Minimize Time Sheet Errors

Posted on November 12, 2010 by asuresoftware

In Austin, one of three City employees recently accused of timesheet padding was cleared of all charges. After being placed on administrative leave for a $2000 dispute, Mrs. Priddy is back on the job –with a formal written reprimand on her personnel file. She shouldn’t have been forced to leave, even temporarily. The fault isn’t with her or her fellow employees: The problem is with the time sheet management system implemented by Austin, Texas.

After turning in her timesheets, Mrs. Priddy asked for a few overtime hours, and was given approval. She worked those hours, and then placed them on her next time sheet. Despite supervisor approval, the City required her to participate in another process for overtime clearance. Mrs. Priddy was the subject of an investigation, was suspended from her job and received a permanent reprimand – all because of a nightmarish bureaucratic system that resulted in substantial monies lost for all involved.

It’s important as an employer for you to know what the other hand is doing. If employees are following protocol properly, it isn’t in your best interests for them to be investigated for fraud. The solution is for a time sheet software program that opens up lines of communication between managers and employees and gives both sides a way to handle their responsibilities with regards to timesheets.

While the methods of punching in vary drastically from company to company, everyone needs to accurately fill and fulfill timesheets. The time sheet, then, must be part of a larger process in order to work. What use is a filled timesheet if payroll can’t open the file? How can a manager approve overtime if the employee is unable to submit a request? They might sound like simple enough questions, but in the workplace nothing is ever as simple as it should be. Mrs. Priddy could tell you as much.

Inclusion is the key. Timesheets need to be integrated with time clocks, so punching in also fills up the time sheet. Those timesheets should be visible to payroll, employees, and employers, to ensure that accuracy is maintained. Employers must have access to requests for time off or time sheet adjustments as soon as possible, and employees in turn need a simplified request process. When all facets of your company can access the same materials for timesheets, and those timesheets can be used across platforms, accuracy and efficiency in payroll will rise.

Mrs. Priddy found out the hard way that old systems for timesheets are more than inconvenient; they can be detrimental to the business and employees alike. Moving timesheets into the modern age will go a long way to helping your business run best – and will ensure your employees aren’t investigated for fraud.

Posted in Time Management, Timesheet Automation | Tagged automated payroll, online timesheets, time and attendance, time management tools, timesheet, web based timesheets, workplace efficiency | Leave a comment

3 Secrets of PTO Management

Posted on November 10, 2010 by asuresoftware

It’s easy to think of time sheets as the beginning and end of payroll. Keeping track of employee time accurately and efficiently is hard enough, after all! However, even if you’ve successfully navigated the minefield of scheduling and payroll, there’s still more to consider. Paid Time Off (or PTO) is a way to combine vacation and sick time, thus streamlining an already complicated process. PTO software can now give you options to effectively implement a PTO system for your business.

SECRET 1 – Scheduling, Scheduling, Scheduling

Pre-scheduling is required for planned absences such as vacation, planned medical treatment or purely personal reasons, such as parent/teacher conferences. PTO tracking is easier when it’s scheduled, to be sure. You’ll want a comprehensive calendar for your payroll and PTO software. Consider the advantages: both managers and employees can view upcoming assignments or their schedule, which also gives PTO tracking for pending, approved or rejected requests. With such a system in place, employees can also find the best times to request PTO merely by looking at the calendar.

SECRET 2 – Information is Power

Especially as it relates to PTO tracking. Employees should be able to easily find their PTO balances. Specific business rules for PTO management – such as different categorizations of PTO – need to be visible to everyone and clear once implemented by managers. To that end, it’s also important to ensure administrators have the ability to quickly approve or reject requests, ideally from centralized inbox. PTO management is more effective when everyone knows their own obligations and responsibilities. Once that’s established, PTO tracking is much easier for all involved.

Secret 3 – Simplify!

