Time is Money, The Benefits of Tracking Construction Time Correctly
Time is Money, The Benefits of Tracking Construction Time Correctly
With the construction industry facing a labor shortage, every construction firm is trying to find ways to improve their labor productivity. In order to track productivity, firms are taking a closer look at how their employees are spending their time. When your employees spend their time productively, then that is a great use of your money. Are you constantly wondering how your team is spending their time or why your projects continually are delayed? If so, then you may want to improve time tracking methods to ensure that you are not wasting your money. It is likely that your construction time tracking system could use an upgrade.
Just like how smartphones and mobile apps have digitized our world, construction time card apps have made it super easy for construction workers to more accurately track their time. Your company’s return on investment for purchasing construction time cards app will be quickly realized in terms of cost and time savings. Below are all the savings that your organization will receive from utilizing a construction time card application:
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Reducing overpayment
With paper time cards, employees write in their hours. Sometimes they may write the incorrect times for arriving or leaving. Rounding up of hours happens frequently as well. Time theft and overpayment occur when an employee records time for hours not worked. According to American Payroll Association, time theft exceeds 10 minutes per day per employee. Construction time card apps enable employees to punch in on their device similar to a job site time clock to capture time accurately. In addition, the mobile device will capture the punch location to ensure that the employee is actually on the jobsite versus punch in and out away from the jobsite. These security mechanisms ensure that you are paying employees for actual time working at the jobsite.
Managing overtime
There are many times on a project when overtime is necessary to adhere to the project schedule. However, overtime costs quickly rise and become a substantial cost on a project. This create issues if the overtime hours were not approved or if there is no budget for the overtime hours. Time card apps are helpful in construction time tracking and managing overtime costs. Employees receive an alert if they have not punched out after a set number of working hours. Office employees can also receive alerts when overtime hours are rising and reaching threshold limits. Time cards capture data to view trends and patterns of overtime occurence. Management can then make strategic decisions on increasing staff to accommodate extra work and not overwork employees.
FLSA Compliance
Wage and hour disputes are the most popular forms of employment litigation, which has risen over 450% since 2000. Under FLSA, employers must maintain accurate employee records regarding the number of hours worked. Employers may use any timekeeping method they use, but time card apps help ensure compliance. Construction time card apps report an employee’s hour worked each day, straight-time, overtime, and breaks. Employers must retain time records for two years. So, this is where a time card app helps as well. Time card apps store the information in the cloud and easily accessed as needed for an defined period of time. Employers will find cloud storage more useful versus taking up physical space in the office or storage with paper time cards.
Better estimates
Accurate construction time tracking allows your organization to estimate job costs more accurately. Tracking estimated labor hours against actual hours according to phases and cost codes provides detailed job costing information. Historical job costing data allows organizations to produce more competitively priced estimates. Better estimates improve the likelihood of bid selection and working on projects that are more profitable for your organization.
Time savings
Employees spend a considerable amount of time completing, collecting, and entering time cards. Construction time card apps deliver significant time savings for your employees. The time saved in collecting and entering time information can be spent on more productive work. APA says it takes five to six minutes to add and audit just one employees’ time card. Time card apps automate time card processing to save time so your team can spend their time on more productive work than manual data entry.
The pricing of construction time tracking systems vary and it may seem like a “nice to have someday” piece of technology for your organization. When “time is money” then time tracking system is an important piece of technology. When can more accurately track your employees’ time, you can more accurately track how you are spending your money.
