Choosing a time and attendance system for small business
- Homebase’s time and attendance system ditches time cards and tracks the hours employees work on tablets, computers, and mobile devices
- Employees can clock in with our cloud-based system on their mobile app
- Our time tracking system connects to top payroll systems, helping you save hours each pay period.
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What types of features should a time and attendance system offer?
When searching for the best web-based time and attendance system, also known as a time clock, it’s important to make sure the solution is easy to use, accurate, and flexible. It should also be affordable—you shouldn’t have to spend thousands of dollars a year on your time and attendance solution when there are great free options available, such as Homebase!
Speaking of an easy to use, accurate, and flexible time and attendance system, Homebase’s time clock is just that. The employee self-service clock-in system gives each team member their own pin code that they can use to clock in. The workforce management system also takes a photo of each employee as they clock in so you don’t run the risk of buddy punching and time theft that can occur with traditional punch clocks.
The app is flexible because if an employee forgets to clock out, you won’t lose money to labor costs. Instead, you can easily edit the timesheets once you’re alerted through your mobile app, wherever you are.
Another point of flexibility Homebase provides is the ability to use a GPS mobile clock in tool. If you have off-site workers who go to different job locations, you can set up a geofence around the site and your team can clock in from the location instead of having to come into the office beforehand.
What is the best time and attendance software?
The best time and attendance software is one that offers all of the features above, and more. Luckily Homebase offers even more great tools and features, making it the best solution for your business.
Aside from the great features already mentioned, Homebase is great for several other reasons. First, if your internet goes out at your office, you can still use our system. The app will record all of your clock ins and sync them to the cloud later.
Worried about compliance? Homebase has you covered here as well. Our time tracking system easily tracks breaks and alerts you when an employee has missed a break.
You’ll also get alerted when a team member is about to hit overtime. This allows you to make better decisions when building your schedule.
If you tend to be on the go as a busy small business owner, you’ll still be able to keep track of time and attendance even when you’re not at your desk. Employees can be prevented from clocking in and out early, and if they forget to clock out, the system will automatically do it for them.
Plus, you’ll get alerted when an employee is late for a shift. You can even see in your Homebase dashboard who is late the most often, and who consistently shows up on time the most.
Homebase also integrates with your payroll software, workforce scheduling software, and even your POS software, making it easy for managers to process payroll, paid time off, paid sick leave, and time-off requests.
The software also prevents early clock-ins and unnecessary labor costs by blocking certain tasks and allowing you to run reports. Employees can even stay up to date by checking their hours and pay in real time.
Finally, Homebase stores your cloud-based time and attendance data for up to four years — two years beyond what FLSA laws require. Homebase automates time tracking for your business – plus it’s free!
Why is time and attendance tracking important?
Employees are the most important factor of your business, and their hours worked are just as valuable to them as it is to you. But tracking this time is valuable too. Having a proper employee attendance tracker in place ensures that your staff is putting their time in. It also ensures your labor costs are in check and you’re not losing any money due to time theft.
Unfortunately, time tracking isn’t always easy. Employees are late, forget to clock in, or ask their peers to clock out for them. Plus employee turnover can leave timesheets unfinished, and they can pile up as supervisors scramble to keep things going.
While time and attendance tracking can be a pain, it doesn’t have to be. Homebase is a free time tracking app built to solve these problems. With free time clock software from Homebase, tracking employee time can be a pain of the past.
A time and attendance tracking software is an investment that prevents a host of mistakes and inaccuracies. Time and attendance software is the newest form of time and attendance tracking for businesses of all sizes. Homebase is a prime example of these kinds of time and attendance apps and online tools.
What are the other types of time and attendance tracking?
There are several types of time and attendance tracking that you can choose from besides a web-based system like Homebase. First, there are the pen and paper timesheets, which are just what they sound like. Managers use pen and paper to manually schedule time, track employee hours, calculate overtime. This may look like a printed spreadsheet or a piece of paper on a clipboard.
Business owners may also use digital timesheets, which is an employee self-service method that requires staff members to manually track their own time on a computer or tablet. This method requires access to an Excel timesheet or other digital timesheet tool.
This method is similar to pen and paper tracking in that it is inexpensive and easy to adopt, but it takes it a step further by making it easier for managers to calculate and process payroll. However, both of these options are easy for employees to manipulate and take part in the practice of buddy punching.
Finally, there is the biometric time clock solution. Biometric time clocks are used for many reasons. Since employees have to sign in with their own fingerprint or retinal scan, these clocks completely prevent buddy punching and other methods of time theft. They also ensure payroll accuracy since employees are not manually entering (and possibly manipulating) their timesheets.
This method also comes with pitfalls despite its precision. First, and most importantly, biometric time clocks are not legal in every state, so this method is not as widely adopted as the other methods on this list. Biometric time clocks can also be intrusive and cause employees to feel as if they’re not trusted.
It’s for this reason that an online solution like Homebase is the best way to track employee time and attendance. Get started today by signing up for free!
