Best Attendance Management System Software

Why Does your Business Need an Attendance Management System?

For any company to run efficiently and reap benefits, all their employees must put in their 100% at work. The hr managers can not afford to waste time by personally going and seeing whether everyone is on time and whether they are working. Small offices are fine where people work closely, but what about large-sized companies spread across many floors? How is one supposed to keep tabs on hundreds and thousands of employees? This is where the attendance management system is important.

Remember the good old days when books and physical logs had to be maintained to keep track of the employees’ attendance? Imagine all the laborious efforts required to check the books and manually do the counting. But with the emergence of technology, running a business has become quite effective. Gone are the days of penning down the time of entering and exiting in the log sheet.

The process of noting how many hours employees put into their work has now gone entirely digital, thanks to technological advancements. Time management software is a specially designed application developed to capture employee attendance in real time, manage leaves and prepare customized reports. An advanced-level attendance management application must perform the following tasks.

1. Simple attendance registration:

Track the attendance registration of all employees in your organization from a simple attendance registration interface of the attendance tracking software. Ensure accuracy and compliance through an easily manageable application, leverage transparency, and maintain workflow.

2. Overtime management:

Maintain proper records of employees working extra hours. This helps in managing both finances and human resource management. The time tracking software would offer insight into task distribution and help to maintain compliance with overtime laws.

3. Leave management:

Leaves are allotted, applied, approved, and denied; all are managed through a single platform. Registered users can track, check and apply for time off from its interactive self-service interface.

4. Real-time reporting:

Most attendance management applications now allow data capturing in real time. You can now view or demand reports whenever required. Most vendors also allow customized reporting and scalability according to your business requirements.

5. Controlled accessibility:

Rights can be reserved for viewing, entering, modifying, or deleting data from specific users based on his/her position in the organization's hierarchy. The log maintenance system will maintain detailed logs on modified data and make information available to the reporting module.

Attendance management software has become an essential business tool for modern organizations with a dispersed workforce. A simple front-end UI (user interface) allows employees to manage their attendance.

How does Attendance Software help in Tracking Employee Records?

Nowadays, one can rely on technology for spot-on analysis that helps outline specific roles for their employees. Technology has helped reduce and almost remove the chances of human errors. Now ah, HR’s job is more complex than it used to be before, and there is no doubt.

Employee records are confidential, yet, one cannot be expected to misplace information or mistype anything that might be consequential. So, HR Systems are put up to keep track of an employee's information. Right from the number of hours an employee puts in a day to the number of minutes s/he is off on a break and the medical and casual leaves, everything is noted by the HR software. If one were to rely on the HR manager to count every employee’s number of productive hours, it would take weeks to sum up everyone’s records. But the same task is done in a jiffy by the HR system.

What are the Features of Attendance Management Software?

Attendance software has become an important tool for the management of any organization to keep track of employee activities and productivity to optimize cash flow and minimize waste. A timesheet management system helps monitor employee performance management systems and payroll software by offering insight into the company hierarchy structure.

Time management software can turn into a formidable business tool for management. The attendance management software suite can generate, manage and maintain records on payrolls and taxes required during auditing. An attendance management system software can keep track of employee attendance, work assigned, leaves, overtime, and more from a single, integrated platform.

Efficient attendance management software should be scalable and adaptive to the changing business requirement of the user. Below we have listed essential features of Attendance management software to help users find a suitable one from the myriad options available.

1. Attendance management:

These applications offer a user interface with a login option where users can register their attendance themselves. It will use a live employee attendance tracker to maintain a complete log of employee attendance for each employee and maintain records for reporting and future references.

2. Leave management:

Through the user interface, employees can check the number of leaves allotted to them and apply and keep track of time off granted or denied. On the other hand, this report becomes useful for the employee attendance management system software while calculating salary and taxes.

3. Overtime calculation:

If employees are working extra, a proper overtime log must be maintained. Most attendance systems would allow maintaining records for extra hours put forth by employees.

4. Reporting and compliance:

Attendance software is designed per government labor laws to help organizations meet regulation compliances without hassle. The reporting suite helps generate standard reports and can also be customized to prepare specialized reports per the organization's intrinsic requirements.

Another essential feature that one must check while opting for an automated time attendance management system software is scalability. There are now both locally and cloud-hosted attendace solutions available. The later options also allow you to save big on licensing and managing software applications while you can continue enjoying uninterrupted service. The third-party hosted option is more suitable if you want to reduce your IT expenses. Customizable applications can also be designed per your organization's size. While deciding to invest in time tracking software & attendance management software, perform thorough market research before you opt for one. A timesheet software listing a review website can be your best option regarding it.

