Any business must keep track of employee hours since doing so is necessary for tracking attendance, managing HR tasks, adhering to labor laws, and gathering the information required to process payroll.
Today, we want to discuss four effective ways to keep track of your team’s hours that you can start right away. To effectively track employee hours, you'll need to discover a method that's both simple for your staff to use and simple for you to track.
Employee Time Tracking Method #1: Microsoft Excel (or Google Sheets)
One of the most popular ways to track your team’s hours is to use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. This method has your team use a spreadsheet to log and record their hours.
Typically, you would provide them with a customized spreadsheet with fields where your team can fill in their information. These spreadsheets can be sent or accessed by your management team for approval.
How to Use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets Timesheets
While you could build a very simple spreadsheet and just have your team input their raw information, there are better ways to track using Excel or Google Sheets.
We recommend finding a pre-made template on Google. Many exist online with good designs, as well as convenient calculation formulas built right in. Your team can just put in their hours worked for the day, and the template will add up their total hours.
You could write your own formulas if you have a specific use case, but for most companies, it shouldn’t take too long to find the right template that will work.
Related: Employee GPS Tracking Laws | Can My Employer Track My Location?
Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets Timesheets: Pros and Cons
Because of how easy it is to find a high-quality template on Google, many companies choose to go with it. It’s not particularly difficult to add your own custom fields or modify one of the provided ones.
With that said, depending on the structure of your organization, an Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet can be inaccessible for your employees to use. Each product has its own iOS or Android app to make it easier, but it can still be a little clunky.
Unlike modern time tracking apps like TripLog Time, this process is entirely manual, which can leave room for time fraud. In addition, having to create, send out, submit, and approve dozens or hundreds of these spreadsheets can be incredibly cumbersome.
This time tracking method is best for: Small teams (2-10 employees)
Employee Time Tracking Method #2: Manual Timesheet Templates
This is by far the simplest method of employee time tracking. This involves manually printing out pieces of paper that have preset designs designed to easily organize your team’s time.
Your team keeps the paper with them and they enter their hours as needed. They then submit the papers to their higher-ups, typically either daily, weekly, or monthly.
Certain timesheet templates are specifically designed for managers who must report the work of their staff to superiors. Here are a few elements a typical timesheet template might have:
- Shift start and end times
- Lunch breaks
- Overtime hours
- Vacation/sick days
Ultimately, timesheet templates put the burden on the employees to determine the total number of hours they worked in a given day or week.
Depending on your company's policies, someone else may have entered some of the data in a timesheet template. In any event, further checks and permissions are always necessary.
How to Use Manual Employee Timesheets
You can easily find the right employee timesheet template on Google. A few minutes of searching around is all it’ll take.
After you find and set up the right template, you have a couple of options. You can just print them out and distribute them among your workforce.
Related: What Happens When Employees Commit Time Theft?
Manual Employee Timesheets: Pros and Cons
The biggest benefit to manual pen-and-paper timesheets is their simplicity. Your team will require little to no training, and you can get your team going in less than 10 minutes of effort.
With that said, there are many potential cons to this approach. If you’re going with the printout method, it can be difficult to store these timesheets safely, leaving you open to having your records getting lost.
In addition, time theft is also much easier in this circumstance. Whether intentional or unintentional, it’s easy for employees to make mistakes that can be costly in the long run.
This time tracking method is best for: small-to-medium sized teams (10-25 employees)
Employee Time Tracking Method #3: Dedicated Employee Time Tracking Apps
With veritable supercomputers in virtually everyone’s pockets, using a dedicated employee time tracking app is by far the best way to track your team’s hours. Unlike the previous methods listed, an employee time app lets companies automate many aspects of their time tracking needs.
How to Use Employee Time Tracking Apps
At their simplest, your team members are able to clock in and clock out with ease, and admins are able to track and approve their hours via a dedicated web dashboard. However, certain more advanced and feature-rich solutions like TripLog Time offer more capabilities.
Some of TripLog Time’s major features include:
- Attendance and leave management
- Timesheet submission and approval
- GPS location tracking
- Clock in/clock out
- Employee scheduling
- Custom categories
- Convenient calendar view
Related: How Companies Can Prevent Time Theft (2023 Guide)
Employee Time Tracking Apps: Pros and Cons
The biggest and best aspect of using an employee time tracking solution is being able to easily automate many of the clunky procedures that come with timekeeping.
With all of your team’s historical data stored within TripLog Time’s easy-to-use web dashboard, you can easily keep track of their work hours, breaks, and time off. You’re able to see who’s working on what, who’s meeting with whom, and for how long.
The cons of switching to a dedicated employee time tracking app are relatively few. Generally, it comes down to some employees not being tech savvy, so training and onboarding can take a little bit more effort than some manual solutions.
Conclusion
Every company is going to have unique needs, which means one solution may work for some and different solutions may work for others. Ultimately, every business should explore all methods to see what will work for them.
With that said, the overwhelming majority of organizations who switch to a dedicated employee time tracking system see immediate improvements in employee productivity, as well as cost-savings in the form of accurate labor compensation.
The benefits of automation and increased oversight can be felt immediately. To see for yourself, schedule a demo with our sales team to see just how much TripLog Time can help your company!