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Timekeeping is an important aspect if you want to complete your tasks on time because time is the most important element on the road to achieving success.
If you don’t know how much time should be spent on a project, then it can take you forever to complete. That’s why time tracking is so helpful. By using this technique, you can monitor the time taken to complete each task, so that you can easily estimate project timelines and manage payroll.
To start time-keeping, you first need to know what exactly timekeeping is. In this blog, you will learn about what is time-keeping, its methods, and some of the best practices to ensure effective time management.
What is Timekeeping?
Timekeeping involves monitoring the time you or your employees spend on work from beginning to end. This process includes documenting the start and end times of workers, whether they are working in the office or remotely.
Timekeeping is typically divided into two types, total time and task time.
Total time
Total working time means the time you spend working in a given period. This includes all the hours from the beginning of your workday to its end, including breaks and any other time interruptions. Total time is often used to measure the total amount of time employees spend on their jobs, which can be crucial for calculating their wages, monitoring their attendance, and assessing their overall productivity.
Task time
Task time is the time you spend completing a particular task or project within your working hours. While total time refers to the total number of hours you spend at work, task time focuses on the specific time you dedicate to individual tasks or assignments. This type of timekeeping is useful for tracking the distribution of resources, assessing the effectiveness of processes, and determining potential problems.
Why is Timekeeping Important in workplaces?
Managing time is important to ensure efficiency, productivity, and overall success of an organization.
It also helps in,
Accountability and Transparency
- Provides a clean and clear record of employee attendance and work hours, promoting accountability and transparency in the workplace.
- Provides information that can be used to evaluate the performance and efficiency of your employees.
Payroll Management
- Timekeeping technique helps a lot in managing payroll and avoiding cases of overpayment and underpayment by accurately calculating and processing.
- Compared to manual tracking, automated time tracking systems have fewer errors, which in turn decreases payroll issues and administrative overhead.
Compliance with Labor Laws
- Accurate timekeeping helps you comply with labour laws and regulations regarding work hours, breaks, and overtime, reducing the risk of legal issues.
- Documentation also assists you in avoiding fines and penalties that may be charged to your organization for not meeting the set standards.
Enhanced Project Management
- Helps you by providing accurate project time estimates and the resources that will be needed from the historical data.
- Allows you to track the progress of the project and make changes where necessary to ensure that the project is on track.
Cost Management
- Reduces cases of time theft and other issues related to overtime, and managing labour costs.
- Provides accurate data for budgeting and financial forecasting, helping you manage operational costs.
Employee Satisfaction and Well-Being
- Accurate time tracking assists in avoiding overworking employees and maintaining a good work-life balance.
- The tracked data can be used to motivate employees and fairly compensate them depending on the time spent and productivity.
Methods of Timekeeping in the Workplaces
There are various timekeeping methods each having different functionalities, depending on the type of data you need to collect. Here I have listed some of the most common methods.
- Paper Forms: This method involves manual filling of time details on a piece of paper and then handing the paper to the supervisor. To do this you need a stopwatch or a mobile to measure the time taken to complete a task or an activity and then you write down that time.
- Spreadsheets: With this method, you need to manually add time to the spreadsheet templates when you start working and the time you finish the project. Most people use Excel spreadsheets.
- Timecards: You fill out timecards by hand, writing down the time you started work and the time you finished. Your company needs a good system to ensure that time cards are well managed. Without it, you may experience problems such as time theft and errors.
- Hand scanners: This method generally requires you to place one hand on the scanner when you clock in and do the same when you clock out. It is more convenient compared to time cards and reduces the likelihood of fraud.
- Time clocks: Time clocks are effective for recording your working hours. You clock in at the start of your shift and clock out when your shift is over. This method accurately records the time you work and ensures you are paid for the actual hours worked.
- Timekeeping software: Many businesses have adopted timekeeping apps that automatically log their employees’ work hours. Its main appeal is accuracy and detailed records that you can use to analyze different aspects of your workers or work processes.
Team members also benefit from this since it provides a record of the time spent on projects and minimizes the chances of disagreements.
Time Champ your Ultimate Timekeeping Software
Time Champ stands out as the ultimate timekeeping software that provides all the necessary tools to be accurate and user-friendly. It encourages time tracking through the automatic logging of working hours, enabling users to concentrate on productive work without assistance.
From Time Champ, a worth talking about feature is the Task Timer. It helps you log in a task that you are going to perform and run the timer and whenever you are done, you can tap on the timer again to stop it.
 You can view all this tracked data through the Timesheets and make changes if needed, after you review the timesheets, you can submit them for automatic invoicing.
 This feature is very helpful for those who want to track their own task completion rates or those who want to look at how much time their employee takes to complete a task to make an estimation.
 Other than this Time Champ also offers some amazing features for those looking to invest in good monitoring software like time tracking, productivity monitoring, attendance tracking, HR management, leave management, location and audio tracking.
Best Practices for You to Start Timekeeping
Now that we have discussed the importance of timekeeping for your business and employees, let us proceed to the ways on how to enhance the timekeeping process and reduce the time, money, and effort wasted by all the parties concerned.
