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Time and Attendance Part 5: Integration

A study done by Aberdeen research group published in 2011, “Time and Attendance Strategies: Beyond Accuracy and Compliance,” found “organizations using automated time and attendance solutions integrated with payroll saw a 61%improvement in compliance audit scores over companies that did not automate time and attendance or integrate time and attendance with payroll."

Automating the collection of time and attendance is the first step to gather accurate information, but what happens to the data after it is collected?   If it is sent to the office and then entered by hand into accounting, all of the other steps to compliance are void.  Data entry is where the largest number of mistakes happen. 

 

Integrating your time and attendance system with your accounting system eliminates the need to re-enter information.  Data entry pollutes your data by allowing room for error.   Keep your data pure by using a time and attendance system that has the ability to push and pull critical information from job costing or accounting systems without using data entry.  

Time and Attendance Part 4: Verification

The fewer times information is touched by human hands, the less mistakes there will be.  However,

there comes a time when all of the data collected from employees must be verified, and any discrepancies addressed.  

No matter how automated a time system is there will always be mistakes.  People still have to clock IN and clock OUT and sometimes they forget.   A good time and attendance system will have some type of a verification process.  Prior to checks being cut,  discrepancies should be resolved. 

Systems such as AboutTime can send out automatic alerts whenever there is a discrepancy.   A final verification report highlights any issues in red, making them easily identifiable.  

After the office "ok's" time cards, each employee should verify their information.  Signatures from the employees could save you a lot of heartache later.   Touch screens, on smart phones and tablets, make verification of mobile field employee time cards easy.  They can simply review and sign their time card directly from a mobile device completing the process in mere minutes.   Any discrepancies can be addressed immediately, resolved and, at the end of the day, everyone is happy.

Time and Attendance Part 2: Keep It Simple

On April 26, 2010 the Division of Workforce Services announced it’s “Plan/Prevent/Protect Strategy" placing compliance entirely on the shoulders of employers. 

1.   Plan:  Employers are required to design a plan and work-flow that demonstrates compliance with federal FLSA laws. 

2.   Prevent: Employers must be able to implement the plan and have the ability to monitor whether or not their employees are following it.

3. Protect: Employers must provide documentation that evaluates the effectiveness of their plan.  

It is up to employers to design, implement and monitor their business compliance plan.   While ultimately, failure or success lies directly with the employers, at some point, the plan that is put in place must be applied and used by employees.   When the success of your company FLSA compliance depends on how effectively your employees follow your business time and attendance plan… SIMPLICITY suddenly becomes a very important concept. 

Originally contractors themselves, Mike Merrill and Ryan Remkis, founding partners of AboutTime Technologies,  understood that their crews were not going to follow any procedure that was too complicated.

 “ We knew that our solution had to be simple. “ stated Ryan.  “One day I was getting cash out of an ATM and it occurred to me… Anyone can get 20 dollars out of an ATM.  The process is just so simple.”

“Right away we started doing research,“ added Mike.  “ We used different ATM’s from different places, counted how many steps it took to complete the transaction, and timed how long a transaction took to complete.   We modeled our software after our research on ATM's.  We figured if someone was able to use an ATM, they could clock IN and OUT using AboutTime. “ 

And sure enough Ryan and Mike were right.  Using mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops, or iPads, with large easy to read buttons, employees can clock IN, choose a location and choose a task in 5 seconds or less.  Simplicity is at the heart of the AboutTime Time and Attendance solution.

Time and Attendance Part 1

A building contractor, working on a job that would take several months, was being paid weekly. Looking at the check he had just received, he approached the owner of the property.

    "Excuse me, but this check is two hundred and fifty dollars less than we had agreed upon," he said.

     "Yes, I know," said the owner. "Last week I overpaid you by two hundred and fifty dollars and you             never complained."

    "I don't mind an occasional mistake," replied the contractor, "but when it starts to be a habit I feel I have to bring it to your attention."

Mistakes will be made when using traditional methods of collecting time and attendance.   You may not
even know that you are making mistakes.  Did you know that over 70% of employers are not in full compliance with the FLSA?  This fact is compounded by the steady rise in wage and hour lawsuits year over year.   The number one wage and hour  litigation claim is "unpaid work time" which is mostly caused by payroll errors.  

Mistake made yesterday or  mistakes made two months ago will eventually catch up and could be the cause of a lawsuit.   The best thing to do to avoid a lawsuit?   That is easy…  Do not have any mistakes!  

Really? How?

When time cards are filled out in the field, by hand, then gathered and sent to the office, and again entered, by hand,  into the payroll system, mistakes will be made.   The implementation of an automated time and attendance solution could minimize mistakes that in turn could avoid future lawsuits.     

A good time and attendance solution had 4 important features.

1. Simplicity:  Simple equals less room for error.  Minimal steps = less room for error.  Less room for error = fewer mistakes.

2. Authentication:  Do you know who clocked in/out and where?  Using smart phone's, iPads, or laptops allow a GPS time stamp to attach to an employee clock in/out.  Assigning each employee a pin code or using biometrics  immediately lets you know who clocked in/out.    Authenticating who clocked in and where has benefits for both the employer, as well as the employee.  It answers any questions about who was where, resolving any issues before they become conflicts. 

3. Verification:  The fewer times information is touched by human hands, the less mistakes there will be.  However, there comes a time when all of the data collected from employees must be verified, and any discrepancies addressed.  

4. Integration:   Data entry often results in a large number of mistakes.    Integrating your time and attendance system with your accounting system eliminates the need to re-enter information.  Skipping this step pollutes your data by allowing room for error.  Keep your data pure by using a time and attendance system that can push and pull critical information without using data entry. 

This is the first of a 5 part series on choosing a time and attendance system.  In the following 4 blogs I will delve a little deeper into each of the 4 important features noted in this article.  

Using Paper is Costing Your Business Money

Why is it important to stop using paper to document your projects?  

Did you know?

• It costs an average of $20 per document to file it.

• The average search time for a document is 18 minutes.

• It costs $125 to for each document that is misfiled.

 • Each lost document costs $350 to $700.

• More than 70% of today’s businesses would fail within 3 weeks if they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper-based records due to fire or flood.

• 67% of data loss is directly related to user blunders, making them 30 times more menacing than viruses and the leading cause of data loss.

• At any given time, between 3 and 5 percent of an organization’s files are lost or misplaced.

• U.S. managers spend an average of 4 weeks a year searching for or waiting on misfiled, mislabeled, un-tracked, or ‘lost’ papers”

• Large organizations lose a document every 12 seconds.

Mobile Resource Management Software along with your smart phones, tablets or laptops can eliminate the need for paper and more accurately document every aspect of your project. 

Facts about Paper - The Paperless Project - Join the ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thepaperlessproject.com/what-are-the-facts-about-paper/