Five Most Frequently Asked Questions About Telephone Time Clocks

Telephone time clocks are useful in almost all industries; the effects on the bottom line of time card padding and rounding on the company budget are oftentimes very surprising once analyzed. One simple and effective solution is to use telephone time clocking, where a toll-free number is dialled when the employee starts work, and again when they finish. The times are recorded and collated by an online system. As simple as the concept is, the process is quite foreign to many people and there are often a slew of initial questions! Today we endeavor to answer some of the more common questions about telephone time clock systems.

1. The system costs me money to use -- where are the savings over simply having people record their starting time?
   With a manual timesheet system, employees must record their times manually. There are always factors like time card padding, even by a few minutes, the difficulty of calculating very precise time increments, and there are calculation errors to be made at every turn. Telephone time clocking starts instantly saving you money by eliminating time card padding -- only the exact hours that are worked are clocked.
2. How do I know someone else won’t clock on and off for them?
   Some telephone time clocking systems have a Random Voice Verification feature, which will ask the employee to speak a phrase or their code in order to clock in. This does not need to be utilized for every call.
3. Why wouldn’t they just clock in and out from home, or leave it a while before calling?
   Patented caller-id technology is incorporated into many telephone time clocking systems to ensure that employees are clocking in and out from appropriate locations. If you consistently note that calls are made from the employee's home address, you can take whatever action is necessary.
4. Technology isn’t always accurate, though!
   In this system where time is of the essence, measures are taken to ensure the accuracy of time-clock records. The servers that support the process are synchronized to an internal clock daily.
5. How do I know if the system will suit me?
   Use the free trial of the software and platform to evaluate whether this is a good solution for your company, and to allay any process or operational concerns about telephone time clocking.