Time and attendance systems are an essential part of every business. By utilizing new technologies for time clock software, your business can benefit in a number of ways.

[This is an updated version of a post that was published last year.]

Companies that use traditional time clock and time cards instead of time clock software can spend an inordinate amount of time working with and processing time cards. Between the sorting and verifying of hours on each card need, large numbers of hours are needed every pay period for cards that must be verified in order to maintain accurate records.

And as the company grows with more employees, the process simply becomes more costly and time consuming. Between decreasing accuracy and rising costs, the entire time and attendance process can become untenable.

A Better Way Approach for Your Time Clock Process

Because the traditional process can become overwhelming, many smaller businesses upgrade to time clock software. This makes recording employee hours far simpler and far less time is needed to process payroll.

In fact, employee time clock software provides a number of benefits for businesses. For example, employees can clock in and out from their own desks, which eliminates the need to walk to a time clock in another area and stand in line to accomplish this task. 

Another benefit of employee time clock software is the elimination of lost or damaged time cards. With a mechanical system, paper time cards can fall out of the holder or be accidentally taken home with an employee.

With time clock software, however, there are no paper cards involved.

Time Clock Software Advantages

All time clock systems use some form of data collection method. This allows you to choose a method that works best for your organization.

There are five primary collection methods in use today:

• Fingerprint scan or “biometric.”
• Over the web – online time clock
• Pin entry or badge “swipe”
• Over the phone
• Proximity Badge

In addition to the far more secure collection methods, other advantages of using time clock software include the following:

Simple Hardware Setup

Online and Off-line time clock hardware is easily set-up in minutes

Reduced Labor Costs

Since you pay for actual minutes and hours worked labor costs are dramatically reduced

Labor Cost Savings

Since you are tracking actual hours worked wasted labor minutes are eliminated

Decreased Administrative Costs

The automated time tracking systems drastically reduces administrative hours

Increased Productivity

Employees are paid for actual minutes and hours worked thus eliminating late arrivals and early departures

Eliminating Time Theft

Online and off-line time clock software systems prevent time theft and “Buddy punching” 

Online Editing Access

Allows you to log in from any workstation to easily manage data online

A Closer Look at Key Advantages of Time Clock Software

A quality time clock software system also offers a variety of advanced timekeeping features that can be set up so that most of them run in an automated mode. This allows you to focus on simply collecting time, editing cards, and running reports.

There are a number of reasons why this approach will benefit not only your payroll process efficiency, but will improve your company's bottom line as well:

Accurate Tracking of Time and Attendance

It’s not always possible or feasible for an owner or manager to actually know when employees show up – and at what time.  If your business is, or if you have more than one location, it might be physically impossible to manually track your employees’ attendance.

With time clock software, however, you can know down to the minute when employees show up for work, when they return from breaks, and when they head home at the end of the day.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity

When an employee knows that every minute they spend on a task is being accurately tracked, there is a natural tendency to stay on task and to work faster. Additionally, if an employee knows their arrival and departure times are tracked automatically, the result is typically vastly lowered incidents of coming in late and leaving early.

Systems Integration

Time clock software can typically be fully integrated with your existing Human Resource systems, in particular with your payroll process. With time clock software all the hours are logged into the payroll database and hours can quickly be calculated to produce paychecks. The result is less work hours needed to process payroll.

Functionality

A simple timekeeping solution is one that offers practicality for your process. A good system provides simple hardware setup and a user-friendly approach for tracking employee punches, editing time cards and generating reports for payroll processing.

Convenience

Automated timekeeping can dramatically reduce the administrative work involved in collecting and calculating employee hours. Because your data is sent electronically for payroll processing, it can eliminate:

• Faxing, phoning in, or any other form of manual transmission of employee data
• Human error associated with manually calculating time sheets
• Labor hours required by payroll clerks to collect and calculate payroll each period

Savings

An automated time clock system can provide huge savings for employers.  Not only does it provide great convenience for HR staff members, supervisors, and business owners, but it also dramatically reduces labor costs. These savings are created through:

• Eliminated "wasted labor minutes" from employee time theft and approximations
• Eliminated time spent by payroll clerks in collecting and calculating time card data
• Minimized expenses associated with human error in processing timekeeping data
• Increased productivity and accountability for time worked by employees

Getting Help with Your Time Clock Software Choice

Accuchex offers a variety of timekeeping options and we will work closely with you to help choose the right device that will fit within your company and allow you to manage your company’s time most effectively.  We offer timekeeping solutions that are simple to set up and are simple for employers to manage employee time cards on a daily basis. 

Our time clock software system also offers a variety of advanced timekeeping features that are set up “behind the scenes” so you can focus on simply collecting time, editing cards, and running reports.

And while investing in the best available software is a viable option, another direction you can consider is outsourcing. This can be simply outsourcing one process such as payroll. However, with a full-service provider such as Accuchex, you have additional options for outsourcing as well.

Let Accuchex help you in managing your HR needs, payroll processes, and staying on top of compliance demands. Get your Free Download: Payroll Outsourcing Guide to help you make an informed decision or call Accuchex Payroll Management Services at 877-422-2824.