Retail managers often report their stores' time attendance tracking data to a central location. Unfortunately, without the right tools for tracking their employees' hours, mistakes are easily made that throw a wrench into the works at the home office. Phone time attendance tracking helps store managers shine by eliminating many of the issues that can give their stores a black eye.
What are some of those reasons the home office payroll location might be calling? Let's look at common remote location payroll headaches caused by conventional time clocks:
* Timecards missing time stamps or manager approvals.
* Incorrectly calculated timecards.
* Missing, damaged or illegible timecards.
* Suspected timecard padding by store employees.
Needless to say, plenty of store manager time can be wasted correcting time cards, verifying time records and calculating employee time for their stores. If you're a retail manager who often spends too much time on timekeeping issues, perhaps it's time to suggest a better solution to the home office.
Here are some great reasons that making the switch to a phone time attendance tracking system makes sense for companies with many locations.
* A phone time clock system records the exact time an employee starts his shift, eliminating timecard padding.
* A telephone time clock eliminates the need for paper timecards that can be lost or damaged.
* Using a web-based phone time clock setup means each level of management has access to real-time employee attendance data via the Internet.
* Payroll calculation errors are a thing of the past as each employee's time is accumulated for each payroll period.
* Timecards can be printed and stored at a central location for every retail outlet in your company's chain.
Imagine just how much you'd shine as a store manager if you were the person who suggested switching to a telephone time clock for every store! Not only would management appreciate the savings in time, money and frustration, other store managers would also be relieved of one of their biggest headaches.
Just think, a phone time clock system might just be your route to promotion even as it's saving you frustration in your own store!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Phone Time Attendance Tracking Helps Store Managers Shine
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Set Up Your Phone Time Clock in Three Easy Steps
Making the change from a paper-based timecard system to a highly-efficient telephone time clock might seem overwhelming. If you're in charge of overseeing the change, there are three easy steps for a successful transition.
Before we detail those three steps, let's review the reasons why changing to a phone time clock is a good decision. First, a time attendance tracking system in which employees call in at the beginning and end at each shift cuts down on timecard padding. A phone system is exacting and efficient, eliminating unnecessary payroll costs.
The second reason smart companies with remote employees are turning to this type of system is the ease of calculating payroll. Using an online interface, the payroll administrator is able to create payroll reports and print individual time cards.
Once the decision has been made to move to a telephone time clock system, the sequence to implement it is very simple:
1. As the account administrator for your web-based system, you'll be given the ability to login to your system from any computer and check the status of any employee.
2. Using that account, you'll login and add employees, job locations and the destination for text message alerts that notify you of missed shifts and employees' clock in and out times.
3. Train employees to call the toll free number to clock in and out of your system.
After your system is up and running, you'll be able to log on to the web-based interface for your phone time clock and see live timecard data for every employee. You'll also be much more in control of overtime, because live data gives you the ability to make decisions on shift coverage when it matters.
If you have a robust telephone time clock system, you can also stay in touch and communicate with employees easily. Recording a message they must listen to before logging in insures up-to-date information is communicated to employees, even at the most remote locations.
Updating your time attendance tracking with a phone time clock is a wise decision for most companies with remote employees. As a manager, you'll gain more control over employees who work off-site, and unnecessary payroll expense.
A simple three-step process will help you make the transition with as little disruption as possible. Isn't it time you found out for yourself how easy it really is?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Benefits of a Telephone Time Clock
When looking for a new way for to keep track of my sales staff worked hours, a friend told me the benefits of having a Telephone Time Clock. This seemed like the perfect tool to use in order to keep track of all the hours worked by our employees that have to travel away from the office during the workday. But I wanted to know what all the advantages were when using this type of time clock system.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Time is Money
I own a large and very busy insurance company in Kentucky. I have 37 agents who work for me and service over 15 counties. I don’t require my agents to come into the office every day because most of the work they do is in home visits with clients. I pay my agents commission plus an hourly wage and keeping up with their time cards became a big headache. That’s when I began using telephone time clock; a service that allows my agents to clock in using their phones which gives me an accurate report of the time they spend working.
