Making technology work for you

Making Technology Work For You

Today’s technology moves so fast that it’s not easy to keep up with. It seems like new tools are surfacing every day to help business owners and entrepreneurs save time, money and boost productivity. New technology empowers business owners to achieve what they set out to do and allows them to be creative while maintaining a high level of productivity. Businesses that want to stay relevant know that they must incorporate new technologies into their company’s growth strategy.

The trick to making technology work for you and your team will depend on how it’s integrated. You can use these tips to help your employees to successfully embrace technology:

1. Highlight the Benefits

Technology can do so much to make our lives easier, but the process of learning new technology can still be daunting. To ensure team member buy-in, help them understand the decision to implement new technology. Identify the limitations or problems in the current tools or software. Help your users see how technology could solve these problems. Even though fear is normal in the face of change, we can’t let fear stop us from moving forward.

2. Find Your Champions

There are always employees who readily accept new technology. These are your champions! They can help convince reluctant coworkers where no one else can. Have them be available for questions and training to those who are slower to adopt. Some employees may not be convinced of the benefits of technology until they see someone else do it.

3. Provide Training

Training is critical to the successful adoption of new technology. You must ensure that team members of all levels of technological know-how have the access they need to learn at their own speed. Training can be looked at as a two-step process: You need training from external sources (free at Hour Timesheet), and then you need a core group of internal employees who are comfortable in the new system and can help others if needed.

REASONS YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY

By embracing today’s new technology your company will reap the benefits that keep them ahead of their competitors who fail to embrace technology, including:

Staying connected

Encouraging timely and accurate input

Ability to monitor employee productivity

Improving manager productivity

Improving employee accountability

Access to advanced business reporting and analysis

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FLSA Timekeeping Requirements

Who does FLSA apply to?

One of the FLSA Timekeeping Requirements is that hourly employees must be paid at least the minimum wage and not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for overtime hours worked.

What are the timekeeping recordkeeping requirements?

Every covered employer must keep certain records for each non-exempt worker. The department of labor requires accurate records. The following is a listing of the basic records that an employer must maintain:

Time and day of week when employee’s workweek begins

Time worked each day

Total hours worked each workweek and pay period

Total daily or weekly straight-time hours

Total overtime hours for the workweek

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What type of record should be retained?

Each employer shall preserve for at least three years payroll records, collective bargaining agreements, sales and purchase records. Records on which wage computations are based should be retained for two years, i.e., time cards and piece work tickets, wage rate tables, work and time schedules, and records of additions to or deductions from wages.

What type of timekeeping is best?

Employers may use any timekeeping method they choose. For example, they may use a time clock, have a timekeeper keep track of employee’s work hours, or tell their workers to write their own times on the records. Any timekeeping plan is acceptable as long as it is complete and accurate

Android App | Time Tracking Android App | Time Tracker | Leave Management

What about employees on irregular work schedules?

Many employees work on a fixed schedule from which they seldom vary. The employer may keep a record showing the exact schedule of daily and weekly hours and merely indicate that the worker did follow the schedule. When a worker is on a job for a longer or shorter period of time than the schedule shows, the employer must record the number of hours the worker actually worked, on an exception basis.

Are timesheets required by law?

Timesheets are a legal document, which are the source of payroll transactions, and are related to a project, customer invoicing. Timesheets serve as the legal authority to pay an employee. … For example, the timesheet policy might require that time worked be reported accurately on the date that such work was performed.

Can my boss alter my timesheet?

While falsification of an employee’s time sheet can be a serious offense, it isn’t illegal for a supervisor or employer to change an employee’s time sheet –as long as it reflects the correct hours that were worked.

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Additional Resources

Record-keeping Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations

A DCAA Compliant Alternative to Deltek Timekeeping

When a business undertakes a government contract, part of the agreement is for their timekeeping and accounting procedures to comply with the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). DCAA-compliant contracts require daily time tracking, precise records, detailed reporting, and specific manager approvals, all for DCAA audit purposes. Ensuring DCAA compliance can be a lengthy and confusing process if not using the right tools. If you are searching for alternatives to Deltek’s timekeeping, keep reading to learn more about Hour Timesheet’s DCAA compliant solution.

