THG Ingenuity simplifies workforce management with a custom time-tracking app built on Zoho Creator

The company

THG Ingenuity, part of THG Group, is a UK-based ecommerce services company that helps brands grow their online presence and operations. The business operates across three divisions: THG Commerce focuses on retail growth and brand experience, THG Studios is an award-winning creative agency, and THG Fulfil handles large-scale warehousing and delivery. With over 20 years in the sector, the company provides solutions for some well-known names, including The Range, Holland and Barrett, Myprotein, LOOKFANTASTIC, and Cult Beauty.

The challenge

THG Ingenuity runs on the Zoho One suite, with more than 20 applications in active use and over 600 licenses managed company-wide. But tracking employee hours remained a pain point. The company had been using a third-party tool for this purpose, and it wasn't working well.

The problem ran deeper than just the tool itself. With diverse working patterns across the organization, the platform couldn't capture the level of detail that the finance team required. Hours were being logged manually, and following up with employees who hadn't submitted their timesheets added even more delays and inefficiencies.

What the business needed was something intuitive enough for everyone to use, but precise enough to hold up under financial scrutiny.

The solution

THG Ingenuity brought in DSL Telecom, a Zoho Premium Partner and the company's long-standing implementation partner, to build a custom time-tracking application on the Zoho Creator low-code platform.

The time tracker app that DSL Telecom delivered is now used across the entire company. The app allows employees to record the hours they've worked on a daily basis or in bulk at the end of the week. Each entry can be tagged to a client project, an admin task, or a specific activity type, and there's also a way to log holidays and absences.

To avoid errors, DSL Telecom built safeguards in to the back-end of the application. Once the finance team signs off on a timesheet, for instance, it gets locked and can no longer be edited. If someone is out of office, their manager can fill in the hours on their behalf, so there are no gaps when it's time to run the reports.

Chasing timesheets is no longer a manual task either. The app sends out weekly email reminders to anyone who hasn't logged their hours, and their line manager gets a copy too.

Benefits and ROI

Since rolling out the time-tracker app, THG Ingenuity has seen some real improvements in how it manages its workforce. Key benefits include:

• Less manual effort: The finance team no longer needs to chase employees for timesheet submissions. Automated reminders built in to the app take care of that.
• Better reporting accuracy: Safeguards like approval locks and manager overrides mean the data feeding into financial reports is complete and reliable.
• More flexibility: Employees can log hours in a way that reflects the actual complexity of their work, whether that's against a client project, an admin task, or a specific activity type.
• Easy adoption: The Creator interface is simple enough for the entire workforce to pick up and use, regardless of technical ability.

Looking forward

THG Ingenuity's Zoho environment continues to grow. The team is now looking at Zoho's AI capabilities and exploring how Zia, Zoho's embedded AI assistant, can help enhance their operations further. With DSL Telecom supporting the technical builds and a dedicated internal team refining how Zoho is used across every department, there's plenty of room to keep building.