Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

The List: Some of Strangest Reasons Employees Give for Being Late

We have all shown up late for work at some point in our lives. Whether it was because the car broke down or the pet bird died, the excuses are limitless. So, it was no surprise to see a survey, conducted earlier this year by CareerBuilder, listing some of the reasons citied by employees for being late.

In our experience working with numerous organizations, we too have heard of the excuses given to companies by some of their employees. The top three include:

1) Employee found out halfway on her way to work that she was in her pajamas and returned home to change in work clothes

2) Employee showed up an hour after his start time because he was watching the hockey game which kept him up all night

3) Employee’s car broke down for the 3rd time in a week

While a time and attendance system cannot stop employees from being late, it does capture patterns of attendance. These attendance patterns highlight the number of times an employee was absent and the reason. With one click of the ATS time and attendance system, you can generate real-time metrics and employee data analytics. This information allows companies to visualize and track the optimal key performance indicators that drive its business.

The integrated solution provides quick data access to payroll and other application interfaces. The business analytics module, gives companies a comprehensive view of key labour metrics, reduces compliance risks and gives managers up-to-the minute information on sick time and vacation time all based the criteria of an organization.

If your company is still using paper timesheets, go to our website and download a comprehensive report on the benefits of a time and attendance solution.

Labour Metrics, Paper TimeSheets, Payroll, Time and Attendance System, Vacation

Adopting Business Automation in the Era of Austerity Measures

To say that the recent economic crisis of 2008 touched every country in the world is a gross understatement. While some countries fared somewhat better than others, there is overwhelming evidence that many countries are still feeling the effects of the financial crisis. For example, in North America the manufacturing sector and several other industries, have been decimated and leaving millions of people out of work. This economic downturn has forced many companies to take a serious look at the many advantages afforded by business automation software. Manually tracking employee hours through time sheets is not only a waste of resources but unintended errors can cut into a company’s profit margin.

An ATS time and attendance solution is tailored to meet the challenges companies face in the areas of: forecasting, employee scheduling, labour analytics and attendance management. Whether your industry is hospitality, manufacturing, retail or healthcare, our workforce management software is designed to meet those needs and improve business productivity.

Here are three ways our software solution can help your company:

Information in Real-Time: Companies need the latest data so they can determine how to reduce costs while maintaining productivity. ATS time and attendance provides instant visibility and enhanced reporting to help you make informed decisions about your labour force.

Functionality and Scalability: ATS time and attendance software helps organizations automate clocking and streamlines employee time tracking, while communicating with operational departments throughout the payroll process. Our modular solution is scalable and allows companies to activate additional functions as their business and number of employees grows.

Integrated Solution: ATS fully integrated time and attendance solution combines performance into one powerful system—improving efficiency and effectiveness as well as generating critical business intelligence. Our workforce management software allows for integration to a variety of systems including: Talent Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Payroll, Accounting and Financial Management and Customer Relationship Management.

To join our weekly webinar on the advantages of workforce management software for businesses go to our website. To speak to one of our account executives, call us at: 866.294.2467

Employee Time Tracking, Enterprise Resources Planning, Payroll, Talent Management, Workforce Management Software

Is the Once Mighty PC on a Downward Spiral?

A recent article by Gartner on how cloud computing is becoming the preferred option for many businesses and consumers caught our eye. Detractors to this report and others like it lament that people, by nature, are slow to change. While this argument holds credence, it’s clear the tide is changing, albeit slowly, towards cloud computing technologies like; hosting music on the cloud and Software-a-Service (SaaS) time and attendance solutions.

The report by Gartner is titled “Personal Cloud Will Replace the Personal Computer as the Center of Users’ Digital Lives by 2014”. In this report, Gartner espouses the virtues of today’s trend in cloud computing. One of the strongest points in this article states the following:

“Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices. The emergence of more-natural user interface experiences is making mobility practical. Touch- and gesture-based user experiences, coupled with speech and contextual awareness, are enabling rich interaction with devices and a much greater level of freedom. At any point in time, and depending on the scenario, any given device will take on the role of the user’s primary device — the one at the center of the user’s constellation of devices.”

ATS’s ability to embrace innovation while simultaneously adapting to changing trends means, customers can deploy a solution without the additional costs associated that’s inherent in client-server installations. ATS SaaS time and attendance is hosted and maintained securely via cloud computing technology at one of our data centres.

To learn about the advantages of deploying a web-based time and attendance solution, contact one of our representatives or go online to view a demo.

Cloud Computing, Hosted Time and Attendance, SaaS Time and Attendance

Does the Lowest Price Meet your Business Requirements?

