How do You Track Your Company’s Labor Hours?

by VENDIREX on 07/05/2015 - 03:14 pm |

Tag: Time and Attendance

Processing manual time sheets can be a cumbersome administrative task, especially when you have varied departments and pay rates to keep track of. When employees consistently round up their time in 15 minute increments, a company can lose hundreds of dollars each month. Time tracking software does away with even unintentional time theft, and also assists with job costing your labor. With basic systems now on the market for under $1k, even today’s small businesses can afford a time and attendance system.

 

This type of attendance tracking automates those daily tasks of keeping records of total hours worked per job or project, while calculating any benefits accrued for those hours. Together, these figures will help reporting of job expenses and make your future proposals more on target for profitability. At times a client will want exact numbers, for instance on a cost-plus job, for which a time and attendance system can be invaluable.

 

How the System Works:

 

Time and attendance software is intuitive and simple to operate, collecting employee hours and information and adding it into a database. Approval is given by a manager reviewing the information prior to processing and reporting.

 

Employees simply login with ID numbers or cards which can be either swiped or waved past an entry device. Phone based input can also be achieved and are especially handy if you have remote offices.

 

Purchasing Considerations:

 

Compatibility

 

Don’t make the common error of choosing a time and attendance system that doesn’t work with your existing infrastructure. Merely identifying that the operating system requirements are met by your system isn’t sufficient, on its own.

 

A qualified vendor should demonstrate whether their software fits with your overall business environment; such as data input devices, IT applications you use, the payroll services vendor you have under contract, and the HR policies set up for your company. If you need rules to be set up in tracking time, make certain the provider can accommodate them, as well as seamless integration with the service you employ to run your payroll.

 

Security

 

Most software providers will offer encrypted file transmission as well as additional security measures. They should demonstrate how your system will be safe from tampering - from either external or internal persons.

 

To avoid one employee being allowed to check in or out for another person, you should check into a biometric device which would check their fingerprint or handprint against the correct employee’s records.