Timekeeping tends to be a big hassle for today’s small business owners. Seemingly small errors can accumulate into a significant loss in just a few months. Though manual timekeeping may seem simple and cost-effective at first, it’s most likely hurting your bottom line.
Luckily, all Focus HR clients can gain access to our online automated timekeeping software that integrates seamlessly with your payroll each pay period.
4 reasons it’s time to ditch manual timekeeping
The days of pen-and-paper or excel spreadsheet timekeeping simply do not match the benefits and security of digital timekeeping. With room for error comes the risk of losing money for your business. Let’s dive into all the ways manual timekeeping could be costing you money:
- Human Error – The Harvard Business Review estimates that timesheet errors cost the U.S. economy 50 million hours, or $7.4 billion per day, in productivity. Human error is one of the biggest issues when it comes to timesheets, even smaller mistakes like reversing numbers or adding wrong can lead to large financial issues. Now add breaks, overtime, paid-time-off (PTO), vacations on top of the work hours, and you’ve got yourself a whole lot of room for error.
- Administrative Time – Outdated or manual employee time tracking systems put a heavy administrative burden on your business and it wastes valuable time. Think about how much time you may be spending compiling, analyzing, and editing errors on a timesheet. What is that process costing you in real dollars? How much productivity is being lost?
- Time Theft – The practice of “buddy punching” or time theft is far more likely when using a manual timekeeping system. This is when an employee will ask a coworker to punch them in or out after they’ve left or when they take a longer break than allowed. Even if an employee changes their time by just five minutes each day, this can add up to hours of paid, unworked time over the course of a month. A study by the American Payroll Association reported that more than 75% of businesses lose money from buddy punching. New timekeeping technology enables employers to restrict clock-ins by fingerprints, facial recognition, unique ids, IP addresses, location and more to prevent this activity from happening.
- Overtime Laws and Labor Law Compliance – Both federal and state laws vary by industry for breaks, overtime hours and length of shifts. Should your business come under scrutiny for following any of these laws, an automated system enables you to provide clear accountability for properly meeting standards. You can easily look up an employee’s shift history and add up hours as needed. A manual timekeeping system would require significant administrative time to do so.
Why automated timekeeping?
The following are just a few advantages an automated timekeeping system can offer your business:
- Seamless integration with your payroll software
- Easy and manageable employee punching from any internet-enabled device or physical timeclock
- Physical timeclocks that can support punches by PIN #, mag cards, fingerprint, or facial recognition
- Employees can easily submit time-off requests for manager review/approval
- Track hours worked, paid time off, and unpaid hours
- Manage your meal, timekeeping, and over-time compliance
- Ability to implement schedule rounding to decrease non-scheduled over-time
- Automatic holiday population and pay calculations to decrease admin time
- Custom reporting based on your business needs
- Mobile App and Employee Self-Service Portal
- Shift differentials specific to your business requirements
- Geofencing and GPS locating to ensure accurate time punches
How Focus HR can help you implement an automated timekeeping system:
All Focus HR clients can gain access to our online automated timekeeping software, Swipeclock. If you’d like to implement Swipeclock in your business, our team will take the time to understand and address the critical business issues automated timekeeping can resolve for your business. Swipeclock integrates seamlessly with our payroll software to ensure all of your employee information is synced.
We will apply a customized implementation approach based on your workforce or industry needs and provide your team with the training and resources needed to ensure a seamless transition for your employees.
If you’d like more information, you can download our timekeeping brochure or request more information by filling out the form below.
