Time and Attendance Systems are the software and hardware solutions which work together to automate the time and attendance business processes. Rudimentary solutions do little more than computerize past manual processes such as the paper time sheet, used to report employee time. Better developed time and attendance systems automate day-to-day employee tasks such as reporting attendance, scheduling work tasks, tracking work hours, managing project costing and calculating accrued benefit entitlements.

Time and Attendance Systems provide schedule management capabilities which set break times, lunches, time off and overtime. The systems provide time tracking capabilities that collect time reporting, calculate actual employee labor hours and absence data, show patterns of absenteeism, and provide input for payroll generation. Most systems also include auditing and reporting tools that give managers direct access to employee data.

Time and Attendance Systems are used by companies of all sizes to record working hours of employees primarily in order to pay their wages. Companies with employees who are mostly salaried probably don’t need a time and attendance system. Companies with mostly hourly or part-time employees probably do, as do companies with a mix of salaried and hourly staff.

The need for a time and attendance system often begins when a company approaches 25 employees. As the company grows so do the system needs. Companies with more than 1,000 employees often turn to larger, more powerful systems that can create complex schedules, incorporate more advanced labor planning and can even accept employees’ desired work schedules. Other complex issues that may be addressed are Labor Budgeting, Labor Planning and Key Performance Indicators (KPI). These advanced features can be used in any size company, but generally tend not to be used until a company reaches 500 plus employees.

Labor management systems that are designed for larger companies feature more sophisticated functionality such as recording an employee’s daily work by project, job and/or location. Some companies have a requirement to record the number of hours spent on specific tasks in order to cost jobs accurately. This is referred to as job costing. Some solutions have sophisticated job costing and job planning capabilities which are invaluable to companies that need to monitor their workforce productivity or forecast their workforce needs.

Time and Attendance is the process of documenting an employee’s attendance at the work site by recording the employee’s arrival and departure times, calculating actual hours worked, and maintaining other time off and work overage information on each employee. Companies of all sizes utilize time and attendance processes to gather information about the amount of time employees spend on the job, in order to insure all employees are accurately paid. Employers also use time and attendance solutions to safeguard company assets against employee fraud – the over reporting of actual hours on the job.

Time and Attendance Systems are the software and hardware solutions which work together to automate the time and attendance business processes. Rudimentary solutions do little more than computerize past manual processes such as the paper time sheet, used to report employee time. Better developed time and attendance systems automate day-to-day employee tasks such as reporting attendance, scheduling work tasks, tracking work hours, managing project costing and calculating accrued benefit entitlements.

Time and Attendance Systems provide schedule management capabilities which set break times, lunches, time off and overtime. The systems provide time tracking capabilities that collect time reporting, calculate actual employee labor hours and absence data, show patterns of absenteeism, and provide input for payroll generation. Most systems also include auditing and reporting tools that give managers direct access to employee data.

Time and Attendance Systems are used by companies of all sizes to record working hours of employees primarily in order to pay their wages. Labor management systems that are designed for larger companies feature more sophisticated functionality such as recording an employee’s daily work by project, job and/or location. Some companies have a requirement to record the number of hours spent on specific tasks in order to cost jobs accurately. This is referred to as job costing. Some solutions have sophisticated job costing and job planning capabilities which are invaluable to companies that need to monitor their workforce productivity or forecast their workforce needs. More sophisticated solutions may also have robust reporting tools for management analysis.

Time and Attendance Software Systems can reduce the administrative hassles of managing paper time slips and can greatly reduce the resulting mistakes of paper based solutions. They are especially valuable in companies with a labor force whose work schedules are constantly changing. They can also cut down on the biggest crime: buddy punching.

• Automate the Workforce and Labor Data Collection Processes.
• Organize Workforce and Labor Data into Manageable Components for Analysis.
• Plan, Schedule and Reschedule Workforce and Labor Resources for Better Productivity.
• Provide Accurate Workforce and Labor Data as Operating Results to Payroll and other Financial Systems.

Time and Attendance Solutions are an improvement in and a replacement of paper based time (reporting) sheets, mechanical clock card punch machines and basic scheduling spreadsheets, to name a few. Manual systems such as these rely on highly skilled personnel laboriously managing the workplace and labor force using paper based solutions of the past. An employee’s hours worked are manually calculated from paper cards, which have times stamped onto them using a time stamping machine (mechanical clock). Time stamping machines have been in use for over a century and may still be bought new today. Plant managers often rely on printed work schedules that are obsolete shortly after they are printed.

Automated Time & Attendance Systems can use electronic tags, barcode badges, magnetic stripe cards, or touch screens which employees touch or swipe for identification and then record their arrival and departure times as they enter or leave the work area. The data collection time clocks located at various locations automatically transfer the recorded information to a computer for processing. Some systems require an operator to physically transfer data from the clocking point to the computer using a portable memory device. The computer then performs all the necessary calculations to generate employee timesheets which are used in other integrated systems, such as payroll, to calculate the employees' wages and generate payment. A time & attendance system protects a company from payroll fraud and provides both employer and employees with confidence in the accuracy of their wage payments.

A Time & Attendance System enables an employer to have full control of all employees’ working hours. It is also invaluable for insuring compliance with labor regulations regarding proof of attendance.

Companies with a large employee workforce might need to install several clocking points in order to speed up the process of getting all employees to clock in or out quickly or to record activity in dispersed locations.