In today’s fast-paced, overly competitive business world, time might be considered one of the most valuable, irreplaceable assets. Therefore, time and attendance management is an essential component for many businesses. However, many employers might have no idea where to start with tracking their subordinate’s working hours, why they should do it and how to manage these aspects in the first place.
Sure, we all know that time management is all about consciously planning and exercising control of the time spent on specific activities to work smarter rather than harder. And failing to manage time at work can have various negative outcomes, from missed deadlines, financial penalties and lost contracts to inefficient workflow in general, unwanted stress and work/life imbalance.
That’s where time management software comes in. To put it simply, time management (or time tracking) software allows managers to keep track of the time they and their employees spend on different projects and tasks. Yet it’s more than just a tool for gathering all the information regarding the working hours of your team. These solutions enable businesses to handle and optimize different work processes and activities such as payroll and project budgeting.
With this article, we aim to make the process of implementing time and attendance software easier for employers, HR specialists and supervising managers who want to better track employee hours and improve their overall business processes.
We’ve already carried out extensive research and shared with you several ratings regarding our picks of the most useful data loss prevention software, user activity monitoring software and XX software. And today, the time has come to take a dive into the world of time tracking.
Importance of time and attendance management software for businesses
Time and attendance management software helps both supervisors and employees to manage their time more efficiently. It digitizes the process of tracking the time when employees start and end their working days. Tasks can be allotted to different employees; deadlines can be set; time taken by each employee to complete their tasks can also be recorded.
Moreover, time management software also analyzes the data it records. It gathers these analytics based on various parameters and provides performance reports on all users. For example, if an employee takes twice the time taken by another to perform a similar task, then the manager can look into the situation more closely and look for possible reasons of such imbalance and potential solutions of the situation.
Such software becomes especially useful when your team consists of freelancers or workers paid on an hourly basis. It can also be integrated with other third-party software, such as CRM software, project management, documentation, etc.
Now let’s look closer at various benefits these tools can offer businesses. From boosting company’s overall productivity to increasing staff accountability, the potential of correctly implemented time management tool is truly endless.
1. It increases accuracy of time and attendance tracking
The software not only removes numerous inaccuracies associated with paper-based tracking, but also helps supervisors have an accurate picture of how much time every team member is actually spending on their tasks and projects. Logging employees’ hours by tasks, projects or clients helps with generating more accurate invoices, which in turn helps bill clients for the actual work being done.
It also enables efficient attendance tracking. Some solutions even show employees the amount of vacation days they have left or the number of sick days they are entitled to. With such information, comes a sense of control employees feel over their own time. In the end, all these benefits of time and attendance management software support you in handling payroll with ease.
2. It provides real-time analytics
A time management solution isn’t merely a tool for gathering data on employees. This type of software provides real-time analytics of the attendance of the staff, the number of hours they’re working, the amount of tasks they complete, the level of efficiency with which they are working, how productive they are and much more.
Collecting correct data and analyzing it in an efficient way is important, because such data presents a multidimensional picture of the processes happening in the company. The software allows you to analyze trends and identify opportunities, bottlenecks or potential problems. Moreover, it helps make informed decisions that are most suitable for the company.
3. It offers transparency into work processes
Transparency is one of the defining benefits a time management solution offers. Making time tracking a staple in business processes automatically makes businesses more transparent as a whole. It helps employers stay on top of all the working process, offering insights into the tasks and projects being completed and the amount of time it took to complete them.
It provides understanding of which activities are being put on the back burner and helps prioritize work tasks in a more efficient way. Additionally, time management tools provide the bigger picture for employees who are able to look back at their workloads and optimize productivity where needed.
4. It improves employee productivity
Time and attendance management software provides an opportunity to identify where team members are most productive. If mangers become able to redistribute their supervisees’ workload according to their more productive areas, productivity of the entire team can be significantly improved.
A business can only function efficiently and be profitable if the employees work with motivation. Time management software continuously monitors activity of every employee, and it spots both the workers who are slacking off and those who are honest and hard working. At the end of the day, it presents supervisors with a clear picture of exactly how much work has been done and by whom. Thus, it promotes an environment of equality, which boosts both team morale and productivity.
5. It increases accountability in employees
Many businesses take hits because of dishonest and downright fraudulent employees who fabricattheir attendance hours or fake their engagement and productivity, therefore propagating payroll abuse. Such malpractices end up eating up the company’s resources from within.
