Managers find overtime violations only after payroll has processed
HR professionals and supervisors are struggling with inefficient and opaque administrative processes, particularly around hiring, time tracking, and leave management. This leads to finger-pointing, lack of data, and a sense of being stuck in outdated systems, hindering productivity and employee satisfaction. Modernization efforts are often met with resistance or require significant effort.
SOURCES (60)
“The thing we found is that Excel rocks if you can set it up decently. Building ShiftWerx we interviewed well over 100 mangers and found that the excel users where usually happier and faster than those using traditional scheduling software”
“Do you not complete time sheets? Surely that would evidence what you've been doing”
“Do any firms require staff accountants to clock in and out to track their hours worked, separate from tracking billable time? We are moving our hourly employees to a timekeeping app, and our office manager would like to extend it to our salaried staff accountants because several regularly arrive late and are waiting at the door to leave at 5:00. My understanding is that salaried, degreed professionals typically do not clock in and out, but I would appreciate hearing how other firms handle this.”
“Hello! I recently have been cover for other positions to help decide if we need to hire onto our team, and it got me wondering. I don't have to keep time/submit hours (Staff Accountant for a food manufacturer). But should I be doing this with my regular duties just to keep myself in check or as a point for reviews? Does anyone else do this for their regular duties when they aren't in a billable business? Currently we only do this at my work to see if the workload is enough to justify hir”
“we're a bit over 50 now and i'm the one who ended up owning all the people admin, mostly by accident. time off is a spreadsheet. signed documents sit in a folder. whether someone actually finished onboarding is something i know because i remember it, not because it's written down anywhere. none of that has broken yet. it's just starting to feel like the kind of setup that works right up until the day it really doesn't, which i assume is the week somebody leaves and i need the”
“Problem Currently, OpenJornada provides a change request workflow for correcting an existing time record. This works well when, for example, an employee clocked out at the wrong time and needs to request a correction. However, there seems to be no equivalent workflow when an employee completely forgets to clock in/out and therefore no TimeRecord exists for that day. Example: Employee worked on September 1 from 08:05 to 16:12. Employee forgot to clock in and clock out. On September 2, the employe”
“I'm in SEC Reporting and I work maybe 35 hours a week during month-end close (first two weeks of the month), then 25 - 30 hours a week during the second half of the month. During filing season, it's a bit more hectic, around 45 - 50 hours a week for 4 - 6 weeks.”
“Owner dentist here—got an issue at the office that I’m curious if anyone else here has faced and how they dealt with it. We use Eaglesoft and all hourly employees use the time clock function in the software to record their hours. Recently, it has been brought to my attention by one of our long time hygienists that certain other employees are “fudging” their timesheets. She wasn’t 100% certain who all was involved as she said they suddenly stopped talking about it when they realized she disapprov”
guessing that is counting time getting ready in the morning and commutes
“About 10 hours a week… some weeks are less some are more. Senior tax manager in industry. I got a direct report last year but didn’t need him. Had to get an employee to get “manager” title. Only tax person for PE owned SaaS… it’s superrrrrr chill. My employee works about 10 hours a week as well, probably less. As long as he doesn’t out me…”
“My work is finished by lunch Thursday every week and I spend the rest of Thursday and Friday bored out of my mind scrolling on my phone”
“Including admin stuff, checking emails, meetings etc. From 8am-6pm how much are you guys actually working? Are you staying busy the full 8 hours outside of the lunch break? Is there any downtime to chill and talk with coworkers? Edit: meant to clarify no timesheets as in no billable hour system submitted by /u/Spiritual-Wrap1262 [link] [comments]”
“if calendar management is part of it, write down your actual calendar preferences before day one. Things like no calls before 10, buffer after sales calls, protect lunch, no Friday afternoon meetings, whatever. Otherwise they have no way to know what a “good” calendar looks like for you.”
