Benefits of Time and Attendance Tracking

As hybrid and remote work arrangements have become standard in the workplace, many businesses have had to adapt their time and attendance tracking software and procedures to accommodate more remote workers. In today’s workforce, developing automated processes to replace manual ones is a necessary strategy that can help increase efficiency and accuracy in tracking these remote work hours as well as your in-person workforce. This will require a well-defined plan and strategic allocation of resources, along with the integration of new systems and tools.

What Is a Time & Attendance System?

With a time and attendance system, your business can move away from outdated processes such as manual time cards and adopt a simpler, more user-friendly approach. Modern timesheet software does much more than simple time tracking. They integrate with payroll, provide real-time analytics, and support remote workers with flexible timekeeping options. Employee dashboards allow managers to schedule and track shifts, manage time-off requests, and monitor project hours, with real-time reporting and analytics enhancing efficiency and decision-making.

Many systems also have a mobile self-service feature through an app, so employees can punch in directly from their phone or tablet using an online time clock. Geofencing and GPS time clock features can monitor whether employees are clocked in at the correct location, and in some cases may automatically clock them in or out when entering and leaving the area. This can be especially helpful for field workers and high-security locations. Some systems also offer a range of customizable online time-collection options, such as badges, finger scans, keypads, or web entry, to help businesses reduce lost time and track employee productivity.

Why Track Employee Hours?

Accurate time tracking helps ensure compliance with employment laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage and hour laws governing labor standards, minimum wage, and overtime pay. Failure to adhere to these requirements can result in noncompliance penalties and employee-initiated litigation.

Another critical reason to track employee hours is that knowing exactly how many hours employees have worked can help you make key business decisions. Time and attendance data provides insights around hiring decisions and needs, workforce reductions, job assignments, and creation of new roles.

Remote work requires a strong time tracking procedure to monitor hours worked away from the job site. If your company relies heavily on remote or hybrid workers, it's wise to make sure time and attendance can be properly recorded for all of your employees.

Here are a few more reasons to track employee hours:

• Regular Pay: Wages paid to non-exempt employees are typically determined by the number of hours worked. Accurate time tracking helps employers pay employees accurately whether they're in the office or at a remote location.
• Overtime Pay: Most non-exempt workers, whether hourly or salaried, are eligible for overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours per workweek. Federal overtime rules are set out in the FLSA regulations which are administered by the Department of Labor, and there may also be state wage and hour rules applicable to your business and your employees.
• FMLA: Employee eligibility, in addition to employer coverage requirements, to receive benefits under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires having at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period preceding the leave. Some states have their own leave regulations as well.
• State Rest and Lunch Breaks: Some states require that employees receive scheduled breaks at regular intervals during their shifts. Tracking hours can help ensure compliance with state law in providing these breaks.
• Paid Time Off (PTO): Companies that award paid time off for personal, vacation, and sick time based on hours worked must calculate the earned time correctly.
• Time Tracking: Tracking hours can help determine whether workers are arriving to the office on time or logging in to work systems remotely during business hours, in accordance with company policy.
• Affordable Care Act Compliance: The federal employer mandate requiring employer-provided health coverage or the payment of a penalty applies to companies with at least 50 full-time and full-time equivalent employees. This determination is based on hours of service.
• Small Employer Health Insurance Credit: Small businesses may be eligible for a federal tax credit of 50 percent of the premiums they pay for their workers. Credit eligibility is determined by the number of full-time and full-time equivalent employees (another calculation based on hours worked).
• State-Specific Requirements for Multi-Location Companies: If your business operates in multiple states, you may need to adhere to different wage and hour laws for each one. Time tracking gives you accurate information to help manage this multi-state complexity.
• Audit Trails: If you are audited by the DOL, you need accurate records of the hours your employees have worked to demonstrate legal compliance.

