What is a Time Card?
A time card offers employee time tracking by recording when an employee starts and ends their shift. It can be a physical card stamped by a time clock or a feature in software. They’re key for keeping accurate work-hour records.
Time cards help businesses ensure payroll is calculated correctly and overtime pay is paid fairly so employees get paid for the time they work. They also help businesses track attendance and punctuality, which can boost productivity and manage absences. Additionally, time cards help businesses comply with wage and hour laws and ultimately reduce the risk of legal issues.
What Is the Difference Between a Time Card and Timesheet?
A time card tracks hours automatically, while a timesheet has employees manually record their work hours.
Time cards capture each hour with exact clock-in and clock-out times, often using a time clock or hours calculator for precise recording. They typically use decimal hours to make calculations for pay and overtime easier. However, you can also choose to use military time on a work hours calculator. Overall, time cards are simple and ensure accurate tracking of work hours.
A timesheet, on the other hand, tracks the total hours an employee worked over a period, including details like breaks and overtime. It offers a broader view of time allocation for payroll and project management.
Types of Time Cards
Businesses have plenty of options for employee time tracking. Different types of employee time cards help accurately record and monitor work hours and minutes.
- Punch Card Clocks: Workers use a physical card that the time clock stamps when they start and end their shifts. This is a simple method that tracks hours, but you need to process the cards manually.
- Punch Cards: Employees mark their hours on a physical card. They then use the card to calculate total work hours.
- Biometric Time Clocks: These systems track time using fingerprints or facial recognition. Biometrics offer high accuracy and prevents issues like buddy punching, with data often syncing directly to payroll systems. However, there has been some pushback due to privacy concerns.
- Digital Time Clocks: These systems record time electronically and include features like automatic calculations and payroll integration. They provide a modern way to track work hours. You can try it out with a free time card calculator to see how it works.
- Keypad Time Clocks: Employees enter a PIN or code to clock in and out. The system logs their time based on the code and often connects to payroll systems for efficient processing.
- Proximity Time Clocks: Employees wave an RFID badge or card near the clock to record their time. This quick method reduces physical contact and syncs data with payroll systems.
- RFID Clocking In: Similar to proximity time clocks, RFID systems use radio waves to read RFID tags or badges. This method is fast and hygienic, allowing employees to clock in without touching the clock. However, like biometric data collection – there is some controversy surrounding RFID surveillance.
- Time Card Apps: Demand for employee monitoring has grown recently, and businesses have turned to solutions like time card apps. Employees use these apps on smartphones or tablets to clock in and out. They offer GPS tracking and real-time updates and sync with payroll systems for smooth time tracking. However, as convenient as they are – there’s also debate surrounding them.
How Time Cards Work
How many hours have I worked? How do I keep track accurately? Time cards handle these tasks and more.
Employees use time cards to track their work hours. With physical cards, they punch in and out using a time clock that stamps the card with the exact time.
In digital systems, they log their hours through a browser, an app, or software, which records when they start and the end time of their shifts. This process helps with accurate employee time tracking and provides a clear record of how many hours workers have worked per day, hours per week, and monthly.
After employees fill out their time cards, the information undergoes approval. Managers or supervisors review the recorded hours to ensure everything is correct.
They use tools like a timecard calculator or timesheet calculator to check for discrepancies. This step helps ensure time card compliance and catch any errors before finalizing.
Once approved, the data generated syncs with payroll and computer systems. This integration automatically transfers recorded hours and minutes over a work period into the payroll system, making payment processing smoother.
It leverages timecard benefits to save more, reduces manual errors, and ensures employees’ wages are paid accurately based on their logged and total hours worked per week.
What Are the Benefits of a Time Card?
- Keeps Track Accurately: Time cards record employee hours precisely. This reduces errors in timekeeping. This includes accurate overtime rate calculations, making payroll processing smoother and more precise. It ensures everyone gets paid fairly for the hours they work.
- Simplifies Payroll: One of the main timecard benefits is that it handles payroll calculations automatically, which saves time and minimizes mistakes. It makes payroll processing smoother and more accurate.
- Helps with Time Card Compliance: Time cards make it easier to follow labor laws by keeping accurate records. This avoids legal issues and potential fines related to wage and hour regulations.
- Boosts Productivity: Time cards offer insights into work patterns, which can drive productivity and help cut costs. Analyzing these details helps identify inefficiencies and improve task management.
- Supports Work-Life Balance: They help companies manage work-life balance by offering insight into how employees spend their time. For example, with employees using the internet for 6 hours and 42 minutes daily and spending about 13 hours a week on social media during work, time cards can help monitor and adjust workloads to support a healthier balance between work and personal life.
What Are the Disadvantages of Time Cards?
- Employee Forgetfulness: Employees might forget to clock in or out and throw off timecard records. U.S. employers often have to correct errors on 80 percent of the timesheets their employees submit. The main reason? Employees frequently struggle to remember their hours when they forget to clock in or out.
- Mistakes Happen: Manual timecards are prone to errors. When entering details from a timecard into a payroll system, mistakes like incorrect entries or miscalculations can occur. These errors affect payroll accuracy and require more time to correct.
