Time Clock for Employees

> PS-not looking to here BS about me wanting to save 15 minutes on payroll, so if you can't contribute anything helpful, please don't post and move on. Looking for a viable fix to a legitimate problem.

You aren't controlling or anything are you? oops...:-X

I would not worry about 15 minutes .

> There are always a few that try to get over on you for 15-20-30 minutes day everyday.

20 minutes a day @ $25/hour
$8.33 a day
$42.65 a week
$166.60 a month
&1,999.20 a year (less vacation)

You don't need a time clock, you need pink slips. If you can't trust your employees to truthfully record their time, how can you trust them to be your eyes and ears on the job site.

some folks don't consider modern math when dealing w/ hours worked and lost revenue.

if someone shorts you just 5 minutes a day for let's say 250 work days in a year, then over a year you are paying them for half of a week that they weren't at work. multiply that by the number of employees you have and you will realize that it can add up to a pretty good amount.

back when i worked for a restaurant chain, the company had inspectors that would go through our dumpsters and then call a meeting regarding the waste that they found. these guys would find $50 worth of stuff, multiply that times the number of days that we were open, and then multipoy that by the number of stores. $50 x 363 days x 100 stores = $1,815,000 of waste (lost $). didn't seem like that much when we were throwing it out, but all of the small cost savings can add up...even in a solo practice environment.

regarding the original question...get a time clock and use it for payroll. use another system for invoicing.

also, having a time clock gives you documentation to terminate someone that is not getting their full time in.

Tom thanks, Its obvious you can't follow directions. How about contribute something useful?

DJames - then where does it stop? Seriously? 30 minutes? 1 Hour?

James - Pick slips aren't the answer. My employees to great work, just trying to stream line the process and help solve a problem.

Any ideas other than pink slips?

Any chance they have smart phones?? Pretty sure you could find a good app that would track time to that sort of increment, maybe even by location/travel time between projects.

I don't do a time clock, and don't have employees, but if I did, I'd be looking at technology. punching an old clock isn't going to get you the kind of data you are looking for, IMHO. As someone who HATED filling out time forms when I worked for the man, I speak from experience.

good luck!

Almost 25 years ago, I worked for a PE/PLS that decided to delegate all management duties to a newly hired PLS. This PLS had grand ideas of streamlining the company. Tracking employee time at 6 minute intervals was at the heart of plan. This didn't go over so well. After a year of this nonsense, capped off by no-bonus and an afterwork meeting/Christmas party with finger sandwiches, I decided it was time to submit my resignation.

A year or so after, I passed the test and got my meal ticket.

20 years of making payroll from employee produced paper timesheets, based on the honor system, has been an integral part of making my employees some of the best around.

Aside from implanting microchips in your employees, you might consider checking time logs in your draftsman's drawings, reviewing job files in their controllers, GPSing the company trucks, and installing video cameras around the office.

When they know you're watching the clock, they'll watch it even closer.

Good luck Renegade.

EDIT: Just read your "stream line" comment...LMAO!

I am here when the crew gets here and when they leave . The only time they fudge is the lunch they take . Send them home early on fridays without pay and see if it keeps happening .

ok understand, so how do you do that, you keep track of that yourself? Then compare that to their timesheets?

What happens if we are lucky enough to have the workload to have five crews, would you do that then? Got to be a better way to clock in, enter your time for each job, and clock out out every day. Have it all add up and the employees don't think they are being scrutinized for their time.

Not quite sure how to approach this. I would echo what was said about trusting your employee's but beyond trust they may just need some simple CONSISTENT guidelines, company rules, whatever you want to call them that they follow. They will take as much leniency as they are allowed.
Here at 6:30, out by 7
Back around 2:30, 2:45, Done at 3pm. (Half hour lunch +- and break times if any needed are solely the scheduling discretion of the PC in charge.)

Do you have Equipment maintenance time and or cleanup in a billable task for them as part of your annual overhead budget? You should. Are they expected to be 100 percent billable or do you have a lower utilization number for them that is more consistent with reality? IE 38/2 hours or 36/4 ..
When busy i'd say most crews are running beyond 100 percent due to OT.
..Of course if all your work is Lump sum billing this is a mute point and question.

We typically don't bill less than 30 minute intervals for field work. Office work see's more 15 minute blocks though.

Each office is a unique situation so obviously what works for us may not be applied to you or anyone.

George, thanks for the response. Best one out of the bunch.

Laugh all you want, if the manual entry for timesheets works for you, great. I am trying to do what Andy said. Look to technology to let the employee clock in, at the end of the day, log their time for each job, clock out. Everything adds up, no fudging by anybody then I can import it to our accounting software and create the report when its time to do our "value" invoicing.

Any ideas on software to do that?

You mentioned QB Pro.
I checked out some of the QB Pro time tracking tools 5 or 6 years ago. Surely, they've improved the toolset. Tracking via PDA, smartphone, tablet, etc. should be available by now.

I'll have a look...

EDIT: Maybe QuickBooks Pro Timer installed on workstations and field computers may help?

Jered, thanks for the post. See the post above.

I am not being the slave driver or micromanager or bean counter. Just want the numbers to add up so everyone is happy.

We have policies and guidelines in place. This is not about being billable or on overhead. My people get paid for every hour they work and denoted on their time sheet regardless of the task.

As stated above, I am looking for a software solution that will allow the employee to clock in, at the end of the day, fill our their time for the various jobs and tasks for each project they completed and clock out. All the time adds up, they get paid for all the time they were working, etc.

That's it, that's all I'm looking for. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.

Intuit has a time tracking component I just found. May look into that.

As another question, what do these big ENR 500 firms use to track employees time and projects?

Got to be something.......

Smartphone App

Googled "Quickbooks Pro Timer Smartphone"...among a number of hits, apps called "It's About Time", "Timesheet",... came up.

Have a great weekend!

> Tom thanks, Its obvious you can't follow directions. How about contribute something useful?

Renegade,
Oops, sorry, I didn't think I was on your payroll, and needed to follow your directions.

You do know you are posting on a web page asking for a some advice (I hope). I thought your demand for every to follow your directions was a little be uncalled for and, frankly, a bit rude (if you didn't get my inference). If you want to hire someone to come up with your needs and tell them exactly what you want, then by all means do so and feel free to admonish them or not pay them if they don't do exactly what you ask. Make them hit a time clock for while they are on task for that matter. But most of the people here are not on your payroll.

Back on subject, I agree with some of the comments below about an honor system. I like the idea of showing mutual respect and trust until someone proves your mistrust. If an employee feels he is being treated like a child and mistrusted, it's my guess that they will move on. Most of the guys that work for me act professional and we have a mutual respect. It is only if I see someone abusing this will I move forward with whatever I need to do.

If timesheets work for you, then more power to you. My advice may not be perfect and may not be worth any more than what you paid for it.

Good luck,
Tom

We've had a time clock since inception in 1977. The ONLY gripe I ever heard about it was when I went to promote and employee to a salary position (two actually) and the balked wondering what "might" be lost in overtime. If anything, they probably would have gotten to me on that one.

Otherwise, do it. It's awesome. If someone forgets to clock in or out, we find what crew they were on and on what day and they get whenever the rest of the crew punched out. Easy peasy.