Time management software offers an uncomplicated solution to this serious and potentially expensive problem by accurately recording the time employees start and finish their workdays and tracking their working hours in real time.
Before introducing time and attendance management practice, it’s important to take into account how the team will take the news. Most of the time, attempts to monitor their activities at work are not so well received by the employees. Despite so many of its benefits, any kind of time tracking is likely to cause traction inside the team, making them feel like they’re constantly being watched.
One of the main reasons for such reaction is the lack of understanding among employees in terms of how the data will be used. Some of them may fear that their timesheets will be used against them and that it’ll be a new form of micromanagement. That’s why it’s crucial for a manager to facilitate the conversation about the practice of time tracking and carefully explain the reasons behind its implementation. It’s that simple – to navigate such a change, communication truly is key.
Explaining in detail the actual reasons why the decision to implement time tracking has been made can actually help clear the air a lot. Successful team leaders go to great lengths to show their teams that time tracking will be beneficial for both parties involved, employees and employers. For example, specialists can use time tracking to achieve their personal work-related goals, and it’ll help them spend time where the most value is created, personally and professionally. Supervisors, in turn, can use the insights provided by time tracking to get an accurate overview of the team’s peak performance, overall wellbeing, productivity and even task distribution.
Insights and data gathered by time and attendance management solutions enable executives to put appropriate strategies into action, steer the company in the right direction and ensure that every manager and every team member is leading the company towards the same mission, with the same vision in mind.
Rating of top 7 time & attendance management software
Overall, time and attendance management software should:
Now that we’ve gotten the hang of things, let’s look at our rating of the best tools available on the market.
Kickidler truly has it all to enable efficient time management, from online time tracking and diverse reporting tools to self-monitoring interface and automatic notifications on violations.
Its online screen monitoring and screen video recording features provide transparency to supervisors into work processes of their employees; time tracking feature gives the tools necessary for managing employee attendance; and its detailed work time reports let both managers and employees see work dynamics, task distribution and time allocation, which equips the team with analytical solutions to assessing and managing employee productivity. Kickidler’s Autokick set of tools (automatic notifications on workplace violations, employee rating, self-monitoring employee interface) facilitates in-depth behavior analysis. Moreover, in the beginning of the year the developers have released Kickidler’s API, which essentially makes integration with third-party services like CRM software, task managers or payroll services even easier.
Pricing options
Kickidler offers a Freemium option with limited functionality. All of its plans are equipped with all its features, and the cost of its licenses varies depending on the chosen purchase period. 1 month per user per month costs $9.99, 1 year – $5.5 per user per month, 3 years – $3.67 per user per month. The pricing of the offline version is provided on request. Additionally, depending on the number of users that will be monitored, a discount of up to 30% may be applied.
User experience
“Kickidler is a really powerful solution with adequate pricing policy. It helps me easily access the screens of my supervisees and monitor their activities, which has had effect on amplifying their productivity and has helped us several times to avoid expensive errors. It also aids in identifying unauthorized attempts to access our company's data, which has been tremendous help in terms of data loss prevention. In my opinion, if you’re looking for the best option to increase the productivity of your team and keep track of everything happening in the workplace, the software is the right choice. I’ve been using it for quite some time now and haven’t been disappointed once.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked Kickidler first, because its possibilities when it comes to tracking employee time and attendance are truly endless. The level of its customization is quite great as well. What’s more, there are actually cases of the software helping with improving overall work climate and increasing company’s profit.
When I Work is an ideal solution for businesses that have fluctuating staff numbers, where employees work different shifts, such as restaurants or retail stores. It supports multiple locations and business types, so it can still be used as businesses expand
The solution includes extensive scheduling tools that enable supervisors to manage employee schedules and track their working time on mobile devices and provide automatic comparison of schedules with actual hours worked. It offers photo clock-in options that, for example, can help prevent employees clocking in for each other. It also has break management and early clock-in prevention features to ensure your team’s working the correct hours. Employees get mobile alerts when their schedules change and can request shift changes or time off themselves. Managers are notified when employees make time-off requests, and they can approve them online. Employee data can be imported from spreadsheets or CSV files, which helps avoid schedule conflicts. The solution supports communication methods like group email services and one-on-one texting. It also provides integration with popular payroll solutions, such as Gusto, ADP or QuickBooks.
