For a very long time now, there hasn’t been a lot you could do as a conscientious business owner or manager to avoid concerns over time clocks – you either had to spend too much of your time processing employee time and attendance or to do your best to ignore the issue of inaccurate time data, even though you knew you were losing money in the process.

It’s no longer the case that you have to do things this way, at least if you invest in a biometric time clock and compatible time and attendance software for your business. This is new technology which is one of the best investments you could possibly make in your company; it allows you to breathe a little easier knowing that what you’re paying in labor costs is actually what you should be paying.

Biometric Time Clocks Improve Accuracy and Efficiency

Unlike a Bundy clock, a biometric clock isn’t subject to mechanical failures which can lead to inaccuracies. It also doesn’t use paper time cards which can be misread – and no one has to enter time and attendance data by hand, so human error is completely eliminated from the process. Your bookkeeping or accounting staff will find it much easier to take care of your company’s payroll, since a biometric clock can be linked into your company’s intranet to upload employee attendance data to your time and attendance software for incredibly quick payroll processing.

If your company outsources its payroll, you know how pricy it can be to hand off this work to another firm; but with a biometric clock, you won’t need to any more. A single employee can take care of your company’s payroll (or a few employees if your company has a large workforce) in a matter of minutes and save your company the cost of outsourcing your payroll. Just replacing your Bundy clock with a biometric clock and time and attendance software can save your company a lot more time and money than you might imagine; and these savings start as soon as you make the switch.

You have better things to do than to constantly keep an eye on your company’s workforce management system. When you put a system in place which just works, you’re free to do the really important things like develop new and improved products and services, build your customer base and generally work on the core of your business to drive sales and increase profits.

Some of the world’s largest businesses use biometric clocks and sophisticated time and attendance software as an integral part of their workforce management strategy. Given the many benefits that these new time and attendance systems offer, it is hardly surprising that they’ve been put into place by companies virtually across the board in order to keep their labor costs down and their profit margins high; and if you hope to do the same for your company, then installing a biometric clock in the place of your old Bundy clock is an excellent first step.

Logistics

You’ll find these powerful time and attendance systems in place at logistics companies; they’re a natural fit for these businesses, since they’re almost infinitely scalable. They provide the ability for companies to keep track of their employees’ hours just as easily and with the same level of accuracy as if everyone was punching a clock at a single location, even if your workforce is scattered all over the country or indeed, all over the world. For this reason, they’ve been adopted by logistics companies as well as a variety of other businesses which have a mobile workforce – using a Bundy clock, it would be simply impossible to keep an accurate record of employee hours and attendance.

Manufacturing

Medium to large manufacturing companies and retailers have also enthusiastically adopted biometric clocks and time and attendance software for their workforce management. It can be quite time consuming, not to mention costly, to keep track of all of your employees’ hours when you have hundreds or thousands of people on your staff, especially if they’re spread across multiple locations.

Retail

For the retail industry, there can be hundreds of business locations spread throughout the country. With so many employees, keeping accurate payroll and preventing time theft are very important issues. Rather than payroll being something that takes a great deal of time and effort or being outsourced to an external HR firm, it can be handled by one or two employees in your own office in a matter of minutes. Using a biometric clock which allows time and attendance data to be easily uploaded to your firm’s accounting or payroll software also eliminates inaccuracies, which can greatly reduce payroll costs.

Government

For businesses, keeping proprietary information a secret from other companies is important to remaining competitive, but information security is just as important, if not more, for government organizations. Biometric time clock can also serve as access control and monitor who enters specific areas of the building. Only authorized employees are allowed into restricted areas and biometrics is one of the most accurate methods of time and attendance available.

Regardless of the industry, all business owners and managers want the same thing: lower overhead and efficient workforce management. No matter what kind of business you’re in, using a biometric clock instead of a Bundy clock can help your firm on its way to lower operating costs and higher profits.

