How to make sure you buy the best employee time clock for your buisness

Do companies make bad buying decisions?

Of course, they do and, the reasons are usually very clear.
It most likely because they are not well enough informed. It comes down to the current skills of the individual or team and their ability and motivation to conduct the required research.

Generally speaking, we pay more attention to our research and evaluation when the product costs more because clearly making a mistake has more serious financial consequences.  When the investment is less significant, the consequences will likely also be less significant.

When considering new management information systems, small businesses usually have a smaller budget and fewer individuals who can contribute to the purchasing decision. Small businesses often do not have the luxury of an internal IT Manager, Accountant or an experienced Project Manager.

Unfortunately,  it is often not possible to know what you don't know and, this can lead to overlooking some critical features that you require in the product. Many small businesses find themselves the victim of their limited resources and expertise so to minimise the risk of a bad purchasing decision they buy primarily based on price.

Buying on price can undoubtedly minimise risk, but an inferior product may not realise the benefits of a superior product. If the benefits of a superior product translate into costs savings, the inferior product's effective loss is much higher than the price you paid for it.

One example of this are fingerprint time clock systems.
Biometric time clocks promise to eliminate employee time theft and calculate payroll hours automatically. Exporting payroll hours into payroll software further adds the promise of reduced data entry.

In practice, the company may very well save a few hundred dollars a week by docking late workers, but after a very short time, those employees realise they can't get away with any more and start getting to work on time. That cost saving is very quickly lost.

The main advantage with employee time clocks is the reduced manual preparation of payroll. However, budget systems do not have the flexibility to cope with most attendance rules and the range of payroll categories Used by most companies. The result is that many manual adjustments need to be made to produce the correct payroll hours, and this completely defeats the purpose of an automated system

How where does the unsuspecting buyer find the information to make informed buying decisions. Well, in the case of employee time clocks, there is an excellent resource available.

Take a look at the Time & Attendance Consultant's Introductory Guide.
This guide can make all the difference when it comes to buying an employee time clock system.