Online Time & Attendance Software
Timekeeping for your workforce doesn’t have to be difficult. A lot of businesses use the old, manual ways to track employee time – but these days there are modern time clocks that make time tracking much simpler.
That said, there is far more than meets the eye if you want to monitor the movements of staff efficiently and accurately. If you’re going to cut through the admin and streamline this process, harnessing time and attendance software is key.
Even though you can obtain tracking software for your business at a very reasonable rate, it’s only natural to question what direct benefits it will bring.
We’ll dive into what’s in it for you right now.
6 Key Benefits of Attendance and Time Tracking Software
Not all businesses are equal, and if you’re trying to keep tabs on staff working variable hours in multiple locations, you need to simplify the logistics to eliminate plowing through physical attendance tracking options or spreadsheets.
Here are six direct ways your business will prosper with time and attendance solutions in place.
1) Slash Time Theft and Kill Buddy Punching
Buddy punching is an abuse of the manual system in which one employee punches in on behalf of another. Almost three-quarters of all employers fall victim to this scam, and the costs snowball when scaled up over time across an organization. If you want to keep employee honest with when they clock in and clock out, instituting an employee time tracking program is one sure way to do it.
A study conducted by Nucleus Research showed buddy punching alone accounts for losses of around 2% of gross payroll.
Manual systems are easy to exploit, whereas if you invest in the right software, employees simply punch in through a web-based or mobile app (designed for iOS and/or Android). Some of these tools even come with additional functionalities to verify employee attendance – such as taking screenshots on punch, using GPS tracking or Geofencing to verify locations, or making use of facial recognition. All of these features combined make it easy for employee scheduling software to eliminate time theft entirely.
2) Keep It Simple
Workforce management is becoming easier and easier, whether you’re a small business or an enterprise. Remote working is continuing to gain currency.
Ever-evolving work practices make keeping an accurate record of where and when your employees are on the clock increasingly complex.
The logistics of administering hours worked, overtime, accruals and PTO can be simplified considerably by getting your employees to log in online then having the software take care of the heavy lifting for you.
Some of these employee time clocks let you grant permissions to your team members, letting them take more control over their own time management. They can request time off, view sick day or leave approvals, swap shifts, and view their current time data.
3) Save Money Over Time By Investing in Software
By making use of the proper software, you can effectively slash the time and effort needed to administer payroll.
When you track time, you start to see how much you’re losing on manual attendance management. The freedom to employ a time tracking solution that lets employees handle most of the data entry in just a few clicks on their smartphones ends up saving businesses a large amount of money.
All aspects of manually monitoring employee work hours, attendance and payroll take time and those costs add up over the year. Throw in the extra losses incurred through time theft, and you can see your investment in software will start paying dividends almost immediately.
4) Sync with Payroll Processing
Once the software has got everything in place, you can easily connect to all major payroll systems such as Quickbooks or Paychex, further driving efficiency and productivity.
Automating these elements of the process allows you to spend more time on making money and less time on admin when the pay period ends.
5) Convenience
By embracing time tracking systems, your work load will be lessened without burdening your employees.
It’s very minimal hassle for them to log in on any device without needing to record hours or fumble for a punch card.
Everybody save times, which translates to money and overall improved health for your company.
6) Analytics and Reporting
When you’re choosing the right system, specifically a time and attendance system, focus on how easy it is to get PDF or Excel reports.
It’s useless to have all that data if you can’t easily access it in real-time.
So…
Having read a number of solid reasons to consider automating time and attendance, how can you choose an effective system?
Selecting An Effective Punch Clock & Timesheet System To Record Employee Hours and Track Project Time
Deciding upon any new system in the workplace can be overwhelming at first. With a wealth of choices out there, analysis paralysis can set in.
Read on to find more info on choosing software that’s fit for purpose.
Things To Consider When Choosing Time and Attendance Software
Before drilling down on the pros and cons of any given software, think carefully about your needs and what you’re looking to achieve by automating time and attendance.
If you’re a small company with a handful of workers in a fixed location, a simple system will be more than adequate. Don’t pay for what you don’t need. Automation alone will put a stop to stolen minutes accumulating into a nagging cost, so hone in on the most basic software to get the best value.
If, on the other hand, you have a large number of workers spread across many sites as well as remote workers, more complex systems become useful.
We’ll conclude with a few general pointers to follow when you’re selecting software.
It’s All About ROI
Rather than thinking of time and attendance software as an expense, you should consider automation an investment.
As outlined above, you’ll get a return on that investment right away by eliminating time fraud, such as buddy punching, and minimizing the time spent on administering a manual system.
Rather than thinking purely of the cost, look at the prices of the systems you’ve shortlisted in relation to the money you save and the boost in productivity.
Think About Appropriate Check-In Options
Whether it’s facial recognition or biometric clocks, PIN or RFID systems, zero in on the check-in option that fits best with your organization. These tools all combat time theft while also reducing your admin.
With mobile check-in, you can eliminate the need for staff to punch in at a centralized location if they’re working out in the field somewhere.
Think about how you’d like your workers to log in and bear this in mind when choosing software. You don’t need to obsess about facial recognition if you have three employees in a fixed location. With a team of freelancers on board, though, that option becomes much more attractive.
With such a range of log-in options at your disposal, just go for the approach that best resonates with your business and workforce.
Integration and Cloud-Based
Looking for software systems that neatly align time and attendance with payroll cuts your labor cost while increasing accuracy.
Give your productivity a further boost by backing up to a cloud-based system containing everything in one place.
What System Support Is In Place?
You should find plenty of information on the website of any software company outlining precisely what their system will do for you.
However good the training videos are, though, you might run into snags, and you should make sure the company you’re considering offers beneficial support when things go wrong.
There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Solution
Focus on the specific needs of your business rather than expecting any one particular element of tracking software to perform miracles.
A user-friendly, user-centered time and attendance system is a solid investment, so don’t underestimate the power of automated tracking software.