Say Goodbye to Time and Attendance Headaches with Mobile Time Tracking
Punch in. Punch out. Time tracking is simple, right? Until it’s not. Industries like construction, home health care, landscaping, utilities, and others that primarily employ remote workers often struggle with accurate time keeping and compliance documentation. These workers may need to document time spent at specific locations or doing specific tasks, and they have to log every meal time and rest break to meet state compliance requirements. Employees forget to punch in or out, they try to complete the log at the end of the day and have to rely on guesswork, or they don't keep accurate mileage logs for travel time. Reconciling all the time cards can be messy, especially when you're also trying to keep track of breaks and meal periods for compliance reasons.
If you’re still keeping time records with paper logs or time cards, you’re probably running into challenges like these:
- Logging time to different jobs or locations
- Keeping track of non-billable hours
- Monitoring travel time
- Illegible or lost time cards
- Motivating employees to keep accurate records
- Time theft
Hopefully your employees are doing their best to keep accurate records. But what if they aren't? What if they don't think it's important, they get distracted - or worse - what if they are deliberately padding their hours?
That's why you need a different solution.
How Mobile Time Tracking Apps Support Your Remote Workforce
While mobile time clocks aren’t new, many of them don’t have the breadth of function you may need. But time tracking apps are evolving, with more features and broader application than the simple time clocks of yesteryear. Here are just a few ways they can boost your profitability and reduce time discrepancies:
- Reduce inaccurate or missed punches
- Document rest breaks and meal breaks
- Track locations and travel times with GPS
- Prevent time-theft or padding hours
- Ensure compliance in industries like healthcare that require careful documentation
For example, American Time and Labor Company offers a mobile time and attendance solution that allows employees to change tasks or job numbers, log breaks, and receive alerts when it's time for a scheduled break, all from a simple, user-friendly interface:
Data can be stored on the mobile device if there is no cell service in the area or flowed immediately through to your attendance and payroll system where managers can view time and attendance information in real time:
Additional Features to Look For
But time and attendance apps are more than just digital time clocks. They also offer a range of other capabilities that will help you cut costs and tighten up your time tracking practices to meet compliance requirements, such as the following features available from American Time and Labor's Pacific Time Card:
- Digital Signatures - Capture digital signatures to document accuracy of logs and verify when employees voluntarily took shorter meal periods or skipped breaks.
- Photo Capture - Create digital journals to document employee presence at a particular place and time.
- GPS-Based Clock-in Lock - Set GPS-based locks to prevent clocking in or out outside a given set of parameters.
- GPS Tracking - Create a "breadcrumb" trail of GPS coordinates that logs an employee's location at set intervals.
- Mileage Tracking - Keep track of miles to and from a job site.
- Custom Forms - Create custom expense reports, pre- and post-trip documentation, and other required information.
- Reports - Put all data at your managers' fingertips with customizable reports.
Many PEOs offer time tracking solutions for clients as part of a total PEO offering or as a stand alone service. If you're looking for more than just a simple time clock, ask about how time and attendance capabilities support state compliance guidelines and whether GPS tracking tools are available.
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