One of the best ways to make sure your staff are truly where they need to be at work is to use GPS time tracking. It is crucial for boosting productivity, appropriately billing and paying your employees, fostering accountability, and offering transparency.
Particularly if you are in charge of mobile staff members who don't operate from an office, such field laborers, contractors, cleaners, or home health care providers.
You won't have to rely on their word anymore if you use this technique.
Let's talk about the necessity of employing a GPS time clock app and the advantages it will bring to your company.
Small Business GPS Time Clocks Explained
This helpful app, also referred to as a mobile clock, is mostly used for time tracking with GPS location enabled.
Related: Employee GPS Tracking Laws | Can My Employer Track My Location?
This employee time tracking app's GPS capabilities enable you to track and log the number of hours your employees put in regardless of where they are.
A time clock app with GPS is therefore very useful for business owners whose staff members travel between and operate at many locations.
Since employees don't have to waste time traveling to the main office before their shift, such an app is a far more practical solution in such situations. They can use a time tracker with GPS that is installed on their mobile device to clock in on-site.
In addition, a GPS time clock enables you to create a geofence, or virtual wall, around a specific region or jobsite. In this manner, your employees won't be able to clock in from their car or a nearby coffee shop, but only from within this region.
Is a GPS Time Clock the Same Thing as a GPS Tracker?
Despite possibly referring to the same subject, the terms GPS time tracking and GPS tracking are frequently used synonymously.
GPS time tracking is the practice of monitoring an employee's clock-in and clock-out whereabouts. An app with a GPS time clock can help you do this.
Related: Benefits of GPS Time Clock Tracking For Employees Explained
On the other hand, GPS tracking refers to documenting each and every location of an employee. While they are clocking in or even after they have clock out, the location may be periodically recorded.
How Small Businesses Can Use GPS Time Clock
GPS tracking, commonly referred to as geolocation tracking, determines and communicates the device's optimal location. And a GPS time clock's primary function is this.
Even though it's frequently referred to as GPS tracking, geolocation tracking is a better phrase because it doesn't always use the GPS position.
A device can geolocate itself using one of the following methods: cell tower triangulation, Wi-Fi positioning, GPS location, or the device's IP address.
Out of these 4 alternatives, the device's report is the most precise.
A GPS location can be obtained without an internet connection by taking the geographic coordinates. Having an internet connection, however, enhances the location data because there are more options to choose from. Nevertheless, there are several circumstances in which a device's location cannot be determined.
When the device can be reached within the range of signals needed to calculate position coordinates, geolocation works best. Users should stay away from areas like basements where signals may have a tougher time reaching the gadget.
Nearly all modern smartphones include GPS capabilities. While some tablets come equipped with GPS chips, others without GPS can still find the optimum position via WiFi networks.
Users can choose to turn on or off GPS position on their GPS-enabled tablets and smartphones.
Make sure to activate the WiFi setting as well in order to obtain the optimal device coordinates.
The 6 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need a GPS Time Clock
Let's talk about how you can use a GPS time clock now that you have a basic understanding of what it is and how it functions.
Why SMBs Need a GPS Time Clock #1: Prevent buddy punching and time theft
Keeping track of where everyone is when they should be working can be particularly difficult when managing a group of field workers. Because of this, some employees may use this situation and submit false information on paper timesheets.
Recent research found that employee time theft costs U.S. companies 20% of every dollar they make.
Related: 4 Ways Workers Steal Time (And 6 Ways To Prevent It) | Time Theft Explained
Construction companies, for instance, are particularly prone to time theft since it is challenging to watch and monitor employees because they are dispersed throughout the site. They are allowed to arrive a few minutes later and depart a few minutes earlier. Even though it might not seem significant, all those minutes add up.
By allowing you to monitor your employees' locations and see where they are when clocking in or out, GPS clocking puts an end to these dishonest activities. By doing so, you'll develop and uphold your staff members' accountability and guarantee that they consistently report to work in the proper location.
Additionally, even if an employee neglects to clock out, they will still be reminded, guaranteeing that your labor costs are precise.
Another habit that can hurt your company and your financial line is buddy punching. Employers in the US pay $373 million in costs every year.
Related: How Companies Can Prevent Time Theft (2023 Guide)
You can stop buddy punching and make employee management easier with dependable time-tracking software like TripLog Time, which combines a GPS time clock with facial recognition.
