Digital Time Tracking in Small Businesses

1. These are the advantages of digital time recording in small businesses
2. How to implement a digital time recording in your small business
3. Conclusion: a must-have for every company - especially for small businesses!

Through a judgement on time recording by the Federal Labor Court (BAG) of September 13, 2022, all companies must record all hours worked by their employees.
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⁠Even if time recording does not yet have to be digital, small businesses in particular are increasingly opting for the use of a digital time recording tool and against the paper chase. You can find out why in this article.

These are the advantages of digital time recording in small businesses

Entrepreneurs as well as their receipt and customer base benefit from digital time recording. Neither large nor small companies should do without electronic time recording - the former mainly for legal reasons, the latter primarily for economic reasons.

Live overview: as an entrepreneur control and monitor productivity

Overview time recording small businesses

Time recording tools give entrepreneurs important real-time insights into everyday business. This transparency is the basis for exact resource planning and constant company growth. Efficient use of resources reduces costs in various areas of the company.

Entrepreneurs can follow and control the digitally recorded times and the productivity of their employees on screen. In practice, this looks like this: Managing directors of small businesses can view, manage and analyze relevant data at any time. All they have to do is open the application on their PC, tablet or mobile phone.

Numbers and facts instead of gut feeling: as the person responsible for personnel, effectively plan resources

Time recording small businesses - planning resources

The availability of the employees can be seen in the time recording tool by HR managers and the workforce. This facilitates internal coordination and speeds up vacation planning. It also generates time sheets including overtime, manages calendar entries, calculates project times and carries out evaluations. Thanks to automation and synchronization, the use of resources is reduced to an absolute minimum.

In small businesses, every employee counts. If a team member falls ill, for example, HR managers have to react quickly. A time recording tool displays presence and absence in real time and thus ensures a quick change of service plan.

Cross-department automation instead of manual work: employee relief at all levels

Time recording small businesses - employee relief

This advantage naturally presupposes that you opt for an intuitive and user-friendly time recording tool like clockin. It should also be able to be integrated quickly and easily into your small business's existing IT infrastructure. Softwares accepted by your employees take over time-consuming and error-prone tasks. This in turn ensures high employee satisfaction within your existing team and enhances your reputation among applicants.

Legal: as an entrepreneur fulfill all employer obligations

Time tracking small businesses - legal obligations

With a time recording tool, you don't have to worry about legal obligations and changes in the law. A legally compliant tool takes into account all statutory provisions according to the Working Time Act (ArbZG), the Occupational Safety Act (ArbSchG) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Regular updates and releases in the background automatically ensure that this remains so.

A digital hours account gives you security - both from an employer's perspective and from a service provider's perspective. You can demonstrate at any time that you are fulfilling your legal duty of care as an employer (e.g. compliance with break times). Thanks to the digital history, you can justify every operation to your customers and suppliers (e.g. your invoice amounts).

Flexibility: make entries in a smart app - wherever you are

Time tracking small businesses - flexibility

Transmission errors due to illegible notes, constant coordination due to incomplete information and piles of form stacks are a thing of the past with a time recording app. Especially mobile teams (e.g. craftsmen) benefit from time recording by mobile phone or tablet. With digital time tracking in small businesses, companies and employees can more quickly and easily fulfill their obligations: All their actions (including the journey and loading of the company car) can be recorded in real time at the terminal in the workshop, in the browser in the office or home office, and during field service operations in the app.

An important (first) step towards digitalization

Time recording small businesses - digitalization

In the course of aIONS study small companies with up to 20 employees in Germany were interviewed. Fact is: There are enormous differences in terms of degree of digitalization. Start-ups are usually far advanced, while the classic small businesses lag far behind. One main reason seems to be that few of this group pursue growth ambitions (only eight out of ten companies).

Small businesses invest most of their budget in digital administration solutions (e.g. accounting software and CRM systems). When it comes to acquiring new customers, they mainly rely on recommendations. In contrast to larger companies, few small businesses consider their Internet presence to be relevant (so far).

How to implement a digital time recording in your small business

The simple implementation in the small business can be done with the time recording appclockin. The biggest advantage of this tool is based on the approach of the founders: From the beginning, they sat down with people like canal renovators, electronics specialists and construction managers. Thus, the solution could be developed by tradespeople for tradespeople. The user-friendly time recording app did not take big corporations as a model, but people like you, so that the tool focuses completely on your needs.

clockin is a software that not only covers time recording, but also aims to digitize all paper processes.

In a free, detailed guide you can find out in detail how to proceed in just seven steps when introducing a time recording tool:

1. Clarify requirements
2. Take employees on the journey
3. Regulate technology and organization
4. Form small test groups
5. Adapt system to needs
6. Collect employee feedback
7. Digitally record times

With clockin you can implement all the processes described above quickly and easily. As an entrepreneur, you always have an overview of employee times and project progress. You can do time recording via app, correct logged working hours by drag-and-drop, create duty rosters, and define working hours as target, flex, core working and maximum working hours. You can also automate your time tracking process, for example by automatically deducting break times. Your accounting department will also be pleased about the Lexoffice and DATEV interface.

The tool can be supplemented with further useful modules for small businesses. These include documentation, digital project files, analyses, absences and various interfaces.

clockin is particularly popular in the following industries: 

• Facility management
• Crafts
• Electrical engineering
• Plumbing, heating and air conditioning
• Health care (e.g. in doctor's offices and in physiotherapy)

Conclusion: a must-have for every company - especially for small businesses!

The digital time recording is particularly important for small businesses, because it is precisely here that resources are limited. Electronic time recording is more than just keeping track of working hours. It is above all an important (first) step towards digitalization. From our point of view, for many reasons it is a must-have for future-oriented companies and crisis-resistant employers. We have presented you in detail with one of the favorite tools of the OMR community in this article. Try it out for yourself during the free trial period!