Hour Timesheet’s Leave Management Feature

With the arrival of Covid-19, the past twelve months have seen unprecedented requests for time off throughout corporate America and worldwide. Whether it has been appeals to use accrued vacation time or questions about what qualifies as sick time, managers have been bombarded with questions like never before. At Hour Timesheet, our leave management feature makes tracking any type of absence easy and straightforward. And in the current environment, our feature is needed by managers like never before.

How To Manage Paid-Sick Leave?

A paid sick- leave can take many different forms depending on what part of the country you live in. At Hour Timesheet, our software is able to manage the differing demands of sick leave. However, as a manager you’ve got to be clear what your local laws stipulate. Local paid sick leave can quickly become an administrative headache for employers who run companies in multiple counties and states. The most difficult issue for employers is trying to develop policies when the local law does not match the state law. In some states there is no statewide law, but there are local laws for paid sick leave. This is the case in states like Texas. You can see how it can get very confusing fast!

The easiest approach for employers who are operating in different jurisdictions is to conduct an audit of their paid sick leave benefits. This is the surest way to ensure they are in compliance with the laws of every jurisdiction in which they operate. A complete audit will provide valuable information that will guide the employer to make decisions about paid sick leave. These decisions will then ensure he or she is in compliance with the patchwork of state and local paid-sick leave laws.

How To Manage Paid-Time Off With The Family Medical Leave Act

The Family Medical Leave Act or FMLA allows all employees time off from their job to bond with their children, care for ill family members or recover from their own serious health problems, all without fear of losing their jobs. This act, which became law across the country in 1993, entitles employees a total of 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period for any of the following:

The birth of a child and to care for the child after birth;

The placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care;

To care for the spouse, parent or child of the employee who has a serious health condition

The Employee’s own serious health condition; and

A qualifying military exigency.

There are many details to the FMLA, such as you’re not allowed to make your employees work while on FMLA leave. Yet, you do have the right to contact them on occasion for small details such locating missing files or updates on projects the employee was working on prior to their leave. As an employer you can’t be expected to memorize all of the finer points of this act. The beauty of software such as Hour Timesheet is that it can help you track and manage FMLA to ensure you’re adhering to the law. One less thing to worry about!

Discover Stress-Free Leave Management with Hour Timesheet

Hour Timesheet offers free leave tracking setup assistance included with every account. The advantages of our leave management feature include the following:

Access to leave balance detail on the timesheet

24/7 access to leave information in the cloud

Enforcement of leave policies company-wide

Supervisors are alerted when employees request leave

Manual calculations of leave are no longer required

Paper-based leave request is eliminated

Annual carry-over values are system-managed

Our comfortable, user-friendly, and customizable leave management feature for your employees is also available as a free app download, available in the Android and IOS apps marketplace, along with your main software.

How To Keep Track Of Employee Time Off?

The Hour Timesheet leave management feature gives employees access to leave balance data, including current balances, accrual, carry-over values. Workers can submit an online leave request with a single click. Hour Timesheet can track and manage your paid time-off, vacation, sick, and holiday with ease. If you would like to learn more about how Hour Timesheet can help you track and manage your employee time off, click here. We’re here to help show you how our leave management feature can simplify your employees’ requests for time off.

The Best Time Tracking Apps for Small Businesses 2021

Suppose you are operating a business where your employees are still manually handing in their timesheets, completed in pen and paper. Or they fill-in their hours in a spreadsheet and then send it to you only once at the end of the month. It’s time to take a look at upgrading your time tracking system. To help with your decision, here are the five best time tracking apps for 2021.

The Top Time Tracking Apps of 2021

1. Hour Timesheet

This app has several different solutions depending on your objective for selecting a time tracking software solution. The Hour Timesheet app allows its users to track the progress, the cost, location, and the amount of leave of a job. The app also allows for payroll integration, tracking billable hours, and comparing those with non-billable hours. You have various clock-in and out options, as well as the capacity for third party approvals.

One of Hour Timesheet’s most important features is that it is DCAA compliant. This means that small businesses using Hour Timesheet are eligible to participate in any SBIR and STTR government programs. The Hour Timesheet software is designed to be easy to use, even while meeting DCAA compliance regulations.

Hour Timesheet’s time tracking app integrates with QuickBooks online and at a desktop. The app can also be used for custom integration with other third-party software options.

2. ezClocker

It is an affordable, simple, and easy to use time tracking app. EzClocker lets its employees clock-in or out from the mobile device. Thanks to a GPS stamp, you can verify that your employees have clocked-in or out from the correct locations.

Other ease-of-use features include employees being able to view their schedules and timesheets in real-time. In the event you need to export payroll data, ezClocker can email timesheets to anyone you need. It also provides an iPad time clock app where you limit employees to only one device for clocking-in or out. Employees can use either their Smartphone to view timesheets and schedules or their computers. Still, they can only clock-in or out using their iPad.

3. Deputy

The Deputy time card app comes with great features, including the ability to manage time attendance, tasking and team communication, and employee scheduling. Deputy also allows you to generate invoices based on activity, task, and hours worked per employee. Once they’ve been generated, you can send them straight to your preferred accounting software.

