Processing payroll is a multi-step process. You must calculate the total time worked for each employee, figure gross pay, then calculate deductions and payroll taxes and subtract them from gross pay. A lot can go wrong during any of these steps, especially if you’re still using paper time cards, and the consequences can be severe.
Consequences of Payroll Mistakes
Payroll mistakes are more than just frustrating. Mistakes can have dire consequences for your business.
- Fines. Government regulations like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) require precise record-keeping to track hours to prove compliance. Failure to pay overtime can lead to hefty fines by the Department of Labor.
- Turnover. When paychecks are repeatedly late or wrong, workers can quickly get frustrated. That frustration just might push them towards finding a different job – and it wouldn’t be too hard to succeed in that effort. There are currently millions more job openings than workers to fill them.
5 Reasons to Replace Paper Time Cards
Using a digital time tracking system can eliminate many of the mistakes that lead to fines and turnover plus they make the entire process more efficient.
No more tracking down time sheets.
Paper time sheets have a huge disadvantage in that they must be physically moved from location to location. Once a paper time card is filled out on the jobsite, it needs to be moved to the accounting office and, let’s face it, anything can happen in between. Cards can be left behind, damaged or lost.
On the other hand, a mobile time tracking app lets your employees clock in and out from the jobsite and the data is automatically uploaded to your payroll software. Time sheets are never damaged, lost or late.
No more deciphering illegible handwriting.
Inputting hours by hand can be a mess. Between dirty jobsites and sloppy handwriting, it can be impossible to decipher numbers. Sevens could be ones and eights might be zeros, which could lead to an inaccurate check. Fixing mistakes not only takes time but if you haven’t correctly calculated due overtime, you might face a hefty fine by the DOL under the FLSA.
Human error is eliminated with a mobile time tracking app. Numbers are never transposed so accurate data is also transferred to payroll. Compliance features ensure workers sign off on each time card so overtime hours are always accounted for.
No more wasting time on payroll.
According to AGC’s 2024 Construction Outlook, 23% of construction companies say they’re planning on investing in payroll software, which makes sense considering manual processes – like payroll – can really slow a business down. You must convert hours and minutes to decimals and add up taxes, deductions and make sure everything is correct. Using a mobile time tracking app that integrates with your payroll process can save your team hours of calculations. Information is automatically shared between systems, exporting attendance records in seconds, ensuring paychecks are accurate and on time every week.
No more time theft.
Paper time cards leave you wide open to time theft. Time theft in terms of Buddy Punching, where an employee has a co-worker clock them in or out when they’re not at work, can quickly add up, bloating your labor costs. Consider how much an extra 15 minutes two or three days a week can add up.
Digital time tracking solutions eliminate buddy punching using face front photo identification. Only your employee can log in for him or herself. Plus, with GPS and geofencing capabilities, you can see exactly where your employees are clocking in from, which helps track manhours per job site and eliminates time theft. A geofence sets a virtual barrier that can enforce certain restrictions or create certain opportunities. When employees clock in or out, their timestamp will be flagged as either on-site or off-site. GPS location tracking can create ‘bread-crumbs’ that track worker movements throughout their shift. The tracking stops the moment the worker clocks out.
Access to essential data analytics.
One of the biggest drawbacks to using paper time cards is the lack of data. Data analytics provides invaluable information that companies can use to make critical business decisions by identifying patterns. By gathering, sorting, analyzing and presenting information in a usable way, companies can make more strategic business decisions, which can lead to increased efficiency and in turn, profitability.
Along with standard reports, Arcoro and ExakTime customers have enjoyed the ability to pull custom reports on the data collected by our software, like punch and time records, regular and overtime hours and ExakTime mobile form response data.
Interactive dashboards and reports allow you to filter and process data based on your needs, Advanced Analytics for ExakTime helps customers gain deeper insight into the workforce, their work hours and their job tasks. You simply can’t get that type of insight with paper time cards.
Replace your paper time cards with a mobile app like ExakTime and eliminate the biggest obstacles to processing payroll. Your company will be more secure and your employees will be happier.
Schedule a demo to see how it works.
