Timecard Software

Timecard software is used to maintain a record of an employee's job attendance. It can even be configured to reflect the actual number of hours spent on a particular task. Time management, timesheet, and payroll software are common synonyms for these products.

Timecard software can lessen the tediousness of tracking employee time. Keeping up with things like straight time, time and half, double time, and sick time by hand can be hard enough to do. However, combined with manually calculating the allowable length of employee leaves or vacations that are based on length of employment, the task can be close to impossible.

Indirect or Direct Method

The particular type of timecard software a company needs depends a great deal on the method the company uses to log their employees' time. Some companies require their employees to clock in and out; as a result, these companies may be in need of a software product that works in conjunction with one of the traditional punch clocks. Even though the employee physically records their time on a piece of paper, the device uses digital technology to read the information which will be fed to the software part of the product for processing.

Other companies choose to go with timecard software products that can be loaded right onto a worker's desktop computer. This type of product is generally used to replace the old paper timesheets by allowing the employee to directly enter and track their own time in the system. Software of this nature is best used for fixed hourly rate and salaried employees.