How To Keep Track Of Your Employees’ Hours

Time tracking remains the most effective way to measure your employees’ value to your business. It is also the most practical way to pay them for their commitment and service to your organization. That’s one reason why it is so important to find out how to keep track of employee hours.

Additional benefits of learning how to track employee hours include Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) compliance, accurate payroll reporting, employee performance, time management, project progress, billing clients, and identifying potential issues and problems. Now that we have some thoughts in mind about why employee time tracking is so important, let’s dive deeper into this topic.

How to Keep Track of Employees’ Time

Considering all the benefits of tracking employees’ time, you are probably wondering about the best way to do it. These days, you have plenty of options, ranging from manual pen and paper techniques and desktop timeclocks to comprehensive automated time tracking software programs that do it all.

Like most businesses, you probably don’t have time to take the traditional route and would rather find a user-friendly, high-functioning and customizable software tracking tool. You might find yourself lost in a sea of time tracking technology, requiring guidance regarding what you need along with best practices and standards.

What to Look for in Time Tracking Software

If you are ready to stop asking yourself, “How can I keep track of employee hours?” then finding the right time tracking software is key. Your choice will likely be affected by whether you offer in-house, remote or hybrid workplace models.

You might not know how to start your search with so many software options available. Here are four things to look for in time tracking software.

Payroll Integration

Payroll integration allows your payroll system to sync with other software programs. With integrated payroll capabilities, you can quickly and easily access vital information, including historical time and attendance records, all signed documentation from all employees, information about employees’ benefits and tax details, and workers’ compensation files.

Job Costing

Job costing is a method included in different time tracking software that allows you to track all costs and revenue attached to each project. You can track everything from human resource investments to material costs and more.

Leave Tracking

Leave tracking is a crucial feature included with time tracking software, ensuring that your HR team and employees always know the status of vacation, PTO and sick time. Anyone who has managed leave time manually knows that requests for leave slips can fall through the cracks. Leave tracking also lets employees check their available time to avoid any missteps or confusion before making vacation plans. Finally, time tracking software’s inclusion of leave tracking lets everyone in the office know when an employee is out of the office.

Location Tracking

Employees who work remotely or who are frequently away from their desks can let other workspace members know where they are with location tracking capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is your software DCAA compliant?

Yes! Hour Timesheet provides detailed audit documentation, manager approvals and daily employee reminders to enter time tracking information, including authorized charge codes.

Will my team still need to do any manual data entry?

You won’t need to do much manual data entry, if any. We have automated and streamlined nearly every facet of employee time tracking.

Our Solutions Will Streamline Your Time Tracking Processes

At Hour Timesheet, our time tracking software will be a game-changer for your payroll department and employees. We offer an integrated system that ties everything together to keep valuable employee information at your fingertips. You won’t need to wonder about how to track employee work hours again.

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Time Management Facts

6 Time Management Facts

Despite the mixed feelings on time tracking, having the right time management software can be beneficial to both workers and business. Below are several time management statistics and six facts to help shed some light on the process and its potential value for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Time Management Defined

First, what does time management refer to? Essentially, it is the use of a system to log and monitor a person’s activities. Many organizations utilize these systems to track employee hours and how they are using their time on the clock. However, it can also refer to tracking personal time through a private app as well as organization-wide project time tracking, which can be much more complex.

1. Time Tracking May Improve Time Management Skills

First on the list of time management facts is that using even a simple software to track time can help hone a person’s time management capabilities. Such self-development gives an advantage to both individuals and companies. For instance, one in eight surveyed people reported they never feel under control at work. However, when armed with effective time management, it’s possible to gain control over the demands of the day through organization and improved productivity.

2. It Identifies Areas of Improvement

Did you know the average employee is only productive for two hours and 23 minutes each day? That means a lot of time is being spent on non-work-related tasks such as browsing social media and making personal calls. Although it may appear to take up time to log the employee’s activities, it works to reveal timeframes or tasks where work is not being executed appropriately.

