Choosing a time and attendance tracking system
Posted by: Jason DeGraw In: Product face-off
When picking a system, look for these things:
Functionality
- An attendance calendar: You want the ability to keep an attendance calendar for each employee.
- Data collection: It should have basic time in/out - is it manual entry, RFID, web, a punch clock wired to the internet?
- Time accounting: The ability to apply flexible rules about overtime, breaks, etc.
- Cost distribution: Allocate time worked by project, location, or other categories - for instance, if you have two different groups of employee contracts.
- Scheduling: An intuitive way to schedule time on and off by either group or individuals.
- Tracking: A method of recording employee requests for vacation and paid time off, and enter sick time.
- Payroll integration: The ability to convert data into QuickBooks or another payroll service.
The two most important things, in my opinion, are the reporting and integration stuff, and the data collection method. If you have more than 15 or so employees, I highly recommend getting some kind of automated data collection system, rather than a data-entry-via-the-web or data-entry-via-a-desktop. It simplifies everything enormously, and saves you bundles of time.
Cost
Small business time and attendance tracking systems can run anything from $50 / yr / employee, to $300 - $3000 for a package. It all depends on the functionality that you want, the interoperability you want, etc.
The best advice I’ve heard is that, if you’re getting any kind of hardware integration, all the webinars in the world won’t take the place of a site visit. Make sure the company is able to scope out your requirements, ask questions, and make sure all assumptions are accounted for in their quote!