Henry David Thoreau said: “Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify, simplify.” In any facet of business — or life, for that matter — it’s good advice. As pertaining to PTO management, it’s absolutely essential. Parsing down the myriad PTO options into simple, accessible interfaces that both employees and managers can view is a great way to ensure more communication and less mistakes. When employees are accountable for their PTO and administrators are accurately engaged in PTO tracking, your company will be running much more smoothly. Not to mention you’ll have a happier group of employees! The logistical mess of vacation/sick/leave days is a thing of the past with new PTO software options.

 

Photo courtesy juanedc

Posted in Payroll Interests, Time Management | Tagged paid time off, payroll software, pto, pto management, pto software, pto tracking | Leave a comment

The Limitations of Free

Posted on October 27, 2010 by asuresoftware

Open source is the hot word on everyone’s lips, and for many, there’s nothing better than “free.” But when it comes to timesheets software, there are some serious limitations to using a free system for web based timesheets.

1. The free-est of free — no online timesheet at all. Many small businesses still use free timesheet templates in an Excel program to manage the time tracking of their employees. Yes, they are free, but there are reasons why we evolved past offline time tracking and toward web based timesheets. First, just like using an offline Word doc instead of a shared, real-time word processing system like Google Apps, there is the inefficiency of utilizing a “hard copy” system, where one person has the most updated version at all times. If two people are making changes, there’s no way of knowing the data in the latest copy unless you merge the two. Second, with manual inputs, there is a very high margin of error. Excel won’t tell you if your numbers don’t make sense! Paid online timesheets software and services often offer that kind of “smart” technology that prevent against inaccuracies.

2. Lack of integrated HR services. Most free web based timesheets are just that — timesheets. There’s not much more other than web based time tracking. Looking for integrated HR services such as benefits-related information for each employee? Free systems won’t give you the full package: keeping track of pertinent data such as vacation days, sick days, pay rates, and benefits levels for each employee in addition to regular payroll data. By keeping the data in one place, you can eliminate redundant data entry and facilitate employee benefit tracking as it relates to payroll issues.

3. It’s free now — but not forever. If you look at this list of a few timesheets software services, you’ll see that most are subscription based. Yet many might not seem so at first, or are very inexpensive. Be wary of these “free-ish” web based time programs. Some offer low base processing rates, but have expensive add-on features, so your total fees paid may wind up being more costly than those of a provider with slightly higher fees. Also, some services waive charges upon sign-up, but then raise their rates after six months to a year of service — conveniently after you and your employees have adopted the system, according to the Yahoo Small Business Center.

Moral of the story? Free is great — when it’s for basic needs, and when it’s really free. But your company or organization has more than just basic needs for both timesheets software and quality services to match. Meet the demands of your workforce with a low-cost, high-value online timesheet system.

Tagged free software, iEmployee, online timesheets, open source, payroll automation, productivity, pto management, SaaS, time and attendance | Leave a comment

Protect Against Loss with Time & Attendance Software

Posted on October 14, 2010 by asuresoftware

A man in California was recently caught falsifying his time sheets at work, to the tune of over $16,000 in falsifications, reported the Mercury News. Hired by the Alameda Police Department in January 2007, the new employee  had begun doctoring his time sheets within the month. Only this September was the theft revealed by internal review.

Every employer shudders when they read news like this, but the truth is there are countless companies losing comparable amounts of money every day for the same reason that this man went undetected for almost 3 full years: outdated and inaccurate methods of monitoring employee time and attendance.

New technologies have modernized the process to some extent, thoug even just having the latest online timeclock technology isn’t a comprehensive resolution by itself. There are a few important areas to be considered:

Employee Scheduling

Even under optimal situations, writing a schedule is a challenging experience. Juggling individual requests with work goals, time sheets with payroll limitations  — just to name a few —  requires a fine management hand. The most effective employee scheduling needs to  meet the needs of the company and the needs of the employee, a requirement that’s simple only in theory. Of course, the best laid plans can still go to waste. Which is why…

Time Management

…is so vital. Whether it’s hotel hospitality or law enforcement, the time and attendance of employees is emphatically important to business. Yet, it’s a complicated area: many managers would like to view time sheets as soon as they’re filled in, and employees who request or need approval for additional hours want real-time answers. The proper time and attendance software will bridge those gaps: Online timeclock punch-in is an exemplary way to simplify the process of punching in, and attendance tracking online allows supervision of those hours by a manager or administrator. By empowering employees and employers with more data, you help ensure payroll accuracy.

