If your small business doesn’t already use time-tracking and attendance software, you could be missing out. Time-tracking apps can enhance your time-keeping accuracy and make your workplace more efficient. Many payroll functions legally must be recorded and tracked, so the right software can make your compliance process much easier.

The Top 10 Benefits of Using Time-Tracking Apps for Small Businesses

While each time-tracking and attendance software is a little different, they can generally handle the following tasks.

• The start and end of shifts
• Breaks and lunches
• Tasks and productivity management
• Days requested off
• Exception reporting
• Streamlined time-off approvals

In the long run, time-tracking software can save your company a significant amount of money. Buddy punching costs American workplaces $375 million per year, and it affects up to 20% of workers. 

Besides preventing timecard fraud, time-tracking apps can also boost your company’s productivity. It gives you better oversight of tasks and productivity in each department, so you can quickly modify how you deploy labor. From better progress tracking to improved morale, time-tracking software can benefit your company in a few important ways. 

1. Better Compliance

With time-tracking apps, you can easily see if employees are getting close to overtime or need to take a break. This type of oversight is especially important if you hire minors. Department of Labor (DOL) fines have added up to over $1 million for violating overtime regulations, so better compliance tools can potentially save your company a significant amount of money in the long run.

2. Productivity Improvements

By investing in the right time-tracking and attendance apps, you can get a bird’s eye view of where your labor dollars are going. These apps provide real-time information, so you can easily see who is getting close to overtime or which department is using up the most labor hours. Then, you can use this data to redeploy people to the appropriate tasks.

3. Enhanced Transparency 

While many employees aren’t thrilled about the idea of more transparency and oversight, transparency offers benefits for managers and employees. Being able to see the hours worked helps to keep remote teams on track. It also ensures that managers can see where the labor hours are going. Depending on the program, managers can also view screenshots of what each employee is working on.

Employees also benefit from the improved transparency. It’s easy for one department to carry an unequal portion of the weight on an important project. Once you implement time-tracking and project management software, employees can relax with the knowledge that other remote and non-remote teams are putting in the same hours and taking on their share of the work.

4. Improved Efficiency 

As you receive more data about how labor hours are spent, you can improve your company’s efficiency. When you notice that one task is taking up a lot of labor hours, you can change the task, reassign it, or stop requiring it. You can see gaps in how you’re scheduling employees, ensuring a more consistent workflow at your company.

5. Better Employee Accountability

Through your time-tracking and attendance apps, you can improve your employee accountability. Thanks to geofence capabilities and similar features, employees can’t simply buddy punch or say that they started earlier than they did. Plus, workers can directly see how their hours and tasks, encouraging personal accountability. Because of all these features, your time-tracking software can help reduce the incidence of time theft. 

6. More Informed Decisions

With better information, you can make more informed decisions at your company. This is especially true with your remote workers. Through better data about app and website usage, you can see which tools are saving time and which tools are causing unnecessary work. Then, you can change how your team works each day. 

Plus, time-tracking software gives you immediate information about how many hours everyone is putting in. You can instantly see if workers are getting close to overtime or if they’re putting in more hours than expected for a project. As a result of this better data, you can make more informed decisions.

7. Simplified Payroll Processing

When you have a time-tracking and attendance software program, you can integrate it with your payroll software. This helps to prevent human errors and reduces the amount of time you have to spend on administrative tasks. Once payday rolls around, all you have to do is check the number of hours your employees worked and pay them.

8. Consistency Between Worksites

Time-tracking software is great if you have multiple work locations. Instead of trying to compile information from the time cards at multiple locations, you can instantly have all of the data at your fingertips. This allows you to streamline your payroll processes and spend less money on managing different locations.

9. Easier Punching Out 

Time-tracking software also provides a simpler experience for your employees. Once they have the app on their phone, they can clock in and out from any location. This option is great if you have a sales team that tends to spend a lot of time working in the field.

Alternatively, you can set up a geofence around each branch. This stops employees from clocking in before they actually arrive at work, ensuring the maximum level of convenience and the lowest level of time theft.

10. Enhanced Morale 

Although employees might not initially like the idea of more oversight, the reality is that time-tracking software can improve employee morale in the long run. When managers don’t have oversight into how workers are spending time or the progress they are making on their projects, they have to ask their workers. With time-tracking software, they can avoid this type of micromanaging. As a result, time-tracking software can increase employee morale in the long run. 

Find Out More About the Benefits of Time-Tracking Software

By adopting time-tracking and attendance software, you can streamline your payroll processes, gain better oversight of your company’s activities, increase your efficiency, and achieve better employee morale. 

To learn more about integrating time-tracking software with your company’s payroll, reach out to our team of small business payroll and HR experts today.