Time tracking systems: A com­par­is­on of different solutions

Accurate time tracking is equally important for the employer and the employees. Su­per­visors can use these systems to ensure that employees are meeting the number of hours agreed upon in their contracts. Meanwhile, employees can avoid unpaid overtime by ac­cur­ately recording their work hours. However, time tracking only works if there is an effective system in place.

What this system looks like depends heavily on the company’s re­quire­ments and char­ac­ter­ist­ics. There is a variety of solutions available that is tailored to different needs. For example, you can find purely software or hardware solutions as well as solutions in app form for mobile devices. To help you decide which time tracking system is right for you, you will find an overview of the various options below.

A com­pre­hens­ive computer-operated time tracking system is not the right fit for every company. This is es­pe­cially true for small companies for which the required costs would outweigh the results. For other companies, this solution is not the right fit because their employees do not all work in the same place. So, what are some other options?

Even today, many small companies use a paper schedule (i.e. a timesheet) on which employees record their work hours them­selves. The most obvious advantage of this type of time tracking is the almost non-existent cost. In addition, it requires very little effort to explain to employees how to use this system. When using a simple table, it should be self-ex­plan­at­ory.

There is one thing you need to keep in mind, and this is one of the dis­ad­vant­ages of using this type of manual system: the data will also need to be analysed by hand. If the employees only record their start and stop times, the su­per­visor or the HR de­part­ment will need to calculate the number of hours worked from this and add them up. On top of that, there is the effort it takes to file the data from this system.

Therefore, the company’s size is an important deciding factor. The fewer employees the company has, the less ad­di­tion­al work there is to do. Whereas, if there are dozens of employees’ timesheets to process, investing in an elec­tron­ic solution can pay off.

This system also provides employees with more op­por­tun­it­ies to stray from the truth. While other time tracking systems record time auto­mat­ic­ally and are more difficult to tamper with, this solution relies heavily on the honour system. Despite there being some degree of scrutiny provided by col­leagues, the timesheet only works if the employer trusts their employees.

When con­sid­er­ing time tracking devices, many people will first think of the tra­di­tion­al time clock. In brief, it is a device in which an employee enters a card to receive the current time stamp. They do this when entering or leaving the company. As with the manual paper version, the number of hours worked has to be cal­cu­lated by hand when using this (now obsolete) version. Moreover, filing the data once again provides ad­di­tion­al work. However, this type of machine does have an advantage in its ease of use. It also makes it much more difficult to be dishonest when recording work hours.

Nowadays, companies have largely abandoned the tra­di­tion­al time clock while retaining the ad­vant­ages of this time tracking system. Elec­tron­ic and digital hardware solutions provide an easy-to-use device, which is re­l­at­ively tamper proof and stand­ard­ises data pro­cessing. These solutions also avoid the dis­ad­vant­ages as­so­ci­ated with the manual time clock: New systems auto­mat­ic­ally calculate the hours and also auto­mat­ic­ally file all the data.

Using smart tokens or smart cards (in an RFID format) or even a fin­ger­print, employees can identify them­selves on the device and sim­ul­tan­eously trigger the time stamp. However, the digital time stamp is not stored on the employees’ smart token or card. It is stored directly on the device. The data can then be read using software or a web interface. All data is processed trans­par­ently and cross-checked. In many cases, employees can also check their work hour accounts or make ad­di­tion­al changes via a display on the hardware.

While this digital time tracking system is easy to use, it does have two dis­ad­vant­ages. The first is that smaller companies are likely to shy away from the often-high as­so­ci­ated costs. After all, when cal­cu­lat­ing the costs, you need to consider not only the devices but also the cor­res­pond­ing chips for each employee, po­ten­tially a device to program the chips, and perhaps even a license for the required software. The second is that these types of digital time clocks can only be used as a sta­tion­ary device. This means that if an employee is working in the field for example, they will not be able to log their hours during the day.

If you have employees who do not work in the office but rather in their home office or out in the field, there are also mobile solutions available for time tracking. Employees can always carry a time tracking system with them using a smart­phone app. Nowadays, there are a variety of mobile ap­plic­a­tions for this purpose, and most of them are easy to use. Employees can record their start and stop times in just a few steps. Ad­di­tion­ally, many apps offer other useful features. For example, employees working in the field can provide extra in­form­a­tion them­selves about their current task, such as the name of the client they were with that day.

The GPS tracking used in smart­phones means that data about your location can also be recorded in a time tracking system. This type of system also often allows you to keep a logbook as well as to record the time spent on specific tasks and projects. Su­per­visors or the HR de­part­ment can then check and evaluate all the data in an online ap­plic­a­tion.

A mobile time tracking app thus functions as a digital timesheet, which can sometimes have the same ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages. This type of system relies heavily on trust, which is mainly due to the nature of working in the field. Nev­er­the­less, these mobile apps are re­l­at­ively easy to use and are usually reas­on­ably priced in com­par­is­on with com­pre­hens­ive hardware solutions.

Business owners usually have a variety of packages to choose from when selecting the right product for the size of their business. One thing to keep in mind is that every employee will need a smart­phone. If your employees have not been provided with company-owned devices, the app will need to run on personal devices. Therefore, you will need to look into which mobile operating systems support the app in advance.

Just as there are apps for your smart­phone, you can also find software solutions for your office PC. These time tracking systems are usually similar in structure to the apps. When using software, the admin sets up all employees with their personal work hour records. The program is also installed on the employees’ computers. As soon as their workday begins, they can start tracking their work hours with just a click of their mouse. They can also track their breaks and work end times just as easily.

Su­per­visors can access all data via an ad­min­is­tra­tion interface and, this way, check the work hour records for each employee. Ad­di­tion­ally, time tracking software usually allows employees to enter their holiday times, sick leave, and public holidays. Therefore, no ad­di­tion­al ad­min­is­trat­ive work is required.

The only real dis­ad­vant­ages of this type of solution are the costs (with regular licensing fees being common) and the fact that it has to be installed on a PC, which usually needs to be turned on in the morning. As a result, if time tracking can only be started with a mouse click, work hours might not be ac­cur­ately recorded. Moreover, the use of this type of solution for mobile work is limited and would require a laptop at the very least.

Online time trackers are useful when you need employees who work from their home office or a mobile office to track their work hours using the same ap­plic­a­tion. These tools allow employees to access the system via their browser. As with desktop software, employees record their work hours in the web portal. Meanwhile, su­per­visors can access all the recorded hours in an overview. This system also allows employees to enter ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion as well as absences and days off.

Since online ap­plic­a­tions can be used via a standard browser, they have fewer com­pat­ib­il­ity problems when compared with software solutions. As long as the users are using an up-to-date browser, they should have full access to all functions, re­gard­less of the hardware or operating system being used. Ideally, the ap­plic­a­tion will even offer a way to interact with other programs, such as with payroll ac­count­ing to make the process easier. For data pro­tec­tion purposes, you need to secure where data is stored and who has access to it.

Which time tracking system you should choose largely depends on your company and its re­quire­ments. While many smaller companies prefer in­ex­pens­ive basic solutions, large companies can afford to invest in more soph­ist­ic­ated solutions. In some cases, the right solution may be a mix of different systems. If you opt for a mix, you should make sure that the solutions come from the same provider or at least that they are com­pat­ible with each other.

Please note the legal dis­claim­er relating to this article.