3. Workers in the U.S. Spend 2.5+ Hours on Emails Daily

Drafting and replying to emails is an essential part of many jobs. That being said, a lot of time is devoted to the task and at times, unjustifiably so. The right time management software could expose such waste and steps can then be taken to reduce squandered time.

4. Employee Timesheet Errors Lead to 50 Million Lost Hours in the U.S.

5. Time of Day Impacts Productivity Levels

According to a 2021 report, productivity rates drop down significantly, all the way to 45%, between the hours of noon and 3 p.m. Freelancers also see a dip, with activity rates falling to 43% between 3-6 p.m.

6. Time Theft Is a Challenge for 75% of Businesses

Time theft can be a serious problem for any size of business. One study even found it causes U.S. employers to lose $11 billion annually. Fortunately, time tracking has been shown to reduce lapses in productivity up to 80% by combating the various form of time theft, such as buddy punching, finishing early and using work time to engage in personal activities.

Don’t Let Valuable Time Slip Away

These industry facts and statistics only scratch the surface of the potential benefits time management has in store. If you want to see just how effective time management could be for your business, consider upgrading to Hour Timesheet’s innovative time tracking software. Our easy-to-use platform eliminates hours of tedious manual data entry and streamlines your business’s ability to track employee and contractor hours in real time.

Reach out to us today to learn more!

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The Benefits of Time Tracking Software

Effective time and task management can make a world of difference within a team or a whole organization. When each team member is on top of things, operations not only run smoother, but overall productivity may see a significant boost.

One common route to enhancing time and task management is through time tracking. Below is a brief look into a few of the many benefits of time tracking software and what it could do for businesses of all sizes.

What Is Time Tracking Software

Available for mobile, desktop or both, time tracking software is a means to track the time, resources and manpower spent on each task or as a collective. An individual, such as a freelancer, may utilize it to keep track of personal efficiency, or it could be employed by an organization to better monitor employee performance.

Depending on the software, a time tracking platform may feature an innovative app, reliable tracking for billable hours and even advanced analytics and reporting. Having these conveniences at hand could help streamline various processes while also ensuring essential tasks are getting done on time.

How else might it be beneficial?

Provides greater organization and prioritization

One of the top advantages of time tracking software is that it could greatly diminish the time it takes to organize a whole list of tasks and put them in order of priority. This is especially true in terms of optimizing daily work and meeting important deadlines. Having a reliable tool to schedule tasks based on importance or even profitability could be very valuable when prioritizing which assignments to finish first and for cutting project costs.

Enhances workflow

Similarly, time tracking software can help a business see the big picture and, therefore, adjust the workflow accordingly. For instance, when provided with an overview of how employees are spending their time, the status of important projects, etc., management could more efficiently rearrange or assign tasks, update coinciding processes and plan for future projects. As a result, employees can focus more on efficiently fulfilling their responsibilities.

Offers effortless integration

Another major advantage and convenience is that most time tracking services can be effortlessly integrated with existing software. In fact, adding this handy tool to your current business or project management software is typically done quickly and with minimal interruption.

Such software can easily connect to payroll processes as well. By integrating data from the time tracking software with the payroll system, a company could gain a more in-depth assessment of its finances and reevaluate costs as needed.

Improves operations through data

Data is an invaluable resource in our modern world. With time tracking software, an organization can amass information surrounding the performance of the team as well as individual members. The data gained may also offer precious insight for future planning. Whether it’s used to refine budgetary expenses or strengthen the team’s collaboration, time tracking data can be a very powerful weapon to have in a business’s arsenal.

Finding the Right Software for Your Needs

If time tracking sounds like a good fit, consider the professional services available through Hour Timesheet. Our time tracking software features an easy-to-use time tracking app designed to monitor employee and contractor hours in real time. It also tracks leave time, location and third-party approvals as well as billable and non-billable hours.

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DCAA Compliance Explained

The term ‘DCAA compliance’ when referring to your timekeeping procedures is often just thrown around. If you don’t understand what that means or how to verify that you are DCAA compliant, Hour Timesheet can help.

