Time tracking: which method suits your team?
Time tracking means recording when work happened: start, finish, breaks and overtime. There are four common ways to do it, and which one works depends on where your team works and how many people it is.
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
- €6.50 per user per month, excluding VAT
- Every feature included
- iOS, Android and web
1. Paper or a weekly sheet
Everyone writes down at the end of the day or week when they started and stopped. It costs nothing and everyone understands it, but it is filled in afterwards from memory, and every slip has to be retyped for payroll later.
- No cost, no explanation needed
- Filled in afterwards, from memory
- Double work for payroll
2. A spreadsheet
A shared spreadsheet adds up the hours itself and is easy to export. That works well as long as one person maintains it. With more people, versions appear side by side, and a cell someone overwrites by accident only shows up on the payslip.
- Calculates totals itself
- Fine for a small team
- Fragile with several people filling it in
3. A time clock at the entrance
A fixed terminal or tablet at the entrance records the moment people arrive and leave. That is accurate for people who work in one place. For people who work on site, on the road or at several addresses, the clock is in the wrong place.
- Time captured at the moment itself
- Good for one fixed workplace
- Awkward for work on site
4. An app on the phone
Employees clock in and out from their own phone, with the role and location attached. Geofencing checks it happens in the right place, and without signal the punch is kept until the connection is back. The hours land in a timesheet that the manager can review and approve.
- Clock in and out with one tap
- Geofencing and GPS for the clock-in location
- Works offline, syncs later
Whichever method you choose
Record the start, the finish and the breaks for every shift, and keep overtime separate. If you work in one place, look at the time clock; if your team works on site, the time tracking app fits better. What happens to the hours afterwards is covered on timesheet, and for seeing who is in at any moment, read attendance tracking.
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