Punching In

Not all industries can have their employees check in with an online timeclock. For those companies that depend on a physical timeclock, the ideal model is easy to operate for employees and integrates smoothly with the payroll software. Simple mistakes such as an employee forgetting to clock in will then become easy fixes. No need to reprint that Excel spreadsheet! Spending less time tracking employee time while reducing the materials traditionally used for payroll is possible with the right equipment.While the exorbitant theft of the police technician is an anomaly, ensuring accuracy and transparency in payroll records is of foremost significance to guard against losses. A penny saved, after all, is a penny earned.

*image courtesy SqueakyMarmot

Posted in News, Time Management | Tagged fraud, iEmployee, online timeclock, online timesheets, payroll fraud, payroll security, payroll software, pto management, pto software, pto tracking, SaaS, time and attendance, time management tools, workplace efficiency | Leave a comment

PTO Tracking: 3 Key Ways to Avoid “I Didn’t Know”

Posted on October 12, 2010 by admin

One of the most commonly used phrases in the workplace — and at 4th grade recess, for that matter — is “I didn’t know!” There are many cases when information is public and has been shared, but it’s not pushed toward the people who really need to know it on a daily basis.

In the latter case, kids might “know” deep down that you’re not supposed to push others on the playground, but unless there is a constant reminder of it, they tend to forget. In the workplace, employees might be “aware” of a big product launch coming up in November, but unless the PTO tracking system implemented by their employer reminds them — either when they check in to the PTO management calendar, or the PTO software reminds them with a notification — they might “forget” and try to slip in some time off during that critical month when they are needed the most.

How do you avoid situations like this? That’s easy. It’s all about visibility. If your employees have constant access to their own personal PTO calendar, which matches up with key business events, phases, and acknowledged office holidays throughout the year, they’ll be less likely to say “I didn’t know.” With iEmployee’s Online PTO tracking, there are key features that prevent this from happening, and to increase productivity and morale, in one fell swoop:

1. The PTO Calendar. With a calendar interface that everyone is familiar with — the flexible daily/weekly/monthly plan — both managers and employees can view time-off requests. See at a glance what requests have been approved, rejected, or are still pending. With fully visible, company-wide PTO tracking, they can take it one step further and see where co-workers have requested time off, which often reduces the numbers of overlapping requests from the same department or project. And, just as with every iEmployee product, all of this visibility takes place online, so each employee and manager has 24-7 access to the information, whether they are on their work PC, home computer, or mobile phone.

2. Full integration into Microsoft Outlook. Managing multiple calendars is a huge pain, and can be very inefficient. That’s why iEmployee’s online PTO tracking software deliberately hooks in to Outlook. Managers and employees can take their approved time-off and export it to Outlook, to remind both themselves and co-workers who might try to book meetings with them during particular weeks that they will not be available. Having the plug into Outlook also means that users can choose to receive automated reminders, too.

3. The Accruals Wizard. iEmployee’s signature Accruals Wizard is the ultimate tool for employees to easily view how much time they have accrued using paid time off tracking software. Better still, managers and administrators can create business rules by which employees accrue time-off and share them with all employees — much like actually putting up a sign on the playground that lays out the ground rules.

With iEmployees’ PTO software, there’s really no excuse for lack of PTO management in the workplace. When you implement sophisticated (yet easy to use!) PTO tracking in your organization, “I didn’t know” is no longer an option!

