Help me find an Online Time-Keeping Solution for my office?!

June 17, 2014 8:14 AM

I am looking for a good online time keeping solution for my office staff. Basic, clocking in and out and weekly time cards. So many online, can't figure out which one is the most affordable and reliable. Any suggestions? (more inside)

I need some help! I am looking for a good online time keeping solution for my office staff. There are so many out there, it is hard for me to figure out what to choose. I need something pretty basic.

I would like a system, where each employee arrives to work and logins from there computer and then logs out at the end of the day. Nothing complicated, no integration with anything needed. I just want to be able to see their hours at the end of the week.

My office is small and most people eventually move over to Salary, so my previous method was just having them email me, and checking the time stamp of the email every morning and evening. But as we grow this is becoming tedious and time consuming. I use an online payroll company - the time keeping solution they are providing is way complicated and too expensive for my needs. I need something that will be affordable for a staff of 10 or less.

Thanks in advance!

posted by ss448 to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Is there a reason you don't trust these people to self-report? I mean, there might very well be a reason, but it's worth thinking about--almost everywhere I've ever worked has been in that 10-or-less category, and I haven't had to clock in or out ever. We've generally just had a shared Excel workbook on the file server, enter your time in and out, spreadsheet calculates everybody's hours. In a place of that size, someone will almost certainly notice if Kelly's entry on the sheet always says they left at 5pm and yet they're always gone by 4:45.
posted by Sequence at 8:41 AM on June 17, 2014

Response by poster: Yes, in multiple occasions people are forgetting to clock in or out. Which is a cause for concern when they are getting paid by the hour. Rather then searching for emails I want to be able to login in to one location and make sure everyone has logged in and out at the end of the day.

As well, we offer a paid lunch as well and I find many employees taking advantage of that and going on extended lunch breaks. I would like to have everyone clock in and out - so they can take notice of the time, which right now it seems like they are not.
posted by ss448 at 8:50 AM on June 17, 2014

Are you in the same physical location? We just got a thumbprint thing by the door that you press when you arrive and leave, because not everyone uses a computer and self-reporting was so not working, both in fudging and forgetting to track. Our very long boring conversations about this ended up with: give people a carrot for punctuality (like a coffee card to the person who arrives on time the most each month - this mattered to us, though it may be irrelevant to you) and we're now debating over publishing a list of everyone who is consistently late vs requiring them to take the unpopular work shift or getting an official note in their staff file. The thumbprint time clock was the easiest for people to remember because it's right next to the door, and you can't ask your colleague to check you in if you're running late. I think it's a removable USB stick that gives us the data to import to a spreadsheet.
posted by viggorlijah at 6:53 PM on June 17, 2014

Oh, and it cost us $150, which was way cheaper than I expected and is a one-time cost.
posted by viggorlijah at 6:53 PM on June 17, 2014