Many businesses want to know how to keep track of employee hours without going crazy. There are so many things to keep track of, and with more regulations happening to industry everyday, it is no wonder the payroll staff and human resources are over worked. Employee absences and accidental overtime are the biggest headaches for those who are in charge of maintaining the schedules.
What Tracking Method Options Do you Have?
When it comes to keeping a log of employee hours worked, employers are presented with a variety of options. Let’s take a look at some of those options.
Pen and Paper
You can go the old-fashioned route of writing everything down. Keep in mind, this can be a big job to manually keep an accurate log that covers each employee. With this system, you also have to consider who is going to be the one to write down the time. Will employees be trusted to sign themselves in and out? It pretty much goes without saying that the “honor” system is full of loopholes and convenient opportunities for white lies at the benefit of employees.
Another issue that comes with logging hours manually in a spreadsheet or notebook is legibility. Depending on the writer, sometimes people can even find it difficult to read their own writing when returning to it, let alone someone else’s cat-scratch.
Employee Badge Swipe
A popular method used by large companies and corporations is the use of an employee ID badge, whether this is Rf-ID technology or a bar code that is swiped – even bio-metric data such as finger prints and retina scans can be used for employee clocking in purposes. Most of the time, these sophisticated systems are set up to send and receive data to an incorporated software system.
But, looking at the expenses of even the most basic system such as described, you have to consider the cost of the hardware and software, not to mention staff training, ongoing maintenance and trouble shooting. Seriously. Who can afford this type of set-up these days? In reality, unless you are a very large business, this is not an option for most business owners.
Automated Time Clock System
All the advanced technology solutions makes it no surprise that you can actually use an online time clock to allow workers to clock in and out and keep an online time record. Time Clock Wizard is a sophisticated web app that not only maintains an online time record but also has the capability to generate payroll reports, and features a robust online schedule.
Time Clock Wizard is How To Keep Track of Employee Hours
Going with a free web application such as Time Clock Wizard is the most inexpensive and practical way you can start keeping better track of hours and know that you are paying each employee correctly. While logging hours by writing them down may seem easy, you are setting yourself up to potentially lose money on over-payment and inaccuracies. Take the easy way out by signing up for this free online time clock system today.