Why SMBs Need a GPS Time Clock #2: Reliable timekeeping
Employees frequently don't purposefully increase their hours or expenses. Particularly when using a manual time tracking process, it's common for people to forget how many hours they spent working.
The paper timesheets are unreliable, prone to errors, and rely on educated guesses.
Because these errors might end up costing your business a lot of money over time, you should consider using time tracking software with GPS.
Related: How to Track Employee Hours - 3 Easy Ways for 2023
A GPS timesheet tool like TripLog Time will automate the procedure and reduce time and cost mistakes rather than leaving it up to your personnel. As a consequence, you'll pay your workers fairly in accordance with their level of contribution and the number of hours they put in for you.
Why SMBs Need a GPS Time Clock #3: Decreased paperwork
Improving your business's overall efficiency requires streamlining your workflow and automating menial chores.
Paper timesheets take a long time to process and are inaccurate. Because data entry and processing are both manual processes, you and your staff are losing a lot of time that could be spent on more crucial duties.
The entire procedure, including time tracking, processing timesheets, and cost calculation, is automated by a GPS time clock app. It logs the hours worked by your staff and creates timesheets automatically based on the entries.
And the software begins tracking time and generating records as soon as your staff use their mobile device to clock in or out.
Why SMBs Need a GPS Time Clock #4. Making the payroll management procedure easier
Similar to this, managing payroll takes a lot of time and work. Not to mention the possibility of blunders.
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Payroll and invoicing are taken care of via a GPS time clock app. For instance, TripLog Time streamlines the process by integrating with some of the most well-liked accounting and payroll systems.
This indicates that the software will automatically create your employees' payroll timesheets after you enter the hourly rates for them. Additionally, TripLog Time keeps track of employees' lunch breaks, sick days, and vacations, allowing you to account for all pertinent information and produce correct payroll.
It's important to note that hourly workers are non-exempt when discussing this topic. To put it another way, they are qualified for overtime pay under both federal and state regulations.
They may initiate a lawsuit against you for breaking the FLSA rules if your hourly workers work more than 40 hours a week without receiving their overtime pay. You should use a GPS-enabled time clock software and make sure that all of your employees are paid equitably for this and other reasons.
Why SMBs Need a GPS Time Clock #5. Learning about the availability and productivity of your staff
The secret to your employees' productivity is knowing how they spend their time and work. While brief breaks and sporadic rest periods between tasks are acceptable, you should make sure your staff aren't abusing your break policy.
By encouraging transparency, this tool can help you hold everyone on your team accountable. As a result, you'll pay your workers fairly and stop them from taking advantage of their jobs.
A comprehensive picture of the workforce that is accessible is another crucial factor in good personnel management. Additionally, knowing where each person is at any one time makes it easier to better arrange their responsibilities.
For instance, if you are aware of an employee's precise position, you can send them to perform a work nearby rather than sending someone from another area of the city. It's important to note that staff are safeguarded by a GPS time clock app.
Knowing you're working extra without a way to keep track of your hours or get paid fairly is tremendously frustrating. In other words, workers will be more dependable and productive when they believe their efforts are worthwhile.
Why SMBs Need a GPS Time Clock #6. Providing proof to your clients
Punctuality and adhering to a schedule are essential in several industries, like health home care.
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You understand how crucial it is for your caregivers to arrive on schedule if you own a home health firm. Consider the potential consequences if one of your staff is late for a scheduled visit with a patient who needs to undergo urgent medical attention.
You'll exhibit professionalism, which is crucial for the success of your business, by showing respect for your patients' time.
You may guarantee that your staff members never skip or arrive late for an appointment by using a GPS time clock app. Additionally, solutions like TripLog Time capture the precise time and coordinates of your staff, so you have documentation of their whereabouts in the event of a client dispute. The Electronic Visit Verification relies on this technology as its foundation (EVV).
Similar to this, it's considerably simpler to bill your clients when you provide them with accurate, legal, and GPS-tagged records of your working hours.
Does Your Small Business Need a GPS Time Clock?
All the advantages we covered demonstrate the necessity of GPS clocking for companies using field and mobility workers who move to and from several job sites.
In summary, this practical tool can assist you in figuring out how many hours each person clocks in, reducing business expenses, preventing time theft, and maintaining compliance with local and national labor laws.
To learn more about TripLog Time's powerful employee time tracking capabilities, schedule a complimentary live web demo with our sales team today.