Electronic Timekeeping

[kdspa]

Hi Everyone,

We recently (February) moved to an electronic timekeeping system in lieu of paper timesheets. We're still struggling through some transition/practice/policy issues regarding the change. The system we have requires employees to approve their time record at the end of the payperiod. Unfortunately, employees can't do this until after the pay period ends, so an employee whose last day is a Friday can't even access their timesheet to approve it until Monday. A question recently came up about whether or not we should require separated employees to electronically approve their timesheets after they have left the company (fired or quit). What do you think? Anyone else have this situation?

Also, for those of you who track time electronically, would you mind sharing with me what system you use? We use TimeIPS and are mostly displeased...

[Still Need Coffee]

In my opinion, separated employees should not be approving timesheet after they have been fired or quit - there is just too much potential for employees who are unhappy with you to fudge their numbers a bit. Instead, have a supervisor override function that allows supervisors or the payroll department to approve the hours instead.

We don't have employees approve their timesheets because we found it was a redundant extra step. In our policies, we basically state that employees are responsible for the accuracy of their time cards and/or PTO information, and falsifying time or vacation records is an offense that will likely result in termination. We feel that's a good enough deterrent. However, we do have the supervisors approve timesheets instead. The supervisor is in the best position to know whether their employees worked those hours, or correctly entered PTO for sick days, vacation time, etc. Our software provides a mass-transaction editor that allows them to approve timesheets in one click, so it works for us without too much intrusion on a supervisor's duties.

For our timekeeping system, we used to use TimeClock Plus, which was so antiquated that we had to get rid of it. In early 2009 we went to Paychex Time & Labor Online, and while clocking in/out or submitting a PTO request is very easy, the administration side of it is a bit cumbersome. I can't say in all honesty that I'd recommend them, but for the time being, it suffices for our needs.

Best of luck!

[ACU Frank]

I use ADP's ezLabor system, and it's been a mixed bag. ADP is upgrading my system (I'm told) in October, and most of my issues should go away.

We are extremely rigid when it comes to timesheets and approvals, requiring the electronic timesheet to be printed, physically signed by the employee and the supervisor, and retained on file. (I'm not saying I like our system, but it is what it is.) In fact, even our CEO follows the same process as the rest of the employees. But even as rigid as we are, I'm not going to chase down terminated employees for timesheet approval. I try to take a lot of extra care to ensure it is absolutely correct, and if there's a question the supervisor can't answer, I err on the side of the employee. Once in a great while, they will call me after they get the final check and let me know we made a mistake, and I fix it. That has only happened three or four times in nearly four years.