Monitoring worker hours isn’t solely a secure approach for managers to gauge the place workers’ time is being spent nevertheless it additionally helps companies perceive labor prices, put together for payroll, and enhance worker productiveness.
Whether or not time sheet software program, spreadsheets, bodily time clocks, or handbook monitoring, decide what works greatest in your small enterprise by weighing the know-how necessities, price, authorized compliance, and ease of use in your workers.
1. Time Monitoring Software program
Time monitoring software program eases the burden of logging worker hours, ensures your workers is compensated precisely, and assists in sustaining worker schedules.
Homebase scheduling and time monitoring software program
(Supply: Homebase)
Utilizing time monitoring software program may also make payroll processing extra environment friendly:
- Staff observe their time digitally, lowering error
- Supervisors and managers can approve time entered on-line with a click on of a button
- HR Specialists can run reviews, permitting administration to see the place enhancements will be made
Beneath is an inventory of advisable time monitoring software program together with which companies every could also be greatest for, together with the related prices.
GPS Monitoring Software program
Monitoring your workers’ hours labored utilizing GPS monitoring software program permits you to document their time and attendance from worksite to worksite.
ClockShark GPS monitoring software program
(Supply: ClockShark)
When your workers work off-site, a GPS monitoring methodology will be the proper possibility for what you are promoting. This works greatest for courier providers, logistics, development, and public transportation firms.
GPS time monitoring is straightforward for the worker, who can log their time from any machine—akin to a cellphone—whereas they’re working within the area. Moreover, it’s straightforward for enterprise homeowners and managers who preserve the time sheets from the workplace as they are often reported on to HR by way of the app.
Pricing can begin as little as $3 per thirty days, per person (plus a $10 month-to-month base payment), with a fundamental service like ClockShark. Most software program of this kind additionally fees a base payment per thirty days and gives customized packages for any enterprise dimension.
2. Guide Worker Time Monitoring
Guide time monitoring is as previous as companies themselves. Often known as pen-and-paper monitoring, workers document their very own time on a handwritten piece of paper. This methodology can result in points (akin to time theft, accounting errors, payroll points, and labor regulation violations) and isn’t advisable for small companies.
Guide time monitoring doesn’t provide the accuracy and safety of a software program time and attendance answer. Although this can be a free methodology, the next are causes to rethink handbook time monitoring:
- Inefficiency: Staff can spend hours manually monitoring their time.
- Inaccuracy: Mathematical errors will be made when including hours up.
- Inconvenience: On this digital world of computer systems and cellphones, it may be problematic for an worker to trace hours on paper.
- Unreliability: Monitoring hours on paper is a safety subject. It can lead to missed hours when you lose the report.
3. Spreadsheet Time Monitoring
Spreadsheet time monitoring makes use of a template on instruments akin to Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. That is much like handbook time monitoring, the place the worker enters their time right into a spreadsheet, however gives mathematical options to offer higher accuracy. A spreadsheet will be shared on-line with managers and supervisors for time checking and approval.
Every day time sheet spreadsheet template from Match Small Enterprise
Each Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel provide time sheet templates that mechanically calculate whole hours, common hours, and additional time hours. They’ll additionally assist observe the effectivity and productiveness of groups inside your group.
As soon as you buy Google Workspace (as little as $6 per person, per thirty days) or Microsoft 365 ($70–$100 per yr), the spreadsheets and time monitoring templates are free to make use of.
4. Bodily Time Clocks
Companies that want their on-site workers to “punch in”’ for his or her shifts or workday can profit from utilizing a bodily time clock. You might use a wall-mounted or biometric time clock relying in your particular enterprise wants.
Wall-mounted time clocks are appropriate for companies akin to factories or warehouses. These sometimes have workers which can be in-house and required to log their time once they arrive, depart for breaks or lunch, and depart for the day.
Wall-mounted punch time clock
With a wall-mounted time clock, the corporate clearly understands the hours every worker bodily labored, so it pays accordingly. A drawback is that this technique solely works for workers bodily in an workplace or manufacturing unit and doesn’t account for distant workers. Wall-mounted time clocks will be bought on Amazon or at most workplace provides shops and may price wherever from $100 to upward of $1,000.
“Punching a clock” is a time period utilized by companies whereby workers bodily log their time by punching a time sheet right into a wall-mounted time clock.
Biometric monitoring depends on sure organic options, akin to a fingerprint scan or facial recognition, to trace time.
Fingerprint scan time clock
(Supply: Timelogix)
Such a monitoring verifies the worker’s identification and may stop workers from buddy punching, which in flip, cuts down on time theft by lowering the possibilities of workers being paid for the time they didn’t work.
Biometric information is efficacious to firms that will want to regulate entry all through their workplace or bodily determine workers as they enter and depart a constructing. Nevertheless, since biometric time clocks document particular information about workers, there are legal guidelines in place to manage their use.
These time clocks will be bought on Amazon and at most workplace provide shops. Costs vary from $150 to $500 or extra.
Causes To Monitor Worker Hours
Small companies want to trace worker hours to:
- Course of payroll precisely: To precisely calculate payroll, it’s essential to know every worker’s wage or time labored per pay interval. Time sheets additionally assist by monitoring paid day off and accruals. Automated time monitoring can streamline your payroll course of by lowering time sheet errors. It could possibly additionally eradicate the necessity for a big payroll division.
- Monitor worker attendance: Recorded time serves as an attendance-keeping methodology in your workers. Based mostly on the hours logged, it is possible for you to to find out if an worker labored their full scheduled workweek, took paid day off, or was quick on hours. Time monitoring may also give a transparent view of how lengthy it takes workers to get duties accomplished. Managers can then higher handle workers by calculating future duties and workforce scope.
- Keep compliant with labor legal guidelines: The Truthful Labor Requirements Act (FLSA) requires all employers to trace the time of their hourly workers. Whereas the FLSA doesn’t require a selected type for record-keeping, information should be saved on all non-exempt workers (whether or not salaried or hourly) displaying their whole hours labored day by day and weekly, wages paid, and additional time earnings. A standard type of noncompliance is because of inaccurate recordkeeping. Utilizing software program to trace time and attendance can scale back errors and forestall expensive authorized points that will come up.
- Carry out particular accounting and HR duties: Worker time monitoring can be utilized to find out whether or not the hours tracked are billable or non-billable, rising the corporate’s productiveness. Consequently, accounting specialists can monitor mission budgets and reprioritize duties the place wanted. Moreover, monitoring worker time can make clear areas the place further assets could also be crucial throughout the firm.
Together with payroll, compliance, and different direct advantages, time monitoring additionally gives extra intangible advantages for each workers and the enterprise.
Backside Line
Monitoring worker hours is useful for each employers and workers. Correct time monitoring can save what you are promoting hundreds of {dollars} by guaranteeing that you’re solely paying for the precise time your workers are working. Moreover, selecting the right time and attendance methodology can imply the distinction in authorized compliance, environment friendly budgeting, decreased payroll errors, and elevated worker efficiency.
