Today I spoke with a gentleman by the name of Rob who was experiencing a very common pain point in his business. He, like many CEO’s is very rarely in this office during the day due to the simple nature of his position. This in itself is not the issue. The issue is that his employee time tracking is based upon the honor system. Ouch. Whenever Rob is in the office all of his employees turn into saints who never show up late and can clock out just in time to make a perfect 40 hour work week. Sound familiar?

I’m sure most all of us have been here at one point in our lives or another and just like Rob, we too have felt the pain of the "honor system." Just think how many shekels have literally flown right out the window due to employees who fudge 15 minutes here and there.

15 minutes on clock in and clock out is an extra 30 minutes that you’re doling out to this employee every day. That’s 2.5 extra hours a week, 130 hours a year. At $7.50 per hour – minimum wage – that’s almost $1,000 a year that you’ve lost in just one artful dodger of the timesheet. Can you imagine if you had a whole office fudging just a little here and there? And let’s face it, we’re not even sure that employees of the Vatican didn’t push a number around once in awhile.

Fear not Brutus of the Boardroom, there IS a solution to this. It’s called automated time tracking and it’s just one of the many beautiful things that throwing away those pesky written timesheets or the punch clocks prone to buddy punching can do for you!

For just a few bucks per month, and a minimal amount of set up and training with an automated time tracking tool, Rob could be saving his company thousands of dollars a year.

Intrigued? Perfect – here’s the plan. First, be prepared that there are several time tracking software options out there. But don’t let quantity scare you, just be determined to find the quality options. Take a moment to jot down your must-haves when it comes to tracking your employees time.

Then, take the leap. Hop on the free-trial train and test drive a couple time tracking applications that have what you need – mobile clock in/out options for iPhone, texting feature for those without iPhones, ability to generate invoices, automated reporting, manual timesheet revisions, and so on.

Most importantly, realize that this is a new venture for you and your employees. You’re bound to have questions so grab the phone and call customer service. Make sure that the person on the other side of the line is knowledgeable and willing to walk you through anything.

Then sit back, and watch your new automated time tracking tool turn those two daily stints of 15 minute padded times morph into 10 hours per month of (billable) productive time for each employee within your company. Rob did it, can you?