Home Sweet Home Office

Employee time clocks have evolved. It is no longer common to hear the click of a time card being stamped. Some employers utilize the phone system while others utilize the computer system to keep track of payroll information. Automated time clocks save time and they are extremely accurate – 99.9 percent of the time.

Synchronized clocks can be one of the most annoying problems. For example, we have three computers and each one can be a time clock. If the time setting is 5 minutes off from one computer to the next an employee’s work time can be skewed. Over a week’s time up to 25 or 30 minutes could be gained or lost per employee.

A simple solution – other than checking each computer’s clock several times a week – is to advise the employees to pick a computer and always sign in or out on it. Regardless of the actual time versus the computer’s time, the length of time will always be the same. If you clock in 5 minutes late you will also clock out 5 minutes late.

Networked PCs can be configured to use the Windows Time Service. Otherwise it is a manual task. I have heard that computers actually cause as much work as save – this may be an example – albeit a small one.