Time and Attendance Software Gains Popularity

Why Businesses Should Consider Time and Attendance Software

If your business is still using a manual tracking system for employees, you should consider time and attendance software to automate the process of time tracking, according to Jason Trend of Pacific Timesheet. Every company won’t find it to be the best option, but many companies might be surprised at how much more efficient the process can be.

Whether people simply write their hours down manually as is done in some small businesses, or they punch in and out on a manual time clock, he says this method of tracking people's time in and out is woefully inefficient by today's standards. Though it has worked successfully for years, the old punch clock method has been replaced with something that's just more efficient and time-saving. Timecard software does more than tell you when your employees clock in and out, while manual tracking can only show that and nothing more.

And the manual tracking system itself, according to Trend, has certain built-in features that rely on the fact that there are going to be mistakes and inaccuracies, such as a delay of a few days to several days between the end of a tracked period and disbursement of funds.

Time and attendance software, on the other hand, can not only tally hours worked, break and lunch times and other figures for a day, a week or a prolonged period of time, it can help simplify payroll processing in general. All of the calculations are done automatically so that no one has to sit and look at a time card and figure hours. That can cut hours off payroll processing, which means other tasks can be focused on instead.

There will also be less “stolen” time in which employees clock each other in and out by simply pulling their card out of the sleeve in punching it. Late employees or those who take long lunches might have friends punch their cards so that management never becomes aware of the problem.

Trend also points out that in today’s working world, when things like tardiness, missed days, and other inefficiencies can result in employee suspensions, penalties and terminations, businesses can’t really afford to leave these major consequences in the hands of a flawed, manual system.

Manual tracking systems might seem very frugal and inexpensive, with some business owners priding themselves on the simplicity of it. But with all of the opportunities for errors creeping into a manual system, it's anything but efficient, according to Trend.

Time card software eliminates these problems, he says. Time clocks and time cards don't have to be babysat and they don't have to be manually examined, approved and corrected. There is no station for a pile of time cards as everything is stored digitally and is typically web-based. Calculations are instant, eliminating delays. And when someone wants to know how much vacation time they've accumulated, for instance, the software has tracked it which eliminates the need for someone to go back through their time cards and make those calculations manually.