Monday, October 19, 2009
How a Telephone Time Clock Eases Management Frustrations
Here's a scenario many business managers hope to never experience again: At the start of a shift, remote employees arrive late or don't report at all. Because the manager is still using paper-based time attendance tracking, she doesn't learn of the employee shortage until she receives the first frantic phone call. She spends the rest of the shift scrambling to call in other employees to cover the workload. Her carefully planned schedule and payroll budget just flew out the window!
What could have happened instead? By employing a telephone time clock system, this manager would have known immediately that her crew was half-staffed. Today's telephone-based time attendance tracking, tied to an online interface for management, allows managers to see right away which employees are absent.
Imagine the advantage of knowing at 9:01 p.m. that your cleaning crew in Biloxi has three employees missing. From your central office in Tupelo, you are able to start calling in reinforcements. Doesn't that sound like a much better way to do business, rather than waiting for the cleaning crew's panicked call at 9:30? This kind of control, via a phone time clock system, is a major advantage for companies with employees clocking in away from the home office.
Here's a quick overview of how that type of system works to ease the burden of management.
Step 1: Employees at remote locations call a phone number connected to your timekeeping service and report for duty.
Step 2: Managers can pull up real-time information online to learn who clocked in at each location.
Step 3: Necessary steps can be taken to shift workers to cover gaps in work crews.
Step 4: Timecards are easily retrieved and printed for use by the payroll department.
There's another major advantage to moving to a telephone time clock system. Because overtime is a huge issue for managers, being able to know immediately which employees are close to earning overtime allows those managers to adjust employee hours. There's no reason, with the easy availability of phone time clock systems, for any manager to live with the headache of unintended overtime. There's also no reason for you to get a late start trying to fill shifts when employees fail to report.
A well-planned online timekeeping strategy based on a phone time clock for employees can ease the pain of management without causing budget convulsions. The money you'll save in unintended overtime and lost revenue due to poor employee coverage will more than pay for your new telephone time and attendance tracking system.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Four Ways Conventional Timekeeping Costs Employers Money
Time attendance tracking -- it's at the very heart of managing off-site employees. Unfortunately, it can also be the reason money is walking out the door of your business. Here are four ways conventional time tracking can be costing you money, and also some solutions that may stop the bleeding.
Employee Time Padding: Traditional timecards still used by many companies for time attendance tracking are inexact, at best. Employee time padding is easily possible. Because you're not always able to monitor exactly when your off-site employees begin or end their shifts, you're taking it on faith that the time written on their time cards is truthful.
Solution: A telephone time clock, on the other hand, records the exact time the employee calls in to begin working. Time padding can be a thing of the past using this method.
Payroll errors: Timecards require manual calculation by your staff each payroll cycle. If an addition error is made, employees may be overpaid (or underpaid.)Illegible employee handwriting and damaged or lost timecards represent their own potential hazards to your bottom line.
Solution: Using the phone time clock method for recording employee time, reports are automatically generated. This mitigates the risk of calculation errors in employee pay and also in payroll taxes.
Storage Space: Paper-based time records come with a built-in need for storage. File cabinets cost your business money, both for the equipment and the space required to house them.
Solution: By requiring off-site employees to call in their start and stop times to a telephone time clock system, records are stored digitally, requiring much less space for storage.
Time Lapse in Collecting Data: You may have a need to collect employee time data in between payrolls. Unfortunately, this can be difficult when your workforce is primarily off-site.
Solution: By implementing a phone time clock system, you can create real-time reports whenever necessary.
The time and money being wasted by using traditional timekeeping methods with off-site employees may be a major drain on your business. Investigate the telephone time clock options available and see just how much they could be saving your firm.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
No-Nonsense Management
Most businesses today have a time clock system in practice, whether it is a manual time clock, a computer time clock or a punch clock. Employers must have an accurate way for their employees to record their time periods worked. If an employee time card is reported inaccurately, the results can be costly to the employer. Have you, as an employer, ever considered a Telephone Time Clock?
There are many clear advantages when it comes to monitoring your employees and making sure the time they record on time cards is done properly. It saves you time and money to have an error-free system in place. This way there can be no question marks as to what hours are worked and whether your employee is being forthcoming. A Phone Time Clock takes the wonder and worry out of all of it, and with a simple phone call twice a day, everything is recorded neatly and at your access at any time. What could be better than that?