Pricing options
When I Work pricing plans start at $4 per employee per month with its Essentials plan that allows for monitoring up to 200 users and provides access to standard scheduling and time & attendance tools, including drag-and-drop shift scheduling, auto-scheduling, shift bidding and trading and PTO management. Its Advanced plan that allows for monitoring unlimited number of employees costs $6 per employee per month and additionally offers advanced scheduling tools yet doesn’t include time & attendance features. Its Complete plan that costs $8 per employee per month offers around-the-clock monitoring and allows to create custom integrations with its API. The software also offers a 14-day free trial.
User experience
“I've been using When I Work for almost four years, first as an employee and now as an employer. Its ease of use for both parties is amazing. It makes scheduling a lot easier, providing a variety of shift templates and an option to copy and paste any shift. It’s also pretty easy to add and remove employees. Its time clock is quite easy to use, too. Overall, the app has many great features and is very affordable.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked When I Work second, because it’s a nice app that helps with employee scheduling and shift changes. Creating employee schedules, handling employee time tracking and communicating with all staff members really becomes easier with this product.
BambooHR is a well-thought-out one-stop HR solution that has several automation features for streamlining time and attendance tracking.
Its features enable supervisors to create approval workflows, set automatic reminders and access automatic overtime calculations. By adding the payroll feature, the software will automatically file payroll taxes and end-of-year forms. It can integrate with several other services, such as employee scheduling apps or even job boards, so that data can be easily transferred between platforms. Its functionality also allows employers to gain direct insight into their team's wellbeing factors that may be impacting employee time and attendance. On their part, employees can access the mobile app to clock in and out, check their timesheets, fix timecard errors and log periods of time spent on specific clients.
Pricing options
BambooHR offers two plans to best suit the needs of any business. The basic option is its Essentials plan, which provides HR management and employee self-service features. Its Advantage plan additionally has hiring & onboarding features, a number of integrations and more advanced components, such as custom email alerts and company branding. The final pricing of the software is available upon request and depends on the size of the company and the amount of add-ons that’s needed. There’s also a free 7-day trial available.
User experience
“BambooHR has been running smoothly so far, and its heavy-lifting HR features are probably the main advantage of this tool. It provides me with all the features I need, like e-signature, performance, workflow and approval management. It displays employee's real-time information, like their birthdays and work-related anniversaries. Plus it has really nice UI.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked BambooHR third, because each aspect of monitoring it provides needs a little bit of tweaking and improvement. Some users might also consider the solution a bit hard to navigate and unintuitive.
Clockify is a nice time and attendance management software for businesses with both in-office and remote teams. It provides employees with the ability to track their time from any location through the desktop app, a web browser or the mobile app.
It offers employee and project scheduling features to manage employee workloads, which are useful for organizing schedules and ensuring hybrid employees aren’t neither over nor underworked. Its GPS tracking that pinpoints where employees are clocking in and out from provides oversight and visibility into where remote teams are during the workday. Job tracking can be used to identify how much time is spent on specific projects or jobs, and employees have the option to manually enter the time they spend on each project or task. One of its nice features is its visual dashboard. Employees can access a calendar day view to get a sense of their daily activities. Supervisors, in turn, can get a comprehensive view of employee and team activity, including details like what each team worked on and where they spent most of their time. Employee data can also be reviewed in a series of reports.
Pricing options
Clockify offers some of its features such as tracking of unlimited users and reporting on unlimited projects for free. Advanced features are offered in the software’s upgraded plans. Its Basic plan includes administrative features like adding time for other users and filling timesheets and calendar for the team, time audit feature, customizable export options, project templates, etc. and costs $4.99 per user per month. Standard plan additionally provides timesheeting and billing features like creating invoices based on tracked time, receiving email notifications when someone forgets to log time or tracks too much, submitting timesheets for official approval, etc. and costs $6.99 per user per month. Its Pro plan additionally covers productivity and profit and includes scheduling features, GPS tracking, project expense tracking, scheduled reports and alerts, etc. and costs $9.99 per user per month. Enterprise plan is aimed at providing full control and security; it additionally includes such features as SSO, custom subdomain, audit log, control accounts and costs $14.99 per user per month. Slight discounts apply when billed annually.
