How familiar are you with the scheduling time suck vortex? Probably very familiar, if the following methods ring a bell.

— Excel spreadsheets

— Emails

— Individual phone calls with staff

— Google Apps

— Paper scheduling book

— Post it notes and memos

If you are using any of the above, we are certain you are losing money and valuable time. What’s worse though is that, that same vortex is not just a greedy horder of your resources, it opens up the opportunity for workers to pad hours. Even the most candor of employees, with the best of intentions are guilty of this. Maybe they simply can’t recall the correct hours they worked, and come time for payroll they are scrambling to remember. These honest souls are unfortunately the exception though. The rule is this; given the opportunity to cheat and add a little extra time, for a few extra bucks, the average employee will take it.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. workweek is comprised of 34.5 hours, but they are being poorly calculated and overestimated for recording purposes.

An online time clock that tracks employee activity in real time is an incredible low cost, and highly effective solution for these issues. Orbital Shift takes the control of tracking even one step further by combining the time clock with scheduling. Because the system knows when employees are scheduled to work their is unique value with the time clock feature.

For example, a shift starts at 8:00 am on the schedule. The time clock will only allow employees to clock in when that shift’s start and end time is overlapping with the current time. No more honor system. No more headaches and stress from managing those mundane tasks. And best of all, no more paper cuts from individual time sheets.