“So I work in a warehouse for almost 4 years now and about 5 months ago we got a new supervisor decent guy but I continue to do my job nonetheless however for the past for years I've been clocking out 10 minutes after my break so I can come back later in the past 4 the managers and my previous supervisors haven't cared hell some other warehouse workers do it do but this isn't about them My supervisor saw me come back and said he was gonna write me up and I find that bizarre because he”
“Ok I'll start with the good. Honestly I was surprised that it still tracked time after I turned off my phone and the graphs are well made. The bad: I can't see myself manually starting a task everytime I pivot to a new task. The report itself I didn't find useful enough because I can just look at my schedule and decide what's overhead and what isn't and I was looking at the pro features but I feel like you could just get that by screenshoting your schedule and asking an ai. H”
“So they launched the new devices for check in with your phone at my warehouse and they were having technical issues, I showed up on time and it didnt work for me. Management sent me and others to a line to manually get checked in but because so many people were there and they were having issues as well I missed my block. So did the people behind me and Im still fighting to get paid for it. Support is stating “You will receive payment for delivery blocks that you were confirmed for and for which”
“Looking for recommendations for freestanding attendance tracking systems. We have a payroll provider who connects with our time clock but the reporting is terrible. We have 80 time clock and timesheet employees combined. submitted by /u/CalmBit9325 [link] [comments]”
“What usually fits this better is a simple shift-claim workflow that feeds payroll, not time tracking. The clean test from a finance side is whether coaches can self-report assigned sessions and you approve exceptions before payroll runs. If a platform forces punch clocks for one-hour blocks, it is built for attendance, not your pay process.”
“That software sounds like it is measuring hamster wheel activity, not work. If your tasks, reviews, and raise were solid before the tool arrived, the tool is probably creating a new problem rather than revealing an old one. I would keep a boring paper trail of completed work, call logs, and blockers, then ask your boss what score threshold maps to actual job expectations, because bathroom anxiety is a pretty absurd KPI.”
“Mouse and keyboard scoring is a garbage proxy for output, especially for work that involves calls, reading, thinking, or waiting on other people. I would ask your boss to tie expectations to actual deliverables and then send a recap email after the conversation so there is a paper trail. If they refuse and keep pushing the score, I would quietly start looking, because that kind of monitoring usually means leadership has decided distrust is cheaper than management.”
“If you get your work done on time why does it matter what you do. Instead of coming at the employees I’d go harder on first line sups for not making sure the work is done.”
“hi all, From Sept 1, I want to keep careful records of the admin work I do. Up until now, at year's end I would give a rough estimate of my admin hours to the upper admin staff--and I usually way lowball it, since it never really mattered. This year I've been told I'll get paid per hour for admin work. I'm a non-TT full-time lecturer, so this is a good deal for me, but I want to be meticulous about documenting the hours I spend on admin. Does anyone have a system they use to keep”
“Hey everyone! I am looking for time tracking software for my employees that has geofencing and GPS tracking. I'm definitely looking at Timeero as it seems to be the most affordable and offers everything that I need. I was wondering what your guys'experience with that or with others. submitted by /u/MackSlack [link] [comments]”
“I run a youth sports organization. We have coaches that we pay seasonally. In addition, we book clinics, lessons, etc and offer it to the coaches. In a weekend, we’ll have something like 10 hours of sessions to fill and will offer it to all the coaches and they can claim it. I want a system that lets them add those sessions on their own. Each session is an hour so it could be tracked as hours or whatever but I want them to be able to add it. So I don’t really need a time card but I want them to”
“Like the title says, myself and my agm are both salary, so this wont affect our pay at all, but ownership wants us to only track the hours we work at the office. That means that any work done from home, emergencies we take calls for, trainings we travel for, or errands/networking we do in town wont be accounted for (which accounts for at least a quarter of our time typically) . At the end of the day, its not a big deal, it just feels really weird to me. Should I be concerned at all? submit”
“The issue with this is that OP is then being punished for being more efficient than their peers. OP shouldn’t have to be given more work just for the sake of productivity. If they’ve done what’s required of them, that should be sufficient.”
