Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software

Construct Canada was a roaring success

Each year, ATS attends and/or exhibits at several tradeshows. This year was no different at the Construct Canada which happened to be its 25^th edition and is viewed by many exhibitors and visitors alike, as one of the most prominent tradeshows of North America. The show was held at the Metro Convention Centre and as usual, was packed with exciting displays featuring current and some of the most innovative products in the industry. The event organizers of this show, is by all accounts, top notch.

This year’s exhibition featured 7 shows held concurrently which included: PM Expo, DesignTrends, Concrete Canada, HomeBuilder & Renovator Expo, and National GreenBuilding Conference. In short it was a delight for the marketing and production departments of ATS Canada.

ATS workforce management solutions help companies manage operations in complex and capital-intensive projects – smoothly and cost-effectively – with our solutions for engineering, construction and operations. The solution boost profit margins, drive more efficient financial management, and supercharge project performance.

ATS Engineering and Construction Workforce Management Software Benefits:

Budgeting and workforce analytics modules identifies and analyzes talent gaps
A robust time and attendance that streamlines business processes with increased visibility and helps reduce labour costs
Helps indentifies fewer unexpected project cost over-runs
Provides faster decision making with access to real-time insights
Consolidate HR and payroll processes into one unified software solution to meet compliance

To join the conversation, visit us on our LinkedIn group page or follow us on Twitter. You can also view a webcast from our website or call us at 866.294.2467.

Budgeting, Business Intelligence, Payroll, Time and Attendance, Workforce Management Software

Small and Mid-Size Businesses are Slowly Adopting Cloud-Based Time and Attendance

When cloud-based time and attendance made its foray into the marketplace, large organizations took advantage of its ability to improve their business process. On the other hand, small and mid-size organizations were not sure if this would be a viable and in some cases, affordable solution for them.

Today, more than ever, there are numerous employee time tracking solutions that small and mid-size enterprises (SME) can harness for, business intelligence, employee scheduling, benefit accruals, job costing, labour tracking and payroll and HR integration. Sometimes finding a scalable and affordable solution is like “looking for a needle in a haystack” By using ATS TimeWork On-Demand companies will streamline processes and up-to-minute data that senior executives can use to run their daily operations.

How A Hosted Time and Attendance Solution can help
ATS hosted time and attendance solution allow small and mid-size businesses to realize tremendous cost savings while improve production and payroll processing hours. ATS TimeWork On-Demand has been designed to be flexible and easy to use and that’s what we have been hearing from our customers over the years. The solution adapts to your needs with no unnecessary or expensive extras and you will see the immediate improvements in ROI and lower payroll costs.

Transition to the Cloud
As businesses understand the low cost of ownership, they are apt to transition employee time tracking operations to the cloud. With your time and attendance system hosted by ATS, you will need fewer IT personnel to provide support as the cloud allows for software to be automatically upgraded and checked 24/7, 365 days a year.

The Beauty of the Cloud
Small and mid-size enterprises (SME) can benefit from a range of features and functionality that can be combined at anytime during and/or after the initial implementation to create a solution that’s specific to your business. This type of flexibility means you get what you need when you need it.

To learn more, go to our website or call us at 866.294.2467

Benefit Accruals, Job Costing, Payroll, Time and Attendance, TimeWork On-Demand

The Analytic View of Business Intelligence and its Impact on Profitability

Small and Midsize companies face the same challenges as larger competitors. Product quality issues and complex supply chains erode margins. However, small and midsize organizations have fewer resources to overcome these challenges. Consequently, they can’t afford to waste money on complex solutions – or spend time on ones that don’t quickly deliver business value.

ATS time and attendance business intelligence provides a complete set of tools and applications that let you plan, execute, and analyze at both strategic and tactical levels while aligning business activities with business goals. ATS TimeWork time and attendance business intelligence simplifies the production and distribution of current and comprehensive reports. This module is an important component of any time and attendance deployment strategy and forms part of our workforce management solution, enabling more effective decision making throughout your business.