Simply put, DCAA stands for Defense Contract Audit Agency. This is the federal government agency responsible for conducting DCAA audits of the Department of Defense (DoD) contracts. As imagined, the DoD is very strict about its rules and regulations surrounding DCAA compliance and timekeeping. The DoD will award government contracts to businesses that use web-based timekeeping if they meet all requirements.

1. The company must document all timekeeping procedures in a policy or procedure handbook.

The employee handbook must address all critical elements of an adequate timekeeping system. Companies must provide all employees with an up-to-date policy or procedure handbook regarding time entry procedures.

2. Every employee must record all of his/her time daily.

Attempting to track time worked in advance or days after the fact is not acceptable. Hour Timesheet comes equipped with reminders and alerts to ensure employee time is entered daily. This means that no matter the size of the company, Hour Timesheet is equipped for every employee to track time. This DCAA timekeeping feature is especially useful for any companies participating in SBIR and STTR programs. They may be smaller businesses, but they must ensure they remain DCAA compliant to qualify for their funding.

3. All employees must record 100% of the time worked.

Whether working on a government contract or commercial work, all time worked must be accounted for. With the Hour Timesheet mobile app the employees and 1099’s can add time from anywhere, whether they’re working from home or the office.

4. Employees must record all indirect time not identifiable to a given project to proper indirect cost accounts (Overhead, G&A, B&P, R&D, etc.)

One example of an indirect cost is overhead. This usually includes the indirect costs involved in support operations or direct production. These costs are directly related to a project or projects. However, they cannot be allocated to one specific contract. This is because they overlap across many different projects.

5. Employees must record all PTO, vacation, sick, holiday, and other leave time to the proper leave accounts.

Hour Timesheet allows for leave tracking any kind

6. The system administrator(s) should initiate all job codes that appear in the timekeeping system.

Charge codes must be provided to employees authorized to work on a given project.

7. All timesheet entries must be recorded by the employee.

An employee must record their time based on work completed. They should track all time entries, irrespective of whether the time is billable or non-billable. This must happen daily.

8. Employees must charge to the appropriate project

Whenever the employee completes work or tasks, they must charge it accurately and directly to that project. Hour Timesheet can be setup to restrict which codes an employee can charge their time; therefore, an employee cannot charge to a project they have not been assigned.

9. Employees may not work on indirect tasks and record time as direct costs

An indirect task is work that is not explicitly tied to a project. To remain DCAA, compliant employees must never charge the time it takes to complete these tasks to any project. This would violate DCAA compliance and regulations

10. The employee is required to initiate all correction timesheet entries.

The employee must record all corrected timesheet data that includes a detailed audit trail. An audit trail is critical to remaining DCAA compliant.

The employee’s supervisor must approve every correction time entry in a detailed report, in the event of a DCAA audit.

In the unusual circumstances where the employee cannot make the changes to timesheets, then the HTS administrator may make such changes with the employee’s consent. The DCAA may analyze each entry on an employee’s timesheet. Thanks to your detailed audit trail, the DCAA will see who edited a time card after it was submitted. They will also be able to see when the changes were made, and why. Hour Timesheet creates an un-editable audit log that proper documentation. This activity log will include all of all the additions, deletions, approvals, and modifications made to your employees’ timesheets.

11. The employee’s supervisor must approve all employee timesheet data.

Each timesheet requires two signatures, in order to comply with DCAA compliance regulations. Hour Timesheet allows for online signatures at both the employee and manager levels.

12. All employees should be provided documented timekeeping training.

The company’s employee handbook or new-hire orientation program typically includes this training. Either way the employee should become familiar with the company’s timekeeping policy before they begin working.

13. In order to be DCAA compliant, the company must retain timesheet data for at least two years.

That means the company must be keep their files in a secure and easily accessible location. Should the DCAA require you to produce copies of your timesheets, they should be available. Hour Timesheet keeps the timesheets indefinitely for all employees, current, and past.

