Time and Attendance

It’s hard to believe it’s December already. Yet another year seems to have flown by!

Not too long ago, I came across a statistic that the average company holds on to its time and attendance solution for seven to 10 years. That’s a long time, especially considering all the recent advances in time tracking technology. Try to remember what personal computers were like 10 years ago, compared with their capabilities today. Well, the advances over the past decade in time and attendance tracking are similarly dramatic.

If you’re still using an older time tracking system, your business could be losing out on the advantages offered by a modern timekeeping solution. It may be time to take steps toward an upgrade.

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Yep, it’s just about that time. The fall Daylight Saving Time adjustment is almost upon us.

On Sunday, November 6, at 2:00am, most of us here in the U.S. are supposed to turn our clocks back by one hour. While resetting all our clocks could be an inconvenience at home, it can raise some additional interesting issues at work.

For instance, what about people who work a shift that spans the time change?

Overnight Shifts

The law requires us to pay employees for the number of hours they actually work. This can raise some interesting issues when the clocks change in the spring and fall.

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In a recent newsletter article (Are You Getting the Most from Your Time and Attendance System), I mentioned several alternative uses for a time and attendance system, beyond simply tracking employee time.  We looked at ways time and attendance data could help enhance revenue, improve business processes and control costs.

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The Sixth Way: Risk Reduction

Tick says: Accurate, complete employee time records reduce your risk!

Whew! We’ve made it to the final installment of our series looking at how you can save both time and money with automated time tracking systems.

This time, let’s look at one of the most important reasons every business with employees should maintain accurate, complete payroll records (including time and attendance records) for all employees, not just hourly: risk reduction. You’ll find you need those records in the event of a Department of Labor (DOL) audit or a wage and hour lawsuit.

In fact, one of the most common problems cited in DOL examinations is employers not maintaining adequate records.

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Something to keep in mind: when the clocks “fall back” this weekend, there may be wage and hour implications for organizations with workers whose shifts extend across the time change.

For instance, if you have hourly workers who are on the job before 2:00am and whose shift doesn’t end until after 2:00am, those folks will end up working an extra hour on Sunday morning — because they’ll work the hour between 1:00am and 2:00am, then when the clocks “fall back” an hour, they’ll work that hour all over again.

So how can this impact their pay?

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The Fifth Way: Records Management

We’re getting toward the end of our discussion of ways you can save money with an automated time and attendance system, but there are still a few ways left. This time let’s look at another of those ways to save that many business owners often forget: records retention.

Tock says: Electronic records are easier to store and quicker to retrieve!

Space, the Final Frontier

Wage and hour laws require you to retain payroll records — including records of employee time worked — for one to three years, depending on the kind of records. But to be safer in the event of a Department of Labor audit or a lawsuit, many experts recommend retaining these items for anywhere from seven to 10 years.

Now, stop for a minute and think about how many time cards or timesheets you use in a pay period. Then imagine storing 10 years’ worth. Even for a relatively small company, you could be talking about a file cabinet or two. For a larger company, it could be a whole room of file cabinets. Or two. Just to store payroll records.

Onsite storage can take up valuable floor space you could put to much better use. Offsite storage can get expensive. But tossing those records opens you up to significant potential liability in the event of an audit, lawsuit or other issue. So what can you do?

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The Fourth Way: Time Theft

We’ve already covered a number of ways an automated time and attendance system can save you money over the manual alternatives. This time, let’s consider how you can get a better handle on the single largest expense most businesses face: labor costs, and how an automated time and attendance system will help you prevent time theft.

Tick says: Biometric timeclock systems reduce time theft!

The Problem

If you’re using a handwritten timekeeping system — and even more likely if you don’t have a time tracking system at all — whether you realize it or not you’ve almost certainly been the victim of “time theft.” The American Payroll Association has estimated that employers lose up to 10 minutes per day per employee due to late arrivals, early departures and long breaks or lunches. That translates into over a week lost per employee over the course of a year.

Multiply that by just a few employees, and you’re looking at a lot of time you’re paying for, but they’re not working.

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The Third Way: Supply Costs

Tock says: Electronic records cut your cost of timekeeping supplies!

Previously, we’ve discussed how an automated timekeeping system will help you better control your overtime costs and save both time and money on payroll processing.

This time, let’s consider an area for savings that many businesses tend to overlook… but which can easily add up to big bucks: supplies.

Timecards Aren’t Free

If you have a typical punch clock system, you’ll have to regularly purchase time cards and ribbons or ink for the clocks.

If your employees fill out paper timesheets, it’s unlikely you’re just having them scribble their time on spare scraps of waste paper. (If you do, you’ve got a whole ‘nother set of problems.) Even if employees use an electronic spreadsheet template to record their time, I bet you or your supervisors are probably printing those timesheets for review and approval. Whether you purchase preprinted forms or have your employees photocopy a blank template each pay period or simply print out each employee’s completed electronic spreadsheet, those paper timesheets cost something.

Over time, the cost of timekeeping supplies can really add up.

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The Second Way: Payroll Processing

Last time, we talked about how an automated time and attendance system would help you better manage overtime, when compared to the typical manual time card or timesheet based system.

Tick says: Automated time tracking helps streamline your payroll processing!

Now, let’s consider an area where software-based automated systems — whether installed locally or web-based — can save you a ton of money over a manual or paper-based system: payroll processing.

Two Ways to Save

Automated systems save you money two ways on payroll processing, by making the process:

• More efficient.
• More accurate.

More specifically, here’s how each of these benefits helps you…

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The First Way: Managing Overtime

You’ve probably heard time & attendance vendors state you can save tons of money by upgrading a paper-based timekeeping process to a more modern computer-based time & attendance system. Perhaps you wondered if these claims were true.

Tock says: “Computer time clock systems help you manage your overtime costs!”

As it happens, because of the affordability of many employee time and attendance systems, and the many ways they can save you money, the ROI on such a system is generally fairly high, and the payback period is short, often as little as just a few months.

In other words, for many businesses, automating their time and attendance should be a no-brainer.

Over the next few weeks, our mascots, Tick and Tock, are going to take a closer look at many of the ways automated time and attendance tracking can save your business money. If you’re still using manual timekeeping, I hope we’ll be able to persuade you to consider automating your time & attendance tracking. If you’re already using an automated system, perhaps we can alert you to additional ways you can use the data from your system to save your business even more money.

Let’s start with an issue that keeps many small business owners up at night: overtime.

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