Business Benefits:

Intuitive user interfaces – Use applications like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to export data
Better decision making Access to the right information at the right time allows quality report generation to help you better analyze your company data
Faster ROI by utilizing ATS time and attendance best practices for business analysis
Lower cost of ownership by implementing a preconfigured employee workforce management software BI solution
Turns insights into actions by providing the ability to invoke business processes from the ATS time and attendance business intelligence dashboards
Increase profit margins, streamline payroll costs and increase productivity
Enables business users to create new analyses from the self-service portal from scratch and/or modify existing business analytics

ATS time and attendance business intelligence delivers the most robust set of reporting, ad-hoc query and analysis, dashboard, and functionality with a rich end-user experience.

To speak to an ATS Time and Attendance solutions expert today call us at 1.866.294.2467 or let us contact you.

Business Intelligence, Microsoft Excel, Payroll, PowerPoint, Workforce Management Software

Is Your Company Using Excel Spread Sheets To Track Vacation Requests?

Empowering your employees to make time-management decisions that are beneficial to themselves and the company requires giving employees access to such things as their: benefit accruals, personal work schedules, and accumulated overtime. Making this information easily accessible through a cloud-based time and attendance solution improves communication and productivity thus, eliminating the manual tasks performed by payroll and HR practitioners.

ATS TimeWork employee self-service unifies time tracking, employee work schedules, and time-off requests into a single system-of-record. Complete with business intelligence and labour analytics, manager and employee self-service is an an easy to use software application.

Solution Benefits Include:

Streamline Manual Requests-Using manual processes to count employee personal time off and other requests, takes time away for more profitable endeavors. ATS TimeWork employee-self-service streamlines the manual process by automatically sending time-off requests to the appropriate departmental manager or HR for his or her approval.

Access To View Personal Information- Providing employees with immediate access to schedules and personal time-off limits administrative requests for this type of information and provides employees an important sense of ownership.

Gain Access 24/7– Getting questions answered or issues addressed during normal work hours can, at times, be a challenge. With ATS cloud-based self-service, managers and employees have access to this portal 24/7, 365 days a year.

ATS TimeWork Employee Self-Service gives you the tools to define and manage employee requests through the use of intuitive dashboards to meet the unique requirements of your business. Employing a self-serve time and attendance system is a crucial step for organizations looking to empower employee decision making. You can further leverage ATS time and attendance software for additional benefits to gain access to a catalog of integrated software modules across all major categories.

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

ATS Time and Attendance, Business Intelligence, Cloud Based Time and Attendance, Employee Self Service, Payroll

Deployment of a Cloud Based Solution and its Low Cost of Ownership

Keeping costs low is a critical aspect for most companies who are thinking about deploying a time and attendance system. As cloud applications gain momentum businesses, are reaping the benefits of low cost of ownership (LCO) versus traditional on-premises applications. One of the more significant advantages for companies using a cloud based software system is the ability for their employees to use their smartphones and tablets to review their work schedules, check vacation balances and request time off.

Cloud applications give businesses, the opportunity to speed up all aspects of their organization by capturing and analyzing data in real-time. In the meantime, on-premises systems are slowly taking a back seat to the agility, versatility and speed of a cloud time and attendance system.

Today’s companies want to use modern technology that cater to their need for speed but does not “break the bank.” It’s important to note that these same companies are migrating to a cloud workforce management software to the improve collaboration and streamline payroll costs.

In a few short years, the cloud has changed the software deployment landscape. Businesses no longer have to pay large upfront fees for an on-premises application that takes several months and in some cases, years to complete.

To download the benefits of cloud base software versus on-premises, go to our website. To speak to one of our account executives, call us at 1.866.294.2467.

Attendance System, Cloud Application, Payroll, Vacation, Work Schedules

All Sizzle, The Best Price And No Steak

So your company has decided that it needs to automate its business management process. Everyone is excited that finally, the manual tasks will be gone. So, a steering committee is selected and someone out of that group is given the task of being the project leader.

