5 Reasons Why You Should Ditch Your Outdated Time and Attendance System

Growing revenue is a top priority for many small businesses. While this can be achieved by implementing a more streamlined supply chain or some other means, an often overlooked yet simple way of maximizing profits is opting for an automated time and attendance system.

For the longest time, punch cards and timesheets used to be the norm for companies. However, this method has proven to be unreliable, inefficient, and error-prone especially when compared to the various time and attendance software available today.

If you’re not sure about replacing your old analog system with an automated one, these five reasons might help you come to a decision.

1. Human error

The margin of error in manually filling out timesheets is larger than in an automated system. As a matter of fact, employees who are unable to correctly fill out timesheets cost companies billions per day.

If you have an office assistant who manually checks the timesheets, they can still make a mistake when adding and subtracting hours — not to mention that this procedure is a waste of resources too. Chances of human error further increase as your team grows and becomes more mobile.

2. Tedious time tracking

Tracking hours with timesheets can be difficult and inefficient as well. It is definitely a longer process especially when adjustments have to be made. Other non-work-related tasks could get in the way before an employee is finally able to start his job. For instance, in some companies, a manager or particular person authorized to do a manual punch-in will have to be located if a punch card machine malfunctions. This is an even bigger issue when the machine breaks down frequently.

3. “Buddy punching”

“Buddy punching,” or the practice of punching in for an employee who isn’t actually at work, is pretty commonplace. Many workers can get away with it because it’s difficult to trace. Whether this incident happens rarely or certain individuals steal only a few minutes or hours per week, the fact remains that this results in you paying for nothing. If this carries on for a long time, it will surely have significant effects on your bottom line.

4. Higher cost

Purchasing software to record and manage your employees’ attendance may be costly at the outset. However, replenishing pens and paper on a regular basis can be more expensive in the long run. Office equipment and supplies are expenses that are easily overlooked, but they’re one of the biggest hidden costs of running a business.

5. Storage

Storage will be a problem if you have accumulated boxes of timesheets over the years. This is certainly a problem for larger corporations with hundreds of employees, but it can be a headache for small businesses too since they don’t have the luxury of space in their offices. Disposing them after a particular number of years makes sense, but until then, managing the records will still require proper storage and be the responsibility of the company.

Additionally, if you are working with a virtual assistant to do a specific job such as social media management, you will surely find it more sensible to use an automated time clock system to track the hours they have worked for you.