7 Tips For Creating The Ideal Work Schedule For Your Team
Creating the ideal work schedule for your team may seem like an impossible target to hit. But with a few tweaks to your...
Time clock apps are quickly becoming the go-to solution for managers striving to control when and where their team works and get a more accurate picture of what their workforce is doing.
These apps capitalize on the power of mobile technology and the omnipresence of Wi-Fi to create a unique tool for companies large and small.
To help you find the right software for your company, our experts at Inch have created a list of the best employee time clock apps for managers in businesses of all sizes.
Sling makes the list of the best employee time clock apps for two very important reasons:
First and foremost, Sling offers a unique feature that turns any phone, tablet, or computer into a time clock. It allows your employees to clock in and out of their shifts without clogging up a central terminal. Sling even notifies you when an employee is running late or forgets to clock in.
And if you’re worried about your employees clocking in early, Sling gives you the option to set up geofences around your place of business. If an employee is outside those limits, they won’t be allowed to clock in until they cross into the defined space.
And that’s just the employee time clock portion of the app.
You also have access to state-of-the-art scheduling tools that help you build your employees’ schedules within minutes instead of hours. You can manage time off, availability, and shift-trade requests without collecting, sorting, and collating a huge stack of paper.
Add to that the onboard artificial intelligence that will help you schedule overtime and avoid exceeding your labor budget, and you’ve got a powerful ally in keeping expenses under control.
Sling will even help you reduce absenteeism and late arrivals and keep track of overlapping shifts and double-booking.
Time tracking can unlock key information about your business, but, as we mentioned above, remembering to do it and keeping everyone on track can be a challenge. Harvest makes it easy to track time and expenses so you can access critical data without driving yourself (or your team) crazy.
Timesheets provide a wealth of information that can help you manage your diverse team more intelligently. Harvest collates this raw timesheet data into a visual summary of where your team’s time is going.
While Harvest does a great job keeping track of time on specific projects, it’s not an employee time clock app per se, nor does it tabulate attendance directly.
If you’re looking for an app your team can use to clock in and out and that will also help you with reporting, labor costs, and scheduling, Inch is the better choice.
Disorganized record keeping, inaccurate payroll, and inconsistent protocols can quickly become expensive burdens for your company.
On the surface, asking employees to use a paper timesheet might seem to be the easiest option, but the reality is that this practice will hurt your business in the long run.
Using Justworks Hours, you’ll avoid costly labor disputes and expensive overtime, and never have to run a correction payroll again. Plus, the app is easy to use, so you won’t get pushback from your team.
While Justworks Hours does offer messaging and communication features, it lacks the other organizational tools that make Inch such a powerhouse.
For employees who work remotely or switch jobs or locations regularly, there’s the TSheets time clock app.
Using the devices they already have and are familiar with, your employees can track time quickly and easily with convenient clock in/out reminders, employee breaks, and overtime alerts to keep everyone on the same page.
Employees can clock in and out on their desktop, laptop, or mobile phone using iPhone or Android apps, text messaging, or dial in. Even offline or out of service, TSheets accurately tracks time and automatically syncs when back in range.
What TSheets won’t do is help organize work and keep your team members focused. It doesn’t offer built-in communications. And it doesn’t have a powerful, real-time task list. Only Inch has that.
With the Timesheet app, you can keep track of your on-the-clock remote team and receive instant alerts when they’re away from their job location.
Timesheet will even remind your employees to clock in and out so they never miss a shift when they’re available to work. Once they’re finished for the day or week, Timesheet allows them to approve their hours worked while they’re online, so there’s no delay in processing payroll.
Timesheet is great for managing individuals and teams spread across a wide area, but it falls short of the power of Inch in the task management, team communication, and data reporting departments.
If you have a business with a remote team, Hubstaff offers the basics to help you run your remote workforce better.
With Hubstaff, you get:
You also get project budgeting and invoicing capabilities to help you manage the front and back end of all your activities.
Hubstaff is more of a project management solution, which means that it is nowhere near as powerful as Inch for ongoing, regular onsite and remote employee management.
If you’re looking for a more well-rounded solution that functions as an employee time clock and task-management channel, Inch is the choice for you.
With the Replicon app, you can get rid of Excel spreadsheets and paper time cards once and for all.
Centralized time and date gives you the ability to run payroll, bill clients, and reimburse expenses from one place. This allows you to manage your workforce’s time and attendance whether you’re on the go or in your office.
While Replicon is a useful employee time clock app, it lacks the expanded functionality that makes Inch the leader in the industry.
Inch is a powerful voice-operated workforce management and optimization app that seamlessly incorporates a time clock into its broad and useful suite of tools.
On the employee side of things, Inch gives your team the power to clock in and out of their shifts from their phone or a designated terminal mounted in a vehicle or at each location.
Like its sister app, Sling, Inch gives you the option to set up geofences around your place of business or a remote worksite so that, if an employee is outside those limits, they won’t be allowed to clock in until they cross into the defined space.
That’s powerful control over when and where your team works!
On the manager side of things, the Inch app opens up a new world of control — not just as a time clock app, but also as a communication method, a distribution channel, and a payroll processing tool.
With the data that Inch provides, you’ll gain insight into how your team works and how you can improve the workflow so that they perform even better.
As a time clock app, Inch is the best. But that’s not the only thing this little beauty does. In fact, Inch takes the time clock app to the next level.
Inch incorporates task management, time tracking, and so much more into one powerful solution.
Inch is designed to make it easier for managers and employees to get aligned on their to-dos, communicate with one another, and ensure that all tasks get completed on time.
Remote and on-site team members can perform a wide variety of tasks right from their tablet or phone, including:
All of that and more without having to touch a mobile screen or report back to the office.
For managers, Inch makes it easy to distribute tasks manually across their teams or populate tasks automatically based on preset conditions.
This unique feature ensures that all work is covered and keeps employees accountable and clear on their specific responsibilities, expected outcomes, and deadlines.
Managers can assign work to the employees that are closest to the jobsite or generate tasks automatically as the need arises and follow work progress and task completion in real time.
Inch helps eliminate frustration for employees, headaches for managers, and inefficiencies for the business.
Whether you need time clock solutions for your team or help keeping your employees on task and focused, Inch gives you unprecedented control over an inherently complicated process and makes it easier than ever to create the best workflow for your business.
For more free resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit TryInch.com today.
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