Time and attendance system on the field: enhance your payroll management

Payroll management is one of the most crucial aspects on any project. Traditional paper-based methods of data capture relating to work on-site can often lead to delays and errors, but specialised time and attendance systems for the construction sector can solve the problem. Here, we examine how such software can enhance your payroll management.

How efficient is your data-tracking process ?

Being a payroll manager comes with big responsibilities. Perhaps the biggest of these is ensuring that each worker is paid the correct salary and on time. Workers generally don’t care too much about how challenging this might be for their payroll manager but when this expectation isn’t met, the negative consequences can escalate very quickly.

Payroll management is an even more complex task when the difficulties associated with the construction sector are added into the mix. These include a variety of regulations and the fact that many different workers are involved who are mobile, potentially working on more than one jobsite during the same day. As a result, data-tracking can be a real headache, which will significantly affect payroll and HR management.

To overcome these challenges and seek efficiency in payroll management, construction companies are increasingly turning to digital solutions. However, it can sometimes be difficult to find the perfect HR software – to be able to collect, analyse, and integrate workers’ activities and related data – but fortunately solutions do exist that are dedicated to the sector. Consequently, time and activity management is becoming ever more digitalised in the construction industry, bringing several key benefits.

Get the most of your payroll software

Payroll managers in the construction industry encounter various challenges when carrying out their day-to-day tasks. But these difficulties can be easily resolved by using the right time and attendance system. Here are 4 of the key benefits of using specialised digital technology to overcome these problems.

1) Accurate data collection

Paying the correct salary to each worker on time can be a very challenging task. It can also put a huge amount of pressure on the HR team at the end of each month. Often, the team will have to chase up missing data, put pressure on worksite managers to send or encode the data, re-encode information and check for any mistakes, all within very tight deadlines.

The crux of the matter is that effective payroll management requires data. But payroll managers regularly complain about the delays in data collection and the amount of time spent re-encoding information. In addition, paper forms can sometimes be difficult to decode. As a result, there are sometimes delays, or even errors, in the payroll.

With a digital time registration solution that is integrated into the existing digital environment, the correct encoding and processing of salaries immediately becomes more accessible. The automation of payroll data collection means that the information arrives in a secure, structured and pre-validated manner. Digital timesheets enable you to (for example):

• avoid errors
• avoid having to process re-entries
• avoid chasing up missing information.

2) Reduced administrative burden

Manual systems and multiple re-encoding are not only prone to errors but also extremely time consuming. So, automating the collection, analysis and integration of data saves the payroll manager a considerable amount of time and prevents problems. In real terms, users of specialised software can experience time savings of many hours at the end of each week. Saving time on payroll management means that more effort can be spent on other high added-value tasks, such as looking at employee benefits, recruitment, coaching, strategy and action planning.

3) Improved reactivity

It is difficult to make quick, informed decisions when vital information arrives with a lag of one week or even longer. So, not only must the data be accurate, but it must also arrive on time and at the right place. The right payroll software can completely overcome this time delay.

For example, if there is an unplanned absence, the HR manager will be immediately and automatically alerted by the software. Also, if a worker isn’t following the maximum or minimum number of hours of work per day, an alert can be sent to notify the manager. On Traxxeo’s digital timesheet app, a wide range of alerts can be created, to meet a company’s own specific needs. In addition to having good quality information available very quickly, these automated alerts really facilitate the daily tasks of payroll managers.

4) Integration with your existing information system

Another challenge for payroll managers is the need for an overall view of all the relevant information: absence planning, workers’ hours, unplanned events, etc. Managers must cross-check many different sources of information in order to pay the correct salaries. Technology can help with this, but as the suite of digital tools grows within a company, it becomes increasingly important to make sure that these tools can communicate with each other. Otherwise, the old problems of delays, errors and inefficiencies will remain.

Regarding the construction sector, the right software must integrate itself with the company’s digital environment bidirectionally. On one hand, the site codes, workers details, cost structures and so on, for example, must be automatically integrated into a digital timesheet solution. On the other hand, field data must be integrated into the company’s digital tools, such as an existing HRIS or the ERP. This provides the payroll manager with a clear overview of all required information, because it fulfils the potential of the existing tools by providing them with accurate, recent and structured data.

Choosing the right time and attendance system

When the time comes to choose the right software for your time and activity management, what factors should you keep in mind? Obviously, your own specific needs and budget will guide your final selection, being influenced by the size of your company and its projects. However, the main criteria should be whether the software has been specially adapted to the particular needs of the construction industry. As mentioned above, the industry brings with it a very specific range of difficulties – specialised software has been designed from the outset to overcome these and to meet your needs.

Conclusion

There are several important ways that data-collection software can help payroll managers. But, to fully unleash all these benefits, it is important to use specialised software for the construction sector.

With 12 years of experience, Traxxeo’s team of digital and construction experts is specialised in developing solutions to solve the challenges for a construction company. Payroll management, in particular, is one of the most crucial aspects that can benefit from incorporating HR software. Traxxeo’s solutions for payroll managers, such as Digital Timesheets, are designed for the industry’s needs and allow:

• a wide range of settings
• multiple views of information
• integration with your IT environment.

If you want to know more about what this means for your company, feel free to contact us.