What is employee time clock software?

Why is this important? Easy. Understanding and tracking hours can help manage your labor costs and help you make better staffing decisions. 

Learn more about employee time clock software and the benefits of implementing it for your small business.

What is time clock software?

Time clock software is a form of technology that’s used to track the amount of time an employee works. Before software was created, this type of technology was known as a time clock machine, or a punch clock. While time sheets used to punch literal holes into time sheets, technology has advanced in a way that makes time tracking more efficient. 

Nowadays, most employee time clock software is tracked using unique employee ID numbers or biometrics. This is to ensure employees are only clocking in for themselves and ensure accuracy for employee pay.

What type of companies use employee time clocks?

Employee time clocks are useful, but not necessary for all industries. You’ll most commonly see employee time clocks in the following types of companies:

• Businesses with hourly employees. Hourly workers are paid based on how long they work, and the best way to track that type of information is with an employee time clock.
• Companies that do billable hourly work. Businesses that provide client services, such as consultants or agencies, use employee time clocks to check how many billable hours their employees work for specific clients.
• A business that’s looking to track how long certain work takes. If your business is looking to optimize specific processes, using an employee time clock might be a great way to gather baseline metrics. That way you can check how fast a specific task takes before you make any changes, and then again after you implement changes. 

Must-have features of employee time clock software

With new technology comes cool features that make employee time tracking easier and more convenient. If you’re looking for new employee time clock software, consider these features.

Geofencing time clocks

Allow your employees to clock-in using their own tablet or device while they’re located in a specific geotargeted location. This option gives you geographic location information without having to use invasive biometric tools. This works especially well for employees who work multiple locations. 

Need a little more flexibility for fieldwork? Homebase allows employees to clock-in, regardless of GPS location. As an employer, you can see exactly where your team members are when they clock in, and when they clock out for the day. 

Automate labor costs

Great employee time tracking software helps monitor employee hours to ensure that the team you have schedule isn’t exceeding your budgeted labor costs. Overtime and having too many people on shift can quickly drive up labor costs. 

Utilizing software that helps track this information for you can help you build schedules that takes all of this into consideration. This helps save you time and energy, so you don’t have to keep track of costs on your own.

Ensure compliance with local labor laws

You don’t want to be caught accidentally garnishing wages. Utilizing time tracking software that monitors hourly wage laws helps ensure that you’re in constant compliance with your local labor laws. 

Worried that laws about when laws change? Not to worry. Certain compliance tools like Homebase will alert you when labor laws change, so you can always remain compliant amidst any legislative changes.

Connect timesheets to payroll

Using employee time clock software can help integrate time sheets with your payroll software, or some even do both all in one. This helps save you time so you or your employees don’t have to manually calculate their hours, and then input them into entirely different software.

Having your timesheets and your payroll all live in the same place can help provide a source of truth for both you and your employees. Plus, automating payroll can helps minimize mistakes when it comes to calculations and total hours. 

Integrates with other business software

While the best employee time clock software connects directly with payroll, you may already be using a payroll tool your team is comfortable with. If this is the case, it’s essential to find software that integrates with your payroll software of choice. 

Great employee time clock software integrates not only with payroll, but with point-of-sale software, business tools, and job boards as well. That way, all aspects of your business are located in one place. No more having to flip through different software to check sales but also process payroll—it’s all conveniently stored in the same place.

What are the benefits of time tracking using an employee time clock?

Using employee time clock software is extremely beneficial, especially for small businesses. If you don’t have a lot of time to manage a lot of administrative work, or if you’re a business owner looking to make your processes a bit more efficient, here are a few reasons why you should consider implementing an employee time clock.

Establish transparent pay policies

Utilizing employee time clock software can help reduce favoritism and bias when paying employees. When your clock-in processes are simple and efficient, and the hours worked are clearly listed in the software, it’s easy for your employees to keep track of the hours they worked and cross-reference it with their pay stub.

Improve payroll accuracy

When your employee time clock software automatically totals hours, calculates payment, and runs payroll all in the same place, it minimizes the amount of opportunity for human error. According to a study done by ASAP Payroll service, companies that utilize software with timekeeping and payroll features were 44% less likely to commit errors. Using time clock software that connects directly with payroll can help increase payroll accuracy and ensure your workers are getting paid as accurately as possible. 

Decrease administrative work

When your employees don’t have to total their hours and you don’t have to log those hours in to run payroll, it’s a win-win. You’re both now saving time from your day. It’s simple: utilizing employee time clock software can reduce hours. Acumen Data Systems reports that automated time tracking can reduce the time it takes to calculate time cards down to one minute per timesheet per pay period from seven minutes. This means you have more time doing high-value work for your business.

Create data-driven schedules

Great employee time clock software can help you log past hours and track trends. Monitoring common patterns and trends can help you strategically build out your schedule so that your team is optimally staffed. For example, if you notice that your team starts to run into overtime a little more on Friday afternoons, consider adding an additional person on staff. 

Minimize buddy punching 

Back in the day, it was easy for employees to clock in for one another. However, buddy punching can create pay inaccuracies and other issues. Employee time clock software helps ensure that the employees are only able to clock in for themselves, and not for other coworkers. 

Why is implementing an employee time clock so important?

Implementing an easy-to-use and accurate employee time clock is important primarily for the accuracy of pay for hourly employees. Without an accurate time clock, it’s easy for clerical mistakes to fall through the cracks. 

If your team is using traditional time cards, switching to employee time clock software could be a big change. It’s important to be transparent about how this change can benefit them. Implementing time clock software can help ensure consistency with breaks, reward good attendance, and make your workplace a positive culture to work in.

Some employee time clock software also offers abilities to communicate with your entire team. This is especially beneficial if team members are looking for someone to cover a shift, or if you have an announcement for your entire staff. Providing a safe space for your team to communicate helps your team members connect and builds trust between you and your employees.

What is the best employee time clock software?

Deciding on what employee time clock software to use all depends on what your business needs. If you’re looking to provide a time clock, manage labor costs, and run payroll all at the same time, consider using software that lets you do that all in one. 

Homebase is an employee time clock software that helps small businesses manage their work schedules, time clocks, payroll, HR, and more. This leaves more time for you to do the tasks that matter to keep your business running.

Using a tool like Homebase provides you access to:

• Templated scheduling
• Free GPS-enabled time clocks
• Easy-to-use payroll processes
• Seasoned HR professionals 
• Simple team communication tools
• Free iOS and Android apps for both employers and employees

A free employee time clock that frees up your time.

Employee time tracking doesn’t have to be another headache for your small business. Track hours, manage labor costs, and pay your team in a few clicks using the Homebase employee time clock. Isn’t it time for you to start saving time? Get started now for free.

Employee time clock software FAQs 

What is employee time clock software?

Employee time clock software is used to help track the amount of time an individual works. It’s commonly used to calculate how much an hourly worker is paid, when they need to take breaks, and clock out for the day.

What is the best way to keep track of employee hours?

The best way to keep track of employee hours is by using employee time clock software that connects with payroll. This helps to reduce the amount of administrative work that owners or managers need to complete to run payroll. Time clock software can also help keep track of local laws and regulations, so as a business owner you can ensure that your employees receive the right compensation, without the risk of garnishing wages. 

What are the benefits of using time tracking software for your small business?

Time tracking software helps to ensure that your employees are logging their hours consistently and accurately, and connect timesheets to payroll automatically. This can help decrease the amount of errors that may occur during payroll, and also save you time from doing additional administrative work.