Wasp Barcode Technologies: The Barcode Solution People

8 Facts You Didn’t Know About Time & Attendance Software

Purchasing a time and attendance system may not be the first thing small business owners think of when considering ways to achieve their expected revenue growth.  Improving customer service and investing in new customer acquisition methods are cited far more often, but failing to do so is taking a risk. According to a report by AffinityLive​, failing to properly track time spent working costs the average professional services business over $110,000 in lost revenue each year. While we’ve allowed technology to transform the way we communicate and do business, time and attendance software has lagged behind, forcing employees to recount their work days and hours manually, often days later. An unwillingness to make the switch to an automated time and attendance system is often due to a lack of knowledge on the subject, usually pertaining to cost, usefulness and prevalence. A 2010 Axsium Group survey found large companies save $1,600 per employee, on average, after implementing a workforce management solution. Select Labs, which provides lab services such as blood and urine analysis to medical practices and practitioners in North Carolina and South Carolina, made the decision to upgrade their time and attendance system. After implementing a new time and attendance system, WaspTime, payroll became 70% faster than before. Jess Merritt, Vice President of Information Services at Select Labs was happy with the results,“We bought WaspTime because it was the most cost-effective solution. It is extremely easy to use and I easily integrated it into our network. It all came together and was the right fit.”

“ It is extremely easy to use and I easily integrated it into our network. It all came together and was the right fit.”

Here are 8 things you didn’t know about time and attendance software that will convince you to upgrade the system for your small business as well.

1)​ ​Use of automated time and attendance software is lacking, despite obvious financial advantages.​

​Research showed​ that 40% of U.S. businesses calculate payroll by hand as of last year, and 46% told GoDaddy that they don’t use an accountant at all. That means that almost half of American businesses are missing out on ways a time and attendance system can save them money​.

2) Businesses that automate their workforce see reductions in time spent on administrative tasks and on errors.​

According to the Aberdeen Group, automated workforce management (which includes time and attendance software, scheduling and payroll) reduced time spent on workforce management by HR for 39% of respondents; 36% saw reductions in clerical errors; and 31% experienced reduced labor costs.

3) Using automated time and attendance software is a common trait among successful businesses.​

The Aberdeen Group says 88% of “Best-In-Class” companies automate their time and attendance data collection. Most businesses spend between 30-50% of total operation cost on labor.  It is the largest single expense category for most small business owners.  Handling time and attendance records is necessary to give an accurate picture of labor costs and the overall success of your business.

Related Article: Outdated Time Systems Costing Small Business

4) The amount of time saved by switching from manual to automated time and attendance can actually be calculated.

​Industry estimates say that it takes an average of ​seven minutes​ for supervisors to calculate time-card data for each individual employee every pay period. With that time eliminated thanks to automation, some companies have found that calculating payroll takes less than a quarter of the time​ that it used to.

5)​ ​Time fraud is surprisingly prevalent in the workplace.

​A ​Kessler International survey​found that employees are more likely to steal from their employers than customers, often by falsifying time records, “buddy punching” and not clocking out for unpaid breaks. As many as ​69% of hourly employees​ punch in and out earlier or later than scheduled.

6) Filling out timesheets is not accurate.

The majority of timesheets​ filled out multiple times a week or worse are only “somewhat accurate.” Moving from a weekly to daily system would recover $52,000 per professional, per year, in billable time.

7) Automated time and attendance can keep you on the right side of the law.

​Not paying employees for time in meetings and reading emails can be costly: In recent years, the number of fair-wage practice lawsuits has increased dramatically, leading to hundreds of millions in back wages being recovered by the U.S. Department of Labor. Additionally, new regulations from laws such as the Affordable Care Act requires understanding who has qualified for health care during a specific time period, a task made much easier by having automated data that can easily be referred to.

8) Automated time and attendance allows for self-service access by employees.

Communication is important for letting employees feel like they’re a part of a team. Self-service options in time and attendance software allow both employees and managers to look up hours logged on the fly, improves accuracy, and show increased engagement in their work (​72%​ of employees at companies with automated time and attendance rated themselves as highly engaged, compared to 64% without). Knowledge is power, and in this case, knowing how a time and attendance system drastically affects your company's bottom line can be the difference between success and failure.  The margin of error is too small for most small businesses not to clean up this costly mistake.  Making the upgrade will completely erase the inefficiency that is manual time and attendance keeping form daily operation. How would purchasing a time and attendance system speed up daily operations for your business?