Next you jot down your list of requirements and go about contacting vendors to provide a demonstration. Your list of requirements includes things like:

Automate the vacation request of employees throughout the organization
Employee biometric time clocks for all locations
Real-time business intelligence data gathering
Data integration to your current; talent management, customer relationship management (CRM), human resources software (HR), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and payroll software
Track and manage overtime, premium hours and statutory holidays
Job costing and labour allocation functionality
Ease-of-use for functional users

After several weeks of viewing products by various vendors, the flashy presentations are the ones that remain on everyone’s mind and at this stage, you are all excited. But wait! Is your company enraptured by the sizzle or the steak? Try to look past the glitz and bargain basement prices offered. A good time and attendance system should be accompanied by a team of diligent system analysts (depending on the size of the project) and a thorough implementation plan.

Selecting a time and attendance vendor to work with becomes more than just the price of the system. It is not uncommon for an ATS account executive to hear “we want the cheapest solution” only to get a call from the same company 6 months later after the “cheap solution” did not meet their needs.

Your potential vendor should also have a thorough understanding of your company’s business requirements during the demonstration and display it through words and actions. You should also make it your business to find out about the training methodology. If your company has 10 or more users for your new system, online training should not be an option. In addition, the training should be backed by a team of experienced systems analysts who can match the time and attendance system functionalities with your company’s business needs. Even better, some of your company’s core business requirements should be part of the product already—straight out of the box.

A vendor, in many respects, should be willing to commit to the success of its customers. Selecting which time and attendance vendor to work with becomes about more than just the software. When the focus remains on the sizzle, and the price the customer ends up with a system that is simply not meeting their needs.

To download a demonstration of the ATS TimeWork workforce management software, go to our website.

Business Intelligence, Enterprise Resource Planning, Payroll Software, Talent Management, Time and Attendance System

Is Absenteeism Making a Dent in Your Company’s Profits?

A recent article by the Conference Board of Canada on the cost of absenteeism to companies, reads in part, “The average Canadian worker was absent the equivalent of almost two full work weeks in 2011.” The article also goes on to say that “the direct annual cost of absenteeism is based on survey data provided by organizations to the Conference Board. Organizations estimated that the direct cost of absenteeism averaged 2.4 per cent of gross annual payroll – which translated to a loss of $16.6 billion in 2012.”

These numbers are staggering and beg the question, if absenteeism is such a problem in the workforce, why do some companies choose not to embrace advantages of a time and attendance system? The answer may lie not fully understanding its benefits.

Here are 5 ways your company can derive the benefits of an ATS time management solution:

Streamline Manual Time Tracking Processes and Increase Productivity
ATS workforce management software integrates all your payroll calculations and business processes within a single integrated database system. The application simplifies overtime, vacation tracking and other pay codes. All users share a common reference system and application interface, reducing the learning curve and enabling users to easily switch roles or take over functions without additional training. Once data in entered into the ATS time and attendance system, produces real time data analytics wherever it is needed throughout your company. With ATS time and attendance solution, your company will achieve a consistent flow of information from data capture, payroll and human resources to business intelligence, employee scheduling and benefit accruals.

Activate Modules as you Expand
ATS TimeWork time and attendance evolves with your enterprise. Easily activate new functions when you need them, connect additional users to the system or quickly bring new sites on board without the need for custom interfaces. Keep your system constantly up to date with simple, secure update procedures; ATS time attendance ensures the distribution of modifications across all connected workstations.

Eliminate Costly Server Installations
ATS hosted time and attendance minimizes both costs and installation time eradicating the need to install software on servers or workstations. Avoid the cost of a large in-house IT team; the robust, intuitive design of ATS TimeWork ensures consistent, reliable day-to-day operations.

Combine Best-Of-Breed Functionality and Low Cost of Ownership
Provide your company with the best functionality in your industry while dramatically reducing your time tracking costs. Mid-size companies face the same issues as larger enterprises in managing complex, industry-specific processes and servicing their customers. ATS time and attendance provides comprehensive, integrated workforce management system without the need for costly custom developments and months of professional services. Industry-specific and scalable, ATS TimeWork is the best employee time management application aimed to meet your most elaborate business processes, while minimizing any associated costs of installing, operating, maintaining and growing the system.

