Exaktime was founded in 1999 by Steve Simmonds, a general contractor in the Southern California area. Steve’s business was growing, and with that he had the normal growing pains of any business. But he also shared the special pain that many contractors have – accurately tracking the time and attendance of his workers.

One problem was the constant submission of “perfect” 40 hour workweek timecards – some with a few extra hours of overtime tacked on. Week after week, payroll after payroll. To make matters worse, when he showed up at the jobsites right at the beginning or near the end of his day, many of his workers weren’t there. But sure enough, when he received the handwritten timecards at the end of the week, the workers recorded perfect attendance, on time, every time.

He didn’t believe that his workers were dishonest, but he knew that filling in timecards at the end of the week, combined with bad memory and sloppy habits, was taking a significant bite out of his bottom line.

He searched for a product that would meet his needs – it needed to be rugged enough for a construction jobsite – handle dust, grime, spray, mud, dropping, impact – and still record the time accurately and reliably. But he couldn’t find anything out there that fit the bill.

So Steve invented The Jobclock System.

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The Jobclock System eliminates handwritten timecards.

All contractors share Steve’s costly problem: effectively tracking and monitoring the time spent by their workers at every jobsite.

Handwritten timecards to give a rough approximation of the labor hours spent at each jobsite. Workers are supposed to fill in their labor hours daily when they arrive and leave a jobsite. They are often asked to track their activities on the jobsite as well. They should be neatly filled in, subtotaled, and show overtime, if any.

All great in theory – but the reality is quite different, as every contractor can attest to. Timecards are simply inaccurate and ineffective.

As if tracking the correct arrival and departure times wasn’t difficult enough, when workers travel to multiple jobsites and/or if they need to track activities, precise recall is nearly impossible. At the end of the payroll period, another inaccurate timecard is ready for processing.

Back at the office, the timecards having been collected by the supervisor are verified by an office manager or payroll clerk. Handwriting has to be deciphered. Totals need to be double-checked and overtime must be calculated. Each step of this process is error-prone.

In the last step, the finalized hourly totals need to be copied into a bookkeeping program or payroll service, a task which increases in difficulty as the size of the workforce grows.

Computers and electronics have revolutionized the way most businesses operate. Word processors, spreadsheets, accounting applications, and estimating programs have radically improved the productivity and profitability.

So why haven’t these innovations helped the contractor with the age-old problem of time and attendance, accurate job costing, and overtime calculation?

There are a number of reasons. Tracking time and attendance requires a Timeclock. But jobsites are frequently unimproved – exposed to weather and lacking any power. Solvents, sprays, dust, and grime are enough to damage the toughest tools – let alone an electronic timeclock.

In order to clock in and out, usually a “badge” is required – which can be bent or otherwise damaged. Biometric systems that rely on fingerprints are useless when the workers’ hands are stained with paint, putty, stain, grease, or dirt.

What contractors were waiting for was a virtually indestructible battery-powered timeclock, a rugged durable ID mechanism workers can carry, and simple straightforward software designed to deliver quick accurate numbers for payroll and job costing.

 

Enter The Jobclock System.

The revolutionary, award-winning Jobclock System is the first and only solution for accurate time and attendance for the contractor. The Jobclocks are battery-powered and can be secured anywhere – indoors or outside in any kind of weather. Workers get a pair of green and red “Keytabs” to clock in and out for the workday and lunch.

At some point before payroll, the time an attendance records are collected from the Jobclocks using a Palm Pilot. The Palm communicates with the Jobclock using infrared – as simple as using a TV remote.

Back at the office, the office manager or payroll clerk uses the software on the desktop to generate more than a dozen customized informative reports. Employee reports show exactly how much time each worker spent at jobsites, performing particular activities. Jobsite reports help gain an understanding of the time spent at each jobsite – dramatically improving the accuracy of job costing. Timecard reports summarize the work week for each worker, and include precise totals for overtime.

But does this technology truly benefit the contractor?

The American Payroll Association figures that switching to an automated payroll system results in an immediate 9% savings on payroll. With just ten workers making an average of $15 per hour, this is an immediate savings of more than $2,000 per month…that’s almost $25,000 annually.

And this is just the start of the savings – office workers spent only a fraction of the time on payroll preparation, since there are no more handwritten timecards to decipher and verify.

The AccountLinx software designed for The Jobclock System further reduces payroll preparation time by automatically transferring accurate time and attendance information to popular payroll and accounting packages like QuickBooks, Intuit Master Builder, Paychex, American Contractor, Dexter and Chaney, and others.

But what benefits do time and attendance solutions really bring the contractor? Isn’t it expensive to get started? What if the workers don’t comply or they resist the system when it’s put in place?

Make no mistake – implementing an electronic time and attendance system can bring tremendous benefits to a business. But it also requires commitment from the business. The first step is to realize that the old ways of tracking time are inaccurate, ineffective, and extremely costly. The next step is to select and purchase an appropriate solution. And, finally, management has to deploy the solution to the workforce. Most companies take at least two to three payroll periods to fully roll out a system. After that, the return on investment is substantial. In surveys taken of Jobclock customers, the typical return on investment is about five weeks.

Handwritten timecards are a relic of the past. Accurate electronic timekeeping, such as that provided by The Jobclock System, can significantly reduce costs, improve job costing and labor estimating, and simplify the payroll process. Increased profits, increased competitiveness…..Find out why 90,000 workers clocked in today with The Jobclock System…It’s about time.