Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

Does Your Business Have The Tools To Compete?

Businesses in various industries are under intense pressure to remain competitive while complying with vast array of regulatory requirements. Companies are faced with many challenges, from ISO certifications to HACCP compliance and rising operating costs. ATS time and attendance is robust and flexible aimed at managing the most complex business processes in a simple and efficient way, while complying with the most demanding industry specific certification requirements.

ATS TimeWork is a complete time tracking solution that provides a full analytic view of your business and maintains an audit trail, so your company will have a historical record of employee transactions for multiple years. Our time and attendance combines payroll, overtime equalization labour distribution, data collection and employee self-service functionality with features specifically designed for businesses, including:

Labour Forecasting
Employee Scheduling
Attendance Management
Workforce Accruals
Workforce Budgeting and Planning

ATS TimeWork helps companies comply by providing an efficient way to track, gather and monitor relevant data, thereby eliminating manual processes while saving on labour costs. Our time and attendance is a fully automated solution that is supported by multiple capabilities and helps you adapt to changing conditions on the fly. The solution’s built-in expertise reduces the need for customization and delivers rapid return on investment. ATS employee time tracking offers advanced functionality that helps companies remain competitive in the face of difficult challenges.

To register for a time and attendance webinar, go to our website. To have a representative contact you call us at 1.866.294.2467.

3 New Year’s Resolutions That Will Increase Your Company’s Bottom-Line

New Year’s resolutions are nothing new. Each year many of us compile a list of goals we would like to achieve. Businesses also have goals, chief among them, how to increase sales while reducing operational costs. One of the most effective ways to streamline costs is to automate your operations with an effective employee time management system.

The benefit of a time and attendance solution is its ability to streamline processes, from automatic data collection to instant business analytics. The ATS software solution is fully integrated and accessible in real-time; it provides you with a picture of how your company is running at any given time.

Here are 3 Ways to Increase Your Company’s Bottom-Line in 2013:

Efficiency – ATS employee time management system enables companies to observe employee patterns and gives a historical overview of your company’s payroll costs. As your company continues to streamline its processes, you gain efficiency in production which leads to higher retention and more to the bottom-line.

Business Analytics- ATS business analytics enables companies to become effective by monitoring performance against defined key metrics and key indicators. Our solution provides intuitive reporting through a web browser—all in real time. ATS TimeWork allows users to view trends and drill down into detailed data from multiple sources, providing the flexibility and accuracy to quickly make fact-based decisions, and to analyze and share critical information.

Lower Operational Costs– Keeping payroll costs down is important to any business. Because it can be perfectly adapted to your organisation, ATS TimeWork lowers your costs from the very beginning. The solution includes a host of benefits that help with the elimination of paper-based time sheets or antiquated punch cards. The result is a cost-effective solution, with maximum functionality for your business.

Our time and attendance system is built for Canadian businesses and provides tools for forecasting, budgeting, planning, scheduling, employee self-service, job costing, and a range of business intelligence tools for mid-large organizations. To find out more subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Budgeting, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Employee Self Service, Employee Time Management System, Forecasting, Job Costing, Payroll, Scheduling

Are Payroll Days a nightmare for your Company?

Most of us know that apart from year end, the day in the week set aside by payroll practitioners, to process employee pay is one of the most hectic. Employee hours has to be counted, sick days and other applicable pay codes have to be assigned to the respective departments. Today’s payroll practitioner needs to be certified and fully understand the changing landscape of the multijurisdictional pay policies. Record of Employment (ROE) and taxable benefits are also important aspects that fall under their wide umbrella of responsibility.

Now just image having to keep up to date with federal and provincial/territorial governments pay policies and using a system to calculate of this? The CFO of plastics manufacturing plant put it succinctly, “we had all the necessary certifications that are required in our industry including ISO, yet we were collecting employee data using antiquated methods. Our payroll manager was spending an entire day and a half counting employee hours, vacation days etc. With 1700 employees across several provinces it simply became untenable.”

Is your company still using a paper based timekeeping system? Are, you getting the results you expected out of your existing solution? If so, switching to an ATS time and attendance solution enables companies to lower costs, streamline key business processes and boost productivity.

The ATS employee time management solution supports your entire company eliminating redundant data entry and the time, cost, and errors associated with using a manual system. Moreover, our solution is designed to be fully integrated with other third party applications including: Talent Management, Payroll, Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), Inventory and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. ATS time and attendance provides companies with a real-time, intuitive dashboard with views into key business data across processes and departments—allowing you to make more informed business decisions faster.

To learn about the benefits of switching to ATS workforce management software, go to our website.

