5 Critical Job Cost Features in an Employee Time Tracking App

By Shannon Corgan, Director of Marketing 

With so many employee time tracking solutions on the market, how can controllers and financial managers be certain that they select a time tracking solution that collects the job cost data the right way to achieve the accuracy you need in a timely manner without too much time and effort spent on reallocating job costs? Controllers, job cost accountants, and construction financial managers need to make sure they’re asking the right questions to select the right employee time tracking solution that is easy for the field employees to use but most importantly provides you better more accurate job cost data without considerable manual intervention and reallocations. When you do your homework upfront and have a team evaluating the employee time tracking solution to make sure it works for all the stakeholders in the organization from users, to supervisors, to project managers, and accountants, it’s easy to find the right solution that’s easy for field employees to enter time and achieve accurate job cost data in real time.

Here’s a list of the five must-have features for accurate job costs:

What’s the difference between face capture and facial recognition and how does it help me control my labor costs?

Face capture requires manual review by an employee to compare photos to see if the same person that clocked in is the same person that clocked out. It doesn’t automatically compare photos and alert you when photos don’t match. When you select an employee time tracking solution with facial recognition like WorkMax TIME, it will automatically compare a source image photo to the clock IN/OUT photo and provide a match percentage. If the match percentage is below the threshold you choose, you will be alerted. Facial recognition will help you control your labor costs because you know that the employee that’s doing the work is the one clocking IN/OUT. When you combine GPS with the WorkMax true facial recognition, you know it’s the right employee clocking IN/OUT and that they are in the right location when they are clocking IN/OUT. No more paying employees when they are not clocking IN/OUT from the job site they are assigned to. We’ve seen customers save two direct labor hours per employee when they enter their hours in real time and use facial recognition. It can total up to over $141,000 in direct labor cost savings in one year with WorkMax TIME. To read the case study, click here.

Can I set up the project cost structure in an employee time tracking solution the same as it is in my accounting system for more accurate job costs?

To save you time on your job cost and Work-In-Progress reporting, you want to select and employee time tracking solution that integrates with your business systems and allows you to mirror your accounting’s project cost structure. WorkMax TIME has robust integrations with the top accounting, ERP, payroll, and HR systems used by the construction industry. Every time you add a new employee, project, task, or cost code to your accounting systems, they will automatically be updated in WorkMax and employees will be able to select the new projects, tasks, or cost codes to provide you with the most accurate job costs. Click here to view videos to see how easy it is to integrate with WorkMax. 

Can I limit the jobs, cost codes, locations, tasks, or assets that employees see in the app so that they can provide me more accurate job cost data?

One of the most frequent challenges we hear from Controllers or Financial Managers is that they can’t get accurate job costs from the field because it takes too much time for their employees to enter it while they’re in the field. This is primarily due to the vast number of projects and tasks/cost codes that are presented to their employees when they are entering time, tasks, and production units in the field. With WorkMax TIME’s automated permission profiles, you can set up WorkMax to display only the relevant projects, tasks/cost codes, and production units to your employees. Gone are the days when your employees will have to scroll through hundreds or thousands of picklist options for projects or tasks/cost codes to quickly and accurately assign their labor hours to the right project, tasks/cost code. This dramatically decreases the amount of time project managers, controllers, and financial managers have to spend reallocating job costs and completed work for accurate reporting. To learn more, watch this short 3-minute video on how easy it is to set up automated permission profiles. 

Can I have multiple ways to enter time and allocate it?

 

The answer is yes. Some companies have salaried employees and want them to only use a digital timesheet, while other companies with a mix of hourly and salaried employees want an option to track hourly employees in real time and use digital timesheets in an app for salaried employees. Some companies prefer to have supervisors allocate time, tasks, and track completed work at the end of the day, while other companies want the information in real time. If you choose an employee time tracking solution like WorkMax, you have all of these options available to you. WorkMax works the way you work and fits your business no matter how you want your employees to enter time, allocate job costs, or track completed work. Here’s our 3 time entry and allocation workflows:

Click here to see videos of all 3 Time Entry and Allocation Workflows in WorkMax. 

Can my employees enter time, tasks, and completed work without an internet connection or cellular service?

 

When your employees enter time and tracking tasks as they happen, you will get more accurate actual labor costs and completed work. If your employees are depending on internet access or cellular service, you’ll get much less precise job cost data because they’ll just be entering estimates and relying on their memory. Your employees may or may not always have internet or cell service at your job sites, but that’s not an issue if you select an employee time tracking solution like WorkMax TIME. Not all mobile employee time tracking solutions allow you to collect data without access to the internet or cellular services and that can be a problem.

Click on the buttons below to see a demo of WorkMax TIME or get pricing to get started today!