operations | 4 mins read

How Outdated Time & Attendance Systems Are Costing You Tons

how outdated time attendance systems are costing you tons
Michelle Jaco

By Michelle Jaco

Introduction

You often stumble upon sites on the internet claiming to have the next big thing or the secret to help you save the big bucks and grow your business.

The fact of the matter is that these sales pitches cannot help you grow your business or save you money. Only you have the power to do that, and that can be accomplished by increasing efficiency.

Many restaurant owners nowadays use outdated time and attendance systems like pen and paper, excel templates, spreadsheets, etc. They are so set in their ways that they don't even think about making a change that would help their business. If you want to grow, you need to be open to change.

Upgrading your time and attendance system will pay for itself by maximizing the profits and streamlining the process of your restaurant. These systems are more accurate and precise when it comes to time punching than outdated systems. Let's see how your outdated clocking system is costing you valuable time and money.

Human Error

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No one is perfect, and imperfections lead to mistakes.

When you track time and attendance manually, you are potentially risking grand error in payroll, which can result in overspending on labor costs or short-changing your employees.

Similarly, when you use an outdated clocking system, mistakes in calculations of time and attendance can also be made.

Money saved is money earned, so it's your job as a restaurant owner to ensure that time card calculations are accurate at all times.

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Time Theft & Buddy Punching

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In this technology era, we are addicted to our mobile phones and social media. You must have noticed that this addiction creeps into your employees' work when they use social media during supposed working hours. This puts you at great risk as the owner because your employees will clock this time as hours worked when doing the time card calculations.

Why? Because you have outdated clocking systems and no proper security to set in place to prevent time theft from occurring.

When your employees work together with each other, it is inevitable that they form friendships. With some of these friendships, favors are made in the form of buddy punching.

This is a form of time theft where one employee of yours clocks in for a friend, without the friend being present.

This technique is only possible if you have outdated clocking systems and it may cost you thousands of dollars every year. Make a smart choice and shift to a biometric time clock calculator app. This puts an end to these time theft techniques.

No Accountability

In theory, your employees should always be focused and enveloped in their work which can't happen all the time. However, employees often spend hours on non-work related or menial tasks but clock their work as useful when making manual time card calculations.

In other words, they can't be held accountable for every minute of every day. This lack of accountability costs you more money than you can possibly think because it is rampant in every restaurant that has outdated clocking systems.

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In the restaurant business, working overtime is very common. In many restaurants, employees will often work overtime, making extra contributions and effort to meet your goals but it isn't always productive.

You pay extra for every overtime hour your employee puts in at work. In addition, having an outdated clocking in and clocking out system means that your employees can exaggerate their time worked on a timecard, and you end up paying fraudulent wages.

How do you suppose you can grow your business in such circumstances?

All businesses nowadays need to keep track of how much their employees work. There are different legal requirements that ask for accurate time and attendance records for labor laws.

If a business doesn't comply with these requirements, they can be fined in the range of $40,000 and above according to regulations.

Now, let's see how outdated systems will cost you money in legal battles. The law requires accuracy in reporting time and attendance but the previous paragraphs show that it isn't possible with outdated systems.

The result? You are sucked into fighting legal battles where you lose more money and time.

Online employee scheduling software that makes shift planning effortless.
Try it free for 14 days.

How to Put a Stop to These Problems

It's easy to become comfortable and complacent with one way of doing things. And if time and attendance methods have been working for a business thus far, then it is understandable why change sounds difficult.

But, you need to consider that growth often comes with change, and with these essential changes, your restaurant can prosper.

You have seen above how outdated clocking systems are costing you money. It is high time to put a stop to this resource waste.

Upgrading your time and attendance systems will give you control over your employees and your employees will be way more vigilant in doing precise work. Implementing a time clock calculator will increase the overall efficiency around your restaurant and will put a stop to all these time theft techniques.

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