Workforce Time and Attendance

It''s about time.

The Workforce Time and Attendance Software Solution

For larger organisations, keeping track of your employee timesheets, payroll and benefits is a huge venture that absorbs man-hours and has a substantial cost.   Although the idea of having a system that automates these functions can be appealing, the complexity of your requirements to have a system that will be fully functional can make finding a viable software solution very difficult.  

With a full release date coming up in 2001, and current availability for customers willing to participate in the Beta program, Workforce Time and Attendance Software is at the cutting edge of time and attendance products technology.   Designed for maximum depth and flexibility, it will streamline your time reporting process and provide the back-end calculations you need.   It has options to meet the needs of both white and blue-collar environments.   Web-based, with interfaces to your payroll and HRIS applications, Workforce Time and Attendance Software provides all the technological features you''ll need in addition to covering the complex requirements of an enterprise class time and attendance system.  

How does Workforce Time and Attendance Software work?

Timekeeping software is a good idea for larger companies for a lot of reasons.   It reduces the time and money spent on paper timesheets and getting them filled out and returned to your HR department.   It improves the quality of the data you get, reducing the likelihood of human error, which can result in incorrect payments made and inaccurate employee information.   It can also reduce inquiries made to your HR department.   Therefore, finding a good software solution could be a real boon for your HR department, saving on money and time.

The Workforce Time and Attendance Software solution can provide all of these bonuses to you, no matter your corporation type and structure.   It has three different deployment options to choose from.   In a typical desk-based environment, the web-based functionality makes it possible for employees to report their time information online (either through the Internet or your Intranet).   It can also be integrated with a time clock, making the software viable for blue-collar environments as well.     Both of these options include a supervisor review function.   A third option is also possible where you have employees without personal computers; a common PC is set up in a convenient area for employees to go and review their time and time off balances.

In terms of actual time and absence reporting for your employee end users, information on collectable time worked, labour distribution, attendance and approvals is done through one of the three deployment options listed above.   The labour distribution function allows for time to be allocated to different projects, work orders, departments or other such.   Labour distribution information can be any classifying information, including department worked, project numbers, charge codes, time reporting codes, earning codes, and account numbers--it is data that can be invaluable for analysing and reporting on time and attendance information.   The labour distribution information is interfaced in Workplace Time and Attendance Software with payroll, GL, or other systems.  

To put an automatic internal check on this employee reporting, the supervisor review function allows for the information they enter to be reviewed and approved before it is released to payroll.   In addition, employees and supervisors can check information online regarding balances and used vacation, sick, and FMLA time.   Some of the ways approvals can be implemented are by transaction, shift or day, by override of a policy rule violation for special circumstances, by manager approval (equals a signature on a time sheet), and by multi-level approvals where there is more than one supervisor.   There is even an email notification feature to remind employees to enter time and supervisors to do their reviews, cutting back on time spent chasing down information.   This email feature is integrated with your company''s email system and can be modified to generate emails for any ''events'' you think are important.

The Workplace Time and Attendance Software solution brings real functionality through the automation of tasks that usually eat away at your HR department''s time.   Your companies unique practices are encapsulated by user-defined calculations, exceptions and message notification rules and then put into action.   Overtime (including FLSA), shift differentials, gross pay and even multiple pay rates tied to the job worked can be calculated.   As can time off earned, track time off taken to be used calculating vacation, sick and FMLA numbers.   Holiday pay is also automated, allowing not just for holiday pay and holiday time earned, but for special overtime or premium rules for time worked on holidays.  

Employees are able to access all of this information through a thin client, web-based application that is easily downloadable from the web.     The Workplace Time and Attendance Software calculates and maintains all accrual information, and employees can get at information that is up-to-date about their time off availability even if it is earned in the middle of a pay period.   In particular, the fact that the Workplace Time and Attendance Software has an effective system for legal compliance with the FMLA laws could save you a lot of heartache surrounding observance.   It can handle different ''year'' selections and is flexible enough to accommodate changes in the law''s requirements.  