- Integration Challenges: Integrating a timecard calculator with existing payroll and HR systems can be a hassle. Manual data transfer often leads to inefficiencies and inconsistencies. If the timecard system doesn’t mesh well with other software, managing and analyzing it becomes even more challenging.
- Accuracy Issues: Timecards can be unreliable if employees forget to punch in or out or if the clock malfunctions. This can result in inaccurate information and additional work to correct records. Unreliable time tracking can affect payroll and lead to disputes over how many hours worked. Avoid this at all costs – 49% of employees will leave their job after two payroll issues.
- Productivity Gaps: Timecards track hours worked but don’t measure productivity effectively. They help answer questions like “How many hours have I worked,” but don’t provide insights into work quality or efficiency. Given that the average worker is productive for only 2 hours and 53 minutes a day, timecards alone might miss important details about actual work performance.
Best Practices for Implementing Time Cards
Follow these best practices to make the most of your business’ employee time tracking system and stay on top of time card compliance.
- Get Everyone on Board: Train your team on the time card system to ensure they understand how it works and its benefits. Make sure to offer ongoing training to address any issues that crop up. For example, if you opt for a timecard calculator, make sure everyone feels confident using it.
- Choose and Test the Right System: Choose a user-friendly time card system that suits your needs. Once you’ve done that, test it with a small group first before a full rollout. Make sure it integrates with leave management to simplify scheduling and payroll.
- Ensure Accuracy: Don’t forget to regularly check your time records to ensure they’re accurate and compliant with labor laws. However, keep in mind that avoid over-monitoring to maintain trust with your team and keep stress at a minimum. Also, allow manual time entries for missed clock-ins, but review them for accuracy.
- Track Productivity: If you’re interested in using time cards to keep an eye on your team’s productivity, use automated systems. This will help minimize errors. Also, consider implementing screenshot monitoring if it fits your needs. You can review activity reports to stay on top of productivity and track time across projects and time zones.
- Keep it Simple: Manual time cards are a thing of the past. Switch to digital time cards to improve accuracy across the board. Make sure to standardize the system across all departments and use time management techniques like Pomodoro to improve focus.
What Are the Common Uses of Time Cards in Different Industries?
Time cards are used across different industries to track and manage work hours. Each field finds its own unique timecard benefits.
- Manufacturing: With many night shifts (5.7%), manufacturing relies on time cards to capture different shift times. They help ensure accurate wages and manage labor costs. Time cards are key for handling varied shifts and staying compliant with regulations.
- Construction: For construction, time cards log hours worked on specific projects and often include GPS surveillance to confirm employee locations. This helps with job costing, accurate billing, and time card compliance.
- Hospitality: Similar to manufacturing, hospitality also deals with varied shifts (2.6%). Time cards help manage staff schedules and hours worked. They assist in efficient staffing, fair pay, and improving customer service during peak times.
- Retail: With turnover rates often over 60 percent, retail businesses use time cards to manage shifts, control labor costs, and ensure time card compliance with laws surrounding break times and overtime. They are key for accuracy and handling frequent staff changes.
- Healthcare: In an industry with demanding and irregular hours, time cards keep things organized. They track the hours of medical staff and support teams. This ensures correct compensation, compliance with labor laws, and enough staffing for patient care.
- Professional Services: In professional services like legal and consulting, time cards keep track of billable hours for each client project. Lawyers use them to capture all billable time, including meetings and admin tasks, to ensure billing is spot on. Consultants rely on time cards to log hours, juggle multiple clients, and offer clear billing.
- Remote Work: With 98% of workers wanting remote work at least part-time, time-tracking tools are essential. Remote workers use these tools to manage project time and stay within budget. Freelancers also rely on them to log hours across various projects and ensure accurate billing.
Time Card Regulations and Compliance
Time card regulations ensure that employers follow labor laws and maintain accurate records. Time card compliance under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that each card includes:
- Employee Information: Full name, address, and job title.
- Work Hours: Start and end times and total time spent each day and week.
- Earnings: Total earnings, hourly rate (at least the federal minimum wage), and overtime.
The law mandates that employers record wages at:
- Total work hours each day and week.
- Clock-in and clock-out times.
- Breaks and overtime hours. (Unless employees are exempt, non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay at time and a half for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.)
State laws can vary:
- California: Accepts paper timecards but suggests switching to digital for larger operations.
- Washington: Requires overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per week.
- Texas: Mandates accurate records and allows the use of time clocks.
- Michigan: Records must show daily hours, rounded to the nearest tenth.
In short, time card regulations keep employers compliant with both federal and state labor laws. By tracking total time, overtime hours, and total gross pay made, employers meet FLSA requirements. State rules on overtime pay and record-keeping vary, so it’s important to understand local regulations.
Time Cards: Looking Ahead
Time cards are here to stay, especially with remote and flexible work becoming more commonplace.
According to Randstad’s Workmonitor survey, 83% of U.S. workers value flexible hours, and 74% consider location flexibility important. Time cards help keep track of hours and ensure fair pay, no matter where employees work.
Upland PSA can make employee time tracking easier. It automates time tracking, billing, and project costs. With Upland PSA, you can quickly enter, approve, and log time and expenses for each project.
This helps with accurate invoicing, better decision-making, and faster revenue recognition. Take your professional services business to the next level.
Related Resources