Introduction
Time and attendance software is a virtual tool that helps businesses to improve payroll accuracy, save money and become more efficient. The software is used to track the time employees spend working so businesses can invoice and pay accordingly.
It’s now easier than ever for businesses to manage and automate HR administrative processes and analyse employee performance in a single integrated system. Additional benefits are; properly bill clients, create invoices and reports or allocate time and resources.
The technology is helping millions of business owners manage the significant changes to the workplace brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic such as the shift to remote working. A 2022 Sage survey of South African small and medium enterprises (SME) shows that 82% of SMEs currently operate in fully remote or hybrid environments.
Other changes we have seen are the greater demand for flexible working hours and the rise of the gig economy which has seen more business owners outsource their talent needs.
Business owners now have the tools to implement a comprehensive workforce strategy to manage the complexities of a flexible workforce while remaining compliant with tax and labour laws.
Main Features
Time tracking
One of the biggest benefits of time and attendance software is that it ensures attendance management is precise and efficient. It can track attendance, breaks and time off. It also ensures that employees clock in and out. The best solutions can also measure how much time is spent on specific tasks, projects or an application.
Many software solutions work in the background collecting information on apps used, websites visited, and all other activities performed. Business owners can access all the information on reports.
Payroll integration
It’s important that your time and attendance software fully integrates with your payroll system. The software can be used to provide accurate attendance data (employee working hours, overtime, holiday pay) for the payroll cycle that can be used to calculate salary and other benefits.
Other Integrations
The three main integration options available are – payroll, HR and access control. To get the full benefit of this technology, ensure your chosen time and attendance software that can easily integrate with your existing HR and payroll software. Ideally, it should also be able to integrate with electronic access systems installed to verify that the data submitted on a timesheet is accurate and valid.
Reporting and Analysis
The best software solutions go beyond tracking and should be able to generate attendance-related reports to analyse all workforce data. This includes hours worked, online activity and absence patterns. Most solutions come with a range of reporting and data collection tools to generate work summary reports in the form of graphs and charts.
The reports generated can provide business owners with insight into their businesses and empower them in their decision making, including where to allocate time and resources. The data gained from the software can also be used to better manage staff budgets and give early indications of patterns of absence that may need investigating or early intervention.
Pricing
Monthly or annual subscriptions
Most time and attendance software packages offer annual and monthly subscriptions. Some of the features you can expect with your package are reporting and analysis, integration capabilities, clocking-in and clocking-out, accessible timesheets, leave management and payroll capabilities.
Free trial
Most software solutions offer a free trial. This can range from seven to 30 days. To access the trial you are required to sign up and provide your credit card details.
Buyer's Guide
Compliance requirements
More businesses are making use of independent contractors, freelancers, part-time, and temporary workers to save on labour costs. While this has its advantages, there are complexities with managing a flexible workforce and ensuring your business is compliant and meeting its reporting, tax considerations, and employment law requirements.
Ease of use
Choose the solution with an easy-to-use dashboard that you can add employees, track time and leave and attendance and that facilitates easy payroll processing. The best solutions should be flexible, taking into account future growth and changes and be cloud-based so you can access your employee data at any time.
Top Benefits of Time and Attendance Software
- Increased productivity for HR and payroll
- Insight into true labour costs
- Improved regulatory compliance
- Reduces errors and improves efficiency
- Elimination of time theft
