Time Tracking Is Ditching The Desktop, Says OnTheClock

Employee time tracking can be riddled with errors – and even fraud – when workers have the responsibility of calculating their own hours. Reliance on legacy processes like pen-and-paper timecards, hours that are manually calculated and emailed or texted into managers, or simply word-of-mouth reporting of time worked not only means that employees can mistakenly (or intentionally) inflate their hours.

According to Dean Mathews, founder of time tracking company OnTheClock, these manual strategies waste time and resources for employers, as managers are forced to manually enter employee time tracking data into payroll systems. A lack of proper time tracking data recording and management runs the risk of non-compliance in the case of an audit or Department of Labor investigation, too, he recently told PYMNTS.

With employers exploring technologies to address costly payroll errors and fraud, Mathews says the mobile device is quickly becoming a key piece of the puzzle.

“We see the future of timekeeping going probably somewhere between 80 to 90 percent mobile over the next 10 years,” Mathews said in an interview. “We really believe the desktop is going to be significantly removed, at least with small and medium-sized businesses.”

But it may take a bit of convincing for employers to trust mobile time tracking.

According to Mathews, one of the biggest concerns that employers have when adopting mobile time tracking capabilities is a lack of visibility and control. Mobile devices allow workers to track their time from any location, which could amplify the risk of fraud and errors without proper controls.

“A common is question is, ‘Now that my employee can clock in and clock out on their phones, how do I know they’re not at home, or on the road still? How do I know they haven’t left early and clocked out an hour later?’” Mathews said.

OnTheClock deploys technologies like GPS tracking, geofencing and IP restrictions to ensure that employees are logging their hours where and when they need to be. With the use of gig workers on the rise, the ability to track and manage hours worked from a remote location is also increasingly important.