Still using traditional methods to track employees’ attendance and time? Well, imagine this scenario. An employee walks into the office and signs an attendance sheet. While they leave early, they sign out at the required time. When the payroll team is going through the timesheets, they are short on time and may not verify the work hours for every employee. If they process the payroll with the full work hours, the business loses money paying for extra hours not accounted for. The errors and loss of money show how traditional time and attendance tracking methods can hurt your business.
Despite the limitations of some time and attendance management systems, some businesses stick to their current time-tracking models to avoid disrupting the work processes. Long-term reliance on outdated methods could cause serious problems of non-compliance. Besides, making errors in employee attendance can lead to lower pay, a decline in levels of engagement and a negative impact on your bottom line.
When to switch your time and attendance management software
1. Inadequate customer support
Customer service is a critical aspect of time and attendance tracking software. When you are working with timesheets, you don’t need any support. However, using technology to track attendance means things could go wrong sometimes. While the major selling point of most software is minimal downtime, no one can guarantee that errors won’t occur when you are using the attendance tracking systems. However, you can evaluate the quality of your time and attendance systems based on the effective support you receive from the customer service team.
Do you receive customer support when you need it, or do you sit on hold for hours? When you speak to the support team, do you get help from an expert or a hastily trained employee? If your time and attendance tracking provider cannot help you in a crisis and respond swiftly to issues, it is time to find another time and attendance system.
2. Product/service deficiency
When you experience deficiency with your current system, it’s time to switch up and find a time and attendance provider with everything you need. If you originally partnered with your vendor when you had basic attendance tracking requirements, you may need more services as your employees increase. For instance, if you introduce remote work or fieldwork to your business model, does the attendance tracking provider offer GPS time tracking solutions? If your current vendor doesn’t offer the services you need for the current business model, you need to switch to modern time and attendance tracking software.
3. Difficulty in using the time-tracking system
Time and attendance tracking software provides various levels of usability. For instance, some providers automate the time tracking systems and take the task out of your hands completely. Running everything behind the scenes is possible in payroll processing, but time attendance requires some input from employees. You need workers to clock in from their phones or use biometric scanners to punch in at the gate. When determining whether to change a payroll provider, consider the ease of use. Is the time tracking system complicated and unintuitive or fast and simple to use? If you are not satisfied with the services available or want to eliminate manual time tracking completely, then it’s time to change your time and attendance tracking provider.
4. You are worried about security
Time and attendance tracking systems record and store sensitive employee data. That means data breaches are a serious threat that leads to non-compliance and penalties. The security of your time and attendance software depends on your vendor and the use of the systems. What steps did they take to curb data breaches? How often do they update their cybersecurity to ensure employees’ personal data is protected? If your vendor has poor security setups or uses outdated solutions to prevent cyber threats, you are safer switching to a different time and attendance provider.
Security isn’t just about breaches and data thefts. It also leads to downtimes and can have serious consequences. For instance, if a breach leads to the shutdown of the time-tracking software, how will you process accurate payroll? Will you have to delay employees’ pay due to a system breakdown?
5. Insufficient integrations
If your time and attendance tracking software cannot integrate with other systems, it’s time to switch to another system. Since a time and attendance tracking system records employees’ work hours, it should be easy to integrate the payroll system for easy processing of pay and calculating taxes. However, if you have to transfer data manually from your time-tracking software to another system, you waste valuable time and suffer from various inefficiencies. For instance, manual data transfer often results in errors and wastes time that could have been solved by integrating a payroll system.
6. Lack of scalability
When you run a small business, traditional methods of tracking time, like punch cards and timesheets, may suffice since you have a few employees and you can monitor the work hours. As your business grows and you add employees, you need a reliable time and attendance tracking system to prevent buddy clocking and time theft. Every time you expand or grow through a merger and acquisition, you need to evaluate the suitability of the current time and attendance software. A reliable time and attendance system should grow with your business and provide additional services suitable for your needs.
7. You still spend more time tracking attendance
Is your time-tracking system giving you your money’s worth? Or do you still spend significant time verifying employee attendance information? The main benefit of using time and attendance tracking software is staying on top of your payroll and ensuring employees receive accurate salaries on time. If your employees complain of errors in their paychecks, it may be time to look for another provider. You will have time to handle important business when you have reliable and real-time attendance processing software.