You might think that by foregoing the newest time sheet technology on the market and sticking to the old paper time sheet strategy you’re saving money on your payroll processes. But in almost all cases that proves to be false. Sure, you’re not paying any monthly fee for time sheet software but there are many, many hidden costs associated with paper time sheets, and there are just as many hidden savings associated with electronic time sheets. Here are some of the less-thought-of areas in which paper time sheets might be costing you more than electronic time sheets would.
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Handling Times
Paper Time Sheets:
The time it takes to file paperwork might seem inconsequential but let’s picture all of the ways paper time sheets can stall payroll:
-Employees can forget to submit a time sheet
-Supervisors need to track down employees who filled out their time incorrectly
-Printing out and distributing paper time sheets
-Plus all of the above requires a surprising amount of walking time. Walking to the printer, walking the time sheets to a supervisor, finding the delinquent employee. Inconsequential? Maybe not, especially if your company has dozens or even hundreds of employees.
Time sheet Software:
On the other hand, all of the walking time and printing time is eliminated with time sheet software. There is nothing to print out and the software is all accessible through the cloud on any internet connected device. Plus, time sheet software will generally have options for supervisors to edit/override their employees incorrect time sheet or send automated emails to remind employees to submit their forgotten time sheet.
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Double Entry
Paper Time Sheets:
The bane of many companies existence is the amount of double-entry they subject themselves to. Time sheets are filled out, their information is copied into a spreadsheet or accounting program and sometimes even re-keyed a third time into company records or some other system. This takes a lot of time. Also, mistakes are made when re-entering data; even if mistakes are made less than 1% of the time (a pretty conservative estimate) those mistakes can sometimes lead to hours of wild goose chases to find the error.
Time Sheet Software:
All the information entered on a time sheet is automatically synced to your accounting software and company records. There are no re-entry errors and no mistakes. Plus everything is DOL and DCAA compliant. So this saves you time spent on double-entry and time spent hunting for mistakes.
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Purchase Price
Paper Time Sheets:
The cost of printer ink, toner and paper is often neglected but it can add up quickly for companies with lots of employees. If you don’t currently track your paper and ink expenses you may want to do so. Plus there is the initial purchase price of printers or the price to contract your printing jobs out to printing services. While not tremendous there certainly is a price associated with paper time sheets.
Time Sheet Software:
Most time sheet software is billed on a per user per month basis and many options are hosted online, in the cloud, which means there is no need for expensive servers and other software infrastructure. The per month price tag may look big at first, compared to the cost of buying paper and ink, but really all of the above factors need to be taken into account when calculating your ROI. Most companies will find that time sheet software is much cheaper and more effective than sticking to the outdated paper systems.
For more information on the various ways that a manual time sheet system can waste time and money check out High 5 Software’s Prezi presentation on the topic.
Interested in more info on time sheet software? Look no further.
