There are many benefits that businesses obtain with the help of time and attendance systems. There are many choices available in the market and businesses face difficulty in choosing the one that is right for their office. Let us know about time and attendance systems and the method of choosing them. attendance systems or time clock, also known as a punch clock, time recorder, or clock card machine, is a special kind of machine that companies and business owners often use to record the “Enter and Exit” times of their employees. This helps them in maintaining a record of their employees’ working hours. They use the gathered information to calculate the workers’ salaries, assess their work performance, and minimize time theft. Moreover, time clocks ensure a company’s productivity by preventing its employees from stealing work hours or bypassing important tasks. To meet such necessary purposes, it is extremely important for you to find the perfect time clock as per your business size and needs. There are so many options available in the market, including the stand-alone time clocks and full-fledged attendance systems with a time clock facility.
What Is Time And Attendance System?
This is a system which employees can use to enter their time in and time out with the help of an electronic tie clock, interconnected to an integrated grid of computers, mobiles, and telephones. There are some devices, which help to enter the timing with the help of text messages. The time in and out entered by an employee is automatically transferred to the software which finally transmits the data to payroll software.
This time and attendance system is the one which helps in tracking the employees and their time in and time out. If an employee is on the field, the software keeps track of the movement of the employee with the help of geolocation and geo-fencing. This detail shows the employees who are stationed at the designated place in the market for schedule work and those who have gone truant with an elusive move. This also helps in generating various kinds of reports.
Employees are able to see the outcome of time-specific tasks and can review their working hours on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Benefits of Time and Attendance Systems
The important benefit of this system is the elimination of manual timecards. The time of all the employees is collated electronically and the payroll is calculated. It reduces the chances of errors and brings down the workload of the employee who has to tally the information.
Employee attendance paid time off and other scheduling have been included in the program which helps in increasing productivity. Another benefit is that the method is cost-effective.
Disadvantages Of This System
The disadvantage of this time and attendance system is that it is very expensive in comparison to other methods where employees either write or have to punch the card. Another disadvantage is that employers have to tell the employees to track their time.
Cost
Cost is one of the primary thing which an employer has to think beforepurchasing the time and attendance system. The cost of the system depends on whether the employer chooses a cloud based system or premises based system. Monthly cost of cloud-based system is less than that of on-premise system. The employer may have to pay a large amount of money for license of the software for each employee and installation of the system. The charges of cloud-based system for the entire month are calculated based on number of employees to be registered with under the system. There are some providers who take the cost of installation only ones and if there is any software upgrade, it is included in the monthly fee.
Things To Check Before Purchasing
There are many systems in the market and an employer will have to pick the one which is suitable for his organization. Here are the things, which he has to check while purchasing the system.
Time Tracking Options Should Be Flexible
The system should allow the employees to enter the time in multiple ways accessing the software from mobile, computer tablets and all of them can be connected to internet.
Accuracy Is Critical To The Idea Of Time And Attendance System
The system is required to ensure that the employer is making the payment for the actual time spent in the office by an employee rather than the scheduled time an employee is mandated to devote to office.
All Time Related Issues Should Be Tracked
The system should be able to take care of everything related to the time. It should include the management of pair time off and schedule of the employee. It should also manage the time taken to complete a project by the employees.
Time and attendance systems are very helpful for the employers to keep an eye on productive and non-productive employees. This also helps the employer check the number of employees who are involved in a project and the time anticipated to complete it.
Let us discuss in brief the categories of a simple time clock for small business one by one, so that you can evaluate them better:
- Card punch: The card punch technology has been pretty old functionalism, and it is mainly required to get necessary information filled up by employees and stored in a secured file.
- Biometric time clock: Biometric time clocks are mainly hardware devices that confirm an employee’s identity in a company and the process involves checking fingerprints, facial recognition as well as voice recognition.
- Web-based: Small business employees mainly get benefited from web-based time clocks. The entire process is handled in a PC and employees are instructed to log in through a secure web page. Web-based time clocks are particularly helpful in identifying the starting and ending points of the working period of employees.
- Proximity time clock: This time clock uses a card system and its timer gets activated whenever an employee places his/her card near the device. This is how the time clock identifies the login and logout time of employees.
You should go for a time clock that includes the benefits of maintaining timesheet, labor compliance as well as payroll management functionalities. With proper time management, the company can easily figure out the total hours worked by each employee. What’s more? Nowadays, time clocks come with added facial recognition feature that helps in verifying employees with their face. As a result, they cannot be tricked and give you correct information.
Coming to discuss finally the utmost benefits of a simple time clock for small business, there are numerous benefits, as time clocks are designed with highly advanced features that work as an efficient automated time management system and ensure advancement in business operations. As a result, they prove to be imperative in maximizing your business productivity to a great extent.
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