This time card app will also automatically allocate job codes, employees, and rates per invoice line. Other features include using dynamic reports to track timesheet costs, sales transactions, and other employee variables. All of these options ensure that you stay abreast of the most recent time tracking advances.

4. TSheets

TSheets allows employees to keep their existing smartphones to quickly and efficiently track their work time. This app provides handy reminders to clock-in and out when to take breaks and all sorts of other reminders. TSheets lets employees allocate time to specific projects, custom fields, or tasks. This time tracking app can also integrate with Quickbooks and several other popular accounting software applications.

5. Replicon

Replicon has created a failsafe system to prevent the infamous buddy punching in the time tracking world. This app, which can be used with a tablet, means you can take a photo whenever an employee clocks-in to work. They also offer visual-check-ins to scan timesheets and ensure that your employees aren’t trying to play the system. Replicon also allows employees to easily access their work schedule, find assigned shifts, and request time off.

Time Tracking Apps

Of the five-time tracking apps featured in this article, there are approximately 100 more currently available on the market. As evident, no two applications are the same. Each time tracking app comes with certain features and benefits. As an employer, you must choose an app that suits your specific business needs and employee situation. What app might work for one business might not work for another. Most importantly, choose a time tracking app that will provide you with the necessary tools to operate and maintain a successful business.

Guide to Online Employee Time Clocks

Having a remote workforce is the new “normal” in today’s environment which creates new challenges in workforce management. Enter Hour Timesheet Mobile, it provides a secure, reliable, and accurate way to allow employees and contractors an easy way to clock in and out as well as document time away from “their desk”.

Who Needs Hour Timesheet Mobile Time Clock?

Any organization with mobile and remote employees who no longer have access to a physical time clock.

Organizations who have workers that travel as part of their job.

Organizations looking to track job cost at the web clock interface.

Simplify Punching In and Out and Streamline Your Payroll Work-Flow Processes

Our online employee time clock includes various features allowing management to streamline the employee’s timecard data.

1. Clock-in/Clock-out

2. Add Project Hours

3. Add Leave Hours

4. Add Timesheet Notes

5. Access to Leave Balance Data

HTS can help your organization with the 5 C’s.

COMPLIANCE. The online employee time clock makes tracking breaks and overtime easy. That helps you stay compliant with state, federal, and municipal regulations.

COMMUNICATION Keep abreast of what is going on even when you are not there in person. The online employee time clock will provide alerts when employees fail to show up for shifts or when they’re approaching overtime.

COST. Track job cost and have access to real-time reports to help you evaluate your overhead cost associated with absence time and overtime.

CALCULATIONS Our online employee time clock does the busy work of calculating time cards for you. The includes regular and overtime hours worked, paid time off hours, and more. Our app will save you valuable time by computing your timecards automatically. Your timesheets will start to reflect your payroll expenses.

CONNECTIONS Hour Timesheets offers various reporting formats for payroll, including Excel and CSV export, PDF, or more simply a paper copy. Our time clock system can easily integrate with various well-known payroll providers, including QuickBooks , Gusto and ADP.

Online Employee Time Clock

If you’re tired of having to wade through the mountains of timecards and reports regularly, then now’s the time to join the 21^st century with Hour Timesheet’s Online Employee Time Clock. Our easy-to-use application offers a multitude of features and is highly customizable. Your employees do not require training to use the application, and there is no hardware required either. It really could not get any easier.

Time Is Money And Every Minute Counts

Contact Hour Timesheet today to learn more about our app.

FLSA Timekeeping Do’s and Don’ts

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA, employers must keep accurate records of non-exempt hourly employees. This might seem like a straightforward process. However, it can become too complicated when, for example, your employees travel for work, punch-in early or leave late, or use mobile devices to remain connected to work after hours. The following is a brief overview of some of the do’s and don’ts to help you manage your timekeeping responsibilities.

Do:

1. Use a reliable timekeeping system.

You may choose to use a timekeeping method such as an hour timesheet app or something else, including time clocks, badge readers, timesheets. Yet FLSA timekeeping requirements stipulate it allows employees’ hours for uncertainty or inefficiency (to a maximum of 15 minutes). You must apply the rounding policy fairly and can’t always round in favor of your company. Please note some states place limits on time rounding. Check all applicable laws before you start using this policy and consider your timekeeping system before applying a time rounding policy.

2. Any and all time worked must be recorded.

Whether it’s time spent checking phone messages, replying to texts, work emails, accessing the company network, or performing other work tasks, all of this considered compensable work time. That’s why non-exempt employees must understand what constitutes work. Then make an effort to report all time spent working outside of standard work hours according to FLSA timekeeping requirements. In a situation where employees can’t use your regular timekeeping system to record after-hours work, it is your responsibility to instruct them on how to promptly and correctly report these hours.

3. Reclassifying breaks as work time.

According to FLSA timekeeping requirements, all rest breaks must be paid if they are 20 minutes or less in duration. Thus, be careful not to let your employees punch out for breaks that last less than 20 minutes or less. Remember, it’s the break’s length, which determines whether payment is required, never the reason for the break.