User experience
“As a manager, I’ve got to say Clockify is rather straightforward, cost-effective and easy to use. We’ve been able to save a lot of money and implement it in our team pretty quickly. Its reports are handy and accessible. But exporting data for other platforms isn’t that great, and it takes quite some time. There's also a lot of basic HR functionality and reporting missing. We have to use another platform and consolidate several solutions.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked Clockify fourth, because it’s a popular user-friendly time tracker and timesheet app, which is quite cost-effective. Yet most of advanced functionality and reporting is missing from its free and more basic versions.
OnTheClock is a nice time and attendance solution for smaller growing businesses. It offers a drag-and-drop scheduling feature that makes it easy to use. Employees can clock in and out by several methods, including via computer, tablet, mobile app or even a fingerprint. Managers get a live view of which employees are clocked in and out, and they can manually punch in and out for employees if needed.
The software’s key features include automatic time capturing, biometric recognition, payroll integration, time off tracking and shift scheduling. It enables employees to add tips, commission and bonuses on their time clock portal and provide custom names for business reference. It also comes with user types and permission module, which lets administrator modify system access for managers and employees. Its mobile app helps utilize GPS, IP and device authorization to track employees’ time and location through their smartphones. The solution integrates with several third-party applications such as QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex and more.
Pricing options
OnTheClock offers a free version for monitoring up to two users. Its pricing plans vary on the amount of employees that will be monitored. For monitoring 3-10 employees, it’ll cost $3.00 per employee per month; for 11-25 employees – $2.95; for 26-50 employees – $2.90; 51-100 employees – $2.85; for 101-200 employees – $2.80; for 201-300 employees – $2.75; for 301-400 employees – $2.70. The software offers a 30-day free trial.
User experience
“OnTheClock has been running smoothly this far. I’ve tried other time card apps, and all of them seem a little clunky. This app is actually easy for both administrators and employees to manage time cards, especially its feature that allows employees to adjust their hours if needed. I also enjoy the fact that its dashboard on a laptop and the mobile app is very easy to use.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked OnTheClock fifth, because it’s a convenient solution that really helps with time tracking and attendance management. However, since it’s priced per user, as the businesses grow, the price will quickly add up for each new employee.
Timely helps manage employee time across clients and projects according to designated deadlines and budget agreements. It’s flexible enough to work for any size of business, which is ideal for companies with near-term plans to scale up operations.
The software can be used to track team performance against set KPIs, generate timesheets to identify underworked or overworked employees and compile reports to analyze employee performance. The solution enables managers to breakdown projects and analyze time spent on each task and track project milestones. It offers an API, which lets companies integrate the platform with MS Azure AD, Teamwork, ActiveCollab, WorkflowMax, ZenHub, and so on.
Pricing options
Timely offers three basic pricing plans. Its Starter plan helps automate time tracking, covers up to 3 teams and 50 projects and costs $10 per employee per month, when billed monthly. Its Premium plan helps with managing projects and profitability for unlimited number of teams and projects and costs $18 per employee per month, when billed monthly. Its Unlimited plan offers coordination and support of unlimited number of teams and projects, provides unlimited set of features and costs $26 per employee per month, when billed monthly. There’s also an Unlimited + option that allows to tailor the software to individual needs of the organization – price is available upon request. The solution offers a 14-day free trial that comes with all the features of Unlimited subscription plan. Additionally, paying annually allows to save up to 23%.
User experience
“Timely is a great app that gets the job done. It’s not overly complicated, and we really enjoy its UI. Its 24/7 access is also very appealing to us. Plus, integration with our current processes was quite easy and actually made everything more efficient. Some minor inconveniences include the fact that some of our customers get frustrated when getting both an email and a text reminder, and there’s a small mishap with our inability to use customer credit on invoices that have already been issued.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked Timely sixth, because while it has quite a number of nice additional time tracking features, these features are not as exhaustive as those offered by some other solutions available on the market.
Time Doctor can offers functionality to track employees’ time and attendance, their breaks as well as web and application usage. The software helps employers streamline the processes of tracking attendance, schedule adherence and workday activity.
The solution has several features that enable monitoring employee activity, which can be a great way to track and encourage productivity. Besides standard time and attendance features like time tracking, project tracking and timesheet approvals, it also takes screenshots of employees’ devices. The software helps employees stay on task with alerts when they visit non-work-related websites. It also gives them reports of their daily activity metrics, which allows employees to quickly identify where they can improve productivity. Timesheets and detailed productivity reports can be viewed by both managers and employees to keep an eye on the success of the team. Many of its tracking features can be turned on and off as needed. And it can be synced up with the tools already used by businesses such as JIRA, Asana, Trello, Todoist, Slack, Google Apps and more.
