August 11, 2022

Best Ways to Use an App to Track Work Hours

According to Pew Research Center, roughly six-in-ten U.S. workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home (59%) are working from home all or most of the time. Many employees work remotely either by choice or necessity.

In the past few years, the way we work has drastically changed. The global pandemic caused millions of people to begin working remotely, and this trend continues to remain.

Even more recently, many workplaces have adopted a hybrid approach allowing employees to work from home some of the time. With such a diverse workforce, it’s more important than ever before for companies to have the right technology in place to track employee time and improve productivity.

Benefits of a Mobile Time Tracking App

It likely comes as no surprise that 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind, and 85% own a smartphone with internet access. Needless to say, cell phones are ubiquitous in the United States. This makes offering an employee time tracking app a realistic option for every organization.

Here are a handful of the benefits of using an app to log work hours.

Connecting a Diverse Workforce

Of course, we can’t begin this discussion without highlighting how a time tracking app can be used to connect a diverse workforce. And we’re not just talking about remote employees.

While it’s true that a mobile time tracker is ideal for allowing remote team members punch in and out from wherever they are, it’s also helpful for organizations with hourly, freelance, part-time, and full-time employees and contractors. In addition, it can be used by employees that work onsite, travel frequently, or work in rotational shifts or from multiple sites.

The right time clock app allows your employees to clock in at ease from anywhere, anytime while validating the authenticity of their punch. It allows for seamless time tracking and gives your organization a holistic view of hours worked across the board.

Streamline Time Punching

Traditional timekeeping and punching systems are not equipped to manage a diverse workforce. Physical machines are bulky and not always accessible, while outdated software may not be compatible with today’s technology.

The best app for tracking work hours offers complete functionality and is also easy to use to save time clocking in and out. With a mobile app to track work hours, no matter when or where your employees work from, they can log in and clock their hours with ease. They can also view their complete punch info and time totals to take control of their schedule.

With a time tracking app, tracking your time is as easy as clicking a button.

Mobility for Supervisors

An app to track work hours isn’t just beneficial for your employees. The right solution also allows supervisors to view their employee time cards, make edits, send messages, and view totals all on a smartphone, iPad or tablet. This means your workforce time and attendance can be managed in real time from anywhere, which is especially helpful when managers or HR professionals are also working remotely or from different locations.

Managers are granted unique access in the time tracking software to accomplish functions like viewing employee statuses, accepting time off requests, deleting or adding time entries for employees, and more.

Simplify Payroll

Finally, we can’t emphasize enough how the right mobile time management app can simplify payroll. Payroll is an essential part of every business, but it’s also one of the most time-consuming and often complicated tasks.

During this process, HR or accounting teams need to collect data on employees’ time spent working to figure out proper paychecks. Any errors could result in frustration or even fines.

A mobile time tracking system means employee work hour data is always up to date and accessible, making payroll processing easier and faster.

Best Ways to Use an App to Track Work Hours

While it’s clear that an app to track work hours can be used for just that, it can also offer additional functionality for your business. Here are some of the best ways to use an app to track work hours to further improve your organization:

Verify Employee Locations

A mobile time tracking app can also be used to verify that remote-based workers are where they should be when they record their work hours. Many times it’s not only important to ensure employees are starting and stopping work on time, but that they’re also being productive and are where they should be.

This additional reporting feature helps validate the authenticity of every employee punch, be it remote or from the facility. This can help eliminate wage theft and other practices like buddy punching.

Empower Employees With Their Schedule

An app to track work hours puts the power of scheduling in the palm of your employees’ hands. Along with tracking time, all your employees can view their personal time card and benefit time information within the mobile time card app on a mobile device. No matter where they are, at home or work, they can review basic information like benefit time and plan and make a request for time off.

This empowers your employees to take control of their schedule. With this information and control at their fingertips, they can be more proactive about their scheduling and requests to make everything operate smoother.

Expand Your Workforce

With an app to track work hours, your business can expand your talent search. You can instantly widen the talent pool by interviewing and possibly hiring candidates around the country. Since an app to log work hours isn’t bound to any location, neither is your organization.

Improve Efficiency

If your business isn’t keeping up with technology developments, you’re likely losing out on their multifaceted benefits. A mobile employee time clock app will not only help streamline your timekeeping function but also simplify payroll processing, saving both money and time.

Improving efficiency across the board helps your employees be more productive, use resources more effectively, and, ultimately, enhance your business’s bottom line.

Qualities of the Best Time Tracking Mobile App

Employee time tracking and management is one of the most critical tasks of workforce management, yet surprisingly, is one of the most poorly equipped functions. That being said, not all time tracking apps are created equal.

When you’re in the market for an app to keep track of work hours, here are some qualities to look for.

Reliability

Reliability of your clock app helps ensure your employees don’t spend precious hours in failed clocking attempts, reporting of technical issues, or manual recording of their hours. This also extends to offline reliability. It’s important to invest in a time clock app that automatically senses internet availability and switches to offline mode during disruptions while still allowing full employee functionality.

Accessibility

The best time tracking app must be accessible to those who need it when they need it. If your business needs a physical employee time clock in the office and mobile smartphone apps for employees in the field, the best employee time tracking app and software allows you to use both together.

The mobile app should have many of the functions and features of the time clock software that is managing the physical time clocks as well.

Along with being easy to use, it should also offer security and different functionalities depending on the user. For instance, employees can clock-in / clockout, view timecard totals, benefit time balances and even make time off requests. Their managers can view employees in/out status, review and edit punches, approve / deny employee time off requests and more.

This accessibility is important to keep information readily available but also secure.

Enhanced Functionality

While time tracking is the main function of an app, you may also want it to include additional features to optimize your business. For example, management features such as approving time off requests and viewing employee time is essential to help your supervisors be more efficient.

GPS tracking is another added feature that may not be standard with all time tracking apps but can be very important to your operations.

Scalability

It’s important to invest in a time tracking app that can grow and change with your business. Whether you’re expanding your workforce, moving offices, or trying a hybrid work model, you need an app to track work hours that can do it all.

Whenever you purchase new software for your business, understanding its scalability helps you know if it’s the right fit for the long term.

Free Trial

Finally, you may want to see if a company offers a free trial to use their app to log work hours. Not all time tracking apps are the same, and some might not be beneficial to your organization. A free trial, is the best way to determine if the specific time tracking app is best for your business and team.

When it comes time to find an app to track work hours for your business, trust Lathem. Our PayClock app can do it all and includes a mobile time clock and time card app with complete functionality for both employees and supervisors.

To discover more, Get a Quote Today for PayClock employee time & attendance software that includes time tracking apps for Apple iOS smartphones and Android devices.