What are the Different Types of Attendance Software?

There are different types of Attendance related software available in the market. Since the transfer of data is effortless and instantaneous using these systems, they can flawlessly import the details into your tracking systems.
Some of the Attendance systems are stated below:

1. Biometric:

The biometric attendance system uses unique features of employees that cannot be replicated to track attendance. These include eyes, fingerprints, faces, etc. The employees are recognized via distinctive handprints or fingerprints. Various systems even make use of face-recognition software and eye scanning system.

2. Interactive voice response:

This type of attendance software system is used in big companies where the employees have to work in the field or secluded locations. The employees have to clock in by calling in over a cell phone.

3. Timecard:

The time card is one of the most affordable, even the latest and most high-tech version of the mechanical punch clock. Time cards are the size of a credit card. Each employee at a workplace is issued a time card that they can swipe on a card machine that looks like a credit card machine. The data is automatically transferred, and a computer-generated timesheet is produced. The only drawback of this system is that it is straightforward for anyone to swipe any co-worker's card.

4. Web-based login stations:

This type of system is most appropriate for places where employees work only on their devices, like personal computers or laptops. In this system, a static IP address is elicited each time an employee logs in to his/her device, thereby registering a digital punch-in.

How Can Attendance Management System be Integrated with Payroll Software?

Every company’s HR team has to accomplish multifaceted tasks like recruitment of employees, maintaining their performance records, tracking their attendance, supervising compliance with the state's laws, and much more.

If you plan to introduce real-time and attendance software to your business, then be prepared to get praise from your HR team. After all, you’re just reducing their workload. With an attendance system, you automate some of their tasks, thus helping them get more time for other essential tasks. Furthermore, with the integration of Attendance Software with Payroll Software, the HR team is further empowered to manage two processes simultaneously. 

Attendance Management System Integrated Payroll Software can help your business in several ways. Some of its advantages are listed below:

1. Time Saver:

Your HR team spends a lot of time processing the payroll. It includes regularly checking the clock-in and clock-out times, and keeping a record of the employee’s overtime hours, paid leaves, and day offs, which is a tedious task. If your HR team does half the abovementioned work every two weeks, then the team has been wasting a lot of time unnecessarily.

Implementing an attendance management system that integrates payroll software in your organization ensures no waste of your HR team’s precious time. Not only will time, but you’ll even save money. 

2. Reduces Mistakes:

Your HR team gets nightmares in case of any incorrect timekeeping. Once an employee learns about this mistake, there will be a lot of fuss in the office. It might not just lead to legal matters, but the rest of your employees might lose their trust in your company, which is unsuitable for the business. Integrating payroll software with an attendance management system reduces the probability of making mistakes in timekeeping.

3. Indulged workforce:

You can imagine the quality of the work your employees will deliver if they are constantly thinking about whether they will get paid correctly and fairly.  This also means that your staff doesn’t have faith in the attendance system. It not only affects productivity but also influences the working spirit of the employees. They might not put extra effort into their work anymore. Possessing foolproof attendance software that integrates with payroll software can remove this burden from everybody’s mind. Your employees will feel important, and your HR team will no longer get nightmares about ending up in jail due to the assignment of incorrect payments to the employees.

Potential Issues with Attendance Management Software

It has been found that over 70% of companies use an attendance tracker to keep an eye on their employee’s presence at work. The idea behind the companies buying the attendance software is that they believe their investment will yield them returns within a year or so. However, some issues companies face with attendance management software. These are stated below:

1. Lack of plan:

The lack of a plan is a big problem. The employers think that implementing attendance management software alone will decrease the absent ratio of the employees. This will, in turn, exponentially enhance productivity levels and facilitate the management of associated costs. However, along with software implementation, having a good plan is a must. The employers need to analyze the reason for the absenteeism, take the requisite steps, and motivate the employees to come to the office. 

2. Power outages:

Problems like power outages might also influence the fact that the employees cannot log in to the systems and record their entry and exit time in the attendance system. This will ruin the whole purpose of the employee attendance management system. 

3. Poor administration:

Poor administration is one budding issue with attendance management software. In some organizations, the managers know their attendance tracking duties. Conversely, they don’t have guidance tools to perform necessary tasks. These tools are essential since they keep a record of the metric and also help in collecting necessary information very efficiently.

4. Inappropriate Implementation of Policy:

Despite the availability of an attendance management system, sometimes the various pay policies of the companies are implemented in the wrong way. This can put the company in a tight spot as it might lead to the time-consuming creation of paychecks or even legal issues.

