Time & Attendance Management Software — Is It Worth It?

Today, start your day by standing at the office entrance, where the punch-in occurs in the morning. If you see a line of employees getting cranky waiting outside to punch the time before they start their shift, then it is time to invest in attendance management software at the earliest.

Remember how attendance registers were used when we were in school, and how time-consuming it used to be? We now live in an era where we are blessed to have the technology to save our time.

Time management software has applications apart from just marking the employees present or absent. This attendance software helps reduce time considerably, especially for the HR department. This software provides up-to-date and accurate information, making it super easy to manage all the employees’ records at a particular time. Larger organisations need such time and attendance software because it is otherwise impossible to track thousands of employees.

If you are still doubtful about the benefits of this effective software, here are some of the time management tips for business to improve the overall productivity of the company.

1. Simplifies Payroll

Earlier, employees had to fill up the timesheet every week or once every two weeks and submit it. These timesheets were then reviewed by the managers and then by the head of the department. Post that, timesheets were sent to the payroll department, which then deciphers the employee’s information. Don’t you think this is tremendously a lengthy process and quite a wastage of time? This traditional method is inefficient, and it is undoubtedly time to change it

With multiple timesheet management systems around, employees can now easily clock in and out digitally to reflect their working hours in the office. This software can also get easily integrated into HR systems and Payrolls. It hardly takes a few seconds to calculate the salaries by keeping multiple factors such as vacations, sick leaves, overtime, holiday pay, among other aspects.

2. Prevents Tax Problems

Although one of the core benefits of the time and attendance software is to minimise employee unproductivity and make sure they are paid timely and correctly, there are many other silent benefits. Using such software in conjunction with the payroll system helps employers reduce errors while filing the taxes. Many employee benefits also get tied up to the software, thus automating and simplifying the entire process.

3. Prevents Lawsuits

Multiple lawsuits are filed against a company by employees for missing or defaulting in payments. However, if a company uses the traditional manual means for keeping records, it is impossible to prove that a payment has been made. For instance, in a case that was defaulted years ago, it will be challenging to procure the information manually.

In this scenario, digital records prove beneficial as time management software can show the required proof of the transaction. Also, during the safety audit, one will have the documentation for the right efficiency measures taken, including the number of employees on-site at the appropriate time.

4. Reduction of Employee Time Theft

There are cases where employees try to manipulate their check-in and check-out time, attempt to show lesser leaves taken and reduce their salary deductions. The manual process doesn’t help the situation. To avoid employee time theft, it is essential to invest in biometric software to reduce the error in recording an employee’s timings through facial recognition or fingerprinting.

Over time, it will become easy to identify workers who are arriving late or leaving early. These employees can be quickly confronted with facts and figures.

5. Increases Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction should be one of the top-most priorities for employers, as the staff is an organisation’s biggest asset. However, while senior employees may seem reluctant at first to embrace the change, they will appreciate the newer application once they experience the advantages.

Among the time management tips for any business is using technology and robust software to streamline and automate the process. With this software’s capacity to calculate error-free remuneration, creating up-to-date reviews and upcoming or used leaves become much faster and easier.

6. Higher Efficiency by Going Mobile

With the flexible work culture coming in, businesses are more open to giving their employees the option of work-from-home. By working from home, it is seen that productivity increases, while helping in saving company expenses. Hence, physically checking for attendance becomes impossible in this scenario.

Systems have been moving to the cloud, and everyone involved in the payroll processes, right from the senior executives to the managers, can review the current and the past work. With the help of their smartphones, employers can review or send relevant reports. This software also allows the employees to travel, update their payments or expenses easily with just a click.

Conclusion

Overall, the time and attendance management software are indeed worth it, as they come with more pros and fewer cons. The software has an ample number of features such as easy identification of the workforce present, business administrations, etc. With such technological tools, it becomes easier for the business to manage it better regardless of the size. Sustaining and functionality of the workforce also becomes better.

In running any profitable firm, employees’ time and attendance are significant. With this time tracking software’s help, the company can rest assured about the employees’ overall productivity and quality.

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FAQs

Q. Are attendance software mandatory to use in an organisation?

Ans. There is no hard and fast rule about the usage of time and attendance software. It is recommended to use such software because it saves time and effort. Businesses generally feel that such software might be expensive and won’t fit into the budget. However, if the opportunity cost of the software expense is seen, it is much better than manually sorting out the employees’ attendance and payroll process.

Q. Only larger organisations should use the time and attendance software – Is it a myth?

Ans. This is not a valid premise. Although an organisation is not big enough, the company can avoid attendance software, which has many other benefits. For example, it is not just about attendance, but about managing the leaves and the employees’ payroll, which becomes easily possible to handle with such software. Hence, be it an organisation that is large or small, it should invest in such high-end software to ease the workload.

Q. Is it challenging to manage the attendance and time software?

Ans. Its primary use is to make the company’s overall tasks easy, instead of making it more challenging for the professionals to install and manage such software. Hence, it is not difficult to manage attendance and time software at all.