According to a 2019 article by Forbes, the average employee loses up to 4.5 hours every week, which translates to nearly six weeks of lost productivity each year. This costs businesses almost $11 billion in wasted money and stolen time. So how can businesses solve this problem? A geofencing time clock app is the solution you need.
Most businesses are struggling with managing their field employees and tracking the time they spend on different projects. Keeping track of how your employees spend their time can be a real challenge.
Organizations that have employees working remotely in different locations rely on a timeclock app to track the time spent by their employees. This helps you manage your field employees and get a more accurate reading of their performance.
Timekeeping apps with geofencing enable you to track the exact location of your employees and monitor their activities. Both employees and employers can utilize this technology to make sense of their work schedules as well as stay accountable for what they do on the clock.
Many companies use geofencing technology to monitor the performance of the workers. This helps them understand the patterns of their employees’ movements and identify any violations of company policies.
Geofencing can help your business by keeping track of your employees and their whereabouts. By setting up a job site fence around a particular area of your location, you will have accurate insights into where exactly your employees are during their shifts. That way you can monitor the time they are there and see how they are spending their day, week, or month in real-time.
With such detailed updates, management can improve workplace efficiency and retain productivity levels among their employees. Furthermore, you can avoid costly accidents on the job site and ensure the physical well-being of employees, as well as monitor potential theft at the workplace.
Before we dive into the benefits of geofenced time tracking software, read more on geofence time clock app.
What is a Geofence time clock?
Geofencing time clock is an innovative solution that simplifies and automates the process of tracking employee time and location. Instead of employees manually logging their time via paper, hours are been automatically recorded into a database along with detailed information about the number of entrances and exits used by each employee.
It will help you optimize time usage and cut unnecessary expenses while improving the accuracy and security of your business data.
How does a Geofencing time clock work?
Geofencing time clocks are becoming increasingly popular. Thanks to smartphones, location services are easy to use and provide real-time information. If your employees work in different locations, then the geofence time clock will work perfectly for you.
It has many easy-to-use features that help you track your employees. Most of the geofencing time clock apps work as follows:
- First, specify the location where your employees will work.
- Next, define a geofence around each zone or each work site.
- Once that’s done, assign your employees to designated sites.
For the geofence to work, your employees will require a mobile device with location services or RFID tags. They must authorize the location services to be recorded for them to function correctly.
Benefits of Using a Geofencing Time Clock App
There are many benefits to using an employee time clock app with geofencing. Geofencing ensures that employees are only able to clock in and out when they are physically present at their workplace, which eliminates buddy-punching and other forms of time theft.
According to Smallbizgenius (2021), the average amount of time it takes to detect an employee theft scheme is 14 months.
This can save businesses a significant amount of money, as well as improve employee productivity. Here are a few listed benefits of implementing geofence in your time tracking system.
1. Avoid time theft or buddy punching
Geofencing time clocks have many benefits, including eliminating fraudulent time tracking. When it comes to employee tracking and fraudulent activities, there is one more problem that must be looked into: Time Theft.
Managing field employees becomes a challenge when you have different job sites, thus keeping track of their work hours is out of the question. Most companies have implemented time clocks on job sites but it isn’t enough to ensure that employees work within the schedule.
Employees find all kinds of creative ways to steal time, one of the most common ways is buddy punch. This may seem like a friendly gesture towards a colleague or a co-worker but it may add up to significant losses to the businesses.
Geofencing time clocks can efficiently monitor and control hours while they are being worked. Unlike a traditional clock that only reports employee counts once every 24 hours, geofencing time clocks are constantly reporting this information to you via email or text messages. This makes for easy cross-checking of your employees’ records, thereby reducing risks of fraud.
When utilized as a part of a comprehensive time and attendance system, geofence provides many benefits to businesses. One such benefit is providing employees with a sense of security, allowing them to work more productively and efficiently.
2. Simplified and accurate time tracking
A hugely important aspect of business operations, time management can mean increased profitability, making it critical to keep track of hours worked by employees. However, manual time-tracking simply cannot provide the level of flexibility and convenience as an automated system.
According to Acumen Data Systems, companies can eliminate daily lost productivity and recapture a total of $666,400.00 in yearly wages by automating time tracking.
A geofencing time clock app is a great way to improve your employees’ productivity and motivation. It saves them the hassle of punching in using a physical clock, which can often result in mistakes.
