Time and Attendance

Time and attendance - those are the words that the man uses to keep track of us while we're at work (or while we're not, as the case may be). I remember punching a time clock in my earliest jobs. And then there was the kludgey "accumulator" -- a crude time and attendance monitoring system from the late '80s. Things have sure changed since those days! Today, companies are just as likely to have fingerprint-based time and attendance systems ...

To be sure, I've been very happy to be out here working on my own. I don't have to answer to the man or his time and attendance solution du jour.

But if I ran my own company with employees (hence, making me the man), I'd probably want a Windows-based system in place to make things easier for everyone.

Today's flock of time and attendance systems eliminate the need to tally hand-written time cards, as they reduce the time it takes to process payroll. The data can be exported from the point of entry into the payroll system ... as long as the employee remembers to punch in or out (that was always my problem).

Biometrics is all the buzz. Hand recognition technology allows the system to know exactly who's in and who's out. "Hey buddy, can I lend you a hand?" has grown a whole new meaning. I guess we can forget that old double-punching routine ...

There are a raft of companies that provide time and attendance solutions, including TimeCentre, BioAttend, TimeClock, Plus, Qquest, Lucky Technology (now that's a name to love), InfoTronics, and many others.

Among my many projects, I'm currently working on an article about time and attendance horror stories(and yes, success stories, too). If you have some scary (or not so scary) tales to share about your experiences with your company's system, I'm all ears. Of course, your responses will be anonymous. :) Just send them along to: timeisonmyside@geekbooks.com