Business Analytics for Informed Decision Making
Get the most value from your ATS time management solution with the least amount of effort. ATS TimeWork business analytics provides regular updates to relevant information to give you real-time visibility across your organization. The ATS TimeWork business analytics is a powerful, easy-to-use business tool that drives smarter decisions in every departmental area of your organization.

To learn how your company can track absenteeism and increase productivity download a whitepaper or an online demo.

Is Absenteeism Making a Dent in your Company's Productivity?

Absenteeism, Conference Board Of Canada, Payroll, Time and Attendance Solution, Time Management Solution

Do You Really Know Your Company’s True Labour Costs?

This question always gets a defensive response when our account executives are engaged with prospective customers. One of the most common responses is: “Of course, we know our payroll costs. We get reports once a week from our payroll software.” If your company’s measuring its payroll costs on a weekly or monthly basis, chances are you do not have the right tools in place to help you stay competitive.

Today’s businesses need to be agile, flexible and responsive. Using paper time cards to track employees’ time is one of the best ways to accumulate inaccurate data. ATS time and attendance provides a full set of tools to help you forecast, record, track and control your payroll costs. We ensure visibility throughout your entire organization and provide a full integration with other systems that helps departmental managers get on-the-spot business intelligence data. Here are three ways in which an ATS employee time management solution can streamline payroll costs:

Improve operational efficiencies-Traditional methods of collecting employee time through time cards can lead to manual errors and employees either getting over or under paid. In contrast, using a 21^st century time and attendance solution can significantly reduce efficiencies throughout the enterprise, affecting manufacturing line workers as well as plant managers and administrators. Time consuming manual business processes silently erode worker effectiveness.

Cost control and tracking – Enables the capture, tracking and analyzing of project tracking activities and highlights profitability in real-time. ATS TimeWork provides expected versus actual costs for job costing, overtime equalization and workforce absence requests data is easily extracted for regulatory reporting requirements.

Workforce planning and employee scheduling – ATS workforce scheduling provides proper execution of re-scheduling activities when business priorities and plans change. ATS workforce management scheduling allows for optimized scheduling utilizing demand forecasts, employee skills data and labor standards; individual and team performance tracking (with identification of training needs); and incentive calculations determined by client rules and governmental regulations.

So the question remains, why don’t more of today’s businesses track their labour costs in real time? One of the most common answers given by companies, is that such a system would be very costly, take too long to implement or that it would not fit with their corporate culture. When you consider how the 2008 global recession impacted many businesses, in particular the manufacturing sector, controlling labour costs should not be an afterthought.

To get a free copy of our ROI on the implementation of a time and attendance solution, call us at 866.294.2467. To view a demonstration, go to our website and to join the conversation, join us on LinkedIn or on Twitter.

Employee Scheduling, Labour Costs, Overtime Equalization, Time and Attendance, Workforce Planning

Employee Time Card Management Dashboard Questions & Answers

In the continuing series of ATS time and attendance software Q &A for customers and prospects alike, we turn to the editing of employee hours through our automated time management system. These areas encompass:

Editing Employee Time Cards
The employee time and attendance software edit dashboard is the central and most commonly used item within ATS time and attendance software for editing employee time punches and hours.

The ATS time and attendance application has several tables that can be viewed within the employee time card dashboard. The first is a default screen that shows all employee punches. This dashboard shows the entire employee punch history with worked and non-worked hours along with totals and related date information. The corresponding employee time card dashboard is the earnings/deductions area. This area displays such information as hours that are assigned to pay codes which are designated as earnings or deduction type monetary amounts for tracking of labour allocation.