Posted in HR, PTO | Tagged hr vacation, iEmployee, paid time off tracking software, payroll automation, payroll software, productivity, pto management, pto software, pto tracking, time and attendance, time management tools, vacation management, vacation tracking | Leave a comment

A Tax on Health Benefits? What Will (and Won’t) Change on Your Paystub & W2

Posted on October 1, 2010 by asuresoftware

The year 2011 is still a ways off, but they say it’s never too early to think about taxes. This past spring, the government announced that it would require employers to show the value of health care benefits on employee’s W2 forms, which threw a lot of people into a tizzy. Many thought this meant they would have to pay taxes on health care benefits they receive from their employers, Portfolio noted at the time. And to top it off, that these taxes would be deducted automatically from their payroll, viewable only as extra deductions on their bi-monthly paystub.

As the White House scrambled to dispute the rumors, two major points had to be made:

1. Though the W2s had to list the insurance value starting from 2011, no taxes would be assessed or collected until 2018 — the year that the projected health care reform would take place. The Democrats who wrote the bill wanted to give workers time to adapt, columnist Stephen Koff explained. They argued that many teachers, firefighters and other unionized public workers don’t make big salaries but at least get good benefits, and a sudden tax on those benefits would hurt. So they rolled back the tax, which the Senate had wanted to kick in at a lower threshold.

2. Insurers are the ones who are paying the 40% tax the portion of employer-sponsored “Cadillac” health-plan benefits, defined as those that exceed $10,200 for individuals or $27,500 for families, not including stand-alone vision or dental benefits. The limit includes employer and employee portions of the premiums, plus any employee contributions to tax-favored health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts. The average employer-sponsored plan for a family costs $13,375, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, with the employer picking up $9,860 of the cost.

Still, insurers are expected to pass the higher costs on to employers, which are likely to pass them to employees or to trim coverage — such as by increasing deductibles — so the premiums will fall below the tax threshold, reported Kiplinger.

What does this mean for your online payroll system? Not much, except that your payroll software provider may have to adjust their interface on pay stubs in 2012, should the monthly tax assessment be viewed there. But as of now, it’s merely a W2 alteration, which you probably won’t notice until it’s time to start thinking about 2011 taxes. Still, best to partner with a online payroll provider that is quick to adapt to new legislation that impacts pay stubs, W2s, and payroll processes.

* Photo courtesy stevehdc
Posted in Current Trends, News | 1 Comment

Time is Money. Spend it the Same Way.

Posted on September 28, 2010 by asuresoftware

How many times have you heard someone say “time is money” in the workplace? In a business argument or discussion? As part of a title or headline? Probably more times than you can keep count. But just because it’s a platitude, doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. Time really is money — it’s a commodity that has value, can be traded, tracked, accounted for, wasted and saved, among other things.

So why not just go head and treat time just like you do real money? Below are three ways that you can apply your cash-savvy skills to time management, too.

Invest in time-saving techniques. Just as you have to spend money to make money, you often have to spend time to save it. Here are 10 tips to help you learn how to invest in techniques that will save time later, such as creating a system for better task efficiency, reading carefully and taking notes, and even taking some time for a time-out.

Barter. Just as money can be traded for items that you want or need, time can be used to “buy” items as well in the workplace. Some of the people who are best at time management are able to effectively “trade” their time for that of others to best accomplish tasks that require various skill sets. For example, say you are tasked with the job of setting up a new system that will help your office’s sales department in Des Moines stay up to date with the numbers of a satellite office in Mumbai. You might feel very frustrated by obstacles that appear insurmountable, such as possible language barriers, technological incompatibilities, or lack of a real-time shared document program.

But perhaps there is someone in your office or on your team who speaks Hindi, or better understands localization issues of the software you’re using, or who has used a great shared spreadsheet system before and can recommend it. Ask them to help you out, and if the amount of time they must invest grows beyond a mere favor, you can always barter your own time for it. In other words, offer some of your skills or connections to them for future needs; they’ll no doubt come collect when problems arise that you can help solve! In addition to helping both of your schedules, you’re also building a set of solid professional relationships.