Customer Relationship Management, Employee Time Management, Human Resources Information Systems, Payroll, Talent Management, Timekeeping System

How will Time and Attendance Biometrics Change in 2103 and Beyond?

The introduction of time tracking biometric technology to companies in 1999 was a hard sell. Some of these companies felt that the use of this technology to track employee hours would give the appearance of “big brother” watching over them, or infringe on employees rights. Of course, that is no longer an issue since many of these companies have come to understand that biometrics for employee time and attendance matches the image of the user (hand, eye, face etc) to a number keyed in by the employee. Once the match is validated, a company has access to real time labour analytics. The concern that some companies and their employees have about privacy issues with the use of biometrics is a valid one. However, the data gathered through the use of an ATS employee time tracking system through biometrics cannot be used by law enforcement agencies. Data is used for the purpose of: tracking employee hours, vacation time and benefit accruals. Once this information is assimilated it is sent electronically to the payroll software to process employee pay.

Today, various types of biometric technology can be found at airports, healthcare institutions, and many border agencies. In fact, some laptop computers come equipped with a finger or eye scanner. To access the laptop the owner is prompted to have his/her eye scanned or put a finger on the scanner. If that laptop is lost or stolen, it cannot be accessed unless the owner is verified through the use of the biometric device. Biometrics has become ubiquitious in everyday society and most private and public institutions have embraced it to streamline their manual time keeping process. In a recent article titled “It’s possible to have both facial recognition and privacy” all indications points to biometrics satisfying privacy concerns, while at the same time, it has helped companies reap its many benefits.

ATS’s scalable time and attendance system is designed for today’s businesses. As companies grow beyond their antiquated, spread sheet time tracking systems, they need a solution that ensures that they receive the most accurate information. ATS workforce management software helps companies collect, analyze and take immediate control of payroll costs, all online and in real time.

To learn more about employee biometric time clocks, go to our website.

Biometrics, Employee Time and Attendance, Time and Attendance System, Time Tracking Systems, Workforce Management Software

Could this Have Been Avoided with a Mobile Technology App?

A recent article published by CBC Canada flashed over the web with this eye popping title “Unpaid overtime a growing legal liability.” Overtime has been a hot button issue for some organizations for many years now. In fact, many companies have outdated system from which to capture employee hours, track vacation and statutory holidays.

An excerpt from the CBC.ca article reads, in part, “Mobile technology has helped employers squeeze more productivity out of their employees, but all those hours of work while technically off the clock leaves them open to lawsuits over unpaid overtime, experts warn.

Overtime pay is governed by different standards acrossCanada. InOntario, for example, it must be paid for any work in excess of 44 hours per week. There are exceptions for managerial roles and those in professions like medicine, the law and accounting, but for the most part, employees are legally entitled to excess pay for excess work.

So, the question remains, can employers track employee time through the mobile phones and avoid overtime issues? The answer is yes. ATS employee time management solution tracks employee hours, benefit accruals and statutory holidays on their mobile device. This eliminates overpayments due to improper time reporting. Beyond simply tracking time accurately, organizational knowledge of employee location provides real-time operational gains.

ATS time and attendance for mobile helps employees view their schedules, request days off and send messages to their supervisors all in real-time. By give employees the autonomy view their schedules, request time off and broadcast their availability to their managers and peers, they are more productive, more reliable and more efficient. The end result, managers can use the business intelligence tools to get updates on who is approaching overtime before it happens.

To learn more go to our website. You can also join the conversation on Twitter or join our LinkedIn Group.

Benefit Accruals, Business Intelligence, Canada, CBC, Employee Hours, Employee Time Management, Mobile Technology, Overtime, Tracking Time

Is there any value to Key Performance Indicators?

Some have argued recently, that the words, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a much maligned and overused term. While there may be some credence to this argument, there is no denying the importance of KPIs as they relate to a company’s strategic goals and objectives. In a manual based environment of tracking employee time, companies have a hard time measuring the time it takes to analyze and key in data into various repositories.

The use of ATS workforce management software allows companies to manage risks while simultaneously optimizing their workforce with our employee time and attendance system. The ATS solution intuitive dashboard utilizes Utilizing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), through a set of labour analytics that enables stakeholders to track an organization’s progress and take corrective steps as deemed necessary.

Benefits of ATS Workforce Management Software:
ATS Time and Attendance is robust and user-friendly and it tracks employee vacation time and integrates to HR and payroll applications. This module solution includes: Labour Forecasting, Employee Scheduling, Job Costing, Budgeting and Labour Analytics.

Reduction in Labour Costs- The solution streamlines manual processes and decrease labour costs through intelligent data capture. ATS workforce management software provides reductions in overtime while maintaining optimum staffing levels.