Today, more than ever, consumers are bombarded with ads that promote low prices on everything from TVs to microwave ovens. The word “value” is used to lure customers into purchasing products that comes with such advertised tags that include; “lowest prices anywhere” or “best price value system”.

We surveyed some of our customers to find out if price was the deciding factor when choosing a vendor for their business automation solution. A sampling of their responses includes the following:

“Price is important to our company. However, our software is used for the calculation of employee hours and processing payroll. We cannot get this wrong, our leadership would prefer I spend a little more to get good service”.

“The system has to meet our needs; that’s key for us”. We can negotiate price with a vendor if we like their product, but we do not put price ahead of our business requirements”.

“We brought in a consultant who got us the cheapest solution on the market. The invoice for his services exceeded the cost of the product. Our CEO tossed the system out after 3 months. It did not meet our needs at the most basic level. We learned a costly lesson, one which this company will not repeat”.

A couple of sentences in an article by Richard Cartwright on the “Garden Center Strategies” blog caught our eye. “We all know the thrill of purchasing an item at a low price only to later be disappointed when the item’s lower quality fails to perform its intended purpose. When the item has to be replaced the money spent was actually wasted, not saved!”

Unlike a TV or microwave oven, Workforce management software is a long term investment that has a direct impact on a company’s payroll process. ATS SaaS time and attendance is a cloud based solution that takes away all the headaches of maintaining a server and an IT department to support it. The software can be accessed through any computer with a web-browser 365 days a year 24/7.

Solution Benefits:

Cloud Based application (No internal IT support required)
Configured to meet any company’s work rule policy including collective bargaining agreements
Export reports to either XLS, HTML or PDF format
New release and enhancements at no additional cost
Can be accessed on smart PDA’s and other mobile devices
Integration with any ERP, Payroll and HRIS Application
Personalized setup and unlimited support from your ATS implementation personnel

The implementation of an ATS SaaS time and attendance solution enables businesses to reap many benefits including: reduced overtime costs, improved employee engagement and low total cost of ownership.

To learn how Canadian businesses are deploying our best-in-class time and attendance solution, go to our website.

Payroll Interface, SaaS Time and Attendance, Web-Based Time and Attendance

Leave Management: Tracking and Managing Employee Absence Requests

Tracking complex employee leave requests through paper time sheets is costly and often results in errors. By automating this process, companies enhance the communication between employees and supervisors while simultaneously eliminating the manual process.

ATS Leave Management is a software module that allows employees to request time away from work. Through a web portal, managers can grant or deny leave, based on a company’s overall work policies.

Our Leave Management software allows employees to make use of the employee self-service module and review the status of their leave requests. They can also view personalized accrual balances through the application.

ATS uses a company’s existing policies to configure the rules for leave tracking validation and enforcement. ATS Leave Management module prevents the ability to enter accrual balances when it’s not applicable. The result is a system that accurately displays employees accrual balances in their respective web portal.

Benefits of ATS Leave Management Software:

Tracks attendance and leave policies consistently in order to streamline payroll costs and control unauthorized employee absences
Track and manages US Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Canada’s Family Medical Leave (FML) that overlaps with provincial, federal and state leave laws
Supervisors have the ability to approve leave request through any web browser
Employees see approval messages from supervisors through employee self service
Gives employees more control of their time off and a greater sense of fairness through consistent policy enforcement

ATS Leave Management takes control of intermittent leave conditions. The software tracks leave for: family day, jury duty, vacation, short term disability and parental leave. The solution comes equipped with audit trails, attendance records and leave-of-absence records. Companies can minimize risk of litigation, audits and employee grievances with this powerful tool.

To download a copy of our time and attendance leave management brochure, go to our website. To view an online demonstration, please contact one of our account executives.

Attendance Tracking, Family Medical Leave, Family Medical Leave Act, Leave Management, Time and Attendance

As your company grows, is that off the shelf product still viable?

There comes a time when small and mid-size businesses find out that their “off the shelf” business software tools can’t grow with them. A punch clock purchased to track attendance when a company had 10 employees will not meet that company’s needs when it grows to 100 plus employees.

ATS hosted workforce management software for small to mid-size companies, helps businesses cut costs, while improving productivity. ATS hosted time management solution allows for the tracking of: sick leave, vacation time, overtime and statutory holiday. Instead of re-entering and constantly monitoring employee data your HR and payroll department can focus on other issues.

Benefits of the ATS cloud based workforce management solution:

No software installs, free updates, access from anywhere
You can manage your employees from any computer with internet. The software can be accessed through major web browsers including: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

Our solution is used by businesses of all industries and sizes
Small businesses with 30 employees to large organization with thousands of employees use our solution. Our customers are spread across different provinces, states and countries.

