Time and Attendance Systems

Empower yourself with the language of insiders. We decipher the arcane terms, epigrammatic abbreviations, and weird words used in the time and attendance systems industry.

• Application service provider (ASP): A vendor that hosts a time and attendance platform on their servers and provides services via a secure web log-in. Also known as Software as a Service (Saas).


• Biometric input device: Fingerprint, handprint, or iris scanners that ensure that the correct person is logging in and out of the time and attendance system. These devices help discourage buddy punching.


• Buddy-punching: The practice of employees logging in and out for each other so they can get credit for time they may not have actually worked.


• Closed box systems: Time and attendance systems that are packaged and priced for sale without detailing the individual components the customer pays for.


• Cloud-based: Generic term used to describe a software platform provided exclusively via the web by an application service provider (see above). Cloud-based systems allow users to manage aspects of time and attendance through standard browsers on any web-enabled smartphone, tablet, or laptop.


• Direct keypad entry: Term used to describe the fixed numeric keypad on a physical time clock and its use in a time and attendance system, enabling employees to clock in and out.


• Employee lock-out: Software functionality in a time and attendance system that prevents employees who are not scheduled from clocking in.


• Encrypted file transmission: A time and attendance systems software security measure to protect against data tampering.


• Fingerprint templates: Used by a biometric input device (see above), it's the number of unique fingerprints that can be stored by the platform for employee authentication.


• Labor forecasting: Helps business managers predict the number of staffers needed to handle customer demand using historical data. Labor forecasting can reduce labor costs by making sure you have the level of workers in place when you need them. See also labor management systems.


• Labor management systems: Another term for time and attendance systems that feature increased functionality and more robust reporting for larger companies. See also labor forecasting.


• Payroll export: A time clock module that can send employee time data to the system that handles payroll and benefits tracking. Companies can use payroll exporting to track how the cost of labor benefits the business and focus on areas that need improvement.


• Proximity cards: ID badges that work when simply held near a receptor, instead of being swiped through a card reader.


• Remote data entry: Using standard telephones or the Internet to allow remote employees to use time and attendance systems to enter their data.


• Retroactive calculations: A feature that allows Human Resources to correct errors and calculate salary and benefit adjustments effective back to a certain date.


• SaaS: Acronym for "Software as a Service." See also: Application Service Provider.


• Schedule management: Creates and maintains schedules for individual employees. Supervisors can set rules for scheduled workers, arrange for break periods and holidays, and determine if overtime is permissible. Schedule management can also track employee lateness and gauge patterns of absence.


• Time and attendance systems: Time clocks update for the 21st century. They provide tracking of employee log-in/log-out times. Employees either swipe a magnetic or bar coded card through a reader, or sign in on a computer. They record each employee's hours worked and send the data to Human Resources.


• Time clock software: Another name for time and attendance systems.


• Time theft: The result of employees misrepresenting the amount of time they worked, either through rounding up or taking excessive breaks.


• VARs: Value-added resellers. Vendors that sell time clocks and time clock software to smaller companies along with additional services such as installation and training.


• VoIP time tracking: Allows employees to log in and out of the time clock system using their VoIP phone handsets.


• Workforce analytics: Cost saving measure that uses time clock software to effectively calculate labor expenses, gauge how a business operates, and determine which employees are essential to the business.


• Workforce productivity: See workforce analytics.