Types of Attendance Tracking and Time Clock Software

Time and attendance solutions offer two ways of how to deploy and implement into your business. The first is premise-based, which means the system has to be set up on-premise and usually entails regular maintenance costs to both the software and hardware components.

The development and availability of cloud-based solutions, however, has made such services more affordable to every organization that needs it, including small businesses and startups. Cloud-based attendance tracking and time clock software provides businesses with scalability, meaning the system can be scaled up or down to match the current needs of your company.

The majority of modern systems nowadays are offered as a subscription-based service, also known as SaaS. This particular model is not only cost-effective, but it is also ideal for most organizations as it typically doesn’t carry any additional hardware/software maintenance costs and it does not require the company to set up complex infrastructure to run the system.

Employees can clock in and out without the use of a physical time card. Instead, they only need to use their mobile phones or web browser to log their hours via a platform provided by the vendor.

There are a few categories that should be considered when it comes to time and attendance software solutions, especially when you’re comparing products and services that are available in the market.

Time and attendance tracking for teams

While there are employee time tracking and attendance solutions designed for company-wide use, some are meant to track employees that work within specific teams i.e. marketing, sales and development teams. This type of software will not only allow you to monitor employee hours, it also lets you measure the time it takes for your team members to address an issue, debug a feature or convert a lead and make a sale.

Project management

Project managers may also benefit greatly from time and attendance tracking software to help manage scheduling and hours spent by each individual team member, especially when they’re handling multiple projects and working with different clients and teams.

Having a good attendance tracking and online time clock solution will allow you to accurately monitor task time and use the data to generate reports and forecast project estimates.

If your company deals with multiple external teams such as consultants and contractors, having a time tracking software that can actually track time in many ways is very important. This category of attendance tracking and time clock software typically comes with comprehensive end-to-end project management solutions. This type of software is often capable of integrating with existing project management systems.

HR and payroll management

This type of software is offered in most workforce management solutions for HR teams and it is often accompanied with scheduling, payroll management, talent management, labor analytics and other HR solutions.

If you’re like other small businesses looking to invest in a good standalone employee time tracking solution, you might want to consider those that are capable of automatically transferring information to your current payroll management system.

On the other hand, if you’re a larger company with a larger budget, a comprehensive end-to-end HR software solution with time and attendance tracking features might be more suited to your needs.

Remote employees

For businesses and organizations with remote employees, having the ability to monitor your employees, knowing where they are via GPS location and what they’re currently doing through certain time clock apps can help your supervisors and managers give a more precise estimation of arrival time to customers and clients, which in turn increases customer satisfaction.

This is ideal for companies that provide field services to clients. Most field service management solutions come with time tracking software. However, if you already have a FSM software solution, you should look for employee time tracking systems that integrate with FSM and offer GPS location tracking.

When it’s time to pay for services rendered, the system will help you calculate the amount you owe them. For the freelancers themselves, the system is capable of providing proof of work to clients for transparency.

The software is designed so that no money is wasted on unnecessary labor costs, since you will only be paying for the actual work hours spent by remote employees.

This type of software is available as a standalone platform or as a module that comes with a more comprehensive human resources (HR) suite.

If you’re interested in attendance and time tracking software, and you prefer the best-of-breed or standalone kind, you should take into account the product’s integration capabilities, especially if you’re already using HR software and payroll systems to manage employee data. This will help ensure seamless and efficient data transfer between systems.

However, if you’re going for an integrated HR suite, the employee time tracking module will already be connected with existing core HR functions such as payroll management, employee performance evaluation, benefits administration and payroll reporting.

How to Choose Attendance Tracking and Time Clock Software

There are many different software solutions dedicated to time and attendance tracking. Some are incorporated into full-featured HR management platforms, while others are available as a standalone product that can be integrated into existing systems like human resources, enterprise resource planning (ERP), internal customer service solutions and more.

When you’re in the market for this type of software, there are a few key factors you need to consider.

Flexible employee scheduling and time management

There are businesses and organizations that have employees who start and end their shifts at varying times, especially those who have a 24-hour operation and require a shift change every eight hours or so. Choosing a software solution that has flexible employee scheduling is very important for this type of business, especially since some of the employees do not work in a standard 9-to-5 shift.