Payroll and overtime calculation
Everything from data uploading to payroll HR and ERP applications is made easy with our flexible import utility. Calculation of overtime, premium and attendance hours is done with relative ease within the system. A breakdown of overtime and attendance can be captured through a variety of reports.

Customer login
Each company is assigned a dedicated login. Your employees can also clock in and out and also access the self-service portal. Managers can login to access employee time-off requests and navigate through various reports.

Control employee logs
You will be able to see which computer an employee clocks in/out from through IP tracking.

Export reports to Excel or PDF
Reports can be generated through Excel, PDF or other outputs and can be used to see overtime, labour distribution, track projects etc.

Online approval
Managers can add or edit time cards and go to any date to review an employee’s timesheet. You can also review absences and accrued time.

ATS cloud workforce management software for small to mid-size companies is uploaded to our servers and provides instant access to our customers. In addition, our communication servers send out reports via email and sms. This helps organizations manage their workforce productivity seamlessly from anywhere in the world.

The ATS time and attendance software automates and tracks overtime, sick leave, vacations and a variety of absences. To learn more about ATS workforce management software for small to mid-size businesses visit our website.

Employee Time Management Software, Time and Attendance Canada, Time and Attendance Toronto, Time Management Solutions, Workforce Management Software

Many people tend to use the end of the year as a time of reflection. We, at Apex Time Solutions, decided to compile of a list of questions received from businesses over the past 12 months. In some cases, these questions came from companies who were unhappy with their time and attendance vendor. We also received several calls from prospective customers who were using manual time sheets and wanted to understand the benefits of automating the attendance process at their organizations. This list is not exhaustive. It represents a small fraction of the many queries we received during the course of this year.

1. Do you offer support across different provinces and/or states?
Yes. In addition, we also provide support in different time zones. When selecting a vendor, make sure they can not only answer this question but have customers who can attest to this as well. Support made it to the top of the list because this question came up numerous times from prospective customers.

2. I am told fingerprint readers are better than other biometrics, is that true?
Based on our experience that’s false. The data collector (employee time clock) should be recommended based on your company’s needs. There is range of things that should be taken into consideration when deciding on which data terminal will work best for your company.

3. Can we implement payroll, ERP and time and attendance at the same time?
We would not recommend a company implement several modules or different systems at the same time. Each product requires its own project plan and testing. The implementation of business automation software should be given careful consideration and all the facts laid bare prior to deployment.

4. Would you recommend web-based software over an on premises solution?
That depends on a company’s corporate culture and internal resources among other things. Recommendations are made based on a the needs of a company.

5. Can your system interface to our payroll software?
This question is usually followed up by: “Are you sure, your software is compatible with our payroll application?” We have created interfaces to 300 plus payroll HR and ERP systems. Today’s software applications have import utilities that allow for interfacing to third-party programs.

6. How fast can you implement our system?
There are many variables to consider prior to deployment of workforce management software. Once we have a full understanding of your needs, we will be in a better position to give you a timeline.

7. If there is a certain report we want, can you build it?
Absolutely! We have no shortage of expert programmers who can build any report you want. We do, however; recommend that customers first browse through our library of reports as it may already exist within our software.

The ATS Time & Attendance manages absences and accruals, streamlines payroll integration and eliminates time fraud/buddy punching. For more information about workforce management software go to our website.

As the year comes to a close we would like to take this opportunity to wish our customers a Happy New Year!

Employee Time Clocks, Web-Based Time and Attendance Software, Workforce Management Software

Endless Possibilities: Celebrating the Containment of Labour Costs

November 9th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Absence Management | Employee Self Service | Employee Time Tracking | Time and Attendance Software - (0 Comments)

We are honoured to work with some of North America’s leading companies, and have them as customers, in industries such as: retail, manufacturing, oil and gas, hospitality, distribution, health care, consumer goods and construction. A few months ago, one of our newest customers migrated from a paper-based time sheet to our On-Demand Time and Attendance Solution. Our team received a pleasant surprise when this health care customer told us they would be sending us a testimonial two weeks after the system was installed. What did not surprise us was how fast this customer realized their return on investment.

Helping customers realize their return on investment is what we have been doing for years with our powerful business automation software. The ATS Time and Attendance Solution delivers real time activity based costing and helps to govern and automate the entire process.

The flexible pay rules library allows for 100% automation of rules without costly changes to core code. Hours and wage rule compliance are consistent and automated with alerts when a threshold for violation is approached – providing proactive reconciliation. The employee self-service capability of an ATS Time and Attendance Solution increases productivity as employees and managers spend less time managing administrative tasks and more time focusing on customers. Our business automation software tracks, performance and automatically adjust operations as business and market conditions change. And you can do all of this regardless of the size of your enterprise.

