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Why track employee hours?

There are many reasons for which organizations decide to track employee hours. It may be to monitor employees’ activity, help them organize their work and become more productive or simply to track and process payroll. Whatever the reason, it's important to have an accurate method to do so.

Employee hours and payroll

As payroll functions go, tracking employee hours can sometimes get overlooked. This is especially true for many businesses with remote or off-site employee. The issue of time theft or time padding, no matter how big your business, is anything but small. Employees improperly documenting hours can lead to payroll issues, and can even cause legal concerns for a company. The rules for how to pay employees differ for exempt and nonexempt employees.

Properly paying your employees involves a series of steps to determine how many hours an employee has worked in a workweek. The concept of a workweek and hours worked is crucial to administering your payroll because the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provisions overtime pay are based upon it.

What to consider when calculating pay for each employee

Employee absences

Meals and breaks

Employees who work multiple jobs

Employees who work at home

Employee training

On-call time

Employee travel time

Unauthorized overtime

Options for tracking employee hours

Many organizations use sign-in logs, paper or electronic means to capture the time of when employees come and go. Most of these employees are also required to document the total number of hours worked each day. Below are some questions to help you evaluate the right solution for your organization.

  1. What are your organization’s business needs?
  2. What type of business are you?
  3. How many employees do you hire?
  4. What are some of the other tools you already use?
  5. How are you going to approach the implementation process?

Option 1. Pen & Paper

Tracking employee hours with pen and paper seems like an outdated approach, but many businesses still rely on it. The simplicity of this approach, along with the fact that there’s no cost involved, can be attractive. In theory, things should work smoothly, but as a small business grows, the limitations of this method quickly become apparent.

Option 2. Time Clocks

Hardware-based time clocks can help eliminate error-prone time reporting. Time clocks vary in their levels of sophistication and cost. PIN entry, card swipes, and fingerprint biometrics provide more accuracy, but can be costly.

Option 3. Time & Attendance Software

Time & attendance software offers next-gen solutions made for nearly every business. Today’s best-of-breed employee time tracking solutions are accessible from a web browser or mobile phone and easily integrated payroll and invoicing software such as QuickBooks. Pricing models vary, but most subscription services help keep monthly costs low while your business is small. Features like paid time off accrual, tracking and requests, and DCAA compliance features are available as your business expands.

Take the next step

If you would like to learn more about how Hour Timesheet can help you track and manage your employee time off policies, click the button below. We'd love to speak with you and show you how Hour Timesheet can simplify your time and attendance processes today.