There are expensive and not-so-user-friendly software programs such as Deltek that don’t deliver some of the features that other products such as Hour Timesheet do. The following are some of the reasons an increasing number of companies are switching to Hour Timesheet.

Regular Reminders

Hour Timesheet features both daily and weekly reminders to employees and managers when timesheets are due. This ensures that everyone working for the company, whether remotely or in the office, regularly tracks their time. DCAA compliance requires daily timesheet entries by every employee and for managers to approve their hours. This must happen whether they’re working on the DCAA that day or not. They don’t let it accumulate and try to submit them at the end of the month in a hurry.

Accurate Charging Codes

Hour Timesheet’s DCAA compliant timekeeping software restricts employees charging to an expired charge code. With Hour Timesheet, employees can only enter labor time for specified job code assignments and labor categories, with the ability to set maximum limits or expiration dates. Thanks to this feature, managers do not need to worry about unauthorized or excessive labor costs for their tasks. This built-in feature prevents government contractors from making incorrect entries, resulting in time-consuming corrective actions, delayed invoice payment, or the most severe DCAA audit findings.

Regular timesheet processing

Part of the DCAA compliant timekeeping requirements is that timesheets must be processed every month, if not more frequently. Hour Timesheet’s timekeeping procedures allow for this to happen. A report can be generated to illustrate the number of timesheets generated for the month, information on costs, and billing.

A detailed audit trail

As DCAA compliant time tracking software, Hour Timesheet is DCAA compliant. That means it has a long and detailed audit trail. If an employee or manager edits a time card after it has been submitted, the DCAA will want to know who made the change, when it was made and why? Hour Timesheet creates an un-editable audit log that provides a permanent list of all the additions, subtractions, and changes that have been made to the employees’ timesheets.

Manual time tracking

The Hour Timesheet time-entry feature can help protect and allow your business to grow with the timekeeping capabilities you need to be DCAA compliant. Our manual time tracking features will help you track direct and indirect costs on a project-by-project basis and tackle head-on one of the most daunting aspects of DCAA compliance by creating a detailed audit trail. Often the timekeeping requirements of being government contractors can be overwhelming. Let, Hour Timesheet help.

An up-to-date sick/personal leave balance

With Hour Timesheet, all employee’s current sick/personal leave and vacation balances are always prominently displayed on their timesheet entry page. There is no need to wait for a regular pay stub to review these balances.

Embedded Payroll

Run payroll with Hour Timesheet data with Gusto’s embedded payroll integration in a single platform.

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For more information on DCAA timekeeping requirements and how Hour Timesheet is the software to meet the compliance needs, contact us today. We offer a FREE 30-day trial of our software, because we know that you’re going to love it!

QuickBooks Integration Q&A

Common Q&A for Timesheet integration with QuickBooks and Hour Timesheet

Question 1. How does QuickBooks sync data with Hour Timesheet?

Answer. We utilize the Web Connector (provided by QuickBooks) to sync company data between QuickBooks Desktop and Hour Timesheet in real time. The version of QuickBooks Online offers a direct sync between the two systems making timesheet integration with QuickBooks simple!

Question 2. What type of data does QuickBooks sync with Hour Timesheet?

Employees: The sync tool will import all “active” QuickBooks employees and vendors (optional) into your Hour Timesheet account. Only vendors that have a First and Last Name field value in QuickBooks will be imported.

Customers/Jobs: The sync tool will import all “active” Customer/Jobs in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Service Items: The sync tool will import all “active” Service Items in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Classes: (optional) The sync tool will import all “active” Classes in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Payroll Items: (optional) The sync tool will import all “active” Payroll Items in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Question 3. How do I add a new data in Hour Timesheet (employees, customers, jobs, etc.)?

Answer – New data will need to be entered into your QuickBooks company file first. Once the new data is entered, you can use the web connector tool to import your new data in to your Hour Timesheet account.

Question 4. How will my employees receive their Hour Timesheet login credentials?

