Posted on 05-May-09 by The Timekeeper

The folks over at Acroprint Time Recorder Company have released a new software suite called “timeQplus Version 3.” From what I can see, this looks like it might be an update to their Attendance Rx product suite, but with some interesting differences.

The main thing I noticed right off the bat is that the terminals have a different look — black and silver, which coordinates nicely with their black-and-silver timeclock line. And unlike the older Attendance Rx line or the related timeQplus Biometric product, the look of the whole line is very integrated and cohesive. Modern, even.

OK, I admit it, I’m a visual person. The look really appealed to me. But, of course, what matters isn’t so much how it looks as what it does, right?

Looks Aren’t Everything

So here’s an interesting feature, which as far as I know, nobody else does. (At least, not at this price point.) They offer the options of PC-punch, proximity badge terminal or fingerprint biometric terminal — and you can mix-and-match all on the same system.

So if you’ve got some employees with PCs on their desks, they could use PC punch. And if you’ve got departments where you want them to have badges, they could use the proximity terminals. And if there are some areas where you need to have absolute assurance that the employee is physically present (and not being “buddy-punched” by a friend), you can set them up with biometric terminals.

And you can add either kind of terminal at any time to an existing system, so you can start with just the software (PC punch) and/or any terminal(s) you want and add additional badge or biometric terminals in any combination at any time.

For this kind of flexibility, used to be you had to go with relatively high-end systems costing several thousand dollars (and up). But from what I can tell, the price points for this suite are pretty much the same as the existing Attendance Rx and timeQplus Biometric products, which puts timeQplus Version 3 well within reach for most small and mid-sized businesses.

Sweet.

So What Doesn’t It Do?

Now, it doesn’t do everything. There doesn’t appear to be a scheduling module, so it might not work if you want to use your system to manage schedules for a bunch of hourly workers, such as for a restaurant or retail shop. And in looking around, it doesn’t seem to do job costing, so if you need that, you might have to go with some other solution. But for tracking hourly and salaried exempt worked hours and attendance for salaried exempt, it looks like this has pretty much everything many businesses will need.

Good For You

One thing I can tell you: whether you choose this system or some other automated time and attendance system, everything I see tells me it’s probably going to be a good thing for your business — as long as you actually install the system (doesn’t do you any good sitting there on top of your filing cabinet, does it!), configure it properly and use it.

I mean, I’ve seen studies that show when you use an automated time and attendance system, employees are better about coming in to work on time, staying all day and not “extending” their meals and breaks — maybe because they know somebody’s watching.

I know from experience automatically-recorded time records (whether from a computer-based system or a simple punch clock) are more accurate than handwritten timesheets. And particularly with automated systems, they’ll handle things like totaling up hours worked and most will even export data to your payroll system, so you don’t have to waste time adding things up by hand and keying in your employees’ time… and fixing the inevitable clerical errors that arise when you do things manually. That’s bound to save you time… and as we know, time is money.

Some time and attendance vendors claim an automated time and attendance system can pay for itself in less than a year just on the savings from less employee “time theft” and the time savings in payroll preparation, which is pretty good ROI in my book.

I figure, this new system may not be the right system for every business — frankly, there’s no system I know of that’s right for everybody, no matter what the vendors might claim — but it’s worth a serious look.

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