Clockedin: 5 benefits of having a clocking in app for your Shopify store
As your Shopify store grows, you start to invest in tools to improve your day-to-day operations. Particularly if you have a growing team of multiple staff, or even a physical storefront to manage as well as your online store, it can become difficult to scale certain ways of working that perhaps worked in the beginning. One of the most essential tools in managing a team is time keeping and having a way to schedule and track the time of your employees. It’s how you know how much to pay each employee, manage payroll effectively, and more, so why do so many businesses still use outdated systems for time keeping?
Over 1/3 of time tracking systems are outdated, and in the US, 38% still use paper timesheets and punch cards. Moreover, 80% of those using paper systems reported that they regularly need to correct 80% of the timesheets that they receive.
As a Shopify merchant, you have access to a wealth of tools through the Shopify App Store, and today we’re going to look at Clocked In - a simple, effective tool for improving your time keeping for employees.
Benefits of having a clocking in app for your Shopify store
Before implementing any tool into your Shopify store, you’ll almost always want to weigh up the benefits and get a better understanding of how it will actually work within your store set-up. The benefits of having a clocking in app go beyond simply updating an outdated system of time management; it can have an impact on team productivity, how your team communicates, and even compliance with local labor laws.
#1 - Boost accuracy in time keeping
Managing time tracking across multiple teams and employees can become complicated without a robust system or tool in place. For example if you don’t have a timekeeping system at all, an employee may be scheduled to work for a certain number of hours on a specific day but they work an extra half hour over. If you have a paper system or a shared spreadsheet to keep track of hours, this can also become messy if multiple employees have access to it without any way to verify those extra hours worked. This ultimately will lead to inaccuracies in payroll, which will lead to unhappy employees and it will need to be resolved in a future paycheck.
Having a clocking in tool means it’ll be much easier for your team to keep an accurate record of their hours worked, and this in turn benefits your team members responsible for administration and payroll. It also means your business will pay out the correct amount in wages month to month, giving you a clearer picture of your outgoings.
#2 - Improve efficiency
Without a digital tool in place, your team is going to have to rely on a lot of manual effort to keep records of their hours worked. There’s the effort on the part of individual team members, then from your staff responsible for admin and payroll to verify, adjust and process. If there are issues flagged such as a team member forgetting to add their hours, or scheduling problems, this can cause even more of a headache. Administrative staff will end up spending more time on correcting issues and managing spreadsheets than they should, taking time away from other important tasks.
Using an app designed to help with time management can make a significant difference to efficiency and productivity. If an employee forgets to log overtime, administrative staff can simply adjust from within the tool which will then be reflected on files they then export for payroll.
#3 - Strengthen accountability and compliance
Staying on top of hours worked and scheduling is valuable not just internally within your business, but also for legal reasons. Keeping an accurate record of how much time your employees work means they’ll get the right amount of pay and won’t be scheduled for more hours than they should be - this in turn keeps you right in line with any regional wage and hours regulations. Keeping tabs on time worked on a spreadsheet managed by a member of your team allows for human error, whereas a clear time record management system will eliminate much of that error.
Especially if you or your administrative staff are not directly on-site with every employee at all times, having that extra tool at your disposal will help to increase accountability both from you as an employer and from your employees. They’ll have an easily accessible record of hours worked to be able to understand what their expected pay should be, and you too will be able to query any discrepancies in hours worked.
#4 - Make better scheduling and time decisions
With every aspect of your store, data helps to lead decision making. Time is a resource and understanding where it’s being used effectively and where it’s potentially being wasted is valuable in protecting margin and making more efficient use of those resources. By having clear data on when your team is scheduled to work and for how long, you can better understand the needs of your business day-to-day and make better scheduling decisions. For example if you see through the data on your clock-in app that there’s a pattern of team members working overtime on specific days of the week, it may mean you need to adjust scheduling to add more team members to that day. Noticing trends and reacting to them will improve efficiency and productivity, as well as protecting your bottom line. It will also help you keep better track of accumulated vacation time, making it easier to manage time off.
#5 - Create a better employee experience
While there are many benefits on the employer side of time management tools, there’s also a lot to be said for how it can actually foster a more positive work environment and employee experience. In fact, 49% of U.S. workers leave a job after experiencing two issues with their paychecks. These inaccuracies can lead them to believe that their time isn’t valued by your business, and can lead to distrust with other aspects of their role.
Having a robust time management tool demonstrates to employees that you value their time - you want them to be paid for the work they do, and want to have an easily accessible way to track their hours to ensure that happens. Moreover by putting them in control of their digital punch card and time tracking, you’re also demonstrating that there is trust and confidence in that employee to employer relationship. You’re trusting them to keep an accurate log of their hours worked, and giving them the tools they need to do so. Ultimately that trust along with those accurate payslips will build a strong, positive relationship and environment.
Clocked In: Simple Shopify time management
When you install a new app as part of your Shopify store, you want something that’s going to be quick to set-up and easy to use with as little interruption to your day-to-day as possible. Clocked In is a time management app developed and designed by Shopify experts, that’s simple to use and easily implemented. Once set-up, you can manage and track hours right from within the Shopify POS.
In practice, your team members will see a digital punch card which can be accessed from a desktop, smartphone, or tablet making it accessible from anywhere and fast to use. There is also an admin option from the front-end facing interface, making it easy for any team members with admin access to quickly manage time tracking. Once logged in, your team can see who is actively clocked in.
Admins have access to a suite of useful features to make scheduling and management as simple as possible. For basic logging in and access, they can add and remove team members, give PIN codes, and manage access levels. However, admin tools go beyond this basic functionality, allowing admin level team members to adjust the date and time of logged hours, and add new sessions if someone forget to clock in. When you’re ready to process payroll, ClockedIn allows you to export hours in a CSV format which can be quickly uploaded to your processor of choice.
ClockedIn is fast to implement, easy to use, and simple to manage, making it easier for your employees to track their time, and for you to make smarter scheduling decisions for your business.