Tracking employee hours is a fundamental task that is indispensable for accurate billing and payroll. Time cards have long been a popular method of recording work time. However, the accompanying approval process can easily become a bottleneck.
If you frequently find yourself exhausted or frustrated when dealing with time cards, it may be time to reevaluate your current approach.
Read on to learn how to analyze your time card approval workflow and detect and eliminate the inefficiencies that lead to significant productivity losses, affecting not only your finances but also employee morale and operational effectiveness.
Understanding Time Card Approval
Time card approval is a process used by organizations to verify and authorize the hours worked by employees before payroll is processed. It typically involves the following steps:
- Time Entry and Submission: Employees record their hours worked on a time card or through a timekeeping system, noting regular hours, overtime, and any leave taken, and submit the cards for review.
- Review and Approval: Supervisors or managers check the submitted time cards to ensure accuracy. After the review, the supervisor approves the time cards, indicating that the recorded hours are correct and can be processed for payroll.
- Payroll Processing: Once approved, the time cards are sent to the payroll department, where they are used to calculate employee pay.
Time Card Approval Issues and Ways to Tackle Them
Despite the simplicity of the process, mistakes can occur at any stage. The most vulnerable steps of the flow above are the time entry and review.
Issue 1: Delayed Time Entry and Time Card Submission
One of the primary mistakes occurs when employees are allowed to submit their timesheets less frequently than daily. When time entries are postponed, especially until the end of the week or later, people simply forget small tasks they completed, which leads to incomplete submissions, resulting in lost hours.
Some may even attempt to fill in these gaps with wrong estimates or tasks that haven’t been accomplished yet, creating discrepancies in their reported hours.
For instance, consider a very busy project manager at a marketing firm who usually waits until Friday afternoon to submit their timesheet for the week. By that time, they can’t remember exactly what they were doing on Monday and Tuesday. Attending a client meeting or maybe conducting a brief training session for the team…
Consequences:
- Inaccurate payroll leading to employee dissatisfaction and potential financial strain.
- Increased administrative workload for payroll departments to rectify errors.
- Erosion of trust between employees and management due to perceived negligence in handling pay.
Solution: Implement strict timecard submission deadlines and send regular reminders to encourage timely submissions.
Try our free Time Card Calculator that allows you to enter time for all your work activities, calculates overtime, automatically deducts meal breaks, and generates a downloadable time card for quick and easy approval!
Issue 2: Full Reliance on Manual Entries
Manual time entries can be a double-edged sword. While they allow for flexibility, they also introduce the potential for human error. Our perception of time can be subjective; what feels like 20 minutes might actually be half an hour.
Such subjectivity leads to inaccuracies in recorded hours. Next, employees who were inaccurate may find themselves redoing their timesheets several times.
Consequences:
- Increased likelihood of payroll errors, resulting in underpayment or overpayment.
- Employee frustration due to repeated corrections.
- Potential compliance issues if records are not accurate or reliable.
Solution: Offer multiple methods for entering time, such as a browser extension, stopwatch, and mobile app and let your employees choose the way that fits them most.
Issue 3: Misunderstanding of Company Overtime Policies
Another common issue arises from a lack of clarity surrounding overtime tracking rules. Employees may not fully understand the policies that apply to them and make unintentional mistakes in how they report their hours.
Some may believe that overtime always kicks in after working 40 hours in a week or forget to deduct meal breaks from their time entries; others would misunderstand the difference between exempt and non-exempt status, etc.
Consequences:
- Financial losses for employees due to incorrect overtime calculations.
- Strain on management resources to resolve disputes regarding pay.
- Increased risk of legal issues related to labor laws and compliance.
Solution: Set clear limits for entering time and overtime, and provide training sessions for employees of all levels.
Issue 4: No Unified Time Card Format
Even if your employees are instructed to submit their time cards in a specific format, such as an Excel spreadsheet, the lack of detail can create chaos. If the format isn’t standardized or comprehensive enough, reviewers may find themselves sifting through a mountain of miscellaneous data.
Imagine a scenario where multiple team members submit their time cards with varying levels of detail; some include specific tasks, while others do not.
For instance, Mark submits a detailed report with all tasks, subtasks, comments, and descriptions, while Lisa submits a bare-bones version that only lists hours worked without any context. When the manager reviews these submissions, they struggle to make sense of the discrepancies.
Consequences:
- Delays in payroll processing due to confusion and errors in timesheet submissions.
- Increased frustration among employees waiting for their payments.
- Potential misallocation of budget resources due to inaccurate data.
Solution: Establish a unified time card format that all employees must use.
Try one of our free downloadable timesheet templates!
Issue 5: Multiple Reviewers with No Defined Scope of Responsibility
Storing timecards in a shared folder accessible by multiple reviewers can also become a source of confusion. Without clearly defined responsibilities and workflow, reviewers may forget to update the status of a time card or move it to the Approved or Rejected folder. Consequently, one time card will be checked by several managers of leads who may have different opinions towards its correctness.
Or there’s another scenario. One day, someone (let’s call her Amy) submits her timesheet for approval, but because there are no defined roles, none of the managers realize they are responsible for reviewing it.
Days pass without any updates on her submission. Amy grows increasingly frustrated as payday approaches and she has no idea if her hours will be approved in time.
Consequences:
- Increased anxiety among employees regarding paychecks due to overlooked submissions.
- Inefficiencies in the payroll process, leading to delays and increased costs.
- Potential for conflicts among managers over responsibilities, affecting team dynamics.
Solution: Assign specific roles and permissions for timesheet review and make the timecard status visible to all relevant parties immediately.
Issue 6: Unawareness of Company Policies Beyond Overtime
Finally, it’s not just overtime policies that employees may be unaware of; other important company rules, such as vacation accrual rules or sick day limits, can also be overlooked.
Take someone who has accumulated several sick days but mistakenly believes they roll over into the next year. Then, they track their PTO inaccurately by assuming they have more days than they actually do and end up taking paid leave they are not entitled to.
Consequences:
- Financial losses for employees who unknowingly violate policies.
- Budgeting challenges for the company if employee hours are not tracked correctly.
- Decreased employee satisfaction and engagement due to a lack of transparency in policies.
Solution: Incorporate a time tracking policy into the time card submission and approval process.
Future-Proofing Your Timecard Approval Process with actiTIME
Incorporating an automated system like actiTIME into your time card approval process can transform how your organization manages employee hours.
Here’s how actiTIME can help you eliminate time card approval mistakes:
- A flexible approach to time tracking, allowing employees to log their hours in various ways: a web version, a convenient browser extension, and a user-friendly mobile app, and ensuring that all hours worked are captured accurately, leading to better project insights and streamlined payroll processes.
- A uniform timesheet format for all employees, making it easier for managers to review and approve time tracks. Easy data export, allowing organizations to seamlessly integrate time tracking data with other systems.
- Automated reminders for timecard submission deadlines, requesting employees to fill in their time cards in a polite and convenient manner.
- Custom settings that prevent employees from submitting overtime or leave requests if the applicable policies do not allow that.
- Automated time card status updates and dedicated notifications for managers and employees.
