top benefits of an employee time clock in the restaurant industry

Last Updated On September 06, 2019 / Written By Michelle Jaco

Top Benefits of an Employee Time Clock in the Restaurant Industry

With a biometric time clock, you can expect the most accurate read in employee timekeeping. Here are the top reasons why this time and attendance software solution is the best option on the market.

The Situation at Hand

Implementing a fingerprint time clock into your restaurant is one of the best decisions that you can make for your business.

However, you need to do your homework before choosing which company to invest in. It’s imperative to determine which brands on the market are legitimate and that the features their software provides will actually benefit your business. To assist in making such an informed decision, this article will guide you through the process of choosing the right application.

Solution at Your Fingertips

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A time clock is a time and attendance log that companies of all types and sizes use to record their employees’ working hours digitally. It is a valuable resource that ensures you comply with workforce regulation laws. A time clock is also one of the best ways to enhance the efficiency of operations within your restaurant.

Some brands provide different methods for punching in or out for shifts. This may be in the form of proximity FOBs, swiping of identification cards, manual inputting of a personal employee ID, or possibly requiring a biometric stamp in the form of an imprint scan to clock in and out for working shifts.

Most biometric time punches come in the form of a scanned fingerprint to determine employee identification. A fingerprint time clock collects data from that initial ID scan and logs that information into a software program. Most programs are visible through mobile phone, Internet, and PCs.


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Beneficial Features of a Fingerprint Time Clock

1. Ease of Use
A great feature of the fingerprint time clock is that it is easy to install and use. Some vendors will meet with your IT crew to demonstrate how the software works. The system is secure and cannot compromise employee personal data in any way.

2. Eradicates Time Theft
Most restaurants have trouble with time theft because of the nature of the business. Employees can log their breaks correctly but leave work early. With a biometric system in place, you cannot steal the time of your employer.

The reason is that employees use their fingerprints to log in and out. It will create a better working system and help you to save money.

3. Increases Payroll Accuracy
The biometric time attendance system increases the payroll accuracy in all the pay periods. If you maintain your restaurant employee attendance on paperwork, you will waste a lot of time going through every timesheet.

Remember you will have to enter all this information on the computer to print paychecks. The biometric system allows your restaurant to cut on the amount it spends on the payroll in each period.

It will also help reduce the amount of time you take to generate an accurate employee attendance report.

4. High Levels of Compliance
The fingerprint time clock will also help your restaurant improve law compliance with labor laws. When the labor department comes to audit your business, it will be easy to pull the records of all your employees. It will take them a short time to write a report about your business.

The biometric system provides the most reliable proof of attendance. The best fingerprint time clock system should have the absence of tracker software, FMLA tracking software, and PTO tracking software. You can avoid so many problems in your restaurant when you switch to this system.

5. Provides Accountability for Your Employees
Fingerprint time clock creates reports that show when each employee worked, the breaks they took, and how long the employee worked. The management of your restaurant will tell whether the employee takes too many breaks, clock in too late or too early, are not reporting on duty, or spend a lot of time on breaks. It will make your employees more accountable hence increasing their productivity.

6. Improves Payroll Processes
The biometric time attendance system reduces the burden on your payroll department. Employees will no longer have to keep paperwork files or spend a lot of time scanning the documents for you to print checks.

The fingerprint time clock reduces the amount of paperwork for your payroll department. It also gives your employees an excellent place to check the hours worked and year to date PTO and PTO earned.

7. Eliminates “Buddy Punching”
Buddy punching is a significant problem when you use passwords or timesheets to log into the online time clock. If the employees are using their fingerprint to clock in and out of the system, other people cannot do it on their behalf when they are absent. It will prevent the stealing of time and maintains workplace honesty.

Beneficial Features of a Time Clock

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It's also essential to have a clear understanding of what you want to gain from implementing a time and attendance system in general. Here are some areas that should be addressed

1. Identify What Will Improve
When you identify the key areas that need improvement, it will help you in setting a realistic budget for your clocking system. You will know the business benefits you wish to achieve and their respective costs. Excellent business software should pay for itself in the long run. Therefore, you should have a clear picture of the expected ROI from the onset.

2. Product Supplier
The market has several fingerprint time clock products and suppliers. However, you have to be extremely careful when choosing a vendor. It is advisable to choose a full-service that wholly owns the software development process and all the quality controls that come with the system. In case an issue arises with the software, the support team will have direct access to the developers. Most resellers are cheap because they don’t bear the costs of the development teams. Make sure you understand the person who will support the system after purchase.

The main elements are aftersales support and development. A reputable company should give you the help that you need as you continue using the system. Therefore, you need a well-trained and knowledgeable support team. A support team should support an application from a specific brand than going for an outsourced service that helps several products from different suppliers.

Know the person who is responsible for making changes in the system. It can take place to correct problems or add new functionality to the software. It makes sure that your system works well in the long run.

3. Industry-Specific Solutions
The clocking system that a bank uses is quite different from what a government office requires. The reason is that the user needs of these two sectors are very different. Therefore, it is advisable to go for an industry-specific product.

All the features in the software should be tailored to meet the needs of people who work in that industry. Therefore, you will not waste a lot of time and resources tailoring the products to meet your company needs.

4. Awareness of Lifespan
Like any other software in the market, the fingerprint time clock will go out of date with time. You have to make changes that reflect new technology and updated legislation. As you choose a vendor, look at how they handle the element of system upgrade because it has a direct impact on the useful life of the system. It also determines the total cost of owning the system.

The best vendor will allow you to download the latest versions of the system or send them to you. However, you may incur some costs in the process of keeping your software up to date. Check the level of support that the company gives you when it comes to making complex updates on your system.

Be stern with your contract and expectations because some software companies oblige you to pay for system upgrades at specified intervals. It can significantly increase the cost of owning the system. The old versions of all software will become obsolete with time, and you need to get the right support. Make sure you are choosing a company that will not frustrate you in the long run.

5. ROI
Any system that you purchase for your restaurant should give you a return on your investment.

Enquire how you can calculate the ROI and be sure that it is the best option for your restaurant business. Previous customers in the restaurant industry will tell you how the system has been able to help them reduce operational costs.

An excellent fingerprint clock should bring measurable benefits to your restaurant. Maybe you would like to minimize overpayment, reduce absence, or free up some working hours for the payroll team. Most vendors will give you a rough idea of the ROI that you expect to get from the biometric clocking system.

6. Implementation, Training, and Management
To get maximum results from the software, you should spend a lot of time with the company technicians to define how you would like them to set up the system. Some companies will do the set up on your behalf while others will empower you to carry out the task.

You can request the vendor fully set up the system for you with minimum time commitment from your end. In addition, vendors will provide training so that you can get the most from the time clocking system.

However, make sure you enquire whether the company will provide the different levels of training that you need. Some service providers train your payroll department so that they can use the system with a lot of ease. This option is cost-effective if you want to train many people who are in different locations.

If your company has various branches, let the supplier explain to you how he will help in the training of new users and providing refresher training.

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