Pricing options
Time Doctor has three pricing options. Its Basic plan, which is available for 1 group or department and offers 1 month of data storage, includes time and activity tracking as well as unlimited screenshot capturing and costs $7 per user per month, when billed monthly. Its Standard plan covers up to 3 groups or departments and provides 6 months of data storage; its additional features include app and website tracking, payroll, daily email notifications, various integrations, and it costs $10 per user per month, when billed monthly. Its Premium plan provides access to unlimited data storage for unlimited amount of groups; the additional features of this plan include client login access, VIP support, concierge account setup, video screen captures, Internet connectivity reporting and costs $20 per user per month, when billed monthly. When paying annually, 2 months are offered free of charge. And while there’s no free version available, the software provides a 14-day free trial.
User experience
“Time Doctor has improved significantly since I’ve used it quite a few years ago. I really enjoy its reporting and screenshot capturing features. Its time tracking feature is rather easy to use. And, just like with any other software, it really should be. The developers, however, might need to fix redundant notifications. For example, it keeps checking whether I’m working, and the constant “Are you still there?” question becomes a bit annoying quite fast.”
Bottom line
We’ve ranked Time Doctor seventh, because its functionality could definitely be improved to be more intuitive. Some other mishaps and minor bugs happen when switching between multiple computers, but overall, it’s simply the matter of preference.
| Solution | Most useful features | Free version | Trial period | Pricing options | Cloud-based / on-premise | Mobile app |
| Kickidler | Online screen monitoring; Reports on productivity and time spent on work-related activities; Employee self-monitoring interface Keystroke logging |
+ *with limited functionality |
+ 14 days |
A single plan with all features. The price of licenses varies depending on the chosen time period: 1 month – $9.99 (user/month); 1 year – $5.5 (user/month); 3 years – $3.67 (user/month); offline version – price upon request * Discount of up to 30% is available depending on the number of users that will be monitored |
On-premise | - *in developmen |
| When I Work | Employee scheduling and time clock; Shift planning; Digital timesheets management; Team messaging |
– | + 14 days |
Essentials plan – $4 (user/month); Advanced plan – $6 (user/month); Complete plan – $8 (user/month) |
Cloud | + |
| BambooHR | Automatic overtime calculation; Payroll management; Automatic reminders |
– | + 7 days |
Upon request | Cloud | + |
| Clockify | Activity visual dashboard; Cost-to-completion tracking; Calendar management |
+ *with limited functionality |
+ | Basic plan – $4.99 (user/month); Standard plan – $6.99 (user/month); Pro plan – $9.99 (user/month); Enterprise plan – $14.99 (user/month) *Discounts apply when billed annually |
Cloud; On-premise |
+ |
| OnTheClock | Automatic time capturing; Biometric recognition; Shift scheduling |
+ *for up to 2 employees |
+ 30 days |
A single plan with all features. Pricing plans vary on the amount of employees that will be monitored: up to 2 users – free; 3-10 users – $3.00 (user/month); 11-25 users – $2.95 (user/month); 26-50 users – $2.90 (user/month); 51-100 users – $2.85 (user/month); 101-200 users – $2.80 (user/month); 201-300 users – $2.75 (user/month); 301-400 users – $2.70 (user/month). |
Cloud | + |
| Timely | Appointment scheduling; Calendar & reminder system; Marketing automation |
– | + 14 days |
Starter plan – $10 (user/month); Premium plan – $18 (user/month); Unlimited plan – $26 (user/month). * Paying annually provides a discount of up to 23%. |
Cloud | + |
| Time Doctor | Time tracking using laptops, tablets and mobiles; Online verified timesheets options; Productivity measurement & summary reports |
– | + 14 days |
Basic plan – $7 (user/month); Standard plan – $10 (user/month); Premium plan – $20 (user/month). * Paying annually gives a discount that amounts to 2 free months. |
Cloud | + |
Hopefully, after this article you’ve realized that time and attendance management software is more than just a tool – it’s an empowering solution for organizations that helps with optimizing some of the most important business aspects. When choosing and implementing the software, keep in mind all the solutions we’ve mentioned in this article and use them to start optimizing your business while boosting the productivity and morale of your team. Watch your business thrive as your team becomes more efficient with the help of the right time and attendance management solution.
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