November 8, 2022

Time tracking is incredibly important for any business that uses shift patterns, but it’s also a huge hassle. Tracking hours, working out deductions, and scheduling paid time off can be a nightmare. The right time clocks make this process much smoother, making life easier for both employees and managers. Each business is unique though, so you need to find the time clock that best fits your requirements.

What are the Benefits of the Right Time Clock?

Keeping track of employees’ time is incredibly important, especially for businesses that run on shift patterns.

Without the ability to track time accurately, payroll becomes a nightmare, and employees regularly receive late and inaccurate payments. This is the last thing a business wants as it’s going to lead to lower employee morale and higher turnover.

The best time clocks for small businesses quickly solve this problem.

They provide employees with a simple way to clock in and out of work and make it easy for managers to track and adjust employees’ hours. Not only does this keep your employees happy, but it also takes pressure off administrators by automating large parts of the process. As well as automating large parts of the process, it also minimizes the opportunity for human error, resulting in more accurate payroll.

So, the best time clocks for small businesses can have a big impact, but which modes should you be looking at?

The 5 Best Time Clocks for Small Businesses

Every business that employs shift workers needs some form of time clock, the question is, which one is going to provide you with the most value for money?

We’ve compared the different time clock machines for small businesses to find the best option to meet your needs.

1. Proximity Badge Time Clocks

Proximity time clock machines for small businesses are extremely common. Whereas a manual time clock requires the employee to stamp their timecard, a proximity time clock only needs to scan an ID card. As the employee arrives at work, they simply scan their card on the time clock and their start time is logged, they then repeat the process when they leave, and the system logs their total hours for the day.

This option is less-time consuming for employees, and it also offers a lot more automation options.

With the right time clock software (which we’re going to talk about later), proximity time clocks can save administrators a ton of time by syncing each employee’s hours to your payroll software.

Proximity time clocks balance affordability with automation and are certainly one of the best time clocks for small businesses.

2. Biometric Time Clocks

Biometric time clocks are a little bit more expensive than proximity time clocks but they do have some big advantages.

A biometric time clock uses the employee’s unique biometric identifiers (normally fingerprint or face ID) to clock them in and out of work. Not only does this make it easier for employees to clock in (you can forget an ID card but not your fingerprint), but it also cuts down on time buddy punching.

Buddy punching is when an employee gets a buddy to punch in for them when they’re not actually at work. This is possible with manual and proximity time clocks, but it’s virtually impossible to do with a biometric time clock.

This makes biometric time clocks a popular option for modern businesses as they’re highly efficient.

3. PC based Web Punch Time Clocking

With the best PC based kiosk type time clocking and web punch portal, employees have access to a variety of essential functions. They can clock in and out; make department transfers; view schedules; view their benefit time balances; review punches by day and total time worked by pay period; and even make time off requests.

Employee managers can view a list of employees with current In / Out status; view punch times for employee; add or delete punches on employee timecards; review employee PTO balances; approve or deny time off requests; run reports; view and edit employee schedules and more.

4. App-Based Time Clocks

Rather than employees having to navigate to a web page to clock in and out of work, they simply have to open the mobile app on their smartphones. The app will make use of the employees’ smartphone GPS geolocation function to verify clock-ins and ensure location authenticity.

This is particularly useful for businesses where employees work from home or are often out on the road. Using geolocation, the software can ensure employees are in the right place at the right time and make sure they are accurately reimbursed for their work.

5. PayClock Time Clock System

The best employee time clock system uses cloud-based employee attendance time-tracking software. It automates large parts of your system, making it easy to manage employee time and sync hours to payroll systems like Quickbooks and ADP.

A PayClock time and attendance software system lets you use any of the best time time clock options for small business. Your business can use proximity badge time clocks, biometric time clocks, PC based time clocking, Smartphone app based time clocks, or all of these time clock methods combined.

Using these time clock methods together, employees can review their time, paid time off (PTO) totals and other information on the physical time clocks, as well as on the PC based web portal or even mobile smartphone apps! They can see their own time information without asking managers or HR how much time they’ve worked for the pay period.

PayClock online software automatically polls the clock and seamlessly transfers employee punch data into the time clock software. Data are updated in real-time to and from the time clock. This makes it easy for both employees and managers to get the most up-to-date information at any time. From there, payroll administrators can view, edit, create reports, and integrate the data with their payroll system.

FAQs: Best Time Clocks for Small Businesses

Still have questions about finding the best small business time clock for your needs? Here are some other things to consider:

Do businesses still use time clocks? Yes, businesses still use time clocks, but they have become a lot more sophisticated. While you do still see manual time clocks, many of the best time clocks for small businesses are now web or app-based, allowing employees to clock in and out on the go. 

What is a good time clock? A good time clock should make it convenient for employees to clock in and out, but also automate large parts of the process. The best time clocks for convenience are biometric time clocks that allow employees to clock in and out online or through an app. 

How do small businesses keep track of employee hours? Small businesses keep track of employee hours using time clocks. Employees clock in and out using the time clock (either a physical one or through an app) and the information is automatically synced to a timesheet, ready to be processed. Once verified the hours can then be automatically sent to payroll so employees get paid accurately. 

What is the best time clock app for small businesses? The best time clock app for small businesses is PayClock Online from Lathem. It makes time tracking effortless, giving your employees different ways to clock in and out, and making life simple for administrators. 

Does QuickBooks have a time clock? QuickBooks offers its own basic time clock app for onsite employees, but there are also more complete options that integrate with QuickBooks such as TimeClock Online by Lathem.

Choosing the Best Time Clock for Small Businesses

Every business will have slightly different needs.

A company with a handful of office-based employees faces different challenges from one with hundreds of employees spread out all over the place, and time clocks reflect this.

No matter how your business runs, Lathem offers a time clock to fit your needs. We’ll walk you through every step of the process, and help make sure your time clock system is meeting your every need.