Employee schedules are created and maintained and can be used as default time sheets for employees who only need to report time on an exception basis.   These schedules can also be used to track and enforce breaks (whether paid or unpaid).   Thus, the software allows you to create effective policies around breaks that exceed their time limit and apply consistent grace periods.   This is effective for tracking tardiness and implementing more effective late policies as well.   Discipline can be implemented through a point system, where tardiness and other attendance violations generate points.   Once an employee has then reached a particular point threshold, supervisors or HR is notified thus allowing for fair and invariable action to be taken.  

The interfaces to payroll and HRIS will also save you a lot of time and money.   Integration with the retroactive processing allows for quick and easy paycheque corrections.   It also has some special interface options to a billing system, maintenance system, or work order system.   The Workplace Time and Attendance Software has an export function to send data to financial, maintenance, decision support or billing systems.   One important function in terms of the data the Workplace Time and Attendance Software collects is that it is effective for both exempt and non-exempt employees.   It can support the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA) for your non-exempt employee information.

All of the raw data on time and attendance which the Workplace Time and Attendance Software collects can then be used to calculate gross pay.   Here, the sophistication of the information collected and calculated by the Workplace Time and Attendance Software really shines, as the complex rules that often make the job tedious have already been incorporated.   Pay rates can be set up individually or through an employee position based pay scale.   Employees can be paid for multiple rates in a single pay period, without additional calculations needed.   The software is designed to support numbers not just for hours worked, but for pay, and this really shows.

First, shift differentials are fully supported.   You can define your shift periods however you desire.   For instance, some shift periods could span specific times or days to create a "weekend premium."   As well, you can set up specific conditions that have to be met in order for an employee to qualify for pay differentials.   This option means that you can pay out a higher rate based on employees working more than a set minimum number of hours in a week or month.   The software can support even the most specialised of shift differential situations, such as Baylor plans for paying nurses weekend pay.

Second, overtime policy rules are incredibly flexible as well.   Overtime can be paid out according to various rules.   It can be paid after an employee reaches a specific daily, weekly, or pay period level threshold.   Or overtime can be paid if an employee works a certain number of consecutive days.   Or it can be accrued for any work outside of the scheduled work time.   Multiple overtime thresholds can be handles, such as daily overtime and double-time if the employee is working over a specific threshold.   Holidays can be defined as any period of time and not necessarily only the 24 hours taken off, allowing for overtime earned on holidays.   FLSA overtime laws for non-exempt employees are incorporated.   You can also incorporate any state overtime laws by using the built in overtime features and the user-defined formulas and scripting for added flexibility.

Third, the Workplace Time and Attendance Software also takes into account the complexity of benefit accruals.   Benefit accruals give you the ability to calculate any time off earned and to track used time.   You can accrue time in the most simple fashion, based on hours worked, including both current and prior pay periods.     You can also use special qualifications in more complex environments to ensure that only specific employees who are eligible accumulate time off, that special accrual rules are applied to new hires and/or employees in their first year with the company, or accruals based on length of service in the more general sense.   In fact, you can base your accrual amounts calculated based on most any condition you could think of.   Time accrual can be calculated based on any frequency you define, whether once a year, monthly, or by any other period.  

Finally, if, despite the flexibility handed to HR professionals through the software for making sense of gross pay, is not sufficient to handle your pay requirements, Workplace Time and Attendance Software offers extensive customisation by the company for you in this area or any other through their implementation services.   The software was designed to meet your needs and the company is dedicated to ensuring that it does so, whether as is or with modifications.  

Overall then, the Workplace Time and Attendance Software offers a flexible and effective time and attendance solution for any mid to large corporations with complex needs in terms of hours or pay calculated.   It could be used effectively by every industry--whether your workers are white or blue collar or both.   It is on the cutting edge of new attendance and time calculating software technology, and, if your company is still living in the dark ages in this area, could be just what you need to get the benefits of an automated computer system.

The Vitals:

APPLICABILITY

As a HR professional, your department is probably stuck with the job of trying to keep track of employee time and attendance information and perhaps also of calculating and paying out the actual gross pay for paycheques.   This is a huge task made all the more enormous by the build-up of paper information, the tracking down of employees who haven''t sent in their timesheets and of supervisors who haven''t approved them, the seeming inevitable calls about amounts after payout and the calls throughout the pay period on how pay will be calculated for special time off.   So much of this work is saved through use of the Workplace Time and Attendance Software solution, making it a boon for HR departments in mid- to large-sized companies.

