Even with the business world becoming increasingly computerized, technologically advanced and digital, there remains a big learning curve for building service contractors. When it comes to timekeeping and payroll, devices the technological spectrum is wide, with options for BSCs of any size that help save time and paperwork headaches.

A substantial percentage of small- to mid-level BSCs track hours and process payroll the traditional way: manual tracking, with timesheets filled out by hand, and processed by hand.

“I have a very simple system,” says Michael Carlin, president of MD Building Services in New York City. “I don’t bother with telephone timekeeping, I don’t have punch clocks because they’re all over the place. I assume they’re showing up for work and doing a good job if I don’t get complaints. So it’s really complaint-driven.”

For Carlin — and probably a lot of other BSCs — the old-fashioned honor system works. In fact, those timekeeping and payroll practices are more prominent than most people realize, says payroll technology expert Cary Welsh, COO of Cougar Mountain Software in Boise.

“I think it’s common in the cleaning industry as well as in construction because they have a similar situation, where you may have multiple job sites, multiple employees,” Welsh says.

Because of the multitude of payroll situations facing contractors, there needs to be a variety of ways to make timekeeping and payroll calculation as labor-efficient as possible. Depending on a BSC’s needs and budget, there are several options available that can track employees with greater accuracy, thanks to technology.

Clocking in electronically

Electronic systems allow employees to punch in at the physical location of the job. There are devices that can be installed at the job site for employees to swipe a card against as well.

Another option popular with BSCs is telephone-based software systems through which employees can call in to special phone lines that are connected to a computer, that records the clock-in and clock-out times. Some systems also allow this kind of timekeeping to be entered on a computer keyboard.

“There are several devices out there that are Web-based, where somebody could log in and basically punch into timekeeping software that would then record the time at various locations,” Welsh says.

Employees of Michael Perkins, president of CleanRight Building Maintenance in Tucson, Ariz., used to call in to an office phone that had caller identification and leave a message. Then, Perkins would go through and listen to messages, recording his workers’ times in and out. Frequently, he says, the mailbox would fill up. So it was cheaper than the automated payroll software he uses now, which connects employees to the computer system with a phone line, but much more time-consuming. For him, paying a little more to do less, thus freeing up his time to do more important things, is worth the change.

More commonly, BSCs are having employees at remote locations accessible by cell phone or other portable data collectors such as personal digital assistants (PDAs). The portable devices can be handed out to crews working in the field, who punch in wirelessly.

Always room for improvement

No matter the system used, software can really help improve efficiency for a contractor, Welsh says. A simple data entry system can be used by companies still using paper timesheets — and remote access can be provided for those who want to enter them from home or other sites than the office. And whether a device is Web-based or not, most will create a simple export file for information necessary to process a payroll.

“So it’s just a matter of formatting the data that the accounting system needs from this export file that these devices create and it’s, at that point, just a simple matter of pulling it all in,” Welsh says. “All your information’s there so it’s really just the final step of calculating taxes and going through the direct deposit or printing up the checks and so forth.”

There is no lack of software and payroll automation systems for BSCs to choose from. For many contractors, the need for new technology applications comes down to whether the system in place works or not, and whether it is as efficient as it can be.




POSTED ON: 3/1/2008