Labor Management. NOW Simple.

Many of TimeForge’s November and December updates included improvements to scheduling, enhanced multi-unit capabilities, additional Point of Sale capabilities, and new training videos.

We have also been hard at work on many improvements to TimeForge Attendance.   TimeForge Attendance is a labor management software tool that focuses on employee time cards and managing payroll expenses.   Employees can clock in and out using the system, managers can review staff timecards, and then managers can approve the employee time punches for third party payroll processing.

If you are using a standard time clock, or are having staff write their arrival, departure, and lunch breaks on a piece of paper, switching to TimeForge Attendance will save you hours of headaches each and every week!

Some of the most recent improvements to TimeForge Attendance include:

• Several new TimeForge Attendance tutorials are online and available for your review! Don’t get lost or confused about how to edit time cards, modifying clock in parameters, or setting up IP addresses for restricting employee time punches.   Review the TimeForge Attendance manual (videos are coming soon), and read about all of these profit saving topics.

• Quickly identify employee time punches and problematic time cards using the TimeForge Most Different notifications. As you process and approve / export payroll, TimeForge automatically identifies different (or strange) time punches, and ranks each shift based on how different the shift is from the other staff member time punches.   Managers and payroll supervisors can use the “Most Different” field to quickly identify potential problems before cutting checks for staff members.

• Show the last person to edit or change time card data. All time card changes are recorded and can be viewed in the TimeForge Daily Log by qualified managers.   However, you can now easily review which manager (or supervisor) most recently modified any specific time card entry.   Reduce fraud and and identify compliance issues immediately.

View the last manager to edit a time entry

• Identify hours worked on the Clocked-In Employees page. You now have the choice to manage labor by scheduled or actual labor costs, or by the scheduled or actual labor hours while you are reviewing who is clocked in, or which staff members were previously clocked in during the business day.

Review Worked Hours and Total Costs

• Manage attendance and timecards by departments. When you have a large number of staff members, managing your labor can be complicated.   You can now browse and edit staff time sheets based on the department that you are interested in reviewing.

Edit Attendance by Department

Look for more information about recent improvements to TimeForge Attendance very soon.   We continue to improve the software so that you can manage your workforce effectively, and go home early!

You should be using a time and attendance system to make your life easy! TimeForge can quickly and easily manage time cards, employee attendance, and export payroll for processing.   Sign up for a trial today to use TimeForge Attendance to track employee time.

Related articles or pages

• Time and Attendance Made Easy
• New Payroll Period
• How Do You Manage Labor?
• Better Employee Schedules and Easy Labor Management – 6 More Tips
• Schedules are Theoretical Time, Time and Attendance is Paid Time , Manage Both

Managers are More Expensive than Non-Salaried Staff

In many industries including retail, hospitality, food-service, hotels, and manufacturing, salaried management staff are usually several times more expensive than non-salaried staff at the same business. In many cases, one member of the salaried staff can be more expensive than five or six non-salaried staff members. In addition to their hourly-wage, managers are eligible for benefits such as life insurance, health insurance, expensive overtime, or additional perks like free food or discounted merchandise rates.

Schedule Managers to do Management Tasks

Businesses should ensure salaried managers perform managerial tasks while on duty, and leverage non-salaried employees for work-related duties that do not require a manager. Some tasks that managers may be charged with during a regular work day could include performing quality control, placing vendor orders, building employee schedules, training employees, processing payroll, and working with customers. Whatever management does while at work, make sure that it is something that is representative of their cost to the business.

Managers should be able to jump in and work when other non-management staff members do not show up for work or unanticipated spikes in demand require more line workers. This ability implies that the business does a good job of cross training employees, and the business is not overly reliant on any one staff member. However, if it is common practice for managers to mop the floors or clean bathrooms because other staff members do not show up, than a re-evaluation of hiring and staffing practices is recommended.

Managers are routinely asked to create efficient schedules for their business on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Accurately scheduling the work force several weeks in advance provides employees with a defined work schedule and allows managers to estimate upcoming expenses (payroll is often the largest expense in retail, restaurant, hospitality, and similar industries). During the process of preparing an accurate schedule, managers will check employee availability, review request logs, consider federal/state/local and corporate regulations, update employee work preferences, revise employee capabilities and training, make overtime considerations, ensure minimum work hours all while maintaining budgets and other business requirements. The entire schedule process commonly occupies a manager for 10% of every week, costing the business at least several hundred dollars each week!

Changing the Employee Schedule Uses Manager Time, Which is Expensive

In addition to creating the schedule, managers often change the schedule on a daily basis. Employees may become available (and want more shifts), suddenly be unavailable (illness or termination) and not able to work, or forget when they need to be at work. Shift swapping is also common in many industries and requires a manager to spend time on each trade , employees give up shifts that were assigned to them originally, or pick up shifts that others cannot work. A shift or request log may be used for employee initiated shift trades. Managers cannot monitor theft, interact with customers, train employees, or perform quality control at the business if they are in the back-office working on a labor schedule.

To ensure that management staff time is spent appropriately, use technology tools to perform tasks that can be done by computers. Software tools such as TimeForge improve staff retention, and decrease the amount of time that scheduling labor consumes. TimeForge includes a number of additional tools that will assist managers in time management, including a daily manager log book, payroll processing, and other similar tools.

Related articles or pages

• Building a Labor Schedule is Complicated. Use Tools to Keep Managers and Employees Happy.
• TimeForge Labor Management, a quick background ….
• Spend Less Time Scheduling Labor – More Time Managing Your Business
• Reduce Turnover with Shift Scheduling Software
• Labor and Industries Audits Made Easy

Released August 19, 2007, the latest version of TimeForge.com has numerous new features designed to help you manage your labor! Some of the new features include:

• Time & Attendance features which allow your employees to clock in and out, as well as a number of reports which can be used to assist with payroll processing.
• Employee Shift Swapping gives power to your employees to find replacements for shifts that they cannot work. Of course, managers can approve or deny any shift swap.
• Many improvements to the AutoScheduler™ to build schedules even faster, and the AutoScheduler now explains any change it makes to your schedule.
• New reports, including a condensed grid that looks similar to your existing Excel spreadsheet!
• And many others!

We hope you enjoy the new features. Let us know what else will help your business work!

How long does it take to make an employee schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that labor costs could be as much as 30% of your expenses? TimeForge can help streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, or club.

Related articles or pages

• Compare Actual vs. Theoretical Labor Costs
• Who Uses TimeForge.com for Labor Scheduling?
• Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo
• Western Food Expo is a wrap!
• TimeForge.com Training Webinar – Learn How To Schedule Properly