5 Reasons Why a Mobile Time Tracking App is Better Than Using Paper Timecards

Is your business still using paper timecards to clock in and clock out employees on the job? If so, you’re losing a ton of money this way. Either due to “buddy punching” and other forms of time theft, along with the number of human errors likely being made, not to mention, you may be violating various labor laws too.

Below are some reasons why a mobile time tracking app can you’re your business be more efficient and effective with accurate payroll and avoid surprises when payroll is due. Using a mobile time tracking app lets your business know in real-time how much your labor costs and where and when your employees are working.

1/ Reduce Administrative Costs

When comparing the use of paper time cards with an employee time tracking software system that comes with a mobile time tracking app with GPS, you might think that using paper timesheets to track staff work hours is the more affordable option. After all, there are free templates for timesheets and paper is cheap. However, the hours it adds to payroll administrative costs and the extra hassle can actually make paper the more expensive option in the long run.

When your business uses paper time cards they will need to be manually keyed in by an administrator, which is a process that is not only time-consuming and costly but also prone to making many errors. These errors can result in overpayments, underpayments and employee complaints – which can sometimes lead to expensive labor disputes. Do you really want to lawyer up? No!

Employees may even become very frustrated that they are not being paid correctly and either leave the job or suffer from decreased morale – which makes productivity plunge for your business, and when that happens, guess what? You’re losing money.

Also, they can be annoyed by the time-consuming process of having to fill in a manual time card, especially if they are often lost or filed incorrectly and have to be done more than once.

2/ Mobile Time Tracking Apps Are More Customizable

Another advantage of using the modern system of mobile time tracking is that electronic time sheets are so much more customizable. Employers will be able to create custom fields and calculations so that the timesheet caters to their needs, rather than having to manually enter data for each individual.

This makes it easier to track employee hours even when they are complicated, such as in the case of overtime, holidays, employees working more than one position in the same company and other circumstances. A mobile time tracking spreadsheet can always be tweaked and edited easily to adjust to different timekeeping needs.

3/ Time Tracking Apps are Easy to Use

A mobile time tracking app is the easiest way for you to track employee timesheets, especially today when employees have become increasingly more mobile and often work away from their physical office, whether at home, co-working offices or on the job site.

There’s no need to fill out manual timesheets and all of the information is submitted electronically. It’s refreshingly easy to do – as simple as sending a tweet or a text message. With time tracking software systems like Boomr, your employees can even use their own mobile device, which makes a lot more sense than having the employee return to a specific time clock for punching out. Whether they have an iPhone, android, or even an iPad, Boomr’s time tracking app will work with them all and your technology too – all in the cloud together.

4/ Timesheets & Payroll is More Accurate

In the past, an employee may have had to fill in their timesheets at the end of the pay period by memory, which could easily result in a whole bunch of errors. The estimation they make is not accurate and will usually be in favor of the employee’s pay. After all, it’s only natural to overestimate the amount of work you have done and perceive unconsciously that you have been working for longer than you really have.

According to the American Payroll Association, between 1-8% of payroll can slip through the cracks and be spent paying for errors caused by employees manually entering their work hours on a timecard.

With a mobile time tracking app the employee’s time is recorded quickly and easily every day and can be done automatically in real-time when using Boomr too. If a correction needs to be made with a paper timesheet it may not even be seen until it is too late and payroll has already been processed and paid out. If corrections need to be made on an electronic timesheet, it can do done instantly, and updated in the cloud time tracking system.

Also, timekeeping software often has features that prevent employees from the practice of “buddy punching” or punching out for each other, also known as “time theft.” This has been a persistent issue that has been estimated to cost US employers more than $373 million per year. That’s crazy!

Some employee time tracking apps may even require biometric identification such as a fingerprint or photo to make sure that the employee is only making time entries for themselves and not for their friend who may be late for work or is secretly leaving their job early for who knows what. This is another great feature that will save your business from hours of lost time and productivity.

5/ It’s Great for Remote Teams or Mobile Crews

If your employees are spread out across multiple locations or are on the road working at different job sites throughout the day, time tracking apps with GPS, like Boomr will make things much easier and organized. Your team might start out in the office, but as they head out to various locations they can still track their time effectively and stay productive. There is no need for employees to bring a piece of paper along with them, which could get lost, damaged or forgotten.

These mobile time clocks can also enable GPS time tracking (commonly known as “geo-fencing”) to remotely ping each employee’s location on the map while they are on the job clock, which is great for businesses that employ crews or mobile workers because you can see the locations of your employees in real-time.

Ready to make the switch?

With so many advantages to having a mobile time tracking solution, it’s no wonder why so many businesses are abandoning paper timesheets and switching to a mobile time card app, like Boomr, who has over 40,000 businesses worldwide using their employee time tracking solutions. These powerful tools make tracking employee work hours so much easier and way more accurate – often saving employers a considerable amount of time and money.

So, isn’t it about time that your business started tracking employee work hours and timesheets the more modern way? We think so.