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Time management app brings businesses into the 21st century

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Time management app brings businesses into the 21st century

May 23
09:36 2023
TimeFiler is a modern solution to the problem of tracking time costs online in an industry facing increasingly tight regulation around proper payment procedures

Traditional time management has always relied on cumbersome manual entry systems, paper rosters or spreadsheets to convert hours worked into actual pay. The problem of capturing any degree of accuracy then shifts to the payroll department, an office tasked with tracking down payment requests while ensuring that all monthly, quarterly and year-end payroll statements are up to standard. Payroll serves as the go-between for all departments, becoming, in essence, a human encyclopedia for related pay issues.

In short, it’s up to one very dexterous group to ensure payment standards are maintained by all areas of the business, from time tracking to the final pay packet. Meanwhile, the process between employees, management, payroll and HR remains unstably balanced, with no clear line of communication between departments.

Smarter, not harder

TimeFiler came about as a modern solution to the problem of tracking time costs online in an industry facing increasingly tight regulation around proper payment procedures. For this reason, TimeFiler was designed not just as an online timesheet software but also to calculate payments, leave management requests, roster schedules and for related topics such as job costing and allowance claims as well. As a web application, TimeFiler can be shared and updated by all users, allowing employees to record hours which the app can automatically calculate. At the same time, management can set rosters and pay allocations from another side of the app.

The benefit of this design has been that data only need be entered once for the TimeFiler system to recognise the employee, the hours worked, and the pay allocated to that employee on any given day or with any given job. The same works with rostering on the app, allowing managers to base jobs on a cost basis due to available staff, hours worked, and overtime needed.

The journey from pen to iPad

TimeFiler is the collaborative brainchild of Toni Brown, Jo Smith, Morris Johns and Ian Johnson , who, in 2005, saw the necessary demand for an online timesheet app that captured employee hours, managed approval and exported data to other financial systems. The Christchurch-based business quickly saw its first 2,500 users within the first six months across fifteen Asia-Pacific countries. Now, with more than 400 customers and over 150,000 users signed on TimeFiler, the app has been improved to function over all digital platforms. It also integrates with existing payroll systems to help businesses incorporate TimeFiler without overhauling their current payment software.

In the years since, Ross Trowsdale has joined TimeFiler, who has helped improve the scale of the business, widening it to include more of the Australian market.   

Countering a mounting problem

As Ian suggests, ‘Any number of New Zealand employers have to revisit holiday payments after their employees have come to them saying ‘I don’t think you’ve paid my holiday pay correctly. In fact, I’m sure you’ve never paid my holidays properly’. And in the end, these businesses have to recalculate payments, including those of employees that have left for the last six or seven years, incurring a massive headache for the business and a huge cost.’

Ian went on to explain that if people aren’t paid correctly under their entitlements, the costs mount as businesses have to devote time and cost to recalculating to get payments right. There are also no strict ‘scarecrows’ to pin the blame on in these situations, as the initial holiday pay mistake, in most cases, doesn’t get reported to payroll directly.

The joy of a system such as TimeFiler is that it can report and pick up on relevant payment conditions before they become potential problems down the line. With a number of in-app alerts, preset conditions and necessary fields, the chances of recording incorrect pay are greatly reduced, and the ability to investigate and pick up on payment conditions increased.

Configuring with other systems

Ross notes that, ‘very early on, they [TimeFiler] realised that the great resistance to payment systems was the lack of integration or replacement of existing payroll systems. Very few were willing to change out their payment system for fear of ‘upsetting the apple cart’, meaning that payroll saw very little in the way of innovation.’

TimeFiler is designed around this reluctance, configurable around most payroll systems and allowing for necessary ‘tweaks’ that allow TimeFiler to speak with payroll.

Bringing businesses into the 21st century

TimeFiler has been instrumental in bringing a number of companies previously relying on Excel spreadsheets, printed timesheets and rosters into the modern era. Hato Hone St. John, for one, used to rely on payroll to manually update timesheets, a process which alone took three to four hours, whilst dealing with incomplete sheets and different formats. With nineteen stations and more than three thousand staff members, dealing with the problems implicit in reviewing all timesheets was a ‘continuing nightmare’, with no way to easily cross-check the accuracy of timesheets, employee leave requests and other pay-related forms.

Initially, St. John was reluctant to take on a computer-based system, which could add ‘more work’ to staff not well-versed in computing software. TimeFiler proved to be an easy tool to learn and distribute to the team, instantly resulting in more accurate hours recorded, including public holidays and additional leave. Nearly fifteen years later, TimeFiler has been able to save St. John considerable time and money, turning a frustrating, paper-based process into an easy solution for payroll and employees alike.

Try TimeFiler

If you’re looking for a way to better utilise your payroll system with a modern time attendance software solution that can track relevant payment conditions for you, TimeFiler is key. A smart design that reduces human error, TimeFiler is easily adjustable to any industry requirement. For more information or for a demonstration of the web application in action, book a free demo here.

Media Contact
Company Name: TimeFiler
Contact Person: Gareth Melia
Email: Send Email
Phone: 020 4188 4803
City: Christchurch
State: Canterbury
Country: New Zealand
Website: https://www.timefiler.com/

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