Tracking employee time is crucial for any business. However, manual processes like paper time cards present many problems that spreadsheets and basic time card templates cannot fix.

This guide will explore how advanced timekeeping solutions help companies control labor costs, ensure payroll accuracy and gain visibility into work hours – ultimately boosting productivity.

The Cost of Inaccurate Time Tracking

In many industries, the costs of ineffective time tracking can significantly impact business success. Without proper accountability and visibility into labor hours, companies face risks that directly undermine profits and competitiveness.

Paying for Hours Not Worked

The potential for timesheet fraud is a concern for many businesses. The diverse nature of work across multiple locations or in the field makes it easy for unworked hours to slip through. For example:

  • Employees may overstate hours on timesheets, charging for overtime or weekend work that did not happen. Without proper verification, these ghost hours get paid out.
  • Supervisors may not provide adequate oversight on hours logged by team members. Workers might take advantage by padding hours.
  • The company pays for travel time that wasn’t actually spent working.
  • Sick or vacation days are logged as regular work hours. Managers assume the employee was on the job.
  • Hours are double counted – both on individual timesheets and on a master team sheet.

Just 2-3 hours of inaccurate time charged per employee per week can cost businesses thousands in direct payroll expenses annually.

The Inability to Control Labor Overages

Lack of visibility into work hours also undermines a company’s ability to control overtime expenses. Without real-time insight into hours worked:

  • Managers can’t adjust schedules proactively to avoid unnecessary OT. Workers might exploit this by deliberately working late to earn time and a half.
  • Work gets extended into weekends to hit project deadlines, again at OT rates, without proper sign-off.
  • The company has no way to enforce OT policies limiting hours employees can work in a day or week. Excess OT goes unchecked.
  • Cost assumptions fail to account for bloated OT leading to budget overruns.

Overtime wages can significantly impact a company’s bottom line. Manual processes make it challenging to enforce labor hour policies.

Inaccurate Job Costing Data

With incorrect or incomplete time data, managers can’t allocate labor expenses accurately across projects or departments. This leads to:

  • Inability to identify unprofitable activities early enough to intervene
  • Lack of historical data to provide realistic labor cost estimates for future planning
  • Finance team frustration with fluctuating profit margins
  • Lost opportunities due to inflated labor overhead assumptions
  • Potential reputational damage from missed deadlines or budgets

Accurate accounting relies on precise time data. When hours go uncaptured, even high-margin activities can turn unprofitable.

Compliance Risks and Penalties

For many businesses, inaccurate time tracking can lead to non-compliance with labor regulations. Without proper verification of hours worked, companies risk:

  • Employee claims for back wages due to underpayment
  • Government audits, fines or penalties
  • Legal issues under labor laws
  • Lawsuits from workers for wage theft
  • Reputational damage undermining future business opportunities

Companies can incur significant liabilities for non-compliance. Even minor payroll errors from poor time tracking can trigger major penalties.

Bottom line – every unverified, uncaptured labor hour introduces financial risk and erodes competitiveness. Companies need total visibility to contain costs.

The Limitations of Paper Time Card Templates

Traditional paper timesheets are inadequate for the complexities of modern time tracking. Hours worked across multiple locations or project phases are difficult to capture on paper sheets, leading to underpayment in some areas and overpayment in others. Time spent on indirect tasks often goes unrecorded, resulting in costs being attributed incorrectly. Illegible handwriting often leads to data entry errors when paper sheets are transcribed to payroll systems. Forged signatures and timesheet alterations are nearly impossible to detect on paper.

There is also no way to confirm the attendance of employees in the field without visibility tracking tools. Workers might “pencil whip” their hours when paper sheets go missing for a day or week, charging unworked time. Tracking hours accurately for compliance using paper is extremely difficult. The lack of oversight makes payroll fraud through overstated hours easy. For employees, paper timesheets are a major hassle requiring duplicate entries and chasing down manager signatures.

The inherent risks and limitations of paper processes mean business leaders can’t gain the essential visibility into labor hours needed to control costs. Paper timesheets are woefully inadequate for the accountability and accuracy required in modern time tracking.