BETA PROGRAM

Until its full release, Workforce Time and Attendance Software is looking for beta sites to use the software in return for significant discounts, input into the final version of the product, a license to the source code and reduced professional services rates.   In order to participate in the program, you have to be willing to not only dedicate some staff to document your company''s requirements (a must anyway in implementing a new product) and to configure, test and use the software in your organisation, but also to provide feedback about how the software is working, including making recommendations or critiques about its performance.

COMPETITIVENESS

Since the Workplace Time and Attendance Software is so new to the market and cannot yet provide detailed numbers for price or say necessarily what might be modified in the software to make it more effective through the Beta program, its position as compared to the competition is mostly conjecture.   However, some of the features that make it stand out at this point are: its scalability upwards for large numbers of employee end-users, its multiple deployment options which make it suitable for companies with mixed employee environments, and the flexibility, both in the original configuration of the product and in the wide berth of customisation options available.

EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION

Workforce Time and Attendance Software is implemented through a six step methodology to ensure that you get exactly what you need.   First, a trained analyst is provided to take your company step by step through a needs analysis to ensure that all the requirements are covered.   From this analysis, a detailed comparison between these requirements and the Workforce Time and Attendance Software product can be made, and any gap can be identified.   These requirements are then incorporated into a customisation of the software for your company.   The customised software is put through demanding testing to ensure quality before delivery.

The software is then brought into your organisation and installed.   It is configured to fit flawlessly into your existing IT system and is tested to make sure everything is ''green'' beforeTraining for IT staff in maintenance issues, installation procedures and updates is provided, as well as training on the software itself.   Once your software is up and running, ongoing maintenance and support is available.

SCALABILITY

The Workforce Time and Attendance Software was contrived for mid to large corporations with complex requirements.   It possesses a multi-tiered design, which is capable of scaling up to meet the needs of hundreds or even thousands of concurrent users.   It is completely effective in environments of up to 50,000 employees.   For large organisations, it can be configured for multiple servers.   As well, it capitalises on the multi-processor servers now available with an SMP-aware arrangement.

SUPPORT

Workforce Time and Attendance Software offer technical support to their customers in several ways.   Support services are available via dial-up, Internet or telephone support.   Various packages available for purchase so you can customise your support choice to your companies needs, depending on availability and specialisation capability of in-house IT personnel.  

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Workforce Time and Attendance Software supports Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator user interface Web technology.   I would recommended at least 4.x or higher and a high-speed access for optimal performance.   Workforce Time and Attendance Software supports XML data interfaces to allow for interface between client and server and custom interfaces easily.   Microsoft Exchange, Lotus, Netscape and other SMTP based email systems are supportable.   It works on Windows NT or Unix operating systems.   Microsoft, Netscape, apache and other web and application servers are supported by the software.   In terms of DBMS, Oracle 8i and Microsoft SQL Server 7 can be used.

Overall Evaluation

The functionality you need in a time and attendance system is all in Workplace Time and Attendance Software.   Calculating hours and pay, and use of attendance tracking to implement effective late policies are made possible.   The software is designed to be an enterprise-level solution and uses the latest in technology to deliver on that promise.   It is a system both simple and highly flexible; able to handle complex policies from the outset, and customisable both inside the program and by the company that supplies it before implementation.   The Workplace Time and Attendance Software solution could decrease time and money costs in your HR department.

About the Company:

Workforce Time and Attendance Software Company came into being in 1999.   It''s founders came together for the sole purpose of developing an excellent solutions for mid to large size companies.   Their focus is on helping organisations meet their payroll and time and attendance product needs.  

Corporate Office

Workforce Time and Attendance Software

31965 Schoolcraft Road

Suite 12

Livonia, MI           48150

734-525-7613

734-513-2528   FAX

info[at]time-and-attendance.com

http://www.time-and-attendance.com