For a long time, the humble Bundy clock did a reasonably good job of helping businesses to keep track of employee time and attendance, especially since there weren’t a lot of alternatives. However, there is a lot that a mechanical time clock can’t do; for instance, keeping your company’s facilities secure from uninvited guests through biometric time and attendance systems or the use of proximity cards. Even though a robbery during business hours probably isn’t that great of a concern for most businesses, there are other threats which are more likely to affect the typical company which are equally serious.

Keep Your Business and Employees Safe

Identity theft is a crime which is becoming increasingly common with each passing year and along with corporate espionage, it’s something that you may want to watch out for if you own or manage a business. If your manufacturing plant, offices or other facilities are large enough that you can’t see everyone who comes into or leaves your company’s property, then you can increase your corporate security through upgrading to biometric time clocks and modern time and attendance software.

As an added benefit, biometric clocks do much more for your company than simply increase the level of security at your company’s facilities. As it happens, making the switch away from a Bundy clock to something a little more 21st century can also save your firm an enormous amount of money by streamlining your company’s workforce management.

A biometric time clock can serve as part of a very effective access control system. Since your staff need to use unique identifiers of some sort (fingerprint, PIN code or proximity sensor key tab) to clock in and out as they enter or leave your offices or plant, it’s easy to keep track of who’s been coming and going and when and where they’ve entered your facilities. Additionally, these logins can be logged by your time and attendance software for an easily auditable record if there is a security breach at your firm.

It’s also to integrate cameras with your biometric clocks so that you can see who’s clocking in or out. This can put an end to employee time theft, since no one is going to want to clock in for their coworkers when they know that someone could be watching them while they punch in or out. The video feed from the camera can be streamed over the web, so you or a security officer from your company can keep an eye on things, even from outside of the office.

If you want to keep your company safe from identity theft, time theft, the prying eyes of your competitors and of course, common thieves, installing a biometric clock in place of your Bundy clock and using time and attendance software is a big step in the right direction. While no security system is 100% effective, upgrading your workforce management procedures this way can go a long way towards keeping your company’s facilities and your employees safe and secure.

What ID Printers Can Do for You

ID badges can do double duty as time cards when you use ID card printer that creates ID badges with proximity sensor key tabs or magnetic strips. This adds an additional layer of security for your firm as well as reduces the possibility of employee time theft. Since every employee will have an individually assigned ID card which doubles as an electronic time card which can be checked to confirm their identity via name and photo, it is almost impossible for buddy clocking to occur.

No one wants to take the risk of getting caught punching in or out for their friends at work, especially when each time card includes the photo and name of the employee who’s supposed to be using the card. Time and attendance tracking is a vital part of workforce management and when you use ID badges which can also be used as proximity tags, your company gains a more efficient time and attendance tracking system as well as the benefit of keeping your labor costs down.

There is another way that having an ID printer on site helps your firm to increase security; ID badges, especially ID badges which can be used with your biometric clock can be the foundation of an access control system. Not only can security staff check employee ID badges to confirm that a given person should be allowed to enter an area of your company’s facilities that contain sensitive data or valuable corporate assets, they can also be used with biometric login stations to either deny access to unauthorized personnel or to alert security when someone tries to enter an area where they should not be.

It’s nice to know who everyone is, but that’s only the beginning of what an ID printer can do for your business. From higher security to more efficient workforce management and visitor management, these devices offer a lot of return for a very small initial investment – exactly what every business owner or manager wants.

However, the solution is a pretty easy one: installing a new biometric time clock and time and attendance software rather than relying on your old time cards and Bundy clock or handwritten time sheets. Of course, if your business only has one or two employees, then you may be fine sticking with what you’re using now – but for a medium to large company or a small business with plans for expansion, then making the change is essential to the future of your firm.

Upgrade to a Biometric Time Clock

Let’s take a look at some of the ways that paper timesheets or an old fashioned Bundy clock are holding your business back and keeping you from staying on equal footing with your competitors. No one would argue that it’s difficult to be sure that your time and attendance records are entirely accurate when you use handwritten paper time sheets; even employees with the best of intentions are likely to make mistakes from time to time. Naturally, workers who are intent on padding their paycheck will use this inherent inaccuracy in their favor; even as little as ten minutes here and there adds up a lot quicker than you might think. By using a biometric clock and time and attendance software instead, you can avoid inaccuracies and timesheet padding entirely.

