Posted on 01-Jul-07 by The Timekeeper

Okay, so you’ve decided you need to upgrade your time and attendance tracking system. Those scraps of paper just aren’t doing the trick any more. Now, how do you decide what you need? Will an electronic time clock do the trick? Should you consider automated time management software? Or do you need something more “heavy duty”?

Time Clocks

Modern time clocks come in two basic flavors: mechanical and electronic.

Generally speaking, mechanical employee time clocks are your best choice in harsh environments such as manufacturing plants and construction sites. Their strength is also their weakness: the reason they can function well in such a wide range of conditions is because their function is so simple. They punch the time (and usually the day or date as well) on a time card or time sheet. If you need advanced features such as totalizing or downloading to a payroll program, these clocks are not for you.

Electronic time clocks usually are less robust than their mechanical cousins, and are best suited for warehouse, shop or office use. As with mechanical clocks, there is a trade-off, however. In return for a more delicate constitution, these clocks generally offer a much wider range of features — including such things as built-in audio signals or external signal control for shift start and stop, programmable print formats, custom print messages and totalizing of hours worked for each employee.

These additional features, particularly the totalizing feature, can save you time on payroll preparation and virtually eliminate clerical errors. This alone can help justify the higher cost of a totalizing punch clock.

Time & Attendance Software

The wave of the future seems to lie with time and attendance software. As with electronic time clocks, time tracking software is generally suited for warehouse, shop or office use, not harsh environments, as it requires the use of a PC. However, some products include terminal options that will allow the use of software for tracking time at remote locations such as construction sites.

Some software supports “PC punch,” that is, an employee enters her employee number at a PC and the software records an in or out punch. Some applications include terminals and other options that allow for badge swipe or biometric validation (such as fingerprint scan or hand geometry). This variety of input options is one of the advantages of software based solutions.

The advantage of biometric input is that it eliminates some of the most pesky problems of time and attendance recording: “buddy punching” and “fudging” on timesheets. Buddy punching occurs when one employee asks another to clock in or out on his behalf, allowing the first employee to arrive late or leave early yet still be paid for a full day’s work. Fudging timesheets is similar, except that the employee simply writes down standard start and stop times no matter when they actually arrive or leave work.

An advantage of most time and attendance software is that it can integrate with other software applications. For instance, almost all time tracking software will download hours worked to payroll software or export employee hours to a payroll service. As with totalizing electronic time clocks, this can greatly reduce the amount of time required to prepare payroll and nearly eliminate clerical errors. The savings in this area alone can pay for the software.

Other possible points of integration are with POS terminal software, employee scheduling software, human resources (HR) software, enterprise requirement planning (ERP) software, accounting software, and more.

What sort of equipment you will need or what sort of investment you will have to make will depend on the options you select, and whether you purchase and install software on your own PC or whether you sign up for a web-based subscritption solution.

Conclusion

There are advantages and limitations to each option for time and attendance tracking. Which is best for you depends on such things as the type of business you have, how many people you employ, your payroll policies and your current payroll processing procedures.

For more information about available options, you may wish to visit the websites of such companies as Acroprint, Amano, Lathem, Qquest or Kronos.

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