Paper Timesheets have evolved to Time and Attendance … have you?

Paper timesheets were great. So was getting around on a horse before we had cars! Save time and money for your commercial cleaning business with simple, easy to use software and apps.

Paper Timesheets - ugh ... but we had to start somewhere

They allowed staff to record the time spent on a job so we can have a record against which to pay them. But guess what? They result in a mountain of lost time chasing them up, trying to read them, entering the data and did I mention chasing them up?!

And let’s not tar everyone with the same brush, but some people lie. Little white lies, but those extra minutes added when rounding up on manual time sheets add up, and result in inaccurate timesheets, charges and payments.

We also spend a LOT of time chasing people to complete them, clarifying the information provided, losing information or making errors when re-keying the data. A lot of headaches for capturing data that wasn’t all that accurate to start with.

Capture data electronically - better, but still one hand clapping

Once we start to ask staff to report via their phone we do eliminate a lot of the above headaches. An app can remind them to complete the info, they can enter data using calendars and number wheels for accuracy, the data is legible and of course we may not need to re-key the data (though lots of apps still require this).

BUT … the staff are still manually reporting their times. And while we could collect some of the rounding up of times on site, we generally still see the time reported as being whole hours. So we are still not paying for the time actually on site and we are relying on accurate recollection of the team member who can be filling the timesheet data in a day or even a week later. It is on a screen, but it really isn’t that much better than paper timesheets.

Timesheets evolved into Time and Attendance (image of team checking in)

If the goal is to get accurate time stamps for staff when on site, and to allow us to pay them correctly and according to relevant awards, then Time and Attendance is the only way to go.

Next generation apps like www.getfreshOps.com capture the timestamp of arrival and departure for a shift or job as the staff check-in to the site. We can also capture time stamps for specific, high value tasks within the shift too. By doing so the employee is not needing to remember or record elsewhere when and where they were, we already know.

And there are other advantages too when it comes to OH&S incidents and even insurance claims. We can ensure the team are supported when in the field and can get on with their work while management can get their reports effortlessly.

And of course all the data for the shift, job or task is recorded correctly against the client account, site or facility and the employee. This allows us to calculate payroll and even run P&L records per site to inform clients, staff and management on the profitability of the site and the work being conducted on it.

If it is time to evolve your paper timesheets to Time & Attendance then get in touch today. We can’t wait to show you how easy it is to do away with lost time chasing paper time sheets, data entry and lost minutes paying for all those ‘rounded up’ jobs.