Many young employees in the workforce today might not understand why clocking into shifts is also called punching in. That’s because the business world has come a long way from punching a hole in a paper time card in order to track hours spent on the clock. Time clock software is the latest—and best—method of time tracking. It’s an easy, convenient, and versatile means by which you can manage and record your employees’ hours.
But in order to maximize time clock software to its full extent, you should invest in a time tracking system with a mobile app. Otherwise, you’ll be losing out on some of time clock software’s most innovative features. In this article, we’ll fill you in on everything you need to know about choosing the right time clock system, including:
- Basic info regarding time clock software
- Benefits of switching to time clock software
- Why having a mobile app is so important
Time Clock Software: An Overview
Though it’s quickly establishing itself as a business norm, time clock software is still relatively new, given that timekeeping is practically as old as the tradition of business itself. Luckily, despite its technological foundations, time clock software is a pretty clear-cut concept.
Did you know that time clocks date back to the late 1800s—and possibly before then? Unlike these early means of recording work time, time clock software doesn’t use physical time cards or even a physical clock—the entire process is online. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
What Is Time Clock Software?
Time clock software is an online form of time tracking that uses cloud-based technology to digitalize (and simplify) the process of recording time, attendance, and scheduling in the workplace. Time clock software makes tracking time easier—not only for employers but also for employees.
How Does Time Clock Software Work?
Employees are assigned login information, which they enter in order to clock in and out of every shift. Time clock software is extremely flexible when it comes to settings and operation. An example of this is the ability to choose how your employees punch into the system. Options include the standard combination of username and password, as well as email addresses, facial recognition, and scannable QR codes.
Benefits of Switching to Time Clock Software
Time clock software can save you time and money. Because it’s an automated system, online time tracking calculates your employees’ time for you, simplifying timesheets and minimizing human error on your payroll. Plus, you can integrate the software into other web management products for instant data transfer and resource consolidation.
Download and review regular reports and cut down on time spent completing (mind-numbing) administrative work.
Increased accuracy from time clock software makes timekeeping significantly more exact while also limiting the risk of time theft by employees. This means that the numbers on your payroll will be as precise as possible without adding more work for you or your employees.
You can also use time clock software to make scheduling less of a hassle by using features to process overtime and time-off. And because it’s an online platform, employees will be able to put in schedule requests from their own devices outside of the workplace.
Mobile Apps, a Must-Have
When it comes to time clock software, if you don’t have the option of a mobile app, you’re missing out. Mobile apps make time clock software more accessible and facilitate more features than websites alone.
Sure, you could settle for accessing your time clock system through your web browser alone, but should you? Absolutely not. For one thing, computers are bulky. When your time clock software has a mobile app, your employees can log in on a smaller device, such as a tablet or smartphone.
Another benefit of time clock software is that it doesn’t require any additional hardware—most companies already own everything they need to access their software in the workplace.
While we’re talking about the accessibility of time clock software, it seems like an appropriate time to address a question you may have been asking yourself: Does an online system mean that my employees can clock in from anywhere? The answer is yes and no—it depends on how you configure the settings. If you have remote workers, you can enable them to be able to log in from outside of company property. For businesses where remote work isn’t an option, you can use geofencing and IP locks to ensure that your employees are punching in and out from where they’re supposed to be.
Geofences, which are assigned radiuses that determine where an employee can be on the clock, are a feature that only works through the mobile app because it uses GPS coordinates. However, IP locks, which limit the IP address that the time clock is accessible from, can be used through web browsers as well as mobile apps.
Though your employees won’t be able to access the time clock from home (unless you want them to), they’ll still able to use the software to view their schedule and time card and make requests. For this reason, many employees prefer time clock software that has the option of a downloadable mobile app. Likewise, time clock mobile apps are also useful for employers who want to access their software on-the-go.
Don’t Take Your Time—Start Saving Faster
In business, the phrase “if you snooze, you lose” has very real—and sometimes costly—consequences. Time clock software is a newly developed interface that is becoming a necessity in modern business. Quite frankly, using anything other than time clock software to track time is a waste of time, money, and human resources. And with so many features in addition to time tracking, time clock software is an investment with a wide range of applicability. That being said, a time clock software without a mobile app isn’t as effective as one with one, so make sure that you take that into account when you’re deciding on what software to choose. Now that you have all of the information, what are you waiting for? Stop losing time and start gaining it with time clock software.