14. The company must conduct audit or floor checks randomly throughout the year to monitor employee timekeeping compliance.

Unfortunately, DCAA timekeeping compliance is one of the primary reasons government contractors fail an audit. Hour Timesheet can help. We have the employee and contractor time tracking experience to ensure total compliance. Sign up for Hour Timesheet today and work with an experienced implementation rep to review your account for total compliance. All for FREE.

Non-Profit Time Keeping

At first glance, Hour Timesheet’s app looks like a simple and straightforward timekeeping application perfect for the non-profit industry. However, if you take a closer look, you’ll notice this online timekeeper can do considerably more, including improve efficiency, increase employee morale, and save your organization money. The following is a closer look.

Improved Efficiency

Hour Timesheet’s online timekeeper will increase your non-profit’s internal efficiency. Our app offers features timekeeping tools that itemize a task and indicate how long it took an employee to perform a particular task the last time. This can provide you with a much better idea of the time it will require to complete each step, allowing you to produce a more accurate schedule going forward.

It is these same time tracking features that will allow you to evenly distribute tasks for a larger project between staff within your non-profit. This is to ensure that no employee within your organization is overwhelmed by too heavy a workload while others do not have any work.

2. Increased Employee Morale

Online time tracking software can tremendously increase employee participation and morale at work in several different ways. With electronic timekeeping, employees don’t have to concern themselves about whether or not they’re in line with the organization’s goals or stress about which tasks to focus on. The more organized a workplace is, the happier a place it is to work.

With the records of all your employees’ daily tasks through your online timekeeping software, it becomes much easier to recognize and celebrate all of their accomplishments. The more employees feel appreciated, the more likely they are to stay with your organization, thereby boosting your non-profit’s employee retention and saving you both time and money.

Online timekeeping also provides an opportunity for employees to provide feedback from larger projects right down to daily tasks. Some of your team members might feel frustrated if they don’t feel they’ve been given enough time for a specific job. This is their forum to express their frustrations, so make sure to listen.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

Nowhere is the statement ‘time is money’ more evident than when using timekeeping software, such as Hour Timesheet. Yes, you have to make money to spend money, but often to save money, you have to eliminate or reduce spending. That’s where time tracking spending can help by showing you how to reduce overhead costs. Staffing makes up the most substantial portion of most non-profit organizations’ budgets. Online timesheet apps can help save money by reducing the time spent manually entering timesheet information, as well as creating task lists and creating schedules.

Timekeeping apps can also help predict staffing overages or shortages for your organization. If you’re understaffed, your employees will have too much work, and certain responsibilities will fall through the cracks. On the other hand, if you’re overstaffed, employee time is not being used efficiently, and you’re wasting valuable money.

Without accurate timekeeping, there is very little chance of remaining within a budget. They go hand in hand. Timesheets give you an honest reflection of the time required to complete a project. In turn, this gives you an accurate estimate of the total cost of any project, program, or endeavor you take on.

Non-Profit Time Keeping

Similar to all businesses, your non-profit organization will change as it grows through its lifespan. As you manage and adapt to its changing needs, you’ll notice that it will be increasingly hard to handle all of the operations on your own. That’s where Hour Timesheet can help. Together we can provide you with a solid foundation from which you can successfully build your organization.

Timesheets and Health and Safety

Timesheets and Health and Safety - Understanding how they affect each other

In any work environment, maintaining a healthy standard can be quite challenging. Even trickier is managing office politics that keep emerging on a daily basis. While politics and disagreements are the perfect recipes for office disputes and disagreements, they can easily be dealt with by the use of a timesheet.

But how can timesheets help in promoting a healthy and safe working environment? It’s important to first consider the health and safety requirements in any working environment. Apart from injuries, issues such as disputes concerning financial differences and any other personal issues can be a big health challenge in a working place.

It’s for this reason that timesheets are of utter importance in managing such issues. How can they be used in managing health and safety? How do they relate? Read along to find out more.