 5. Acceptance:

Staff members familiar with the manual timekeeping system might think of the attendance tracker as a device the organization uses to cut off the employee’s salary to every possible extent. Once other employees also start believing in the same, there are chances of rebelling against the company by the workers.

6. Reliance on third-party organizations:

Many times, the involvement of other organizations hinders the process of addressing attendance problems. This is because the insurers sway employers to depend on their decision. Although, the input is not all the time accurate, and it may be in contradiction to your organization’s policies.

As the name suggests, attendance software is a business-oriented application that tracks employees' working days and hours on the job. It maintains the records of salaries and wages remunerated to the employees. They can also deliver discernments of your operations, like which chores are taking most of your staff’s time and costing a lot of money.

Attendance and time software offers management various tools to enhance cash flow and reduce the extent of wastage. The application can generate, archive, and maintain significant payroll and information on taxes. A prominent attendance and time software suite will keep working appropriately as an organization advances. If you own a company with many employees, having attendance software will prove a boon to uplift your company at a higher rate.

Top Attendance Management System Vendors by Company Size

During the decision phase, the company has to calculate the time and cost taken on integration, onboarding employees, and creating other support elements. This calculation would vary to a great extent for companies in different market sectors, vision statements, locations, and so on.

There are numerous players in the market for an attendance management system for varying styles of enterprises. Suppose you are planning to choose software for an end-to-end HR process. In that case, it is best to choose a package with applicant tracking, admin features, payroll integration, intelligent analytics, labor management (shift management), etc. It is also possible to find vendors who can provide a customizable solution for your company’s operation. While such customized solutions might have a higher price tag, their integration with your other legacy systems makes inter-departmental liaison and other manual-intensive complication processes can become one-click processes within one platform. The vendor-initiated training process and complete integration support would be a great resource.

	sumHR	KEKA	Zoho People
Free Trial	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Android app	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Typical customers	"Mid-size businesses Large enterprises"	"Mid-size businesses Large enterprises"	"Mid-size businesses Large enterprises"
API	cancel	check_circle	check_circle
Attendance Tracking	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Activity Dashboard	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Automatic Notifications	cancel	check_circle	check_circle
Collaboration Tools	cancel	cancel	cancel
Data Import/Export	cancel	check_circle	cancel
Digital Signature	cancel	cancel	cancel
Document Storage	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Payroll Integration	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Reporting & Statistics	cancel	cancel	check_circle
Google Calendar	cancel	cancel	cancel

Attendance Management Software Comparison for Medium-Sized Businesses

A medium-sized enterprise does not need end-to-end attendance management software with full resource management features. Even if the company has plans to scale up in the future, it is better to choose simple software with associated features and the ability to scale up along with the business. Payroll, analytics, and time tracking are essential features of the product. The first step is comparing the output of simple time-tracking software and a full-fledged attendance management system with vacation management, multiple platform integration, job costing, and more.

However, suppose your business holds numerous hour-based employees or freelancers. In that case, you can choose simple software that primarily provides time tracking and other necessary attendance facilities like work schedules, vacation management, etc. However, working across varying devices with cloud storage would be efficient. Ask the vendor about their support system and choose vendors who can provide an introductory induction program for your employees.

	Clockwise	Securtime	GreytHR
Free Trial	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Android app	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Typical customers	"Small businesses Mid-size businesses"	"Mid-size businesses"	"Small businesses Mid-size businesses"
API	cancel	cancel	cancel
Attendance Tracking	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Activity Dashboard	cancel	check_circle	cancel
Automatic Notifications	cancel	cancel	check_circle
Collaboration Tools	check_circle	cancel	cancel
Data Import/Export	cancel	check_circle	cancel
Digital Signature	cancel	cancel	check_circle
Document Storage	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Payroll Integration	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Reporting & Statistics	cancel	cancel	cancel
Google Calendar	cancel	cancel	check_circle

 Attendance Management Software Comparison for Small Businesses

Small businesses require simple attendance management software integrating all the aspects of billing, attendance, and resource management. Cloud facilities might be beyond the requirement. For freelancers and a sole proprietorship, a single device or platform-based software would be sufficient. The attendance software's ability to scale up with the company is essential. Tracking time and billing are the main elements when choosing an attendance management system for a small business. A lightweight solution with a simple in-built resource for training would be a great choice. Remember that a cloud solution could be the right choice over expensive standalone license-based software. However, the budget of the enterprise is also an essential factor. You cannot dedicate much of your working capital to one software. A small business does not require widespread coverage during the initial stages.