Recalculation of Employee Time and Attendance Data
The recalculation of employee time and attendance data screen allows you to select a range of employee timecards (including dates) for which the hours should be recomputed. Ordinarily, the system will perform the computations whenever the punches (time in/out) are assigned to the employees electronic timecard. If changes are made to the pay policies (the rules that govern how the time should be computed) or if employees are reassigned to a different shift, the previously processed punch information will not be affected. Additional options available include:

Overtime Authorization
This option allows you to specify if overtime authorization should be retained. If the pay policy specifies that overtime was previously authorized on certain punches, that overtime authorization is retained.

Shift Level Changes
This option allows you to specify if the previously selected shift level should be retained when recalculating the hours. When this option is cleared, the shift level will be chosen to closely match the punches.

Shift Overrides
This option allows you to specify that if a shift override was selected on a punch, it should be kept. When this option is cleared, the shift used will reflect the one to which the employee is assigned.

Collect from Unclaimed Punches
The collect from unclaimed punches dashboard allows you to process punches that were associated with an employee badge or card number that has not been assigned to any employees. Unclaimed punches may be the result of forgetting to input the employee’s information into ATS time and attendance software ahead of the real-time data collection. They may occur also when a number is temporarily assigned to an employee (in the case that he/she has forgotten to bring it or has lost it). The punches that are associated with a card number that is assigned to an employee will be assigned to that employee. An alternative to this option is Assign From Unclaimed Punches.

Assign From Unclaimed Punches
The collect from Unclaimed Employee Punches dashboard allows supervisors to process punches that were associated with a badge or card number that has not been assigned to any employees. Although, the Collect from Unclaimed Punches will process only employee data that is associated with a card number, this screen allows you to select the employee to which the punches will be associated.

In our next series, we will focus on employee labour analytics, followed by payroll management and business intelligence. To learn more about ATS depth of experience in the time and attendance market-place, please contact a local representative in your area. You can also follow up on Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

Employee Punches, Employee Time Cards, Overtime, Pay Policies, Time and Attendance Software

How Do You Increase Productivity?

The introduction to a reliable solution like an ATS timekeeping system will help payroll and HR managers to track employees time, analyze absences and at the same time, adhere to labour compliance. ATS time and attendance software is complemented by various data collectors which include: biometric face recognition, proximity time clocks, fingerprint readers, barcode and magnetic swipe clocks and web-based timesheets. Companies who have adopted a time management solution cite a reduction in time and money and increased proficiency across multiple departments.

The Canadian labour code covers amoung other things: hours of work, leave, employer compliance, overtime, wages, pay and deduction. Employers are responsible for collecting and maintaining accurate records regarding the number of hours each employee works. Collecting this type of information on a paper timesheet leaves companies vulnerable to employees either being over or short paid.

Numerous studies have revealed that handwritten timesheets and paper punch cards are often difficult to read and include a plethora of mistakes. Manual timekeeping also increases the risk for record abuse whether from simple mistakes or actual intent to falsify hours worked as this system heavily relies on the employee honour system. ATS time and attendance system eliminates errors and ensures calculation policies are applied correctly and consistently across all employees.

By adopting an electronic time and labour solution, companies are able to track and accurately measure employee performance. ATS TimeWork workforce management software includes business intelligence tools to alert HR when an employee punches in early or late or if the employee punches out before or after hours. With the use of the employee self-service tool, employees can leverage their ability to request vacation, review work schedules and send other requests to their manager.

For the many years, the prevailing misconception has been that adopting a time and attendance solution is too much of an investment. ATS account executives get queries from prospective customers asking for the benefits of deploying time management software. To remain competitive, today’s businesses need to adopt business management software that will keep them ahead of the curve.

To learn more or to view a demo of ATS time and attendance software, go to our website.

Business Intelligence, HR Managers, Payroll, Timekeeping System, Workforce Management Software

Construct Canada was a roaring success

Small and Mid-Size Businesses are Slowly Adopting Cloud-Based Time and Attendance

The Analytic View of Business Intelligence and its Impact on Profitability

All Sizzle, The Best Price And No Steak

Is Absenteeism Making a Dent in Your Company’s Profits?

Do You Really Know Your Company’s True Labour Costs?

Employee Time Card Management Dashboard Questions & Answers

How Do You Increase Productivity?

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