There are few things that have as much potential to cause massive headaches for a business owner as the payroll process. Those headaches can take several different forms, but one that can lead to unpleasant confrontations with regulatory agencies, fines, and back wages is improper time tracking. Unfortunately, as modern business has evolved, the increasing number of mobile or remote workers means the last generation’s practice of punching a time clock no longer suffices. Fortunately, technology now offers powerful solutions for this problem. One that can integrate with QuickBooks—and is in fact built right into QuickBooks Online—is TSheets.
TSheets is built around an app that works on virtually any mobile platform, whether iOS or Android or on a desktop or laptop computer. The app handles breaks, allows the employee to change to a different job or customer during the shift, provides alerts when an employee is about to go into overtime, and can even politely remind them when it’s time to clock in or out. If the tracking device loses connectivity, no problem—it will continue to track time and update once it is connected again. Time tracking can also include GPS updates on every timesheet action, such as clocking in or out or changing jobs. For traditional onsite employees, TSheets can run on a tablet or similar kiosk, allowing them to clock in and out with a 4-digit PIN or even biometrically.
TSheets enables employees to request sick, vacation, or other PTO from directly within the app. It also shows them how much of each they have available. Requests are automatically routed to the appropriate manager for approval. Your payroll administrator can also assign PTO, including for multiple employees at once for common PTO such as a holiday.
In addition to time tracking, TSheets also has a scheduling function. It aggregates employee data and shows who’s currently available and who’s working on what. Schedules, shift plans, and job assignments can also be managed from within TSheets.
Once the workweek is complete, time sheets are routed to the designated manager for approval. If there is an issue with a time sheet, the system issues an e-mail to the employee that the supervisor can customize notifying them of the need to review and revise their time. Of course, TSheets enables managers to monitor and track employee hours in real time throughout the workweek in order to proactively manage labor costs.
Clearly, TSheets simplifies the tracking and management of employee hours—something vital for DOL and DCAA compliance as well as business purposes. However, when the time comes to process payroll in QuickBooks, TSheets is just as beautifully elegant. Above all, it eliminates manual entry of hours into QuickBooks (to say nothing of the need to collect each employee’s time, which under some timekeeping systems can be a challenge unto itself, or decipher handwriting). That eliminates entry errors, which can lead to upset employees and the need to fix payroll tax accruals and returns. It also saves a significant amount of time.
For accounting purposes, TSheets makes it possible (and in fact easy) to track employee time in multiple dimensions. Billable time can easily be assigned to customers and jobs, and precisely and accurately documented for invoice purposes. It is also simple to allocate time to specific projects, payroll items, classes, or even service items. This leads to more accurate and informative reporting, which in turn drives better business decisions.
Of course, if you happen to use one of Intuit’s payroll services that integrate with QuickBooks, such as Full-Service Payroll, the TSheets solution only becomes that much better and the integration that much more complete. Intuit even offers three versions of its Online Payroll services that can function without QuickBooks (although your business needs accounting, and for that we recommend QuickBooks).
TSheets is a highly capable time tracking app that is easily adaptable to onsite, remote, or mobile workers in a wide range of industries. It offers simplicity, accuracy, and detail not available with traditional timekeeping systems. Integrated with QuickBooks, it can significantly reduce payroll processing time while improving compliance and reporting—one customer reduced processing for 45 employees from six hours to 45 minutes. If you have employees, we strongly recommend that you have TSheets.
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