Not all time and attendance solutions are created the same. Perhaps you’re still manually keeping track of time cards, or your current automated time tracking solution isn’t performing as well as you hoped it would. Either way, it may be time to make a significant change.
Modern online time clock solutions should deliver results to your business, including improving data accuracy, reducing labor costs, and ensuring compliance.
Table of Contents
An Online Time Clock Leads to Reduce Labor Costs
In any business, employees are typically the most significant expense but also the most substantial asset. Maintaining control of your labor costs is essential to the overall bottom line of your company, and it all starts with accurate time and attendance tracking.
The American Payroll Association found that businesses can experience between 1% and 8% clerical error rate when calculating employee time. So if you’re a business dealing with a multimillion-dollar payroll and an average 5% error rate when entering information into your payroll system, that can add up to quite an enormous mistake.
Multiply that by the number of pay periods you have throughout the year, and that adds up to quite a large chunk of change lost.
Online Time Clock Software Integrates with Your Payroll Provider
Modern automated online time clock software should fully integrate with your current payroll provider. This would eliminate the need for duplicate data entry or importing time spreadsheets, time spreadsheets, in turn saving you time and reducing clerical errors.
Any new employee data should seamlessly transfer from the onboarding process, and labor hours should automatically sync to your payroll provider.
Reduce Buddy Punching and Time Theft
Buddy punching and time theft are perhaps two of the most significant issues that occur when tracking time. Buddy punching occurs when one employee punches time for another. According to the American Payroll Association, businesses lose over $350 million each year due to buddy punching.
Time theft occurs when employees steal time by claiming they were working longer than they really were. For instance, an employee may write down that they started their shift at 8:00 a.m. on the dot, but in reality, they didn’t arrive until 8:20 a.m.
A modern online time clock will significantly reduce time theft, if not prevent it altogether. To start, you should consider using employee timesheet software that comes equipped with biometric options such as facial recognition to eliminate buddy punching.
Your online time clock should also come equipped with a mobile app that allows employees to punch in or out, enter their hours, change departments, and request time off. It should also let management handle time off requests and attendance related issues from their mobile device.
Improve Employee Productivity
When selecting online time clock software, keep the employee experience in mind. A system that offers a user-friendly interface and is intuitive to use will allow employees convenient access to their time and attendance information. It should enable them to not only punch in and out, but it should also grant them the ability to request time off or easily find someone to cover their shift if needed, which will free up your time and also your inbox.
Employee morale is increased when everyone is paid accurately. If a team member works overtime, your web-based time clock software should take note and allow you to pay that individual accurately. Equally as important, you don’t want to underpay your workers. Online time clock software will help to ensure pay accuracy.
Enhanced Scheduling and Reporting
Scheduling and reporting information should be available right at your fingertips. Informative dashboards for you and your supervisors that give them the data they need at a glance should be standard.
This includes the ability to view employees’ work hours or their status for the day, week, or pay period. You should have the power to quickly fix time cards and track employee’s hours so you can pay them accurately and on schedule.
To help you manage overtime expenses, your punch clock software should break down costs by employee, department, location, and so on. This will allow you to ensure that you are on a budget, and if not, you can use the information gained to better plan your finances moving forward.
Every online time clock software has varying functionalities, so do your due diligence to find the best solution to meet your business needs. If possible, find a solution that offers a free trial so you can ensure that it comes with all of the features needed by your business.