Let’s face it, manual time sheets are a thing of the past. We also know that whenever data is keyed into a computer from paper time sheets, errors will be made.

Not sure if a Time and Attendance Solution will work for your organization? Connect with us for more information and read customer testimonials on our website. You can also reach us by phone at 1.866.294.2467.

Absence Management, Business Automation Software, Cloud Computing Software, Employee Scheduling Software, Employee Self Service, Employee Time and Attendance System, Employee Time Tracking, Employee Time Tracking Software, Software-as-a-Service, Time and Attendance, Time and Attendance Software, Workforce Management Software

Who Has The Time to Track All That Stuff Manually?

November 8th, 2011 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Absence Management | Hosted Time and Attendance Software | Overtime Equalization | Payroll - (0 Comments)

Overtime, premium hours, statutory holidays, vacations, shift rotation and tracking employee time spent on different jobs. These are just a few of the things that payroll professionals and HR managers have to handle in an organization. In many cases, the larger the organization, the more complex these work rule policies tend to be.

Business executives are stretched for time, and cost containment heads the list of their priorities. Controlling labour costs and improving productivity is paramount to most organizations. A reliable Workforce Management Software will help companies with the following:

Accurate Record Keeping
ATS Workforce Management Software automates the calculation and reporting of hours worked and provides a full range of tools to help deploy and track employees and their performance using real-time labour analytics. The result is enhanced productivity, increased profitability and better short, and long-term decision making.

Labour Analytics
ATS Workforce Management Software helps you to accurately manage attendance and leave policies more consistently. The ATS Time and Attendance Solution provides organizations with a suite of management reports that include: Time Costing, Forecasting, Schedule versus Actual, Overtime Equalization, Payroll, Absenteeism and Summary Detail Reports to name a few. Our system contains an inherent flexibility that is configured to the needs of organizations of every size in virtually any industry.

Return on Investment
The ATS Workforce Management Software helps you lower labour expenses, anticipate workforce demands and comply with provincial, federal and state labour laws. Another huge cost saver is the elimination of paper time sheets. A growing body of evidence has shown that using a time and attendance solution has historically decreased the time it takes to prepare your time cards and payroll by about 80% and has saved companies 1-5% on their net payroll costs.

To learn more, follow us on Twitter and SlideShare for updates. You can also download brochures from our website.

Absence Management, Biometric Time Management Systems, Employee Scheduling Software, Employee Time and Attendance Software, Employee Time and Attendance System, Employee Time Tracking Software, FMLA Time and Attendance, Hosted Time and Attendance Software, Hosted Time and Attendance Solution, Overtime Equalization, Payroll, Payroll Process, Software-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service Time and Attendance Solution, Time and Attendance Absence Request, Time and Attendance Canada

Introducing Apex Time Solutions Website Redesign!

With all the hustle and bustle around here, we have not had the chance to let our customers and prospects know that Apex Time Solutions has updated its website!

Our blog page is also new and allows us to share updates about our software and other business intelligence with everyone. We intend to add more functionality to the site with the help of our creative team in the next several months.

The new ATS website contains user friendly content, and provides a better experience for our visitors. It is also easier to get information about our workforce management software and select solutions that match your requirements.

With the new design, we placed an emphasis on specific areas such as, the “contact us” page. We want prospects to be able to reach us quickly, and once they have completed their review of our labour analytics and absence management products.

ATS integrated time and attendance suite saves time, cuts costs and aligns employee performance with a company’s goals. Companies of all sizes are increasingly implementing employee time tracking solutions. It helps you plan, deploy and track your employees and their performance. The result is enhanced productivity and more informed decision-making.

So on behalf of all of us at Apex Time Solutions, we wish you a belated welcome to our new website. Stay tuned!

Absence Management, Biometric Readers, Biometric Time and Attendance System, Biometric Time Clocks, Cloud Computing Software, Employee Biometric Time Clocks, Employee Time and Attendance, Employee Time Tracking, Hosted Time and Attendance Software, Hosted Time and Attendance Solution, Payroll Software, Software-As-A-Service, Time and Attendance, Time and Attendance Canada, Time and Attendance On-Demand, Workforce Management Software

The List: Some of Strangest Reasons Employees Give for Being Late

Adopting Business Automation in the Era of Austerity Measures

Does the Lowest Price Meet your Business Requirements?

Leave Management: Tracking and Managing Employee Absence Requests

As your company grows, is that off the shelf product still viable?

Top 7 Time and Attendance Questions of 2011

Who Has The Time to Track All That Stuff Manually?

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