When your employees have to work with handwritten time sheets, all kinds of problems can arise. It can be difficult to read handwriting and mistakes can and do happen, whether it’s a matter of misreading the numbers on the card or an errant keystroke while adding up employee hours to transfer this information into your company’s time and attendance software.

As you know, labor is one of the largest parts of any company’s operating expenses and when you can reduce these expenses, it’s always a boon to your business. Simply by doing away with handwritten time sheets or an old Bundy clock in favor of a biometric employee time clock, you’ll be making your business more efficient, more competitive and of course, more profitable. It’s the way that the business world is increasingly going; and as more and more companies realize that paper timesheets are simply bad for business, it’s a trend which is certain to continue.

Benefits of Electronic Time Clocks

It all begins by switching to an electronic time clock and getting rid of your old mechanical Bundy clock. Using an electronic employee time clock, especially one which has biometric identification technology as an integral component, can make the work of project managers and other managerial staff at your firm far easier to handle.

These clocks work seamlessly with most modern time and attendance software, making it easy for management to pull up reports on employee attendance and analyze the data to produce a picture of employee productivity. By differentiating time data for specific projects, it can also help project managers to determine how the project they’re tasked with overseeing is progressing. This capability alone can yield significant returns for your business, but that’s only one way that using a biometric clock instead of a Bundy clock can save your firm money.

An electronic time clock which uses individually assigned logins for employees also does away with one of the biggest sources of unnecessary labor costs faced by businesses – employee time theft. When your staff can no longer punch the clock for one another without being detected, you’ll find your labor costs start to decline; most companies can save thousands this way every year. There are a lot of things which a biometric clock and time and attendance software can do for your business which a Bundy clock simply cannot; and in order to get the edge you need to stay ahead of your competitors, it’s a wise investment to make.

One way to improve your workforce management strategy is to begin using individually assigned ID cards for all of your employees. There are a number of advantages that issuing ID cards to your staff provides and if yours is a medium to large business, it can be an especially valuable addition to your business. After all, knowing exactly who is who on your corporate campus, offices or any other company facility is key to security.

How Does It Work?

Staff ID cards can be printed with a magnetic strip that can be used as individually assigned authentication to clock in or out of your time and attendance system. Your new electronic time clock can be used along with modern time and attendance software to give you a quick and easy way to keep track of your employees as they move about your facilities; and to keep track of employee time and attendance at the same time.

Assigning an ID card to each member of your staff allows you to reduce your labor costs while increasing the level of security at your firm. For instance, you can use your employee time clock as part of an access control system, allowing only your employees (or guests who have been issued an ID card for this purpose) to access your building. If your business maintains financial information or other sensitive data on your customers, vendors and other business partners, then this can help to keep valuable company information out of the hands of would-be thieves.

Along with being a security measure, ID cards can greatly reduce your company’s costs both through stopping employee time theft and reducing the time needed to prepare payroll, maintain and update employee attendance records. It’s a relatively small investment which can yield great gains for your business.

However, new technology has enabled businesses to keep their labor costs down while at the same time ensuring that they stay in full compliance with all applicable government regulations. Biometric time clocks and time and attendance software allow companies to maintain a completely accurate and accountable record of employee hours – which in many cases, permits businesses to not only avoid over-payments, but also overtime pay.

Make Payroll Processing Easy and Accurate

When you use a Bundy clock and have your accounting department handle transferring all of the attendance data on the cards manually, errors can occur from poorly written time data or employees inaccurately recording their time worked. With an electronic time clock, you can put a stop to employee time theft and eliminate human error from your payroll processing.

Another advantage of modernizing your business’ time and attendance system is that if your firm currently outsources payroll to another company, you can stop doing so. Using a biometric time clock as part of your workforce management system, it becomes easy for your own staff to handle payroll in a matter of minutes, saving your firm a considerable amount of money over the long term.