“Toxic management. They won’t change as long as moving those numbers fattens their bonus. Using threats and shame to try to squeeze out more productivity is gross. Would double your break time and wait for a layoff package. Use your managers feedback as a victory metric. The more passive aggressive, the closer you are to sweet freedom.”
“When our employees clock out the last day of the pay period, we ask that they immediately submit their timesheet. This should be fine in California right? The timekeeping app doesn’t let them submit while they’re still clocked in. It takes about 10 seconds at most. We ask that they review everything while still on the clock. Thanks! submitted by /u/Vegetable-Print-4094 [link] [comments]”
“This is one of the main reasons I left my last job. They kept the tracking software even when we moved to a hybrid schedule. It’s insulting.”
“we use Connecteam and have been very pleased. freemium style where you don't pay until you hit i think 10 users. time clock, geofence (if you want, we've not used it yet), scheduling, job categories, job notes, job tasks, job location. honestly I grabbed it for a timeclock so people would stop texting me their hours. I've been impressed at how much more use I've gotten out of it”
“Time tracking is an accounting function. There should be an API between accounting software and PM tools so you don't enter the same data twice. Same between HRIS and PM and between HRIS and accounting. Resource management is a PM function but you draw costs for estimates and time from accounting and things like leave from HRIS. Basecamp and Everhour are both so busy trying to be all-in-one they don't do basic functions. Go to your vendors for HRIS and accounting software and ask them ab”
“CPTO but a lot hands on, between 35 and 50 what kills you is the "always on" time, i answer messages between 6am and 10pm right now leaning on the lower end of the range as i mentally checked out”
“I’m paid weekly. Overtime per week is all hours after 40. Overtime per shift depends on your commitment; if you’re 4x8, overtime is any min/any hours after 8. If you’re 3x12, it’s any min/any hours after 12 but you can only work 16 consecutive hours. Now even if you’re 3x12, there’s possibly that your shift ends as 8-hr regular pay and 4-hr 1.5x overtime. This happens if you’re floated to another floor, or you switch from floor nurse to charge nurse. This happened to me last week when I was floo”
“I use Homebase and my experience has actually been quite positive. People can fix errors and managers can edit timecards before payroll”
“I’m not sure if this is different for wet labs but I’m currently doing clinical research with a few doctors and was wondering how I should go about tracking my hours / how other people do it? Do I just keep a log of hours that I update every time I work on the project for the next year or two? submitted by /u/JustiniR [link] [comments]”
“First week started with 60 hour work week. Been moved around task all last week. My main job is to pull branch. Had only one full day to pull branch without them being behind on another scope and being pulled to help. Today got told my wire pulling crew is moving too slow. I understand there are ways to move quicker and ive been going through ways to improve. Am i being unreasonable to believe im a fall guy right now or are they challenging me? There was another guy in charge before me and he pu”
“So I’m an hourly driver, always do my 8 hours sometimes do like 10 my job uses an app where I just clock in on the phone and then I used to be able to mark my lunch and my breaks whenever thru out the day, but recently they’re making us mark our 10 minute break once 2 hours into our shift, then lunch 4 hours into the shift, then the second rest break 6 hours into our shift, and if we don’t do it this way “we’ll get in trouble, but thing I’m having trouble with is for example today clocked in at”
“I’m serious, how does anyone have time to manage anything that isn’t automated? I am at a job where I need to be working every second I’m on the clock. I don’t have time to call my lawyer, my mortgage company, anything of major concern or interest? Can my partner do it? No she’s too busy wrangling my 3 year old and she doesn’t know any of the info Can I get a day off? No I don’t think I can. And if I did I don’t know where to start and have no $ to pay anything I spend my days trying to get what”
I don't have to track billable hours, but I went through a similar "half-guessing" phase with task time, in general. What actually fixed it for me was tagging tasks by type (deep…
“Correct. Your boss or payroll sets up these in batches, lets the bank know what's happening. It sounds like your company does this on Monday or Tuesday. I personally am not crazy about the idea because the money is not in the banks hands yet and if your company has a problem with their payroll, your pay will be taken out.”
