Recording employees start and finish times is critical to any business that relies on hourly, casual, and ‘pay by the hour’ workforces. Ensuring employees receive entitlements for the time they work. While at the same time ensuring the manager pays only for the time worked across the operation.
Paper Timesheet Approach
For employees: It is easy for your staff to write their shift’s start and finish times.
For managers: It is easy to grab the timesheet at the end of the pay period. It is some work to put that information into something useful. The manager needs to input the time and reconcile the hours to calculate the employee’s respective pay rates and entitlements. At this point, the manager could uncover missing times for Steve, Sue, and Claire. Bob was late for three shifts and the total hours are four more than the original schedule!
The manager now has more work to do. Firstly, discussing with Bob about being late and expectations. Confirming times to fill in the gaps may require various phone calls. Then accurately calculating wages for all the staff. Finally, creating meaningful timesheets and working out how to pay for the extra hours.
Digital Time Clock Benefits
For employees: Like the paper process, using a Digital Time Clock is easy. An employee enters their pin code on a tablet to check-in and out. Alternatively, they can scan a QR code with their mobile to check-in and out.
For managers: The Digital Time Clock benefits now make it easy for the manager. It delivers shift status, automation, accuracy and lifetime records.
Firstly, the manager has real-time visibility across every shift. For example, the manager can instantly see if anyone is late. Also, see who has checked in, on break, and completed their shift. Notifications and activity reporting means the manager can immediately cover gaps, find replacement staff for a shift, confirm expectations about being on time and identify if any check out has been forgotten.
Secondly, the Time Clock instantly converts the time data into a timesheet after every shift. Then, it automatically calculates the employees’ wages and entitlements using the pay rules applied to the respective employee. The manager can set pay rules for an employee to align with a modern Award, salary, flat hourly rate, and even an Enterprise Agreement. Now the manager can review and approve the payroll-ready timesheet and send it to the payroll system, bookkeeper or accountant.
Thirdly, the Time Clock captures the employee, location and time stamp down to the second. The employee can’t write down any time. The employee can’t check in a colleague running late. The employee can only check-in when on-site. The manager can be confident every check-in and out is accurate and made by that employee.
Finally, digital time records remain online for a lifetime. Meaning your business is always ready should any dispute, audit or record-keeping requirement arise. Avoiding the risk of losing a paper timesheet, punch card or accidentally deleting the spreadsheet.