A biometric time clock, unlike a mechanical model, can be integrated with your company network so that employee time and attendance information can be sent directly to your bookkeeper’s computer for payroll processing and record keeping. Many models of biometric time clocks also have USB ports, so attendance data can be transferred with ease using a portable flash drive to your time and attendance software.

No employer wants to pay more in wages than they actually need to; employee time theft and inaccurate records of employee hours are one of the leading causes of financial losses by businesses large and small alike. Biometric time clocks virtually eliminate the possibility of employees clocking in for one another, which ensures that you’ll never have to pay overtime for employees who haven’t actually worked overtime hours. There is a lot of money to be saved and with accurate time data you can make sure that your company is complying with the law.

Because of this, a growing number of businesses are doing away with their mechanical Bundy clock and switching to biometric clocks to keep up with the times, eliminate employee time theft and generally keep their labor costs lower. With the global economy still emerging from troubled times and the competition across the entire economic spectrum becoming ever stiffer, it is more important than ever to institute efficient workforce management systems.

Along with the electronic time clocks themselves, there are a variety of accessories which can extend their functionality and make them more useful tools for business owners and managers in any industry. From web-enabled cameras to Ethernet power supplies, proximity tags to ID card printers, companies who use the latest in time clocks and time and attendance software have a lot of options open to them; read on to learn a little more about some of these accessories for better workforce management.

Cameras
A camera can be an incredibly useful add-on for your time and attendance system. A camera can provide your company facilities with increased security as well as completely eliminate buddy clocking; after all, when your employees know that they’re being watched when they punch in and out, they’re not likely to punch the clock for their friends – in addition to the time theft preventing capabilities inherent in an electronic or biometric time clock. There are models of camera which can be connected to monitors via cable as well as cameras which can connect to your intranet so that they can be monitored from any location which is convenient for you.

Proximity Cards and Tags
One type of electronic time clock which many businesses are choosing to deploy are proximity sensor based clocks. With these models, employees use individually assigned cards or tags to clock in and out. There are a few different types of cards and tags available, which can either be carried in the employee’s wallet or on a keychain, depending on the model. These provide an easy and secure method of logging employee time and attendance which just isn’t possible with a traditional Bundy clock.

ID Card Printers
Employers can also choose to provide employees with individually assigned ID cards for easy identification and higher security. These cards can also feature magnetic strips which can be used with an electronic time clock – so that your workforce can clock in using their own ID badges and your firm can keep track of their attendance with ease using time and attendance software.

For companies with multiple locations, this is an especially valuable feature and everything from word processing to time and attendance software and workforce management tools are available in the cloud. Among the most useful SaaS tools for most businesses are online visitor management and contractor time and attendance solutions. These permit business owners to keep track of who is in their offices or other corporate facilities and when – and in the case of contractor management systems, to ensure that a reliable and accurate record of contractor hours can be kept.

Benefits of Online Visitor Management

There are two ways which these tools provide valuable benefits to business owners and managers: security and of course, every business’ top concern: the bottom line. Visitor management tools allow companies whose facilities see a lot of visitors to make sure that everyone entering the corporate campus is actually supposed to be there as well as providing useful features like visitor registration and with the proper accessories, ID badge printing. Similarly, contractor management software allows businesses to keep track of contractors coming in and out of the facility to perform work. Knowing who is coming in and out is, after all, the foremost priority in terms of keeping your company’s facilities secure.

Online visitor management and contractor management tools are also a money saving solution for businesses. Workforce management is an important part of keeping costs down and this extends not only to your own employees, but also contractors and their employees; and online contractor management tools permit the business to maintain their own records of contractor time and attendance in case of a dispute as well as to satisfy regulatory requirements. These tools also reduce the amount of time and effort which must be put into keeping track of visitors and contractors by receptionists and other front desk staff, which frees them up to perform other tasks – and with time quite literally being money to any business, this is an important benefit.

Whether for higher security, more accurate records of time spent by contractors on the site or to reduce employee hours spent in visitor and contractor management, these online tools are an increasingly important resource for companies who want to ensure efficient workforce management. Cost saving, user friendly and incredibly flexible, software as a service is a new development which every business can benefit from.