Timesheets Improve Workers Productivity

Perhaps the best asset that any workplace can have is productive employees. Let’s face it, once you have employees who are motivated and energetic about what they do, you will ultimately have a productive business. This will translate to more output or profits at the end of the day.

Timesheets go a long way in ensuring that you have a healthy and productive workforce. A timesheet will track employees’ working hours from the time they step in to when they sign out. Even better, the timesheet will determine whether or not an employee completed the assigned task on the stipulated time.

Such system in a workplace goes a long way to tune the workers’ mindset in a healthy way. An employee will become more organized in meeting the required standards and deadlines of assigned tasks. This way, the timesheet will ensure that the employee is more productive in a healthy and safe way.

Timesheets Ensure Accurate Invoicing

As mentioned before, timesheets are important in the workplace, not because of health and safety hazards such as injuries, but mainly for promoting psychological health and safety of both the employer and employees.

If you are an employer, you can attest to the fact that one of the most difficult things to deal with is employee remuneration. If you don’t have an effective system in place, you can easily lose track of employee remuneration in relation to performance. In such a scenario, one sure thing is that; you are going to lose money and your working environment will be less safe and healthy.

So, how can you use timesheets to solve all this? One of the biggest advantages of a timesheet is that it’s able to track an employee’s working hours. This makes the process of invoicing quite easy and accurate. With timesheets in place, you will manage to avoid any workplace politics involving remuneration and eventually have a positive, healthy and safer work environment.

Enhanced Decision-making Process

As a proprietor or CEO of any business, you are tasked with making informed decisions on almost every matter. Your employees will be looking up to you to make critical decisions that dictate the way they work, get paid and overall health and safety decisions. These decisions can make or break a business. So how can you successfully make an informed decision on critical matters to do with health and safety?

Well, one of the ways is by using a timesheet. When your entire business is running on a timesheet, you can easily keep track of all activities undertaken by your employees. Although the tasks done by your employees may seem minute, they ultimately play an important role in your decision making process.

A timesheet will present you an accurate picture of how employees perform in your business. With such knowledge at your fingertips, you can easily make an informed decision that will ultimately improve their health and safety standards. This way, you will save a lot of time and money to investigate on issues that affect the performance, health and safety of your business. A timesheet and health and safety management system will provide you this information, thus enhancing your decision making process.

Timesheets, Health and Safety: In a Nutshell

For any business to make a profit, all its employees should be highly motivated while working in a healthy and safe environment. However, in order to run a successful working environment that is also safe and healthy to your employees, you will need the help of a formidable timesheet. This will go a long way in providing you with all the information you require to make your working arena healthy and safe.

Written by Guest Post

Holly Shaw

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Measuring Labor Cost and How it Relates to Increased Productivity Overtime

People provide their labor to businesses in exchange for wages, and they trade their unpaid leisure time for paid work time to make a living and to be able to purchase goods and services. Businesses, in turn, use this labor to produce goods and services demanded by consumers. Employers often use measuring labor cost in order to relate it back to the rate of production.

Economists divide the factors of production into four categories: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.

Second Factor of Production: Labor – Labor is the effort that people contribute to the production of goods and services. Your people are the most important assets in your business. They are also the assets that change most often and require the greatest amount of nurturing and development in order to deliver expected results. Effective workforce optimization depends on the right blend of training, performance standards, technology, and motivation.

Types of Labor to Measure

Unskilled and Semi-skilled Labor Unskilled laborers may lack the basic skills necessary for satisfactory workplace performance. This means someone in your organization must train them, supervise them closely or provide extensive on-the-job training to ensure work is performed as specified.

Salary & Hourly (Wage Employees) – Salaried and hourly wage labor are those employees whose compensation is in exchange for work done. Do you have an accurate picture of which projects or clients are getting the lion’s share of your employees’ hours? Not likely, unless you’re tracking in real-time to see where you’re getting bogged down, where you’re getting the most bang for your buck, and where you might need to allocate more resources.