	BambooHR	Gusto	Time Doctor
Free Trial	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Android app	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Typical customers	"Small businesses Mid-size businesses"	"Small businesses Mid-size businesses"	"Small businesses Mid-size businesses"
API	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Attendance Tracking	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle
Activity Dashboard	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Automatic Notifications	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Collaboration Tools	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Data Import/Export	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Digital Signature	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Document Storage	check_circle	check_circle	cancel
Payroll Integration	check_circle	cancel	check_circle
Reporting & Statistics	cancel	cancel	cancel
Google Calendar	check_circle	check_circle	check_circle

What are the Benefits of Attendance Tracking Software?

1. Streamline payroll:

In the modern developed world, where everything is simplified and automatic, employees do not require to write it out on the attendance sheet. Managers and supervisors do not need to keep and carry out the attendance sheets to evaluate how many hours every staff member has worked or has taken leave or vacation. The attendance management software handles everything correctly with its time-tracking function. The software organization also computes employees' working hours and automatically assesses their salary and tax deductions. This diminishes the errors individuals make when they have to compute some information. 

2. Boosts employee satisfaction:

Initially, you may face groaning with your workers about swapping to a modern system; their dissent will quickly be abandoned when they learn how convenient it is to operate attendance and time software. They will be pleased by the efficient and automated structure for computing their payment without human error. Eventually, they will like the access, which enables them to review up-to-the-minute information about how much vacation time or leave they have taken and how much they still have to burn.

3. Prevention of tax issues:

Attendance software is beneficial during the time of tax pay. When the attendance system work with the tax filing software, the payroll system uploads the figures automatically. Suppose your organization is taking the help of a tax advisor. In that case, the system assists him in creating electronic and paper reports, which can be used by the advisor to formulate the company’s taxes.

4. It averts lawsuits:

The digitally stored records of your corporation’s employees offered by the attendance tracking software confirm that you remunerated an employee in case he files litigation.

5. Precise time tracking:

Blue-collar timesheets are prone to humanoid errors. Hard-to-decipher handwriting can cause inaccurate pay to be recorded. If well ahead challenged by the staff member, time must be allocated to correct the employee’s salary once the pay period has passed. Some workers may misuse the blue-collar system by “thieving the time” and registering improperly in or out hours. Attendance and time software eradicates time theft and diminishes human blunders by depending on data accumulated when employees clock in or out over a protected web browser, through a mobile app on their mobile phones, or with the help of an electric biometric time clock.

6. Lessen paper usage:

Attendance software can aid enterprises anticipating green initiatives or desiring to save valuable time and floor space. Instead of numerous punch cards, expense records, and timesheets that require storage in massive filing dressers, all of the data can be saved in a database based on cloud technology, conveniently accessible through wireless or computer devices.

How to Use Attendance Management Software?

In the hectic work environment, several managers and CEOs opt to use various software to increase employee output, aiding corporate work and bringing more significant profits. However, sometimes striving to implement more excellent tools than your organization requires may turn out to be more chaos than discipline, so for simplicity, it is good to use the least number of software, but how can this be done? How to use time tracking software as an attendance management software? Yes, it is possible to use time-tracking software as attendance management software! And it can be done by using tools like Kronos, TimeCamp, GreytHR, etc. But how can time-tracking software assist you exactly in managing the attendance of your company’s employees? Here is a brief and straightforward overview:

• Such tools track all activities of employees.
• The desktop-based software runs automatically in the backend without interrupting your team.
• All the data synchronizes through the cloud on the system’s server
• Every individual activity, vacation, and time off is present in the reports. 

After the day, month or week, you can examine your employees’ attendance by viewing their deeds. All the reports presented by the applications show accurate times when workers signed in and out of the system or when they turned on or off the app. If everything is going well, did they disburse their time at work? Furthermore, you cannot only analyze their presence but also get updates on the status of projects and potential backlogs of your team.

Integrating the attendance management system into a time-tracking system is an excellent way of facilitating work and eliminating the extra work associated with using unique tools. It is also an effective way of enhancing employees’ and organation competence. Integrations are significant because it enables you to sync the time-tracking software with data from other applications that your company is already using. So it is an excellent notion to go for software that integrates all the currently used packages for accounting systems, CRM systems, project management tools, ERP systems, and payroll. 

What are the Disadvantages of Attendance Management Software?

While it is true that attendance management software helps keep tabs on the employees and their productivity, there are also some issues that employers face post their usage.

• Improper Planning and Administration

While many feel that the employees will start becoming regular and the absent ratio will decrease, some issues remain due to a lack of proper planning. Employers need to dig deep to understand the reason behind less productivity. and cannot expect that the system will solve it. The method may help keep track of and record everyone’s attendance. Still, if the organization does not give their employees enough space to breathe, the attendance issue will stay, which even an attendance management system cannot solve.  

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