Every employer wants to believe their employees are being honest and truthful, but occasionally as unfortunate as it is, some employees may try to forge information to get more money. This can create real problems, especially when your employee may be working from an out-of-town location. If you want to be reassured your employee is recording and reporting in an accurate manner, then you need to invest in a Phone Time Clock system.
If your company needs to improve supervisor and employee communications, an Employee Time Clock will do just that. A supervisor can leave a message for any employee or a group of employees and rest assured that everyone receives the message, because the system requires the employees to listen to the messages at check in and checkout times.
No more miscommunications, no more missed calls, no more time card collections, no more payroll inaccuracies, no more having to track down employees, the Telephone Time Clock System does all of this for you, included in your service. The benefits far outweigh the risks and for employers who do not have the time or resources to track down employees, the system is a huge help. Saving time and money is extremely important to the success of any business and with a time-tracking system, all of your problems can be solved effortlessly and easily.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Managing Telecommuters Effectively
Managing telecommuters can be considered a challenge. It’s hard to determine what approach will work for everyone. For example, just because everything's OK with Mary it might not be working for John. What can you do? The first step is to set an organizational structure. Telecommuters need to be monitored in order to be kept accountable. That means, as a manager, you have to enlist a monitoring system… the telephone time card system is perfect for this job.
A strong manager looks for a trend. If you’re setting the standard, then you determine the job and delegate what the trend should b for that job. If letting your telecommuters work on the honor system for a week or a month starts a negative trend and you can determine that "it isn't working," you should take action immediately.
Enlist a monitoring system, ask questions and explore what might be going on with individual employees. If after a period of time, you have determined your needs, and communicated your expectations, it still isn't working, action needs to be taken. Action needs to be based on the guidelines of the job description, i.e., put them on a performance improvement plan and use the telephone monitoring system as an accountability tool.
Management is tough enough without having to worry about whether people are pulling their weight on the job. If you set into motion iron clad tools to make sure your employees are doing what they ought to be doing – you’ll save yourself time, trouble, and, over the long run, a truckload of money.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Managing a Home Office
If you own your own business or manage remote employees, chances are you've run into issues with distraction or disorganization. While owning your own business and securing legitimate online business opportunities is a great way to make a living, it's often difficult to stay focused when the stresses of everyday life are bearing down on you. The good news is that there are viable solutions!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Maximize Profits with the Telephone Time Card System!
Running a successful business during tough economic times takes a certain amount of intuition and forethought. Believe it or not, it is possible to thrive in business even when the world around you is erupting in chaos. The best ways to achieve business successes in chaotic times are to maintain an adequate level of organization and efficiency.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
It's Time to Make Time Worth Something
No matter what kind of business you run, taking control of your organization and your time management skills will be paramount for your success. That means it’s time to consider your options and look into the best possible ways to make the most of your management options.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Open the Lines of Communication
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Benefits of a Telephone Time Clock
The first employee time clock was invented more than 100 years ago and since that time, there have been many advances made in the world of time keeping. Is your business still using a time clock method that is dated and antiquated? Are you losing valuable time trying to track and verify employee time cards and records? If so, why? Why not graduate into the newest technology and update your ability to easily and accurately handle time card issues? There are more than a few reasons why manual time cards are a thing of the past and time attendance tracking time clock systems are now used more than ever.
The original time clock was born out of the need the Industrial Revolution created to keep accurate time records for paying countless numbers of workers. The concept from its inception was simple, a clock was attached to a mechanical stamp which recorded times a worker arrived and left on a card, which in essence created the first payroll record. Now, think about the world as it currently is, think about all the larger corporations that employee hundreds, if not thousands of workers. Can the same thing be done today to effectively manage a payroll of 5,000 employees? Probably not, this is why a phone time clock system is so invaluable for businesses today.
You may be wondering how an automated telephone time clock works and the answers are very simple. Employees are simply required to call one phone number to log into work for the day and once the work day has been completed, the employee calls back to the same phone number, enters log in information and the stop time is tracked for the day. Instead of swiping a badge, at the end of the pay period all the hours worked are automatically reported to the payroll department which drastically reduces errors and reduces hours spent combining paperwork. A phone time clock is one of the best ideas ever created for businesses that have remote employees, there is no way any time can be altered or forged, which results in no errors or mistakes of any type.