Contract Labor – Independent contractors, on-demand or self-employed workers, and freelancers are individuals who do work for you but are not your official employees. For businesses that rely on contractors, it’s important to know when they are working. Employers must track how many labor hours their contractors have put in, especially when these are government contracts. The DCAA has specific rules in place in order to pass an audit on any government contracting jobs. But even for non-government contracts, there are several reasons you might want to track how long, when, or even where your virtual team is working:

If you pay them by the hour, tracking contractor hours ensures you aren’t overpaying.
If you have contractors who bill by the hour, they need to know their billable labor hours to invoice accurately.
Knowing how contractors worked on a project helps you better estimate job costs so you can bid more accurately for similar jobs in the future.
In the case of government contractors, time tracking is required to meet DCAA compliance, among other regulations. Ensuring proper DCAA regulation accounting and time tracking compliance can prevent future issues in the case of an audit.

Defining Productivity In Relation To Labor Cost Percentage

Productivity is the number of goods and services that the labor force creates. Buisnesses measure productivity by how much gets produced by a certain amount of labor and a fixed amount of capital. The more they create, the higher their productivity. Companies seek ways to boost worker productivity because it increases their profit. High productivity creates a competitive advantage.

Eliminating Calculation Errors Increases Productivity – When you process accurate time cards, you are better able to forecast your spends on labor and plan your job cost more effectively. Keeping Excel spreadsheets or pen-and-paper timesheets is definitely no longer the best way to manage your staff. With an intuitive cloud-based time tracking tool (like Hour Timesheet) you are able to manage employee and contractor job cost and absenteeism on the go when needed and create and process error-free payroll every time. You can then effectively perform an analysis of labor cost and a productivity analysis. You will see that that production cost goes down as you start to see productivity growth overall.

Understanding Data & Analytics Increases Productivity – Business analysis is an important part of running any company. Taking a look at your business resources and keeping good records of your employee time not only allows you to manage project and job costs, but it also allows you to forecast your unit labor costs better for future work.

Being able to pull up your labor data and analyze it to forecast real-time labor costs gives you a great starting point for planning and optimizing your budget.

Improving punctuality makes a difference, and having a way to monitor employee attendance habits keeps your team honest. It also provides a great way to perform employee reviews and audits. Having clear attendance data at your disposal allows you to plan better as well.

Bottom Line

Productivity doesn’t just increase your efficiency. If you do it right, it can also increase your income. True productivity isn’t about getting more things done. True production is about getting the right things done. More income for you means more charity for others, new jobs for others, and new products and services for others.

Let Hour Timesheet help your origination track your labor force and your productivity today

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What is a Leave Management System

What is a Leave Management System?

A Leave management system is the process used to handle any kind of time off request and to track time that employees are away from work.

Leave management is one of the simplest yet crucial HR activities that often consumes a significant portion of the HR team’s time. To succeed as an organization, having a reliable leave management system is important.

Benefits of Automating Employee Leave

Leave management software can provide basic guidelines for establishing extended leave policies. The software can automatically keep track of the amount of time that employees are out of work and can report that information as needed or required.

Eliminating Excessive Paper Work – It is quite common to find organizations, managing employee leaves across a series of spreadsheets or even using partially paper-based systems. Therefore, accurately tracking and recording employee time off become a real hassle.
FLSA Compliance – In cases such as employee’s persistent short term absence or long term illness, it is imperative that employee benefit compliances is adhered to.
Tracking leave pattern – It is very essential to track employee leave patterns to monitor the amount of paid leave, sick leaves and holiday patterns within your organization. .

Features Available in Automated Leave Management Systems

Management and tracking of leave requests
Management and tracking of leave on employee timesheet
Online Approvals
Leave balance and history access on timesheet
Leave integration with payroll
Detailed reports
History of leaves rejected, approved and requested

Research has shown that poor leave management practices may negatively affect employee performance. It can also affect employee morale and therefore impact project deliverables.

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Job Costing & Hour Timesheet

What is cost accounting? What are its objectives?