“title. so basically im applying ea but this activity will occur after the deadline, but i know and WILL do this activity in the future, which will add on to my hours later. is it ok to do this? submitted by /u/Even_Job746 [link] [comments]”
“I'd make sure you've got a solid task database with priority and due date fields then a separate classes database you can relate to each task. A rollup that counts how many assignments are due this week always feels good to see at zero. A formula that calculates your current grade based on weighted categories would be tight too if you're logging individual scores.”
“A lot of admin/data entry time gets eaten by moving info between systems, fixing messy spreadsheets, renaming files, and sending the same status emails over and over. Learn Excel or Google Sheets basics beyond typing, especially filters, lookup formulas, split text, remove duplicates, and pivot tables. A clipboard manager and text expander can save tons of small repeated typing, and Power Query is useful if you keep getting the same ugly reports. Just be careful with automation tools at a new jo”
“I was supposed to start work at 9 AM, but I ended up logging in at 9:30 AM. I didn't have any calls or meetings so nothing was missed. When I fill out my timesheet, I will have to put 9:30 AM. Do you think my boss will ask about it? If so, what do I say? Work remotely. submitted by /u/EarlyCardiologist659 [link] [comments]”
“Most scheduling apps let people mark blocks (hard) and preferences (soft) — the real difference is what happens after everyone submits them. Look for one with an actual auto-schedule engine: weighted preferences plus a visible tie-break rule, not just an availability grid that still leaves one person to make the calls. A few process rules that fix the "last one to check the group text loses" dynamic, regardless of which app you choose: Hard availability deadline — blocks and preference”
“Hey, good morning! I’m trying to calculate my upcoming check, but it seems like my timecard isn’t properly tracking my 9 OT hours. From what I’m assuming is that it’s splitting my 9 OT into 4.5 hours straight (regular rate) and 4.5 hours premium (x.5 rate) which doesn’t look right. Shouldn’t it be 9 hours straight and 9 hours premium? It’s about a $72 difference of untracked money that I want to make sure I get if that’s the case. submitted by /u/TheMightyCarlton [link] [commen”
“This and I have view for not finished entries on my dashboard so I don't forget to log an end time”
“I just got a job offer that requires 2100 total hours per year, but 1800 are billable and 300 are non billable, so like admin/firm related stuff. Is that do-able or is that gonna suck? submitted by /u/Global_Grapefruit103 [link] [comments]”
“Most small shops I see end up on Toggl Track or a basic timesheet app once the free Clockify cap gets too tight. The key is making sure it allows manual time entry with approvals, since backfilled hours are the real requirement here. I would test whichever one your least tech-friendly employee can use without training.”
“If people enter hours after the fact, you need a timesheet with editable entries and an approval or audit trail, not just a clock-in app. Before choosing one, check whether “free” still includes unlimited employees, projects, exports, and historical edits, since those are usually the first limits added.”
“We're a small nonprofit (under 10 people: staff, contractors, seasonal field crew) and our time tracking is a patchwork: Toggl Track for staff — logs hours by project, but doesn't sync to payroll (Gusto), and that project data mostly isn't used to allocate pay. Each person's pay just defaults to one accounting class, reconciled manually (if at all). Gusto Time Tracking for contractors and seasonal employees — contractors can't tag hours to a project, just a memo. Paper hitch”
“I got my first 15 minute paid break today in months, but I didn’t set a damn timer and I went 10 minutes over. Come back in and the boss tells me next time I go over 15 minutes he’ll clock me out because what I did today was time theft. What a dick. Is that even legal? submitted by /u/RangerNo5619 [link] [comments]”