Posted on 03-Mar-10 by The Timekeeper

So if you’re still wondering whether an automated time and attendance system — either installed software or a hosted web-based solution — is worth it, consider the case of the Distric of Columbia Department of Public Works.

After overtime payments in the Garbage Division exceeded the budget by approximately $650,000, auditors with the city Finance Department reviewed payroll records and concluded there was “blatant time and attendance fraud to employees earning overtime despite the fact of not working any regular hours during the pay period.”

While the audit only covered fiscal year 2009, the auditors further said they believe the issues could go back as far as 2002.

Apparently part of the problem was that review and approval of timesheets had been delegated to a staff assistant, who “was changing [and making changes to] time and attendance information for her sister, her spouse and another employee who had not worked shifts but who had received regular pay.”

Why Automate?

So how could an automated system have helped? Well…

• An automated system would have allowed easy review and approval of time records directly by supervisors, instead of delegating reviews to the one staff assistant.
• An automated system would have calculated regular hours and overtime pay automatically, eliminating both intentional miscalculations and inadvertent clerical errors.
• An automated system can automatically upload time records to the payroll system or service, further reducing the changes of fraud or mistakes.
• An automated system (at least, the good ones) will retain records of all original employee punches and will maintain an audit trail of any edits or insertions made to the time records, helping discourage abuses in the first place, and making it easier to track them down in the event they do occur.

Plus, if the automated system includes a biometric component, employees will have to be physically present to clock in or out.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

I know you like to think your own employees are all honest. I’m sure the people in authority at the Department of Public Works thought the same thing about their people — I feel certain if they knew what the staff assistant was up to, they never would have delegated timesheet approval to her.

Of course, it’s likely she might not have started out thinking she was going to help her friends and relatives cheat the city out of money, either. I’m certainly not out to “blame the victim” here, but the city made it almost too easy for her. Even basically well-intentioned people can be tempted.

And it may be true your employees are exceptionally honest. The point is, even honest employees can make unintentional mistakes. And whether the problem is dishonesty or simple human error, an automated system makes it less likely to happen in the first place, and easier to detect and correct when it does.

Still think those handwritten timesheets are good enough for your business?

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