In this case, the attendance tracking and time clock management solution should allow users to go beyond the basic monitoring of employee schedules, but also enable them to actually create and manage different schedules and rosters in a single platform.

Integrations with existing software solutions

Another important factor to consider when choosing the right attendance tracking and time clock management solution for your business is integrations. Does the platform allow you to seamlessly integrate other existing solutions you might already be using in your day-to-day operations?

If your business has been in operation for some time, then you may already have other existing software systems that are integral to your business processes, such as payroll, compliance, inventory, marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions.

Additionally, if you’re looking to add to your existing systems, then you have to make sure you will be able to integrate the new application to the rest of your systems.

Real-time reporting and analytics

Software solutions that have the ability to provide real-time data on different aspects of your business are crucial to making your operation more efficient and productive. Obtaining accurate and consistent information will allow you to generate more detailed analysis based on the current condition or health of your operation.

In the case of attendance tracking and time clock management systems, you will be able to figure instantly which employees are currently on leave, who called in sick, which of your staff currently applied for vacation leave and who are currently present and doing their jobs.

The solution will also let you know which of your employees are always on time for their shifts, which of them are always late and which are doing double overtime. By having this kind of information, HR departments and managers can make better decisions when it comes to their employees.

Help and support from the vendor/service provider

The help and support that you receive from the vendor or service provider may also be a significant deciding factor when it comes to choosing an attendance tracking and time clock management software solution.

You have to make sure that before you sign up or purchase a specific software solution, the company selling you that product will actually provide you with the help and technical support you need to deploy, manage and maintain the product, This will guarantee that you will have the best possible experience while using their service/platform.

There are also three main buyer categories: human resources (HR) departments, workforce administration and freelance professionals. The feature set and full capability of the employee time tracking solution will mostly depend on how or where you’re going to use it.

Human resources (HR) departments

If you’re in the market for attendance tracking and time clock software to be used by your HR department, then you need to consider buying an HR software solution with employee management and time tracking features.

With this option, you’re not just getting a time clock option or an attendance tracking tool to properly manage the work hours of your employees. Instead, you’re getting a complete HR suite.

On top of time and attendance tracking, HR software solutions boast many features, including payroll reporting and management, employee scheduling, onboarding, benefits management, applicant tracking and talent management, just to name a few. This system, however, is better suited to larger businesses and organizations dealing with a larger workforce or those that have a greater demand in terms of employee management solutions.

Freelance/self-employed professionals

If you’re a freelance or self-employed professional, there are quite a number of vendors and service providers that offer free time tracking solutions for you to try. Finding the right vendor with the right product is where things can be a bit of a challenge.

You may also want to give the free trial versions a shot. You may be limited to only a week or two of using the product, but at least you will get the full experience of what the time tracking software has to offer.

You will want a time and attendance software system that can monitor and record your work hours accurately, as it will be important when you’re billing your clients as well as for transparency.

Workforce administration for SMBs

Small businesses, startups and even medium-sized companies belong in this buyer category. This is the type of buyer that is big enough to warrant proper attendance tracking and time clock software, but not so big that they would require a complete HR management solution.

Choosing a time tracking solution in this category means finding products that offer flexibility and scalability to match your company’s constantly changing needs. Your time and attendance tracking software should allow you to easily scale up or down, depending on the current demands of your employee management.

You will also want a system that seamlessly integrates with your other existing management solutions like payroll, employee scheduling and job costing.

Benefits of Attendance Tracking and Time Clock Software

Time tracking software solutions can automate key processes for businesses looking to optimize their workforce management process and cut down labor costs. There are many benefits that can be gained from using this type of software, including:

More efficient employee time and attendance management

Keeping track of employee attendance, absences, work hours and overtime is a challenging task that is prone to human errors, especially for the majority of small businesses without a human resources department. Businesses also need to ensure proper compliance with labor standards and regulations.

Having a workforce management software system that enables managers to easily track the hours spent by each staff member on specific tasks, where employees can clock in and out digitally using their mobile phones, is a huge advantage for any business. It will help minimize human errors, promote transparency, streamline payroll processes and eliminate inefficiencies in HR management.