Benefits of Implementing a Time & Attendance Tracking System

An automated time tracking system can help you manage schedules, compliance requirements, and payroll more efficiently. Here are some of the key benefits:

Save Time and Money

Paper-based systems and manual calculations are time-consuming. "Accurate timekeeping isn't just about tracking hours”, says Jessica Vitous, Talent Enablement Partner at Paychex. “It's about giving business owners back the time and budget they need to focus on what really matters — leading their teams and managing day-to-day operations.” They also increase the time employees must wait to receive their checks and increase the likelihood of payroll delays if changes need to be made. Integrated time and attendance systems help address these challenges by:

• Reducing costs associated with manual data entry and tracking
• Automating the collection and management of time and attendance data
• Sharing information between payroll and HR platforms to improve accuracy
• Delivering paychecks faster with same-day ACH and direct deposit

Reduce Employee Errors

Automated time tracking and reporting help minimize errors that often occur with manual methods, such as missed clock-ins or estimating hours worked. Time tracking systems can import employee hours directly into a payroll system, calculate overtime automatically, and flag exceptions like missed punches, late arrivals, or unexpected absences. Time collection options like badges, biometric technologies, keypads, web entries, and smartphone apps can also cut the rate of lost-time instances and improve payroll accuracy.

Ensure Compliance and Mitigate Risk

Time and attendance tracking plays a key role in supporting employment law compliance, from FLSA and wage and hour requirements to maintain audit readiness. Automated systems help businesses maintain accurate records and calculate hours more effectively with configurable overtime thresholds, detailed audit trails, and reporting capabilities that support DOL compliance requirements. They can also help HR departments manage:

• FLSA record-keeping requirements
• State-specific meal and rest break tracking
• Multi-state regulation adherence and jurisdiction handling
• Predictive scheduling

Prevent Time Theft and Buddy Punching

“Buddy punching,” or punching in for a co-worker who hasn’t arrived yet, is a form of time theft that can cost businesses thousands of dollars every year. Time and attendance solutions with identity verification measures help prevent this practice by ensuring that only authorized employees can clock in at approved locations. These measures may include:

• Biometric authentication (finger scans, facial recognition)
• Iris recognition
• Photo capture on mobile punch
• Location-specific GPS clock-ins and geofencing for field workers
• IP address restrictions for remote workers

Track Remote Time & Attendance

Remote or traveling team members may experience unique challenges when accurately tracking time, attendance, and mileage on the go. Employers can address these challenges with tools like:

• Mobile-First Time Tracking: Mobile time tracking apps use GPS verification and calendar integration to support accurate time capture for distributed teams without sacrificing convenience or accountability. They also make it easier for remote workers to clock in and out.
• Offline Punch Syncing: When employees don’t have an internet connection, they can punch in offline. The system will automatically sync the data when a connection is reestablished.
• Employee Self-Service: Employees can check their own schedules, request time off, and ask for shift swaps directly within the app, saving time for both managers and workers.
• Calendar Integration: Most systems can integrate a personal Outlook, Google, or Apple calendar with a business calendar to help employees avoid accidental scheduling conflicts, improve accuracy, and maintain work-life balance.
• Mileage Tracking: Mileage tracking apps can track miles driven between job sites and eliminate the need for paper documentation.

Enhance Productivity and Job Satisfaction

An efficient and accurate system removes potential stress about time discrepancies and paycheck accuracy. Rather than calling HR to double-check their time, employees can use self-service capabilities to verify hours worked and ensure timely, accurate paychecks.

Replacing paper-based methods with a modern time and attendance system also gives supervisors real-time visibility into HR analytics and labor data, helping them monitor hours and correct productivity issues. They can use this data to check schedule adherence, monitor overtime, and forecast labor costs.

Improve Security for Sensitive Company Data

Automated time and attendance systems help protect privacy and reduce the risk of compromised security using data encryption, identity access management, integrated biometric technology, and other cybersecurity measures. Role-based access controls allow managers to see data and metrics for their teams, and encrypted data transmission helps ensure compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

State-of-the-art identification equipment, from Wi-Fi biometric-enabled time clocks and iris recognition to tablet kiosks, track employees entering and exiting the office and verify identity to ensure accurate hours. Sensitive company data is securely transmitted only to managers who need access, and raw biometric data is encrypted to protect privacy.