If you don’t already have one, a telephone time clock should be something you give serious consideration to, it is money well spent and a decision you will never regret.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
What a difference Chronotek makes
As the owner of a business that employs more than 100 people, many working from their homes and others working from one of our seven locations, I was looking for the right timekeeping method for all situations. Obviously I cannot be every place at every time. Often I wondered about some of my employees and the hours they actually work, versus the hours they report working. When I implemented Chronotek, it really forced my employees to be more accountable, which has helped increase overall productivity and reduce the expense of overtime. The use of Chronotek has really paid for itself. In these tough economic times, that is more important than ever. The telephone timekeeping system is easy, accurate and costs less than paying payroll staff to give out timecards, gather them and calculate them, and keep track of staff. I have found this system to be a valuable tool in helping management personnel communicate more effectively with their direct reports.
Because it is web based, you can access your Chronotek Administrative account from anywhere, on any computer, any time of day. I have been able to check up on employees at any time of the day or night. Chronotek’s system is very easy to use to add employees or include new job locations. I have been able to use the company’s text message alerts quite effectively to keep tabs on my employees. The system works by requiring employees to call a toll-free number for the purposes of clocking in and out. The data is immediately provided in real time. So you do not have to wait for a week or two to find out how many absences an employee has had, or how many times he or she has been late during a given week. It makes tracking trends very easy and simple. I use the Random Voice Verification feature so that I know for certain it is the correct employee using the system. Also, I know where my employees are calling from at any given time, thanks to patented caller-ID technology. And with the daily internal clock synchronization system, I know with absolute certainty that the times reflected are completely accurate for all my locations and for all my employees. Since we began using Chronotek, I have been able to put employee time card issues virtually out of my mind and focus on the reason I started my company in the first place—running my business.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Take Control of Your Time
If you are like many small business owners, you know how difficult and stressful it can be to keep track of each and every employee, their whereabouts and times worked. This is a nerve-wracking situation that leaves many business owners at a loss and causes undue stress and needless worry. There are ways around the manual time clocks and paper time cards are a thing of the past, now there is a telephone time clock system which takes the guess work out of time reporting and tracking. There are many benefits of having a system like this, particularly if your business has employees that work in the field from a remote location.
Now more than ever before, businesses are sending their employees into the field to handle a growing number of responsibilities. Using a system of this type is error-free and very simple. All an employee needs to do is dial to clock in using a toll-free number to clock into work. Taking a few seconds to enter an employee number and location code, an employee has effectively logged in for the start of the shift. Once the shift is completed, an employee calls back the same number and logs out; the network automatically updates and calculates the amount of time worked for the day. This is how simple it is to use a Phone Time Clock.
As an employer, there may be times when you want to view employee time cards, and with a telephone time clock you can employee data 24-hours a day, 7-days a week from any internet connection. There is no need to wait until the end of a pay period to retrieve data, no time spent wading through a large collection of time cards, no falsified information on time cards, no errors in calculations and the system works perfectly for all employees who work off-site. Time is money and money is valuable, so it is up to you as an employer to do whatever you can to save both, having a system of this nature removes countless time spent dealing with errors and inaccuracies. Never again will you need to worry about any employees making false claims or adding extra hours on a timecard, with a system that clocks a person in and out at the beginning of a work shift, and you never have to deal with discrepancies again. Take control of your business today and make every second count.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Managing Your Telecommuters
Choosing to hire telecommuters can be advantageous to both the hiring company and the employee. And telecommuters are a growing industry, being chosen by more employees looking to tighten their budget and by more companies trying to find a better employee system. Telecommuting employees can be a great choice for a company, because they cut down on time employees have to miss work due to illness or transportation problems, plus, employees are more prone to spend their time working if they do not have the distraction of co-workers. Although the idea of managing telecommuters may seem daunting, it can actually be quite an easy task.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Keep Track of Your Employees Via Telephone
What is more of a headache each month than dealing with employee time cards? It is so easy to miscalculate or worry with dishonest employees, that working with time cards becomes tedious and extremely stressful. Traditional time cards such as punch cards can be hard to read and easily manipulated. Computer time programs can accidentally get miscalculated with the wrong time zone. Usually, with traditional systems, employers have to wait until the end of the month to view and monitor their employees’ time. What if there was a simple way for employees to clock in? What if there was a time system that employers could access online twenty four-hours a day whenever they chose to look? What if employers had a system that could not be tampered with by untrustworthy employees? There is such a system out there. It is simple. It is accurate. And it involves that everyday device, the telephone.