Create a hierarchy. In a given day, you spend a varied amount of money. A few dollars for a coffee in the morning, some for lunch. Maybe you step out of the office to buy a gift, or a bottle of wine on the way home. Dinner out, the week’s groceries, a new pair of shoes. A new stereo system for your remodeled living room? A new car? Now we’re getting into the upper echelons of money spending.

Sure, you can keep track of your expenses on a monthly and yearly basis, and get a good idea of your budget and spending habits. But on a daily basis, do you track all of your finances? Probably not, as (ironically) it just takes too much time to do so. The same goes for time management. If you do not create a hierarchy of time blocks — 5 minutes as opposed to 5 hours — when you are accomplishing tasks, you might end up spending your time doing overly fragmented tasks or miring yourself in one large one. The secret is putting your tasks in categories.

The best part about an automated time and attendance system is that it does this for you already! Time and attendance software and online timesheets like iEmployee will divide all employee’s timesheets into categories into which they and their managers can assign certain tasks and projects, ensuring that no effort is left untracked. With our robust time and attendance reporting, both parties can review tracked time on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis to find out exactly where that time is being invested — and how.

Posted in Time Management | Tagged iEmployee, productivity, time and attendance, Time is Money, time management tools, workplace efficiency | Leave a comment

Paystub Inaccuracies Can Cost You Big

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Gary Peterson

Paystubs, believe it or not, are not mandatory. That is, under the Fair Labor of Standards Acts (FLSA), employers must maintain accurate record-keeping of payroll records and records upon which wage computation are based, such as time cards. But federal law does not require them to provide employees with a pay stub. However, some states have these requirements — it all just depends. In California, for instance, employers must provide their employees with an itemized wage statement whenever he pays her wages by check or in cash. In Arizona, it’s only necessary if the employee is paid via direct deposit.

How do you know if it’s required in your state? Just check your local Department of Labor agency. Regardless if a paystub is a requirement or not, if you issue it like the majority of employers, it has to be accurate. Recently, the Bank of America went through a serious paystub and payroll nightmare when it received 12 consolidated wage-and-hour suits against it, with claims that it failed to issue accurate paystubs. The bank has settled — to the tune of $4.7 million dollars, reported Law360 (reg req’d). How can you avoid such costly errors? Use a payroll software online that you can trust to minimize clerical errors. A good payroll solution will allow you to:

  • Provide paystub information simply and efficiently
  • Eliminate printing, distribution and reprinting costs
  • Reclaim valuable time through employee self-service
  • Maintain an online archive of all paystubs for quick reference

You can get accurate, easy access paystubs and payroll information so quickly with an online payroll solution. Better yet, import data safely from 3rd parties. iEmployee uses a proprietary interface that integrates with leading payroll systems so you can seamlessly transfer empoyee data. It’s super safe, too. We’ve partnered with Savvis, a leading data center provider, to secure your data and make sure it is available when you need it.

Posted in Payroll Interests, Productivity | Leave a comment

3 Tips for Great PTO Management

Posted on September 21, 2010 by asuresoftware

PTO — that well-known perk that most employees use…the ability to take the day off from work, but still receive regular pay. New employees are generally given 14 days a year in which they can take a vacation, enjoy a holiday, stay at home when they’re sick, or just take a personal day. What’s not to love?

From an employer perspective, however, paid time off can be a huge headache. PTO abuse from employees or poor management of PTO tracking by employers can cost companies millions of dollars in over time. In fact, failure to maintain an adequate system of checks and balances can cost companies about 3% of their total operating costs, or as high as 15% in some industries, according to a report by AppMail[M1] . For a 1,000-person company with an average annual salary of $115,000 and 20% turnover, that translates to $330,000!

“While abuse of PTO may not be the most scandalous of indiscretions, not accounting for PTO is a little faux pas that can add up to a real liability. ” - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

How do you as an employer avoid the costs of poor PTO tracking? There’s one obvious solution: use PTO best practices. By practicing good PTO management you can see improvements in cost and liability control, higher productivity, and higher employee morale. And it works both ways: companies with higher morale are less likely to abuse PTO, experts have noted.

