In our recent post on the best ways to track employee hours, we discussed the downsides of traditional time tracking methods (such as spreadsheets or pen and paper). Specifically, there are two major issues: In this post, we’ll go over how Buddy Punch (our web based time clock software) can help you avoid these issues, and make the payroll process faster and more accurate. We will also list four other web based time tracking solutions, to help you make a more informed decision.

A time clock and scheduling software help businesses.

Buddy Punch is an employee time tracking software where employees can punch in and out, and then all of the information needed for payroll (i.e. regular hours worked, paid time off, overtime, etc.) is automatically calculated and available in a payroll report. It’s easily accessible and takes just a few clicks to download (CSV, Excel).

In the eight years we’ve run Buddy Punch, we’ve had countless conversations with businesses about the challenges they faced when tracking time for their employees using traditional methods (i.e. paper time cards and timesheets, Excel spreadsheets, etc.). From those conversations, we’ve gathered that most businesses run into the same three problems: Turning to an employee time tracking and scheduling software can help you solve these specific challenges.

As we’ve previously written, old-fashioned employee time tracking methods such as paper timecards or Excel come with several downsides. First, the payroll process is time consuming and error prone, as you have to manually tally hours and overtime. Second, you don’t know if your employees are in fact on the job when they’re punching in, rather than a coworker (and those extra minutes or hours that employees report working can lead to a significant waste of money).