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Cloud-technology is rapidly changing the way we do business. It’s making previously expensive enterprise technology affordable and accessible to anyone with a mobile phone.

Now your business, no matter what size, can have a state-of-the-art, easy-to-use staff scheduling and time-recording system. It’ll save you hours of admin, improve staff engagement and help you get the most from your spend on wages.

Five problems with paper-based time tracking and scheduling

Paper-based systems can get the job done, but they’re far from ideal. They slow you down, introduce errors and distract people from their primary job.

1. Paper schedules are inflexible and difficult to update
   A work schedule is right at the time you post it, but things change quickly. People take leave or call in sick and there’s no way to fill those shifts without getting on the phone and ringing around. None of your staff knows that a shift has opened up.Plus paper schedules can sometimes cause confusion for workers. In the mess of names, dates and times, it’s not unheard of for employees to mix up the dates of their shift, or confuse their starting times with someone else’s.
2. Paper timesheets leave your business vulnerable to time theft
   Paper-based time tracking systems are prone to guesswork and the generous rounding up of hours. Nearly half of all hourly workers admit to exaggerating the amount of time they work each shift.Overestimating a few minutes here or there might seem harmless, but that time adds up.A study by the American Payroll Association found that over the course of a year, time theft can cost a business up to 7% of its annual gross payroll. With a paper-based system, there’s no way for you to monitor – or address – this behaviour.
3. Your employees hate the paperwork
   Time recording can become a job in itself. Staff members who’ve had a big day don’t like the extra administrative burden of filling out forms. And when they treat it like an unwanted chore, the data can get sloppy. The guys at TSheets have heard of uncooperative workers handing in their time on a paper cup.
4. Small errors can have large repercussions
   Manual time tracking relies on employees writing down their hours, which you – or your payroll manager – must enter into a database. But this system can be undone by something as innocent as misreading an employee’s handwriting. A three might look like a five. A two might look like a seven. And then there are keystroke errors that sometimes happen when data is being transcribed into payroll. If a dispute arises, it can be hard to find where things went wrong.
5. Manually processing timesheets slows down your business
   Staff often need a nudge to complete and hand in their timesheets. Then the numbers have to be punched into payroll. That double handling chews through a lot of time. It’s either a distraction to you, or it’s costing you a lot of unnecessary wages. Manual scheduling is also complex, difficult and time-consuming.

This post has been sourced from Xero’s Small Business Guides.  You can view some of Xero’s integrated time tracking apps here.