Remove the Manual Problems from the Time Sheet Approval Process

Every day, the nightmare of recording employees' working hours lurks in every single corner of offices around the world. If you ask any professional who has to clock in and out every day, he will tell you unequivocally that he finds the approval procedure for timesheets uncomplicated and a waste of time.

Of course, we cannot deny the importance of recording an employee's working hours and the amount of work he or she has done during those hours. But although the intention is noble, the execution is very homemade.

Fortunately, many workplaces are waking up to the new reality and seeing hope in the automation of working time recording. These automated HR tools are becoming the norm in all organizations because of their simplicity and convenience. But before we look at the benefits of automated timesheets, let's analyze a few reasons why traditional employee attendance tracking fails.

What is the automation of timesheet approval?

Automating timesheet approval is the process of easily recording and tracking employee work times through an application that works seamlessly across multiple platforms (mobile phones, desktop and browser extensions). Automating timesheet simplifies and accelerates the processing of timesheets and changes the way timesheets are routed through the enterprise to the payroll process.

Process flow for the approval of timesheets

The workflow for a timesheet approval process is also straightforward.

The first step is for the employee to initiate the employee timesheet application and fill out the work log before it is submitted to the supervisor for approval. Once the supervisor has approved the timesheet, it is forwarded to the HR department for review/approval and finally to payroll.

That's it. Any employee can get a simple, nonsensical result. No papers, no timesheet templates, no complaints, no lost time.

How to manage the approval process for timesheets with automated timesheets

Let's look at another example to understand the inefficiency of managing employees' working time accounts. A 2015 survey suggests that the manual management of employee time sheets and errors cost U.S. employers more than 50 million hours of work, or about $7.4 billion a day in lost productivity.

Obviously, this is not an intentional act by employees. They simply do not have the zeal to fill out their timesheets proactively.

Here are some of the most common reasons given by employees as an excuse for not filling out their timesheets because they are using a boring timesheet template

• A timesheet template unintentionally lives up to its name because it is time-consuming. It is tedious, slow and laborious.
• A correct time sheet is not an indicator of productivity. If you follow the rules, your best employees might look like they're slacking during work hours, while free riders might appear as the smartest employees.
• Time tracking does not do justice to the long working hours of project managers, remote workers, on-site employees and freelancers.
• Companies that introduce a strict approval process for time sheets as part of their human resources management could even kill employee motivation.
  Employees are reluctant to fill out their timesheets all the time. They come back shortly before the end of the month and fill up their timesheets en masse, resulting in inaccurate entries.

Effortless timesheet approvals with the IceHrm

IceHrm is a flexible HR solution that allows companies to change the requirements for the setup over time. It enables companies to validate timesheet entries, speed up the approval cycle, reduce payroll errors and decrease administrative overhead. IceHrm has a variety of features that make approval of timesheets effortless.

Here are the key features that IceHrm automates the approval process for employee timesheets:

Customizable templates

IceHrm offers companies a set of timesheet templates that are pre-configured based on industry standards. Companies can either select and customize the pre-built timesheet template or create their own from scratch with formulas, conditions, exceptions and more.

Multi-level approval workflows

With the IceHrm, companies can create individual digital timesheets with multiple levels of approval. Companies are free to adapt the approval workflow for timesheets to their existing business process requirements. Using dynamic workflows, required approvals from managers to the HR and finance team are not only notified, but also retrieved with a single click.

Seamless integration

It can be seamlessly synchronized with existing payroll, accounting and ERP systems, automating the entire approval workflow for employee time sheets.

Approvals on the road

The IceHrm enables employees to create, submit and approve/reject timesheets on the road directly from the mobile or web-based application.

Reports

Managers can get a clear picture of their employees' work schedules and productivity levels using the arsenal of customizable, visually appealing reports from the IceHrm.

Try IceHrm today for a free demo and see how you can eliminate the chaos surrounding the timesheet approval process.

Read More... IceHrm Timesheets in Detail

The main advantages of using automated timesheet

It is time for all forward-thinking organizations to digitize and automate their timesheet approval process. With all business processes running at breakneck speed, there's no reason to let your timesheet approval process suffer from the snail's pace of manual paperwork.

Automation is not rocket science, nor does it require expensive IT investments or hi-tech robots; automating the timesheet approval process is actually very simple. All you need to do is find the cloud-based human resources management software that lets you create forms, replicate your timesheet culture, and create the employee timesheet module so your teams can work with it.

Below are the key benefits of using automated timesheets to track employee time. Automated timesheets:

• Increase employee productivity
• Eliminate disputes regarding payment
• Speed up the preparation of the payroll
• Eliminate favouritism of the timekeeper
• Enforcement of personnel deployment plan and guidelines
• Provide legible records of hours worked
• Enforcement of compliance with the hourly wage legislation
• Create respect for working hours
  

The best kind of cloud-based HR automation solutions will inadvertently have a drag and drop form designer that allows app administrators to create form fields. You can design these fields as formula-calculated data, pre-filled items, or as drop-down menu options.

Once you've completed the preliminary work to model the application, you can automate the entire process without having to go back every day. You may need to reconfigure certain things as your process grows or standards change. Otherwise, you can just sit back and let the system do the day-to-day task of automatically tracking employee hours.

You can also create exceptions or conditions for employees whose timesheet calculations are complex compared to office workers who report daily in their physical office. The automated timesheet application can take over over overtime and vacation work calculations as soon as the employees have entered their data into the app.

Employees have the advantage of being able to submit their working hours via their mobile devices, while managers can review and approve requests for approval of timesheets regardless of their location or time of day. The automated approval process for timesheets greatly reduces the time required to complete timesheets and greatly eliminates the risk of human error.

If you would like to see how a timesheet automation application can redefine your timesheet management process, sign up for a free demo of IceHrm. Not only will you receive comprehensive customer support during the trial period, but you can also integrate the application with your existing software to see how the application pays for your business.

Read More... Basic Usage of IceHrm Timesheets