Digital Time Tracking Optimized for Modern Businesses

Modern timekeeping systems designed for today’s workplace challenges resolve these problems through features like:

  • Easy mobile app for clock in/clock out tied to work locations
  • Evidence of attendance through geofencing and photo verification
  • GPS tracking of employee locations during work hours
  • Close monitoring of overtime with configurable alerts
  • Daily team check-ins via app
  • Supervisor approvals and status visibility in real time
  • Detailed time coding by project, task or department
  • Compliance reporting with wage and hour details
  • Data integrations with popular payroll services
  • Asset utilization tracking
  • Paperless forms for capturing various business activities

With a comprehensive solution, office and field staff gain simplicity while management has far greater oversight into labor utilization.

Key Benefits of Digital Time Tracking Software

The right technology provides significant benefits:

  • Eliminate Payroll Fraud – Advanced verification features like geofencing, photo ID capture and manager approvals prevent falsified hours and timesheet alterations that lead to payroll leakage.
  • Control Labor Costs – Real-time visibility into employee hours allows proactive management of overtime to minimize inflated premium pay rates.
  • Accurate Cost Allocation – Precise capture of hours worked across different projects, tasks or departments improves allocation of labor expenses for reliable cost data.
  • Optimize Staff Planning – Data on attendance and real-time tracking of employee locations allows businesses to optimize daily and weekly staffing needs.
  • Boost Productivity – Insights into overtime trends, idle time and schedule efficiency help managers identify areas for productivity improvements.
  • Regulatory Compliance – Complete capture of employee hours, wage rates and other data needed for labor law compliance removes administrative friction.
  • Simplify Time Tracking – Intuitive, mobile-friendly tools allow teams to submit hours worked on any device without paperwork hassles.
  • Centralized Visibility – All employee data aggregates into unified analytics dashboards and reports providing full oversight over dispersed workforces.
  • Streamline Processes – Automated data collection, reminders, approvals, integration and reporting eliminates manual administration around tracking hours.
  • Mitigate Compliance Risks – Immutable time records ensure workers are fully compensated for all regular and overtime hours in accordance with wage rules and labor regulations.

In competitive business environments, maximizing labor productivity is vital.

Digital solutions deliver the oversight needed for better workforce management.

Selecting the Best Digital Timekeeping System

Key buying considerations for online timesheet app/software:

  • Mobile-first design – Simple for employees using smartphones and tablets
  • Offline access – Allows clocking in without connectivity
  • Photo verification – Validates attendance visually
  • Geofencing and GPS tracking – Confirms location during work hours
  • Task tracking – Ties hours to specific activities completed
  • Asset tracking – Assigns time to equipment and resources
  • Project coding – Allocates hours across projects, tasks and departments
  • Labor law compliance – Supports wage and hour requirements
  • Permissions – Control over approvals and edits by role
  • Data integrations – APIs and imports compatible with popular platforms
  • Implementation support – Training and change management resources

With a feature-rich platform designed for their needs, businesses can transition from paper to automated time tracking that gives complete visibility over workforce activities.

Streamline Your Time Tracking With ExakTime by Arcoro

Arcoro’s ExakTime® provides an industry-leading timekeeping solution designed to meet the complex needs of modern businesses. Companies benefit from an intuitive mobile app that makes clock in and clock out effortless for employees in any work environment. Features like geofencing, GPS tracking and visual verification ensure air-tight validation of attendance without any reliance on paper timesheet templates.

Robust real-time analytics give finance and operations leaders powerful visibility into overtime hours, cost per hour, project profitability and labor productivity. ExakTime enables advanced compliance reporting with wage and hour details to remove the overhead of regulatory adherence. With 100+ platform integrations, ExakTime syncs directly with top payroll systems.

Business-specific features include detailed tracking of asset utilization, coding hours to projects or departments and tracking task completion. ExakTime provides complete onboarding assistance and unlimited US-based customer support.

By implementing ExakTime’s modern timekeeping solution purpose-built for their needs, businesses can finally say goodbye to the challenges and risks of paper weekly timesheets. See how ExakTime by Arcoro can benefit your organization by scheduling a demo today at exaktime.com.