4. Record training and travel time.

According to FLSA timekeeping requirements, you must compensate employees for any non-productive time in addition to time spent working. Non-productive time can be considered time spent traveling or in training. For instance, if one of your employees spends time traveling overnight for work, he or she must be paid for all time that cuts across their regular work hours, regardless of whether the travel occurs on their regular workday. As their employer, make sure you understand the rules on compensable training and can instruct employees on how to record their time correctly.

Don’t:

1. Never withhold pay if employees fail to submit or sign their timesheets.

According to FLSA timekeeping requirements, an employer must pay employees for all hours on the next regularly scheduled payday. Whether or not the employee has adequately followed the company’s timekeeping procedures.

2. Never withhold pay for unauthorized work time.

Employers may already have a policy in place that requires employees to get permission before working overtime. Yet, according to FLSA timekeeping requirements, employers must pay non-exempt employees for all time worked. That is irrespective of whether it was authorized in advance. If this policy is not respected by the employees, the employer can introduce disciplinary action. But they can never withhold pay.

3. Do not make automatic deductions for meal periods.

As an employer, it’s in your best interest to require employees to clock out and back in from their meals. This can help ensure that they are paid for missed lunch breaks. It also accounts for instances when employees return from lunch late. Their time records will accurately reflect that they took a meal during the period in question and for how long.

4. Never neglect your recordkeeping responsibilities.

According to FLSA timekeeping requirements, employers must hold on to their time cards and other such records from which wage calculations are gathered for at least two years. Additionally, employers must keep payroll records, including hours worked each day and total hours worked each workweek, for a minimum of three years. These records are necessary for federal tax purposes and must be kept for a minimum of four years.

Hour Timesheet & FLSA Timekeeping Requirements

It sounds simple enough: stay on top of your timekeeping. But when you’re busy running a business, this can be easier said than done. You can quickly get busy, overwhelmed, and the next thing you know, you’ve fallen behind. That’s why it’s essential to develop policies and procedures to ensure that you keep accurate time records for all non-exempt employees. This way, you can ensure they’re being paid adequately for the time they’ve spent working.

Top 5 Reasons You Need a Time Card Calculator

As the owner of a business you certainly understand one of the most tedious parts of running your organization is calculating timecards. When you think of all the things you have to do including creating and executing your marketing strategy, maintaining your inventory and simply ensuring the company operates smoothly, the last thing you feel like doing is calculating time cards. Besides who has time to do it? That’s why a time card calculator is so incredibly invaluable and where Hour Timesheet can help.

Hour Timesheet’s Time Card Calculators

At Hour Timesheet we have time card calculators that can alleviate the stress and strain of tracking employees’ hours. Our calculators accurately track and total timecard hours automatically. They can eliminate unwanted overtime with their programmable clock-in and out rules. Our calculators can be simply installed on your PC, Mac, Windows tablet or portable Smart device.

Saves Time & Money

The biggest advantage of using a time card calculator is that it saves time and money. Either you or your Human Resources Department will save both time and money collecting, calculating, correcting and processing employee timesheet. Instead thanks to the online calculator it will significantly reduce the time it takes to do this. Using a calculator will enable employees to focus on their jobs at hands. They will no longer have to worry about tracking and recording the time they spend working each day, week or month and can dedicate their time on what they were hired to do-work!

Reduces the chance for errors

If you take a moment and think about the opportunity for errors when you’re recording and calculating employee hours, especially when factors such as overtime, and holidays are all factored into the equation you begin to realize how easy it is to make an error. Something as easy as a misplaced decimal can lead to a serious accounting error and a serious loss of income for an employee. Not to mention a problem for you! It goes without saying that time calculations for payroll must be accurate. Your employees depend on those results and you depend on them to ensure your business runs smoothly. Our time card calculator does the math for you automatically. Instead of having to manually using one, our time tracking calculator reduces human error and helps prevent any miscalculations. The result is that your employees get paid what they’re entitled to and you can rest assured it’s accurate.

Encourages Compliance

There are state and federal labor laws that were created to help control things like record keeping, overtime and wages. Yet, these can be difficult to track and keep up with, particularly if you’re using an outdated employee time and attendance system. Hour Timesheet’s timecard calculator can help your business adhere to these laws. It can even help owners and managers use break times and overtime options that are provided as an added feature to ensure they are staying compliant.

Discourages Time Theft

Time theft sounds harmless enough unfortunately it’s far more detrimental than one would think. First it comes in many forms including taking a longer coffee or lunch break than allotted. Or clocking-in a friend when they’re going to be late to work. Whether the action is intentional or not, it can cost you the business owner or manager a tremendous amount of money. At Hour Timesheet, by using our time card calculators in conjunctions with automated time and attendance systems, you can help stop time theft in its tracks.

Time Card Calculators – A Useful Tool for Business

There are some business owners or managers who argue that a time card calculator is a useful tool for their enterprise. At Hour Timesheet we say they are an essential item. A time tracking calculator is easy-to-use and improves the efficiency with which your business operates. Not only does it reduce errors, but it saves you time, money, increases compliance and discourages time theft. Who wouldn’t want a tool in their business arsenal that does that?