Telephone time card systems are easy ways to keep track of employee time in an efficient and quick manner. These telephone systems work in a basic method. When an employee arrives for work, they dial a certain number to clock in and the time is recorded. When they get ready to leave for the day, they again dial a number to clock out. There is no figuring involved. There is no complicated set of keys to press or time zones and such to confuse the issue. It is as simple as dialing a number.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Better Manage Your Remote Employees
If you manage a firm that hires off site employees, you’ve probably spent some time wondering what you can do to make sure that your offsite employees maintain an adequate level of productivity and success, and that their work ethics don’t falter. As an offsite employee manager, you must communicate clearly what expectations you require of your remote workers, not only with this include key milestones, but deadlines and time management as well. According to some leading professionals in this area, “The milestones should be firm and short term to ensure that work is acceptable, timely and coordinated with on-site employees. Feedback on progress should be specific, measurable, timely and action-oriented. Above all, your remote workers should feel that they can easily seek out a supervisor for advice, counsel and input.”
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Telephone Time Clocks, the Answer You Have Been Searching For
No more wondering if they are working, or trying to keep track of your employees and the hours they work from another state. Rest assured that you are getting the hours they are required to work as well as the attendance they are required to give. This user-friendly process will come with all the instructions you need in order to start your employees on a telephone time clock program. No matter what state you live in as opposed to what state your employees reside, you will be sure to keep the correct attendance and hours worked on record. You will find with this wonderful new employee time clock the days of wondering and stress are behind you. Enjoy knowing that your employees' time and attendance is being kept to the exact minute with the dependable telephone time clock.
It is very common in today’s world for an employer to live in a different city or state than their employees so the telephone time clock just simplifies paperwork for both the employer as well as the employee when it comes to “punching into work.” Why not reduce the stress of being a business owner with the purchase of the telephone time clock? As a business owner you have enough to worry about than adding your employees' hours worked and attendance to the stack and with the use of the wonderful telephone time clock you and eliminate that worry.
From this point on you can take comfort in the fact that you know for sure rather you have an employee that is working the required hours or if you have an employee with an attendance problem. Start using the telephone time clock for your employees today and stop worrying about their hours worked or their attendance.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
How To Save Money for Your Business
Have you ever thought about using Telephone Time Clock Software for Time and Attendance purposes? If not, you are missing out on some great benefits and saving precious time spent hunched over manually figuring out time cards. With a remote monitoring system, this can be a thing of the past.
The Phone Time Clock is very easy to use and simple to operate. All an employee has to do is simply dial an 800 number to clock into their place of employment. You enter your employee code and location code and that’s it, you are clocked in and ready to start your day.
To use the Phone Time Clock system to clock out at the end of your day, it is quite simple. Once your shift ends, you call the exact same 800 number to clock out. You do nothing; the system calculates the amount of time for you automatically, so there is no margin for error.
The next advantage of a Telephone Time Clock system is that all your employee time card information all of the employee data and time information is available to your 24-hours a day on computer. You can access the information from any desktop or laptop computer anywhere, at any time. You don’t have to wait until the end of the time period to get access your information, you waste no time collecting time cards, you don’t have to worry about time card accuracy or errors and the system is perfect for all employees who work off-site.
Think about all the money you can save your company using a Time Attendance Tracking Time Clock. The system is highly accurate, provides caller-ID information, and because the system is pay-per-use, your company is only charged for the times you actually use it, no hidden “extra” charges and no start-up fees are just two more advantages.
Time is a valuable commodity and now more than ever, employers need to do whatever possible to save time and money. A Phone Time Clock is an excellent way to save time and money for your business, and time is money so start saving now.