Time Tracking and Scheduling for Franchises

Time tracking features for franchises

Buddy Punch has a number of time tracking and scheduling features that directly address the key challenges of managing staff across multiple locations.

Clocking in and out

Buddy Punch can be used on any device with an internet connection:

• Office employees can clock in and out on their computers.
• Create a time clock kiosk for on-site employees using an Android or iPhone tablet.
• Or let employees clock in and out using their mobile phones.

When using Buddy Punch as a kiosk, employees can clock in and out using a 4-digit PIN, a QR code, or facial recognition (on iPads only). You can also require employees to take a selfie when they clock in and out to prevent buddy punching (available on any device).

If you don’t want to invest in a tablet, have on-site employees clock in and out using their mobile phones. You can set up IP address locks or use geofence time tracking to make sure they’re at the right location before they’re allowed to clock in/out, preventing offsite punching.

You can also view reports showing offsite punching attempts and turn on GPS on punch to see the exact location of each punch for another layer of verification.

Department codes

Department codes prompt employees to select a specific job or task when they punch in (e.g., “Front of House,” “Kitchen,” “Drive-Thru,” or “Cleaning”). This provides invaluable data for labor cost management. See exactly how many hours are being spent on each function to optimize staffing and control costs.

Attendance tracking

Get push or email notifications when employees clock in late, clock out early, or miss a shift entirely to stay on top of attendance even when you’re not all working at the same location. Download time tracking reports showing attendance issues to easily identify employees who are struggling with tardiness or absenteeism.

Break time tracking

Buddy Punch’s break time tracker lets you create break rules to get better control over employee breaks. Set up automatic breaks to remove unpaid break durations from employees’ timesheets automatically at the end of their shifts, or set up manual breaks to remind employees when it’s time to take a break and make sure they stay on break for the amount of time required by your state’s regulations.

Overtime tracking and prevention

Buddy Punch’s overtime tracking software tracks overtime hours based on your overtime policies and automatically calculates overtime pay for you. Want to avoid paying overtime? Set up notifications that will alert you when employees are nearing overtime so you can adjust their schedules.

PTO tracking

Set up PTO accrual rules, and Buddy Punch will automatically calculate earned time off for each of your employees. Employees can make PTO requests in Buddy Punch that go to their managers for approval. If approved, the paid time off is automatically added to timesheets and removed from accrual balances.

How Buddy Punch expedites payroll

Buddy Punch compiles all employee clock-in and out data into timesheets for you. Regular hours, overtime hours, and pay are all calculated automatically.

If you have individual supervisors for different groups of employees, you can set up time card approval workflows that require managers to approve their employees’ timesheets before you run payroll. And if someone made a mistake or forgot to clock in or out, editing timesheets is easy.

When it’s time to run payroll, you have three options:

• Download a report formatted perfectly for your payroll processor.
• Use one of Buddy Punch’s integrations to send your time data to payroll instantly.
• Use Buddy Punch as your payroll provider to pay employees through Buddy Punch.

With any of these options, you can transform your payroll process from something that takes an entire day every pay period into a short, 30-minute task.

How Buddy Punch simplifies scheduling

Buddy Punch’s employee scheduling tool is built to make multi-location scheduling as simple as possible. Assign employees to work in specific roles and at specific locations, view schedules by location, and color-code your schedules to get an at-a-glance view of who’s working where and in what positions.

You can also:

• Set repeating shifts for employees who work the same schedule each week.
• Let team members request shift trades and covers that you can review and approve.
• View employee availability and scheduled time off while creating your schedule.

Employees can view their schedules anytime in the Buddy Punch app, and they can get email or push notifications when new schedules are published.