Comply with Multijurisdictional Work Policies- The ATS Time and Attendance Software automates the calculation and reporting of hours worked and paid time off based on your company’s pay policies, making it easier for you to manage labour costs, control overtime, and empower your workforce with self-service access to hours, schedules and vacation balances.

Process Flow-Through the use our solution, companies can no longer have to track tedious tasks manually. ATS time and attendance solution helps simplify employee scheduling by giving you the tools to ensure adequate staffing coverage, prevent employees from working outside scheduled hours, and avoid unnecessary overtime.

To speak to someone about our time and attendance system go to our website or click here to see a live demonstration.

Budgeting, Employee Scheduling, Job Costing, Labour Analytics, Labour Costs, Labour Foreasting, paid time off, Time and Attendance Software, Time and Attendance System, Work Policies, Workforce Management Software

The Case for Automating Your Business Process

Although the economy has been showing signs of abating in some sectors, managers are still grappling with the pressure of having to do more with less. In that same vein, the approval of some capital projects are being put on hold until the economy gets back to its pre 2008 state. No one can predict with statistical accuracy where the economy will be five months, much less a year. However, we can say with certainty say that automating your data capture and getting rid of the antiquated timesheets will save your company time and increase workforce productivity.

An ATS time management solution offers the following:

Pay-As-You-Grow – With our solution your business pays for what you need. Our software allows companies to add modules as they grow. There is no reason to pay for something that you might not ever end up using.

Give Your Employees Flexibility- Get rid of the excel spreadsheet that is being used to track time off and give your employees access with TimeWork Employee Self-Service. With TimeWork employee self-service (ESS), your human resources department empowers employees with ownership of their personal information so they can view and update certain fields without needing help with routine inquiries. Automated workflow and customizable features enable employees and supervisors to manage time-off requests, benefits changes, job details, and training history—anytime, anyplace over the Internet or through your company’s intranet.

Software On-Demand- TimeWork is a robust and powerful solution that is delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the cloud, TimeWork unites all components of a company’s workforce into one master system of record to one site or multiple locations across several countries. Companies who adopt our time management solution likes the unique, end-to-end functionality and 365 days a year 24/7 access.

Integration of Data Is at Your Fingertips- With ATS employee time management software, there’s no more need for manfully entering employee hours into multiple systems. Our intuitive solution exports data to a variety of HRIS, payroll, talent management and other accounting systems.

Business Analytics and Reporting- ATS workforce management software delivers real-time financial reporting and analytics that allows companies to monitor personalized key performance indicators (KPIs) and get access to the latest management and financial reports. Diagnose financial issues and quickly take action to drive business performance. Whether you’re a CFO, controller, finance manager or department manager, you can monitor financial measures that are commensurate to your role—through key performance indicators.

It’s clear that businesses can reap many benefits by adopting a time and attendance in a weak economy. After all, if the goal is to streamline process and find efficiencies, one place to start is analyzing how employee data is captured.

To download a white paper on advantages of automating your business with a time and attendance software, go to our website.

Business Analytics, Employee Data, Employee Self Service, Employee Time Management Software, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Software- On-Demand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Do You Know What You Are Buying?

Purchasing a workforce management solution is an important decision that should not be taken lightly. Part of making sure this solution meet your expectations is doing your due diligence. The easy part is that flashy employee time and attendance software come a dime a dozen. You need to get past the smoke and mirrors and settle on a time management solution with the core fundamentals that meet your company’s needs.

Here are three powerful components you can expect from an ATS Workforce Management Software:

Enabling your business- Our time management software is equipped to handle challenges faced by many industries including; manufacturing, healthcare, oil and gas, distribution and retail. ATS TimeWork offers a set of core enterprise-wide workflow management software features that help you transform your business into a real-time, on demand organization, responsive to the needs of your customers.

Reduce cost and streamline operations- Our solution is both affordable and is designed to dramatically lower typical deployment system costs. Because TimeWork is easily configurable lowers your costs from the very beginning. The end result is cost-effectiveness combined with maximum functionality for your overall operation. The ATS Time and Attendance software will adapt to your information flow quickly and without additional software development expenses. Our solution, once deployed can easily be transferred to other sites while safeguarding the consistency of all your data and processes.

Increase productivity and grow your business- TimeWork interactive dashboard brings all the information that you need for your business right at your fingertips. Our workforce management solution allows you to consolidate the latest information within your organization – and make faster, better informed decisions on all levels. Our time and attendance software integrates all of your company’s management processes and enables users to access this information within a standardized system. This gives all employees access to all the information whenever they need it. Integrating resources is efficient and helps companies quickly react to new market trends.

