Are There Any Free Time and Attendance Software Options?
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Time and attendance software can be a useful tool for companies that work with hourly employees. It can also even be beneficial for companies that have full-time employees to understand their time-off allowances or other payroll information. With free time and attendance platforms, companies can reduce overhead labor costs and understand individual employee productivity and engagement while working online.
Here at Matchr, our certified HR software experts use a comprehensive testing and evaluation process to provide unbiased free time and attendance software recommendations.
We analyzed various free time and attendance platforms and then made a list of the top free time and attendance software solutions based on their functionality and features. Our selection is based on research and we want to ensure you make the best HR software decisions.
Matchr’s List of 3 Free Time and Attendance Software Recommendations
Matchr works with several free time and attendance software companies. To help enhance your time management capabilities on a budget, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best platforms to consider for your team.
1 Clockify
Clockify offers a comprehensive and free attendance tracking solution compatible with various operating systems and devices.
Employees can effortlessly log in through the web, desktop, or mobile app to monitor their attendance. The system provides weekly reports with customizable data filters and supports export in multiple formats. Clockify caters to diverse needs, from employee attendance tracking to student attendance in classrooms or event attendance. The attendance report breaks down time tracking data, allowing tailored insights. Users can start timers via various platforms or set up a shared kiosk for easy punching in.
2 PHP Payroll
PHP Payroll is a free and open-source attendance tracking software designed to eliminate glitches and streamline the attendance management process.
With a flexible pattern, it minimizes data entry and enhances accuracy in scheduling. As a self-hosted payroll software, PHP Payroll ensures data security by allowing users to download the source code and host it on their servers. It excels in handling attendance records, even with multiple shifts, incorporating elements like grace time, break time, and off days. Accessible on multiple devices, PHP Payroll caters to small businesses with features for centralized attendance management, event tracking, and comprehensive workforce management.
3 Open HRMS
Open HRMS, a free open-source HR software, prioritizes employee well-being by handling various HR processes. It covers onboarding, attendance management, time tracking, and appraisals, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.
The real-time attendance processing integrates seamlessly with biometric hardware and works in tandem with the payroll and leave management system. Supporting multiple sources for attendance capture, such as biometrics, login portals, and swipe cards, Open HRMS offers configuration options for various leave types. With automatic leave request and approval features, it ensures a smoother HR workflow for enhanced workforce management.
Key Features Commonly Found in Free Time and Attendance Software
Free time and attendance software companies have numerous features available to integrate into your company’s system. Common features include simple operation tools such as time tracking for employees, more robust data analytics, and payroll.
Self-Service Portals
Self-service portals are an excellent way for employees to take initiative in their time tracking and attendance on their own. These portals reduce the redundancy between staff and upper management by creating a simple, clear system for clocking time, attendance, billable hours, time off requests, and more. All of the information can be housed in one place.
Time Tracking
Time tracking may be the clearest aspect of free time and attendance software, however, it’s just as important. Businesses can get an accurate picture of how long particular projects take, and how much they are spending on each employee. It creates an accurate reference for understanding overall productivity and progress.
Data Reports
Data reporting tools are necessary for any business management team. Luckily, many free time and attendance software companies have data-pulling capabilities to measure time efficiency and future growth for employees. This reporting can indicate to company leadership if more staffing is needed, or if staffing needs to be reduced, and which employees are billing the most hours.
Automated Reminders or Alerts
Alerts are an excellent feature of free time and attendance software to help keep people accountable. If employees forget to clock in but have already started working, an alert can keep them on task and remember to clock in their working hours. Alerts could also be helpful for management running payroll and setting reminders for when they need to review staff time.
Payroll
On top of time-tracking services, payroll is also often integrated with free time and attendance software. This is useful for housing crucial employee payment information such as their compensation rate, bank deposits, or paid time off allowances.
Calendar Integration
Nowadays many organizations use a variety of digital tools for their project or employee management. To help ease the stress of remembering which platforms hold information on time and attendance, the free software can integrate with other calendars such as Google Calendar or Outlook 365.
Benefits of Using Free Time and Attendance Software
Free time and attendance software can optimize efficiency. With key information on payroll or billable time in one place, it can save managers time and money when it comes to employee oversight.
Streamline Payroll
Payroll can be a very time-consuming endeavor for companies. Without a platform in place to organize this information and pay your employees on time, it can be overwhelming. Free time and attendance software aims to streamline this process for management so paying your team for their work becomes seamless.
Easily Clock In and Out
With employees working virtually at higher rates than ever, having a simple tool to clock and clock out on your own can help grant staff members autonomy and independence. Many free software programs also have mobile app features, to help employees clock in from their phones instead of just on a desktop computer.
Accurate Productivity Data Insights
Data insight reporting is very beneficial for company management to understand how much time they are spending on various business functions. Free time and attendance platforms know this and help benefit strategic foresight for companies by creating automated data insights on staff hours and productivity.
Potential Limitations of Free Time and Attendance Software
Even with all the great benefits of free time and attendance software, there can be some critical limitations. These limitations are usually due to the functionality of each program’s free service, whereas if you opt for the premium time and attendance software it may have a longer list of capabilities or integrations.
Lack of Customer Support
Many premium software platforms have multiple staff members on deck for customer support. Without ongoing customer support, it means that if you run into a technical issue with the service it may take longer to find a solution. While support is still available with any free service, there may simply be fewer staff members available to answer all of your questions.
Insufficient Integrations
With free time tracking software, there may be less data storage available to integrate with other digital tools. This means companies could run into the problem of having too many software tools that do not connect well together. This makes it harder to have a one-stop solution for payroll and attendance.
Time-tracking Errors
Time and attendance accuracy is important for understanding productivity, but it is also important for being sure employees are paid sufficiently for their work. With free versions it can be common for the occasionally missed clock-in or clock-out calculation to register, however, this could happen with any digital tool.
