Use Timecards For Payroll & Employee Schedules to Plan Labor Costs
It is important to pay payroll expenses from the time and attendance system, and not the theoretical labor schedule. This attendance system tracks the “actual time” worked by business employees. Each staff member should have their own “timecard”, although computer systems have improved these paper systems over the years. At a minimum, the timecard can be a paper card which has the time and date the employee arrived for work, and the time and date the employee left work, printed or stamped on the card.o If management pays the employee directly from the theoretical work schedule and the employee arrived later than scheduled, then the business is paying too much to the employee – reducing profit.o If the employee arrived earlier than the theoretical labor schedule suggested, the business will not lose any money by paying from the schedule – however, a number of regulations are violated by not paying the employee for actual time worked.Employees, in most industries, are notorious for arriving to work 15-minutes earlier than scheduled, or leaving 10-minutes later than scheduled, requiring that employers pay appropriately for worked time.To ensure compliance with regulations and to reduce the loss in profits, the correct way to pay employees is with the clock in / clock out times from the time and attendance system. Employee pay should be based on actual time worked. Where applicable, biometric systems, such as fingerprint logins will help control employee early clock ins, buddy punching, and labor regulations compliance.Example: Using a modern labor management system, employees from a country club can clock-in and clock-out from an Internet-connected computer at the store. Each employee is given a username and password for security, or alternatively given a biometric fingerprint scanner. In addition to punching in and out, the employee can review their timecard, view upcoming schedules, request time off, change work preferences, swap shifts with other employees, find out when other staff members work, and view messages sent to them by management. After clocking into the labor management system, remote managers (such as corporate, district, or regional level managers) can easily login to view which employees are currently “on the clock” and how long they have been clocked in.Labor management systems with employee scheduling and time and attendance features can reduce the employee’s ability to clock in early, or “ride the clock”. These types of software systems have an instant Return On Investment for your business.