Optimize Scheduling and Labor Costs

Across today's HR and business landscape, organizations are being forced to do more with fewer resources as financial consolidation becomes increasingly common. Tracking labor costs helps managers optimize schedules and manage hours to remain within budget. Time and attendance systems make this easier with:

• Real-time labor cost visibility to prevent budget overruns
• Automatic overtime threshold warnings
• Visual comparisons of scheduled versus actual hours
• Demand-based scheduling features
• Labor forecasting based on historical patterns
• Workforce planning functions
• Integration with budgeting and accounting systems

How To Track Employee Time and Attendance

Whether your employees work in the office, from home, or move between job sites, there's a time tracking system that will benefit your business. You may find user-friendly automation is all you need to record time at a higher level of accuracy, or you may need more sophisticated technology that offers advanced security. The right solution will depend on:

• Where Your Employees Work: Do your employees all work in the office, or do you have a distributed workforce with remote employees, field workers, and hybrid work arrangements?
• Your Security Needs: Do you work with a lot of sensitive information that requires extra security precautions? Do you have state or country-specific privacy requirements?
• Compliance Complexity: Do you operate in multiple states with different local requirements? Do you need to follow guidance like HIPAA or GDPR?
• Integration Needs: Do you need your time tracking solution to integrate with other systems like payroll and accounting?

No matter which solution you choose, it should prioritize accuracy and ease of use to boost productivity and efficiency.

Technology Tools for Employee Time & Attendance

Every business is different and choosing the right time tracking technology whether a basic automated system to advanced biometric solution depends on factors like industry, work environment, and security needs.

Here are some options you may want to consider:

• Automated Time Tracking Systems: Moving from manual processes to a cloud-based automated system can significantly improve accuracy, efficiency, and productivity. With automatic updates, built-in approval workflows, accessibility from anywhere, and the ability to scale as your business grows, these systems simplify time tracking and give your HR team more time to focus on core needs.
• Time Clock Apps: Mobile time sheet software, downloaded as an app to a mobile device, enables employees to access their time sheets online. Through the self-service portal, they can view schedules, request PTO, and view their pay stubs. The data collected also helps employers with payroll processing, recordkeeping, and attendance monitoring.
• Employee Scheduling Software: Advanced scheduling modules with calendar integration offers more flexibility, visibility, and accessibility for both employees and managers. Managers can monitor schedules in real time, employees can submit schedule changes and time-off requests online, and platforms can sync business and personal calendars for better time management.
• Biometric Time Clocks: Biometric identifiers like a finger scan or facial recognition ensure that only approved personnel can access the job site. This helps eliminate time theft and buddy punching, protects highly sensitive areas from unauthorized access, and supports compliance which can be particularly valuable for highly regulated industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and construction. Biometric options can also be used remotely with a touch-screen mobile device.
• WiFi-Enabled Time Clocks: WiFi-enabled time clocks use biometric markers or proximity badges to punch in and out. In addition to helping to ensure time-punch accuracy, they can support business continuity during an internet outage with offline functionality that automatically syncs when the connection is reestablished.
• Facial Recognition Kiosk App: Facial recognition apps allow employees to punch in and out on a mobile device, which is often an ideal solution for a distributed workforce. It can also be used on the job site with kiosk mode lockdown, which prevents use of other apps on the device. Touchless clock-ins often make sense in restaurant and healthcare environments where sanitary conditions are paramount.
• Iris Recognition: An iris recognition time clock is an advanced biometric option that functions well in active environments such as construction sites, manufacturing floors, and medical facilities. Unlike finger scans, iris recognition doesn’t require touch of any kind, and it works with PPE equipment like face masks and protective glasses. The scanner captures a detailed map of the user’s iris (not a retinal scanner) and remains accurate regardless of age or eyewear.

Implementing a Time and Attendance Policy

A clear time and attendance policy helps to ensure consistent procedures across all work locations. The policy should ensure compliance with both federal and state-level labor regulations, clarify expectations for work and break schedules, and establish consequences for violations. A well-written formal policy should include:

• Timekeeping requirements
• Overtime policies and approval procedures
• Remote work expectations
• State-specific compliance considerations
• Meal and rest break laws
• Time theft explanation and consequences

A formal policy will keep everyone on the same page and ensure that time tracking procedures are followed no matter where an employee is physically located. Communicate your policy clearly to every employee and require their acknowledgment, so you know everyone has access to the stated expectations. If you need help developing your policy, an HR consultant can give you guidance on specific elements and implementation.