Answer – Hour Timesheet will send an email invitation to each employee with the link and login ID to the Hour Timesheet account included in the body of the email. Once the employee accesses the link, the employee will be prompted to create an initial password to login to Hour Timesheet.

Question 5. Can my employees track time against customers and jobs, service items, classes and payroll items?

Answer – Yes, your employees will be asked to select from a list of authorized charges. Employee authorized charges (EOC) are defined by the admin at the employee level. This feature enables the employees to only see EOC’s that are assigned to each user.

Question 6. How do I delete information in my Hour Timesheet account?

Answer – Once you mark the data (employee, customer, job, etc.) as inactive in QuickBooks, the data will be updated in your Hour Timesheet account upon performing the data sync.

Question 7. How does Hour Timesheet identify billable vs non-billable items on the timesheet?

Answer – By default, any EAC that includes a service item will be marked as billable time in QuickBooks.

Question 8. Can employees add comments to a timesheets?

Answer – Yes, Hour Timesheet includes a feature to allow employees to input general comments and daily comments.

Question 9. I exported my employee’s time into my company QuickBooks file, but now I need to make corrections. How do I do this?

Answer – Hour Timesheet does not allow processed timesheet data to be edited. Hour Timesheet will display a link on the Timesheet Review page that will allow the user to create a “corrected” copy of the timesheet. The detailed audit trail will show the log of all changes made to the revised timesheet.

Question 10. Can multiple supervisors approve a single timesheet?

Answer Yes. Hour Timesheet will allow for multiple supervisors to approve a timesheet.

Question 11. We have a requirement for our employees to enter hours worked daily, does Hour Timesheet include daily reminders?

Answer – Hour Timesheet includes the option to turn on daily notifications to serve as reminders for those employees who forget to enter time daily.

Question 12. I track my employee leave balance data manually in an Excel spreadsheet because QuickBooks doesn’t include all of the options I need, can Hour Timesheet manage leave?

Answer – Hour Timesheet has a full-function leave management feature that will allow accrued and earned types of leave tracking.

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QuickBooks Tutorials for Accountants

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Top Timekeeping Tips

Top Employee Timekeeping Tips

Insight into how your employees spend time is critical. That’s why employee timekeeping software tools make so much sense.

Knowing how much time your employees spend on overhead tasks, project, training, and unpaid leave is invaluable data for your business’s future. Tools that track employee hours and employee schedules will greatly reduce your hours spent processing manual time cards. Continue reading to find out more about tips for employee time and attendance and how Hour Timesheet is the perfect solution for you.

Employee timekeeping is not just for hourly employees

Nonexempt employees need to track work time for FLSA compliance but having salaried employees keep a time sheet is helpful too. Exception-based time tracking helps employers track employee attendance and improve the overall management of daily resources. Tools and solutions that include the ability for employees to track hours worked on mobile devices will provide real time job costing and absentee management at the supervisor level.

Internal policies & approval workflows are the keys to a successful employee timekeeping software implementation.

Software tools are a dime-a-dozen, but it’s how you use the software that defines your success. It’s important to document your timekeeping policies and required approval workflows before you invest in a time & attendance tool.

Don’t be afraid of internet-based employee timekeeping software tools

A detailed timesheet audit trail will flag when a user inputs timesheet data into your system from anywhere but the office. The activity log shows the IP address as well as each entry into the user’s timesheet with a non-editable time and date stamp. Online employee time tracking software also allows for integration with your payroll system with a 2-way sync to and from your payroll software like QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop.

Microsoft Excel is for spreadsheet data, not for employee timekeeping

Yes, you can keep your employees timesheet data in Excel but is that really efficient? Don’t be afraid to use the tools available to your organization to make you more productive. Rely on the experts…not Excel.

BOTTOM LINE… it’s just smart business.

Features such as daily timesheet reminders, employee leave management and embedded payroll processing make Hour Timesheet the perfect choice for your organization’s timekeeping software needs. Available on the web or your iOS and Android mobile app store.

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QuickBooks Online

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Additional Resources

Measure Costs Right: Make the Right Decisions

How To Calculate And Track Overhead Costs

How do I Calculate Overhead Costs?

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