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Tracking time and attendance for your workforce can be a difficult and tedious task,
especially if you have not yet upgraded to an automated time and attendance system.
Automated Time and Attendance systems produce real-time performance data by orchestrating
people, processes and technology. Implementing a Time and Attendance system will
typically yield an 80% reduction in manual effort, a 3% savings in total payroll
(labor cost) and the visibility to make better workforce management decisions.
When discussing a time and attendance system, "time" is referring to the collection,
calculation, reporting and integration of all information necessary for employee
compensation while "attendance" references the tracking of infractions and leave
in order to provide a fair, unbiased and uniform application of your attendance
policy. The following terms are defined below to give you a better understanding
of what "Time and Attendance" is and how using an automated system can save your
company time and money.
A quality Time and Attendance solution will provide depth, flexibility and utility
in the following areas:
1. Data Collection - The ability to directly interact with the employee to gather
raw time, leave and labor data through the use of any data collection method that
is appropriate for your employees. Data collection methods include biometrics, web,
badge readers, telephone (IVR), and PC. These methods will report information directly
to your time and attendance software. By recording the time and attendance data
correctly from the beginning, your organization will see an improvement and cost
savings in downstream processes.
2. Exempt Time Collection - Provides a solution for the non-hourly employees and
allows for a different method of time accounting for the salaried employees. Examples
of other time accounting methods include Honor Time Reporting which records only
the hours that the employee does not work, or Positive Time Recording which records
time for project management purposes.
3. Time Accounting - Calculates time by applying your rules to the raw data collected-including
overtime, premiums, rounding and labor distribution. Robust time and attendance
systems will have the ability to customize the system as necessary in order to handle
more complicated pay rules.
4. Labor Distribution - Accounts for time worked by location, department, branch,
cost center, job, position, project, or any other names you may need. Most time
and attendance applications are unable to calculate complex rules such as the handling
of an employee who is working on two projects simultaneously because they only have
one simple formula to calculate hours for a single cost center.
5. Scheduling - Provides a user friendly method to schedule both work time and time
off. Group schedules, individual schedules, rotation schedules and demand based
schedules should all be a part of the solution. Your bottom line depends on your
employees' schedules being aligned with organizational goals and your time and attendance
system can help maximize this labor potential.
6. Reporting - Generates accurate, real-time data to the appropriate decision makers.
Few time and attendance systems have the ability to utilize Push Technology; a capability
that ensures specified reports are automatically emailed to your in-box. Additionally,
you will want the ability to customize standard reports to your own specifications.
7. Leave Tracking - Calculate, display, and track sick, vacation, PTO, FMLA and
all other types of leave. Leave tracking should integrate with the employee schedule,
the timecard and your current Human Resources or Payroll application. Leave tracking
is an important part of an employee self service system in which the employee is
able to submit the request directly to management for approval.
8. Attendance Tracking - Maintains an attendance calendar for each employee with
multiple years of data, and eliminates favoritism by enforcing the organizations
attendance policy in a fair, non-biased manner. Attendance tracking, also known
as Exception Reporting, tracks such infractions as absenteeism, tardiness, early
arrival, late departure, long breaks, meals, or other attendance events that might
be important to your organization. Plus, this information can be automatically archived
in order to help with compliance issues related to increasingly stringent regulations.
9. Interfacing - Using XML, ASCII files or database integration, Time and Attendance
should fluently communicate with applications including Payroll, ERP and HRIS.
10. Workflow - Uses your approval structure to provide logical event routing and
notifications via e-mail or other messages. Automated time and attendance systems
can eliminate the paper chase, compress pending approval times and streamline the
entire workflow process.
11. Hosting - This method, also known as SaaS (Software as a Service, an upgrade
from the commonly known ASP hosting), provides all the benefits of a time and attendance
system without the IT requirements for the database, server hardware, operating
system, data backups, security management, system management, service packs and
patches. In fact, an advanced time and attendance system can be setup without ever
having to install any software on your employee workstations or network.
Time and attendance systems have the potential to truly improve your workforce productivity
and increase your profitability. Researching the best system for your companies
needs will take time, but knowing what features are out there will help you make
the right decision.
Legiant is a leading provider of web-based time and attendance and time accounting
systems for payroll, attendance, productivity, leave and project tracking. Flexible
productivity time tracking solutions help Legiant's enterprise customers maximize
the profitability and productivity of their workforce. Legiant solutions can be
customized to meet the unique needs of any organization including mobile workforce
tracking, payroll automation or automated time and attendance and workforce productivity
reporting. Legiant integrates software, hardware, and professional services to create
a comprehensive accounting solution, easy-to-use and accessible from anywhere through
a Web-based interface.
For more information, visit http://www.legiant.com .
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