5 Ways to Track Employee Hours

Tracking employee hours and doing it accurately is essential for all aspects of your business. Without a good time tracking system in place, small mistakes can easily lead to larger issues such as payroll error, time theft, non-compliance with labor laws and employee morale issues. . There are many ways to track employee hours, each with their pros and cons, and it's all about finding what works best for your business.

Generally, the best way to ensure your time tracking is accurate is to have a clear time tracking policy, open communication with your team, and an app to track employee time. Moving from manual time tracking to an online solution has many benefits, including less human error, easy tracking for onsite and remote employees, simplified payroll, and significantly less paperwork.

Why is employee time tracking important?

Accurately tracking employee time affects every aspect of your business, from budgeting and planning to how you spend your day. Without a good time tracking program in place, it's easy to lose track of which hourly employees did what and for how long. This can lead to issues such as payroll errors, violation of labor laws, and timesheet fraud.

If you don't track employee hours properly, it can also negatively impact things like resource planning, project management, and employee morale. When you're not 100% sure of your employees' working hours, it's hard to plan for the future. It can also lead to employee discipline and trust issues.

5 Ways to Track Employee Hours

There are several ways to track your employees' hours, some simpler and some more reliable than others. Let's look at five different time tracking systems and how they might affect your business.

1. Old-school time tracking with punch cards

Punch cards are one of the oldest and most popular forms of manual time tracking. With this method, each employee has a card that they punch each time they start and stop working. At the end of the week, you can total each employee's hours and see how much work has been done.

Although punched cards are simple and inexpensive, they are susceptible to human error, whether intentional or not. When you add up hours by hand, it's easy to make mistakes. You could end up miscalculating your salary or making mistakes when filing your taxes.

It's also easy for employees to deliberately falsify shift hours, punch in early, or punch in buddies. Also, punch cards only show you paid breaks and time worked during the day, they don't give you any idea of ​​what was done or the quality of the work.

2. Manual timesheets

Manual timesheets are another basic time tracking method. If you're not digital, chances are your employees have a piece of paper on which they record the time they started their shift and the time they finished work. At the end of the week, you total the hours and manage your payroll.

Like punch cards, timesheets are also very susceptible to human error. You are bound to make mistakes doing manual calculations and it is simple for employees to add a little time to each of their shifts. Plus, manual timesheets don't automatically track overtime and breaks, so you're more at risk of violating state and local labor laws.

3. Time tracking app

Time tracking apps don't just let you know when an employee is at work. They also tell you how much time employees spend on a particular task or project.

Time tracking apps help you visualize the time spent in your business and...