Below are a few best practices for PTO management that you can employ in your workplace:

1. Improve the system — make it easy. Typically, the process of requesting, reporting and tracking PTO has been manual and cumbersome. When you have to go through a lot of steps to complete a task that is not on your priority list for the day (and believe us, PTO never is!) it will likely get postponed, or not done at all. If the employee is expected to initiate and follow up on the process of requesting time off, it’s also less likely to get done, especially for the occasional afternoon or day off due to an illness or medical appointment. If you make it easy and intuitive to report PTO by using paid time off tracking software, you’ll be amazed at your adoption rates.

2. Set appropriate expectations for managers to track PTO — and make it easy for them, too. Managers who approve and review PTO will appreciate having PTO tracking software, too. Again, if it’s easy, they’ll do it; if not, it’ll get pushed to tomorrow…or next week. A PTO form, for example, could be filled out by the employee, but if it never gets approved and leaves the manager’s desk, it’s as if it was never done at all. That PTO will likely never get deducted from the employee’s account, notes HR.com.

3. Reports and tools. Make sure your PTO tracking software provides a robust set of tools for managers so they can better address absenteeism issues. Your PTO software should also provide regular reports for both employee and manager.

What’s the alternative to this? Continue to waste time and money on poor PTO practices. Here’s another alternative — get rid of PTO altogether! What’s that, you’re shocked? Well, it won’t work at all for most companies, but there are a few companies that have experimented with eliminating paid time off policies completely. Netflix, for instance, has done so, and note in their presentation on company culture:

“We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked. Just as we don’t have a nine to five day policy, we don’t need a vacation policy.”

Posted in HR | Tagged iEmployee, productivity, pto management, pto software, PTO tips, pto tracking, time and attendance, time management tools | Leave a comment

Nonprofit Spotlight: Use PTO Tracking to Reduce Absenteeism

Posted on September 3, 2010 by asuresoftware

Did you know? Last-minute absenteeism is a big problem in the nonprofit and government world. Employees that serve the public tend to feel more entitled than private sector employees in using their sick leave even when they are not ill, reported The Nonprofit Times.

Even as early as 10 years ago, nonprofits were realizing that they too could achieve better workplace efficiencies by using strategies like PTO policy to lower the number of unscheduled absences in their organization. By implementing a system for paid time off and PTO tracking, managers could schedule time off in advance or set up overtime, and people were less likely to “call in sick” at the end of the year to use up all of their allotted time.

Nonprofits that started using PTO tracking and PTO management also found that people tended to call in sick less frequently and their organization lost less valuable worker time during the on-the-job hours. Merging sick time with vacation time can also mean that time becomes more flexible, with workers choosing to use the time or carry it over for the following year. Some nonprofits and government organizations, in the spirit of their altruistic missions, also have started programs where employees can create a pool in which to donate paid time off for colleagues that are in need.

One big trend in the PTO world is that people’s lifestyle have changed, and the old model of using paid time off for overtime sick leave or vacation only has changed. The “personal day” has evolved to mean many other things beyond illness and family issues, as modern schedules and work models change. For example, some nonprofit HR models now incorporate allowances for daycare pick-up and drop-off, half-days, and virtual work-from-home days.

Stress levels have increased, too, in the past decade, and often account for many absences. What’s that? Nonprofit employees are stressed? Absolutely. As the labor market becomes tight, there is “no demarcation between nonprofits and for-profits,” the article noted. “People are doing more work and organizations are running a tight ship.” Nonprofit HR has to account for this evolution and adapt accordingly, they suggest. One way to start is to check out some of the great resources on the web, from Idealist’s Human Resource Center to the Center Point for Leader Toolkit. You can also start using software like iEmployee to automate processes and make PTO tracking easy to implement.

Posted in Current Trends, Payroll Interests, Time Management | Tagged absenteeism, human resources, non-profit, payroll automation, productivity, pto management, pto software, time and attendance | Leave a comment