Monday, December 14, 2009

Phone Time Attendance Tracking Helps Store Managers Shine

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!

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?