Are you finding it difficult to manage your expenses? You might be well aware that to run a business successfully, it is important to know to control your expenses. For this purpose, it’s important you keep a record of all your operating costs. This is where cost accounting comes into the picture. If you are wondering, how cost accounting is beneficial for your business, then you need to continue reading.

Modern methods of cost accounting first emerged in the manufacturing industries, though its advantages helped it spread quickly to other sectors. For many firms, cost accounting helps create and measure business strategy in a more organic way.

Cost accounting is distinct and separate from general financial accounting, which is regulated by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and is critical for creating financial statements. Instead, cost accounting aims to report, analyze and lead to the improvement of inter-business cost control and efficiency. Cost accounting is a system of operational analysis for management.

Cost Accounting Defined

Cost Accountancy is the process of accounting for cost. It begins with the recording of expenditure and ends with the preparation of statistical data. Cost Accounting is a formal mechanism of ascertaining and controlling the costs of products or services.

It is thus helpful to the management in decision making which also requires the costing information. However, if a firm keeps cost and financial accounts separately then their reconciliation is also necessary so as to verify the accuracy of both sets of accounts.

Cost accounting is also used for control purposes and guidance to management. It involves the ascertainment of the cost of every job, order, product, process or service.

Objectives of Cost Accounting

Determination of Cost
Basis for fixing selling prices
Cost Control
Cost Reduction
Identifies and eliminates wastes like material, expenses, equipment, tools and so forth.
Ensures optimum utilization of resources
To correctly analyze the cost of both the process and operations.
Determination of the profitability of each of the products and help management in the maximization of these profits.
Help in the preparation of budgets and implementation of budgetary control.
Aid management in the formulation and implementation of incentive bonus plans on the basis of productivity and cost savings.

Functions of Cost Accounting

Bookkeeping - Bookkeeping involves recording of cost according to pre-arranged or predetermined classification.
Cost Control - The cost control is exercised through cost collection, cost analysis, cost presentation and cost interpretation.
Cost Analysis - Cost Analysis deals with determination of different relationship between cost and various determinants of costs.
Cost Comparison - The cost of alternative products, activities, methods or areas is compared in the field of production or distribution.
Cost Planning - Cost planning involves the accounting of all costs in the records in a proper manner.
Cost Finding - Cost finding is the measurement or estimation of different products, departments or other segments of the company’s operations.

Summary

In every business, pre-planning your business strategy is crucial. Without a proper idea of the financial state of the organization, the business strategy is incomplete. When you are aware of the costs, you know where the profit margin is lacking. It becomes easier to eliminate the extra cost being incurred and make a better business finance strategy. Also, cost accounting helps you to keep an eye on the increasing costs. If the cost of raw materials is increasing annually, then it allows companies to decide a future course of action to reduce or control the increasing costs. For this purpose, a firm may consider approaching other vendors or decide to manufacture the raw materials themselves. Accordingly, the management can decide on future strategies for the company.

Let Hour Timesheet help you with capturing your job cost today. Try free for 30-days. No credit card required.

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Features To Look For In DCAA Compliant Time Tracking Software

Government contractors that are hoping to get awarded projects from the government have to comply with the regulations set in place by the DCAA. The Defense Contract Audit Agency outlines exactly how businesses should be tracking their time and documenting accounting when working on a government project. The DCAA will audit companies, and ensure they are following these guidelines. The DCAA compliant timekeeping procedures can be tricky to navigate, which is why Hour Timesheet has compiled a DCAA compliance checklist. This makes it easy to prepare for an audit, and make sure your company is in line with DCAA regulations.

DCAA Compliance and Time Tracking

Let’s say you’re looking for a long-term solution to DCAA compliance. Time tracking is a big part of many businesses, and adding in DCAA compliance makes the process lengthy and tiresome. Luckily, companies like Hour Timesheet exist to make it easy for businesses. You don’t have to worry if your time tracking meets DCAA requirements, because we’ve already done it for you. Even if you’re already using QuickBooks, and you’re just looking for some extra help – Hour Timesheet can integrate directly with QuickBooks.

