no federal law concerning employee monitoring, but some states, such as Connecticut, Delaware, and New York, have laws requiring the prior written notification of electronic monitoring. California's CCPA provides employees with additional data rights. 

India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) 

In India, a giant IT outsourcing country, the DPDPA provides new employee data rights that monitoring software must meet. 

Best practice: 

Work with legal counsel to create a written monitoring policy, incorporate it into employment contracts, and ensure that your software vendor supports compliance with GDPR and DPDPA. 

Staff Tracker for IT Companies: Created for Technical Teams 

Staff Tracker is designed for IT Companies and offers activity monitoring and project time tracking features combined with some of the most security-centric features available on the market, all in one platform that developers approve. 

Reasons IT companies like to choose Staff Tracker: 

Fits with Jira, GitHub, Slack, and Google Workspace 

Provides the ability for developers to fully access their own productivity dashboards 

Produces fully compliant audit reports for GDPR and SOC 2 

Tracks Application usage by role instead of basic screen time tracking 

Shows the imbalance in workload before developers' burnout 

Provides accurate billing to clients and eliminates the need for timesheet billing 

Book a free demo to see why Staff Tracker is the best for IT teams. 

Questions and Answers 

Is it legal for IT companies to use employee tracking software? 

Generally, yes, though laws vary greatly between countries. Employees should know what is monitored, the reasoning, and how the data will be used. EU companies will need to monitor GDPR and US companies will need to monitor state by state. Laws also require companies to include their monitoring in employee contracts. It's always best to check with a local lawyer. 

Can tracking developers hurt their morale? 

It really depends on how you choose to track. Developers will leave when you use tracking as a means to punish and control them. The better option is to let them know you want to track how their work improves their contributions. 

What’s employee monitoring vs employee surveillance? 

Monitoring is when you track employees during business hours and there is a clear purpose. Employees are aware of tracking. Surveillance is when you track without employees knowing, during both business and personal hours. The tracking serves the purpose of control. 

Do you know how employee tracking software accommodates developers in different time zones? 

Most tracking software today can capture employee activities that occur in their local work hour time zones. These activities are later displayed on a global dashboard across time zones. Tracking software that has time zone reporting is imperative when managing global engineering teams. 

Will employee tracking software connect to Jira and GitHub? 

Definitely. Especially for IT companies, this tracking software’s capability is a game changer. When tracking software integrates with Jira and GitHub, time is automatically logged to respective issues and pull requests while participating in sprints. This integration provides better project cost estimations and eliminates time logging discrepancies. 

What can IT companies expect to pay for employee tracking software? 

The costs can be quite different depending on the functionality of the tool. Basic tools can cost $4 to $7 per user for the month, while the more secure tools can cost $10 to $25 per user for the month. More advanced tools can have custom contracts, especially for enterprise clients. Most companies offer demos or free trials for their products. 

What should IT companies prioritize when selecting tracking software that other industries can ignore? 

IT companies have specific needs such as direct integrations with development tools, tracking productivity by role, monitoring the security of source code and repositories, detection of accessing the tool outside of normal working hours, and compliance with the GDPR and SOC 2 frameworks. Most of these general-purpose monitoring tools cannot meet these needs. 

Conclusion 

IT Employee monitoring software tracks employees, not to spy on developers, but to supply IT team leaders with the data needed to fairly manage disparate teams, protect intellectual property before it becomes a costly mistake, bill clients correctly, solve problems with the right tools, and improve the team with the right data. 

The best companies use the best practices. They use the best tools for technical workflows built for engineers, used with full transparency, where employees have visibility into their own data, and companies use the data to gain valuable insights to improve the company, the team, and maintain a healthy company culture. 

If your IT company relies on self-reported timesheets and manual status updates, you, quite frankly, have an outdated management style, and you are losing a lot of potential productivity in your IT teams, and profit from your company. 

The right employee monitoring software solves this problem. Developer trust and great developer teams are protected. 

Explore Staff Tracker for IT Companies — Start Free → 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Content written by Saurabh Sharma  

Saurabh is part of the expert content marketing team at ZoomIntoWeb. He has expertise in curating meaningful information that can be used by visitors in general. Saurabh is also involved in creating client-specific stories and blogs.