Why To Go Digital with Time and Attendance

25 September 2023

Make Every Minute Count for your Business

Time and attendance management is essential for every business to ensure productivity, transparency, and accuracy. In today's fast-paced business environment, clinging to manual methods of recording attendance can limit an organisation's potential. Transitioning to a digital time and attendance solution offers numerous benefits to companies of all sizes by dramatically enhancing operational efficiency and profitability. Here are the top five reasons why businesses should make the switch:

1. Enhanced Accuracy and Accountability

One of the major pitfalls of manual time and attendance methods is the risk of errors. Mistakes in data entry, forgetfulness, and fraudulent time punches can all compromise the integrity of your records. Digital solutions eliminate manual errors in recording attendance, overtime, and leave. They employ sophisticated algorithms and mechanisms to detect and prevent time theft and the use of biometrics eliminates 'buddy punching'. This ensures that each entry is correct, leading to more accurate payroll and potential cost reductions as employers only pay for the hours worked.

2. Time and Cost Efficiency

With manual clock-ins and clock-outs, employees often need to line up to sign in. This causes delays and bottlenecks and can be particularly cumbersome during peak entry and exit times, eating into the working day. In comparison, digital systems, including those integrated with biometric verification methods such as fingerprint or facial recognition, can significantly speed up the entry and exit process.

Manual time and attendance solutions are also a back-office burden, with manual record keeping methods requiring hours of labour-intensive data entry, verification, and corrections. In cases of discrepancies, audits, or disputes, piles of paperwork must be sifted through to remedy any queries. Digital solutions streamline this process, automatically capturing and processing data in real-time, freeing up personnel to work on more valuable tasks. Over the long term, this saves countless hours and reduces the costs associated with manual data entry and rectifying errors.

3. Real-time Insights and Reporting

With a digital time and attendance system, managers can access real-time data about their team's attendance, tardiness, overtime, and more. This enables them to make informed decisions, identify trends, and implement strategies to optimise workforce productivity. TouchStar’s time and attendance systems can generate reports at the click of a button, making it simpler to analyse data and devise strategies.

4. Legal Compliance

Staying compliant with labour laws and regulations becomes simpler with an automated system, especially concerning overtime, breaks, and minimum wage requirements. It also ensures accurate record-keeping, which is often mandatory.

With TouchStar GeoConnectMe, a mobile application for hybrid/field-based workers, you can provide your employees with time and attendance functionality for use in remote locations. GeoConnectMe uses GPS navigation to verify a valid location before users can clock on. This enables employers to track clock-ins and the location of their active workforce in real-time.

5. Integration with Other Systems

One of the biggest advantages of digital time and attendance systems is their ability to integrate with other business tools. Whether it's your HR system, payroll software, or any other operational tool, integration ensures that all your systems are aligned, resulting in efficient and harmonised business processes.

TouchStar ATC Fastlane, provides the mechanism that facilitates integration with HR, Payroll, and other essential systems through standardised API integration. It is based upon Microsoft Azure’s cloud computing service and helps companies efficiently manage their time and attendance data, ensuring accurate reporting.

Fastlane also helps to monitor and manage the status of your proximity, fingerprint, or facial recognition clock machines. It can track which devices are online and gather diagnostic information about devices to support firmware upgrades.

Make the switch to a Digital Time and Attendance solutions now!

If you're still relying on outdated, manual time and attendance solutions, you're not only compromising efficiency but also potentially losing out on valuable insights. Making the transition to a digital solution is not just a smart move - it's essential for keeping track of the modern workforce. Digital solutions are incredibly flexible and can be adapted to the size of your business. Whether you have a small team in a fixed location or a sprawling workforce, digital systems can be tailored to suit your needs. Moreover, as your business grows, these solutions can easily scale to accommodate more employees, ensuring a seamless transition.