What type of firm needs time tracking software? Most employers who hire hourly employees need to know the number of hours each employee has worked so that payroll can be calculated properly. Government contractors have a different set of rules and are required to track time, both hours for exempt and non-exempt employees. They also have certain rules in place involving tracking indirect costs, such as labor costs. Even organizations that only hire salaried employees have a need to track projects or tasks for successful project management. That’s why finding the right time and attendance software is critical to your bottom line.

What to Look for When Evaluating a DCAA Compliant Timekeeping Software? When researching tools, it’s important to make sure the software that you are evaluating meets certain criteria. Whether you’re an organization with salaried employees, or government contractors hoping to win a government contract, it’s important to partner with companies you can trust. Here are some things to look for when searching for a timekeeping system:

Reminders to Track Time Daily

It’s common for employees and contractors to forget to track time, which can cause a lot of issues for DCAA audit trails. Hour Timesheet offers daily reminders to track time and ensure it’s getting done accurately.

Online Approvals

Whether it’s approvals for time log edits or approvals for charge codes, it’s important to have a timekeeping system that allows approvals online.

Mobile Access (iOS and Google Play)

Managers can access Hour Timesheet from any computer, or through the mobile app, and submit approvals online.

Detailed Audit Log and Audit Trail

Whenever the DCAA performs an audit on your company, they’re going to want to see records of everything. The best practice when hoping to win future contracts is to keep detailed records and trails of all time, labor, and cost history. This will make it easier for you and the DCAA when the time comes for an audit.

Real-Time Location Tracking

Government contractors often perform work offsite and on the location of clients or at work sites. This can make time tracking difficult when managers are unsure where workers actually are. Hour Timesheet offers real-time, accurate location tracking so that your records can be as accurate as possible.

Integration with Accounting Software (QuickBooks Online & QuickBooks Desktop)

This is arguably one of the most important features in time tracking software. The DCAA not only wants to audit the company’s timekeeping requirements, but they also want to do an accounting system audit and ensure those records are accurate. By connecting your timekeeping software to your accounting system, such as QuickBooks, you’re making this process seamless. The DCAA will look at things like labor distribution, cost objectives, indirect costs and direct costs, and uncompensated overtime. Everything needs to be tracked to ensure proper DCAA compliance with QuickBooks.

Knowledge of Government Contracting

At Hour Timesheet, we believe the most important thing to look for in a timekeeping system is a demonstrated knowledge about the DCAA system. Without this knowledge, the software may not be able to provide what it promises. It’s important to work with a company that has an in-depth understanding of how the federal government awards contracts, audits companies and enforces DCAA regulations.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Some other features that can be very beneficial in a timekeeping system include an online web clock, correction timesheet workflows, and online job tracking. These make it easier for everyone involved to do their job.

Are you wasting time and money on the following?

Correcting math errors on hours worked and other time entry activities
Tracking down late or missing weekly timesheets
Manually entering employee time worked into your accounting and/or payroll file

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, it’s time to let today’s technology work for you. Intuit and QuickBooks have a marketplace where 3rd party vendors who offer time tracking are listed. Only companies that pass strict guidelines and follow Intuit’s partner policies are listed on these sites.

View QuickBooks Online Marketplace Apps here

View QuickBooks Desktop Marketplace Apps here

Hour Timesheet was created for you; with your origination in mind. We have created a simplified solution that captures your complex situations and makes DCAA compliance easy. Give us a try FREE for 30 days. No credit card is required. Our experts with over 20 years of industry experience are waiting to hear from you now. Hour Timesheet includes a QuickBooks timesheet import sync that makes your payroll process a snap!

Hour Timesheet can be a perfect tool that will integrate & sync with your QuickBooks Desktop Hosting keeping an eye on your reminders, daily tasks, etc. Learn more about add-ons like Office 365 E3 suite for improving your team collaboration.

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