Billing optimization and transparency

For freelancers, consultants and agencies that bill by the hour, attendance tracking and time clock software systems can be a valuable asset for optimizing the billing process and for promoting transparency. They offer a more accurate and reliable way for freelance professionals to capture and track all billable time. The system also enables client businesses and organizations to evaluate and see what they’re actually paying for.

Certain time clock apps not only record work hours but take display screenshots at regular intervals as well. This lets clients see what the employee is working on during their billable hours. The feature will also keep remote employees on their toes and focused on the job at hand. Time and attendance tracking software improves productivity and effectively limits procrastination from employees who are paid by the hour.

Manage clients and staff scheduling more efficiently

This is aimed more towards client-facing businesses and organizations that handle multiple projects for more than one client. If this is your reality, then you are fully aware of the fact that keeping track of time and revenue for each individual project is not only a tough challenge but is time-consuming as well.

Attendance tracking and time clock software provide access to valuable insights regarding your time and revenue expenditures on each project. Using the data collected, project managers and team members can then choose which tasks and which projects to prioritize based on the revenue and time needed to complete a project. It also helps with staff scheduling, ensuring the right personnel are on the job at the right time.

Businesses can utilize this type of software to help automate the majority of the processes involved in managing attendance, work hours and payroll, giving you more time to focus on other more important aspects of running a business.

Such software solutions will also help in enforcing company policies in terms of overtime, leave requests and sick days. They help reduce human errors and improve accuracy, efficiency, and productivity.

Common Features of Attendance Tracking & Time Clock Software

Feature	Feature Description
360 Degree Feedback	Gather and manage anonymous feedback for employees from co-workers and managers.
API	Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are programmatic intersections with external products or platforms that allow for custom integrations with your own solutions or other solutions you are using.
Attendance Tracking	Track employee attendance and absence to keep on top of sick days and hours worked for payroll purposes.
Batch Permissions & Access	Control user or group access and permission settings for software or other systems.
Budgeting	Planning and tracking capabilities for financial budgets and plans often used to manage funds across different departments or for investor / shareholder oversight.
Calendar Management	Manage and update calendars for scheduling or consolidation of events across teams, departments or business functions.
Dashboard	Dashboards are digital interfaces commonly used to visualise data or give quick access to important features and functions of online platforms. They often serve as an overview gateway in software applications.
Data Export	Exporting functionality can be used to streamline the migration of data sets and information across systems, platforms or applications.
Data Import	Importing functionality allows you to use data sets from other systems or platforms to cut down on data entry requirements or to more easily migrate records from similar applications you have used in the past.
Data Visualization	Data visualization features render a visual interpretation of data sets through the use of charts, infographics and other visual cues generally in form of a reporting dashboard.
Employee Database	Manage and update employee records in a centralised database. Used to keep information about work entry, age, past roles and other employee details.
Employee Engagement	Collect feedback from employees to recognize achievements, gather feedback and improve employee participation processes in the workplace.
Employee Onboarding	Streamlines the onboarding process for new employees in form of checklists, password and access management features, as well as other induction elements.
External Integrations	Integrations with other software products or platforms to improve efficiency and compatibility across systems.
Feedback Management	Manage feedback through the use of surveys and similar elements issued to employees and/or customers to consolidate new ideas or track employee performance.
Forecasting	Forecast upcoming expenses, sales, revenue, user levels, etc. through the use of predictive methods and past data.
Multi-User	Supports more than just one user account and generally allows for collaboration with colleagues.
Notifications	Includes notification support and sends you alerts with information on important events and other time sensitive instances. For example through push notifications on mobile phones or email notifications.
Project Management	Manage projects from conception through the planning stage to delivery and post-project reporting phases. This allows organisation teams to organise resources, plan budgets and improve efficiency in the delivery of project objectives.
Scheduling	Schedule tasks, resources, appointments, payments, communications, etc.
Timesheets	Track employee attendance, sick days and hours worked for payroll purposes or billable hours for professional services.
Travel Management	Manage travel plans and expenses for employees, prospects or potential recruits through a central environment.
Vacation & Absence Calendar	Track employee holiday requests and absences for payroll, reporting or shift-planning purposes.