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Time tracking and payroll go hand in hand. Tracking employee hours lets you know when they’re working and ultimately factors into the calculations of how much to pay them when payday rolls around. Whether you’re just diving into the time tracking world or have been there a while, you’re probably thinking, “Couldn’t this be easier?”
The answer is yes, it absolutely can be. And you don’t even need a Time Turner or an eccentric scientist friend to build a Delorean for it to be so.
When we took on Timesheet Mobile (TSM), we knew it fit right in with the Wagepoint spirit of keeping things simple. So, of course we jumped at this opportunity to showcase just how easy time tracking can be with TSM for both Canadian and US small business owners.
There are so many great features, but we forced ourselves to only pick a few that really take things to the next level.
Three ways to start and stop the clock.
Does the thought of punching in and out for work conjure an image of old school punch clocks? We can practically hear the thunk of the machine physically making the punch. Thankfully, with three ways to start the clock at the beginning of a shift and stop it at the end, things just got easier with TSM.
Bob Drainville, Director of Time, Wagepoint
Bob Drainville, Director of Time at Wagepoint (we’re not certain this role didn’t come with superpowers), let us know the three ways that employees can clock their time.
- Web entry: The employee can log into TSM in a browser and enter hours.
- Facial recognition kiosk: Set up TSM on a tablet, laptop or other device with a camera, and it can use facial recognition to identify the employee. (This is especially great to avoid buddy punching!)
- Smartphone app: The fanciest of TSM’s options, the smartphone app has features like geofencing (keep reading for more about that!), location tracking and more.
One of the great things about TSM is you don’t have to marry yourself to one method or another. If you want some employees to use web entry, they can. If you want others at a kiosk, you got it. If you have employees working off site, no problem! Bob’s only recommendation is that the same method is used to punch in and punch out.
Geofencing: Time tracking’s magic ingredient.
When your employees use the TSM smartphone app while working offsite, there are two key things that come into play: Geofencing and location tracking. But what the heck is geofencing anyway?
To put it simply, geofencing uses the location where an employee should be (the worksite) and registers a radius of a certain distance around that site. The system will automatically create a “fence,” but you as the employer can adjust it in your setup.
Once it’s ready, the smartphone app will use GPS to find and register when your employee is and remind them to punch in or punch out if they don’t do so within the geofenced area.
The smartphone app has some really key features for compliance. Any time and attendance system that you may have used or you’re thinking of using, we all have the same challenges: We’re all human, so employees forget to use the app. “Oh, I forgot to punch in this morning.” So then it’s right back on the manager to go and enter those times.
— Bob Drainville, Director of Time, Wagepoint
Geofencing with the smartphone app takes that time tracking task off your plate as a manager or employer. See? Magic!
Simplify employee scheduling with auto scheduling.
If you’re a big fan of taking tasks, especially time tracking ones, off your managerial or employer-sized plate, you’ll love auto scheduling in TSM. This takes the manual, drag and drop process of picking an employee and putting them on the schedule and throws it right out the window. Here’s how it works.
When you set up your employee profiles, you can enter their roles, qualifications and other important details for doing their jobs. If you have a timeframe when you need employees with specific skill sets, you can use the auto scheduling feature, and with just the click of a button, TSM will pull from those details to match employees with the shift. It even takes into account things like overtime so you don’t have employees scheduled for too many hours. How cool is that?
The tip of the TSM time tracking iceberg.
We picked those three TSM features because we saw them as ones you could get super stoked about. Not to mention that they make time tracking super easy. If you’re wowed by these , there’s so much more where that came from. Reporting, easy shift swapping, messaging and integrations are some other great features to sink your teeth into.
So, with TSM, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Time tracking really did just get easier.
Key timestamps from the webinar.
We recommend going back to the top of the page and watching the entire webinar to absorb all the goodness that TSM has to offer. If you’re just looking to whet your palette, here are some key timestamps from the recording that might pique your interest.
- About Timesheet Mobile: 3:06
- Meet the speakers: 4:33
- Why automate time tracking?: 7:38
- Time tracking and Timesheet Mobile ease-of-use overview: 11:28
- Timesheet Mobile feature overview: 20:40
- Three ways to enter time: 23:45
- Employee Import Wizard: 27:17
- Timesheet Mobile demo
- Manager dashboard: 28:14
- Employees tab: 29:28
- Sites tab: 30:39
- Activity log: 33:08
- Reporting: 35:50
- Vacation and sick time: 40:06
- Scheduling and auto scheduling: 41:53
- Messaging: 45:36
- Q&A: 47:40