Furthermore, the geofence makes it easy for field employees to clock into work while they’re out and about. It automatically records employee attendance and accurately tracks when they enter and leave the job site. Thus, you will have a more productive and streamlined workforce on hand no matter what task your employees are carrying out.
3. Efficient Payroll Processing
You might be utilizing a simple time clock application for your employees, but does it make financial sense? With a geofencing time clock app, you’ll see the value of this technology increase significantly. It’s all about automating tasks in this area to reduce the amount of human error associated with payroll processing.
When you need to manage payroll, the process can be tedious. Employee timesheets are usually filled out manually, which means there is a high chance for errors. Furthermore, employees can forget to clock in or out, which will not only produce inaccurate timesheets but also leave with no proper record of tasks performed in the field.
The geofence time clock can significantly reduce the amount of labor that’s required to process payroll. It automates the entire process and allows you to save valuable time so you can focus on other critical tasks.
It is not just about being able to track your employees’ working hours; it also ensures that they are paid overtime as per the FLSA regulations. Thus, it also allows you to make precise calculations of work hours, overtime hours and regular pay rates.
Some of these apps, like allGeo, can integrate with common accounting and payroll software, greatly simplifying invoicing and payroll.
4. Better work management
When you have a team, being able to get insight into your team’s activities can help you improve productivity and efficiency by identifying any potential issues before they become big problems. A simple example would be if some team members are taking longer than usual to return from breaks or lunch – an issue that could potentially cause delays to projects and delays in other parts of the business.
Real-time insight into employee locations helps you better manage employees and their work. Whether it’s understanding which employees spend the most time traveling to their sites or a solution for increased productivity, geofence time tracking gets you there fast.
Moreover, with real-time tracking, you will be able to handle unseen situations/urgent tasks more efficiently. For instance, in industries like healthcare, access to real-time location would be crucial to assign the next job site. allGeo’s geofence time tracking app will help you identify the available staff and their locations, which will help you schedule jobs accordingly.
5. Eliminate Paperwork
If you’re still using a paper time clock to track employee hours, it’s time for an upgrade. A geofence time clock eliminates the need for paper timesheets and manual data entry. Instead, employees can clock in and out using their smartphone. Their hours are then automatically tracked and synced with your payroll system.
Geofence time clock apps help to eliminate manual work and make your business more efficient. The best part is – by automating the tedious tasks, you can focus on improving your processes and making them more accurate.
Automating timekeeping can help reduce errors associated with manual data entry, calculation, and documentation. This not only saves time in the short-term but can also help avoid costly mistakes down the road.
Not only does this save you time and money on data entry, but it also ensures that your employees are accurately recording their time. No more missed punches or buddy punching! Plus, you can see at a glance who is clocked in and where they are, so you can manage your workforce more efficiently.
Things to consider while choosing a geofencing time clock app
If you’re looking for a way to save your business time and money, consider investing in a geofence time clock. That said, there are many tools available in the market but below are some considerations before choosing an app.
1. Easy to use – Geofence time clocks should be very user-friendly and easy to set up. Employees can simply download the app and start clocking in/out with their smartphones or other mobile devices.
2. Cost-effective – Depending upon your business requirements, you should select the software that meets your goals as well as the cost.
3. Streamlined payroll – Since geofence time clocks track employee hours automatically, there’s no need to waste time on manual data entry come payday. A system that integrates with payroll software will save your business both money and valuable staff resources.
4. Improved compliance – Ensure geofence time clocks help you comply with labor employment laws and regulations, as well as company policies regarding overtime.
Conclusion
An employee time clock app with geofencing is a great way to keep track of your employees’ hours and whereabouts. Not only does it allow you to see when they arrive and leave the office, but you can also set up alerts so that you know if they are running late or if they haven’t clocked in for their shift. This can help you to manage your workforce more effectively and ensure that your employees are where they are supposed to be.
There are many reasons why you might need an employee time clock app with geofencing capabilities. Perhaps you need to track employee hours for payroll purposes, or maybe you want to ensure that employees are taking their breaks and not working excessive hours. Whatever the reason, a time clock app with geofencing can help you get the data you need to make informed decisions about your business. Do some research and find the right app for your needs — it could make a big difference in how efficiently your business runs.