Page 58 - Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting

Accumulating T ime W orked
identifying number; the system records that number, and all associated
time worked,with complete accuracy.The second innovation in the clock
is a computer that is linked to a central payroll computer.This feedback
mechanism allows the time clock to reject employee swipes if they are

made at the wrong time (such as during the wrong break time) or are made
for employees who are not supposed to be working during specified
shifts (which may occur if one employee brings in someone else’s card
and attempts to record that person as being on the premises and, there-
fore, eligible to be paid). The system can reject swipes that fall into any
number of violation parameters and require the override password of a
supervisor to record those swipes. The benefits of this innovation are

twofold: it yields a great improvement in a company’s control over the
timekeeping process, and all data swiped into it requires no further key-
punching—all of the data is sent straight into the payroll system, where
it is reviewed for errors and then used to pay employees.This eliminates
the cost of extra data entry,as well as the risk of data entry errors.These
innovations do come at a price, however, which is typically in the range
of $2,000 to $3,000 per automated time clock. A large facility may
require a number of these clocks if many employees must use them, so
the cost of this addition must be carefully weighed against the benefits.

T IPS &T ECHNIQUES

The prices quoted above for automated timekeeping systems were
quite high. Additional research will uncover a variety of less expen-
sive timekeeping systems on the market, systems that dispense
with some of the backup, security, job costing, and other features of a
high-end timekeeping system. That said, before making such a pur-
chase, be careful to ensure that these lower-cost units integrate with
the existing payroll system, otherwise, you may find that an alternative
system with a low upfront cost does not automatically send data to the
payroll database, thus requiring manual rekeying of the payroll data.

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