Respect Time Tracking Laws
Follow all time tracking laws to avoid legal issues and keep your business compliant.Â
Some of the federal laws the Fair Labor Standards Act has set are:
- Time clock rules
- Wages
- OvertimeÂ
- Part-time hours
- Full-time hours
- Record-keeping practices
Other than these laws, many states and countries have implemented their own laws on time tracking.
Before implementing any time tracking policies in your organization, make sure to seek a professional legal advisor who is an expert in labour law and the industry in which your business operates and discuss everything needed.
Choose the Right Timekeeping System
Choosing the right timekeeping software is important because it helps you in the tracking and recordkeeping process. Choose your timekeeper tool wisely and consider the following factors before committing to any tool.
- Define your needs
- Evaluate key features
- Consider compliance and security
- Assess cost and budget
- Review customer support
- Read reviews and seek recommendations
- Test before you commit
- Evaluate flexibility and customization
- Consider future growth & scalability
Simplify Your System Setup
Simplify your system setup to benefit both your team and your business and refine your timekeeping system to be as straightforward as possible. This will streamline the tracking of hours and the subsequent processing needed to use the recorded data effectively.
There are two types of timings we generally follow
- Standard Time
- Military Time
Standard time can be a little tricky while calculating payroll because of the repetition of the same numbers (that is 12-12).
Whereas military time starts from 0 and ends at 24 which makes it easier to track and calculate employee work hours and payroll. This is also the main reason why military time is widely used among companies.
Automate Your Processes
Advanced time tracking tools offer automation. What do I mean by automation?
Automation is the process of using technology and systems to execute tasks and processes with little or no human interaction. It entails designing and putting into practice procedures, programs, or equipment that can work on their own to produce certain results, which can be more effective, precise, and uniform.
With the help of automation, you can,
- Set wages based on employee or role
- Calculate the cost of each shift
- Predict and manage labour expenses while scheduling
- Stick to your budget
- Minimize potential overtime
- Track labour costs as a percentage of sales
- Generate payroll reports to gain insights into business performanceÂ
Integrating this automation into your timekeeping process, handles much of the work for you and your team, making the tracking of details less burdensome and time-consuming than before.
Backup Your Data
Back up all your data for future reference while complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act
Because FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) established some regulations on data backup that every business must keep and how long they should keep it.
This act applies to any records used for wage computations, including:
- Timecards
- Pay rate charts
- Work schedulesÂ
- Time schedules
- Employee benefits details
- Deductions
Federal rules also require businesses to keep payroll records based on their timekeeping efforts.
Make sure you backup all this data in the form of either hardcopy or digital files so that you can access it whenever needed.
Promote a Culture Where Timekeeping is Valued
Promote a healthy culture at your workplace about time tracking and how it adds value to the company processes and benefits everyone involved.
Assist Your Team Whenever Needed
Be the one to help your team regarding any issues or queries related to the implementation of a time keeping tool in your workplace. Give them instructions on what to do and what not to do, and resolve all their queries so that they can work worry-free.
Save Your Data
Do not let all the effort go in vain by not saving the tracked data.
Also, some local, state, and federal laws require employers to keep hour and payroll records such as timecards, pay rate charts, work schedules, shift timings, benefits details, and deductions for a certain period.
To know more you can visit the Department of Labor’s website or seek a professional accountant or attorney related to your industry.
Review Work Hour Data
Reviewing your timekeeping numbers often can help you find better ways to manage and optimize your team.
For instance, a monthly analysis of your time tracking data has revealed some metrics relating to time-wasting and productivity issues among some teams during work hours. From these metrics, you can proceed with finding ways to motivate your teams and tackling time wasters.
By reviewing work hour data, you can identify more such problems causing inefficiencies in the work processes and prevent them.
Regularly Assess Timekeeping Practices
Implementing a task time tracker is just the first step in getting started, you need to keep reviewing your timekeeping practices at least once a quarter to let the processes flow smoothly.
Also try conducting an internal audit and taking employee feedback through a survey or a one-on-one talk, because your team members are the ones who are engaging daily in the process of time tracking and can have different perspectives on how to make things better.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Timekeeping is a very beneficial practice for companies when implemented correctly and complies with all the regulations. It provides valuable insights into task progress and employee productivity and makes payroll calculations easier. Invest in the best time-keeping solution following the best practices discussed.
Take control of your time with Time Champ and enhance your efficiency.
Sign Up for FreeTime keeping is the act of measuring the number of hours that employees spend at work. It is crucial for proper payroll processing, performance evaluation, and legal requirements compliance.
An example of time keeping is using a digital time clock where employees swipe a keycard or use a biometric scanner to clock in and out. The system records their work hours, ensuring accurate tracking for payroll.
You should audit the records periodically, preferably on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It’s advisable to review the data regularly to check for accuracy, identify any discrepancies, and correct them before preparing payrolls.
This data can be analyzed to identify trends in employee productivity, optimize shift scheduling, reduce overtime costs, and improve overall operational efficiency. It provides you with insights that can assist in organizing and making the right decisions on where to invest.