ATS TimeWork is a best-of-breed time management software that offers the flexibility and functionality you need to manage a competitive business. Our solutions are designed for mid and large corporations with a focus on streamlining payroll costs.

To learn more go to our website or to speak to one of our software representatives call us at 1.866.294.2467.

Healthcare, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Payroll, Retail, Time & Attendance Software, Time and Attendance Canada, TimeWork, Workforce Management Solution

Is Eating Healthy Really More Expensive?

November 27th, 2012 | Posted by Apex Time Solutions in Cloud Based Time Management Solution | Employee Time and Attendance | Hosted Time and Attendance Software | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Workforce Management Software - (0 Comments)

A recent study by the USDA brought to light a subject that has been discussed and dissected over the years. In its most recent study, complete with a chart to bolster its case, the USDA states that:

“Most Americans consume diets that do not meet Federal dietary recommendations. A common explanation is that healthier foods are more expensive than less healthy foods. To investigate this assumption, the authors compare prices of healthy and less healthy foods using three different price metrics: the price of food energy ($/calorie), the price of edible weight ($/100 edible grams), and the price of an average portion ($/average portion). They also calculate the cost of meeting the recommendations for each food group. For all metrics except the price of food energy, the authors find that healthy foods cost less than less healthy foods (defined for this study as foods that are high in saturated fat, added sugar, and/or sodium, or that contribute little to meeting dietary recommendations).”

Proponents for healthier foods argue that there is a high price to pay for eating fast foods which, in turn, leads to obesity and a drain on a country’s medical system. In the context of a stagnant economy others lament that people who either make minimum wage or have lost their jobs simply cannot afford the high price of healthily foods.

While this subject matter deals with the costs of healthy eating, the correlation between the price and perceived value of a product can relate to many things. For example, in the Toronto Star, one ofCanada’s largest newspapers it featured an article titled “Frugal of Cheap: Which one are you”?

In waxing exponentially about the subject at hand, the author, Krystal Yee cited the following example: “My boyfriend kept buying sneakers that cost $20 to $30, but they never kept his feet dry in the rainyVancouverweather. So, every three months he bought a new pair. Finally he decided to splurge on a pair of higher quality shoes for $90. Three months later they are in excellent condition.”

ATS time and attendance solutions are designed for organizations that want a system built to last. Our solution gives you the power to design and scale your infrastructure and applications as your needs change, in a highly secure, robust and flexible environment. ATS employee time tracking solutions are designed to meet the most demanding business requirements with a cloud based technology that is supported by highly trained specialists to help you create effective workforce management software strategies.

Want to learn more? These related blog posts may be of interest. Be sure to sign up and join the conversation on our LinkedIn group or through our Twitter updates.

Cloud Based Technology, Employee Time Tracking, Minimum Wage, Time and Attendance Canada, Workforce Management Software

Spreadsheets: Can They Really Help Track Employees Time Effectively?

Many companies track and maintain employee time, hours and other data with spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are also used for creation of pie charts, bar chart and line graphs. Spreadsheets do perform an important role and based on their history will not be going away anytime soon. However, we have noticed that too many businesses rely on this type of tool to track employees’ time and other data for payroll processing. The problem with relying on spreadsheets to handle employee hours is that it comes with inherent risks. Manually keying employee hours into payroll, ERP or HRIS can lead to numerous unintended errors.

Say good-bye to your spreadsheets! ATS SaaS Time & Workforce Management Solutions is a fully integrated software suite that does a great deal more than just track employee time. Our software helps organizations minimize payroll errors and automate time-consuming workforce management processes associated with time tracking, job costing, employee scheduling, attendance and labour distribution.

Solution Benefits:

TimeWork is robust yet flexible enough to adapt to your company’s changing needs
System redundancy provides frequent backups and ensures complete data availability
ATS data terminals provide hours instantly and in real-time and allows managers to review relevant data
System updates at no additional charge to ensure you are in line with technological advances
TimeWork ensures compliance with necessary labour laws while accurately tracking time and attendance of employees
Forecasting and budgeting modules align with company’s objectives
Labour distribution captures activities performed by employees at various departments or jobsites
Absence requests facilitate adequate coverage
Labour analytics provides managers with a variety of workforce data

ATS Software as-a-Service (SaaS) solution automates employee time, labour tracking and scheduling. Companies can access the data at anytime, anywhere and from any web browser.

To discuss the benefits of moving from a spreadsheet based time tracking to an automated solution, go to our website.

Absence Request, Employee Scheduling, ERP, HRIS, Job Costing, Labour Distribution, Payroll, SaaS Time & Workforce Management, Time and Attendance