The cost of doing business is soaring. Between supply chain issues, historically high fuel prices and rising inflation, it’s more important than ever to watch your bottom line. Time tracking is one area where construction companies can not only cut costs but reduce errors. But if you’re tracking worker hours on paper, you’re not taking advantage of all the benefits mobile time and attendance tracking provides.
What is Time Tracking?
First off, time tracking is an absolutely necessary process. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, all employers are required to keep accurate time records of the hours that their nonexempt employees work. Construction companies must track the hours every employee works in order to pay them for all hours worked, including any overtime pay. According to the FLSA, “Covered nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 per workweek (any fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven consecutive 24-hour periods) at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay.” Construction companies that violate FLSA overtime laws put themselves at risk of a lawsuit; that’s why accurate mobile time and attendance tracking recordkeeping using a mobile app is so important.
How Does ExakTime’s Mobile App Work?
ExakTime’s mobile time and attendance tracking app takes the idea of paper time cards and turns it on its head. Instead of a pen and paper, workers clock in and out using an app that’s easily downloaded to any mobile device. Workers simply enter their unique, 4-digit PIN number and tap the green ‘Go’ button to clock in or the red ‘Stop’ button to clock out. Clock-in and out data, including where your workers are located, is synced so team management can occur from anywhere. But ExakTime’s mobile app can do much more than just track when workers start and stop work.
- GPS Tracking: For an app to truly be mobile, it needs to utilize GPS. GPS or Global Positioning System is a US-owned utility that provides users with positioning, navigation and timing services. ExakTime’s mobile GPS feature utilizes 30 global position satellites to provide the exact locations of employees when they clock in or out. GPS capabilities help curb time theft because managers can determine if an employee was actually onsite or not when he or she clocked in. Our GeoTrakker feature also lets you track workers as they travel, so you know where they are as long as they’re on the clock.
- Geofencing: ExakTime’s geofencing capabilities allows GPS tracking to be even more efficient. A geofence is a virtual “barrier” that’s set up to enforce certain restrictions or create certain opportunities. A geofence works like a regular fence by marking off areas. An employer might want to put a geofence around a worksite. Employees must clock in inside the fence, not from their vehicles or a coffee shop across the street. When employees clock in or out, their timestamp will be flagged as either on-site or off-site.
- FaceFront Photo ID Verification: Another safeguard against time theft or buddy punching is ExakTime’s FaceFront Photo ID Verification. FaceFront uses a mobile device’s front-facing lens to snap photos of workers as they clock in and out. Simply match these with employee master photos stored in your office computer and having a buddy punch another employee in or out is virtually eliminated. And, unlike biometric fingerprint clocks, FaceFront won’t fail due to dirty hands or pose a potential data security risk to your employees (biometric scanners have come under fire recently).
- Scheduling: ExakTime’s mobile app allows managers to schedule worker shifts and tasks in advance, and never wonder what’s happening at a remote job site. It can instantly send assignment and project requests to people while in the office or on the jobsite based on skillset, job title, certification, availability, location and so on. ExakTime Mobile gives you a one-screen snapshot of any job site with a live feed of clock-in and clock-out activity, a running labor budget, Field Notes, weather and more.
- Field Notes: Field notes allow for instant job site updates from the field in the form of photos, audio files and text. Workers or supervisors in the field can record text, audio or photo updates and send them to the cloud with one click. Notes appear on the dashboard of our cloud software and are also attached to job sites in your system, so that they never get lost and remain part of your labor record. Field notes can also help improve cash flow by creating a clear method of communication between sites and office staff as soon as a project has hit a key stage or been completed. The office sees the field note come through on the dashboard and can send the invoice immediately, expediting pay and improving cash flow.
- Mobile Compliance: Tracking compliance with our mobile app is easy and reliable. You’ll have instant access to a digital “paper trail”, as well as a history of every punch-out that includes employee responses to compliance boxes.
ExakTime’s mobile app works on any iPhone or iPad with iOS 10 to the latest version or Android running iOS 6 to the latest version. Get your crews logged into a digital time tracking solution that will keep your business running at top speed.
