A Brief Guide to Choosing the Best Employee Time Tracking App For Restaurants

What is Employee Time Tracking?

Restaurants run on the back of their employees. The service a restaurant offers is hinged largely on the quality of work its staff puts in. Servers, bartenders, chefs, kitchen assistants and managers comprise the general staff of a foodservice establishment. The time they dedicate to the job needs to be accounted for to make sure tasks are completed and the business runs well.

Time tracking is the process of recording the daily work hours, schedules, breaks and leave of all team members. Employee time tracking needs to be done in a systematic manner to make sure workers do their jobs well and on time, to catch malpractice, and spot discrepancies in paid work hours. For the restaurant's management, time tracking forms the basis of payroll management and task management of team members.

Different Types of Employee Time Tracking Methods

1. Project-based time tracking-
This method of time tracking is useful when it comes to individual Project Management, outside of the daily run of your operations. It's ideal for those looking to manage their projects and resources together, aligning and streamlining task management and employee management. For example, your restaurant is looking to host a gala event on Valentine's Day with special arrangements for music, dance and, of course, food. This special event can be handled as a separate project, where your team members can be monitored according to their assigned work hours and tasks for that day.

2. Individual time tracking-
The common method of tracking time is to use time cards and timesheets to monitor employee work hours. The individual time tracking method is used to keep track of clock-in and clock-out timings, break hours, etc. of each employee. These records are then tallied by team managers for payroll, appraisals and task assessment.

What Makes Time Tracking Software a Good Investment?

1. Better accountability- Deploying a time tracker at your restaurant will help you make your workforce more accountable for their work hours, leave, breaks and tasks completed. All punches on the time cards will be recorded in real time by the tracking software, which will help you make your team more responsible for the time they spend on each task.
2. Transparency- Maintaining time stamps for team members' work hours and tasks will bring greater transparency into your workforce management system. Tasks will be better streamlined, enabling you to accurately keep track of when a job has been assigned and completed. Time tracking tools let your team members know that their work hours are being monitored, leading them to be more accountable and productive.
3. Reducing labor costs- With efficient time tracking tools, you can keep track of workers' time cards using biometrics, where an employee's unique fingerprint or retinal or facial scan is used to identify them. This eliminates the practice of buddy punching and time theft, where employees swipe their friends' time cards so that they don't lose their pay when they're absent. By preventing this from happening, modern time tracking tools reduce labor costs.
   
4. Keep track of tasks- Apart from your team members, you can also keep track of the progress of each job that has been assigned to an employee.
   
5. Payroll integration- Time tracking apps can be directly integrated with your payroll system to make sure employees are correctly paid for the work they dono more, no less.
   

Essential Features of Time Tracking Apps

• Real time tracking- Time tracking apps must enable GPS tracking to help pinpoint the exact location of all team members when they work remotely. It should also provide real time updates on their work progress and work hours.
  
• Labor law compliance- Time tracking software and employee scheduling apps also take care of labor law compliance by enforcing mandatory norms on work hours, work breaks and leave.
  
• Alerts & notifications- Tracking apps must send you real time alerts and notifications about late clock-ins, extended breaks, incomplete tasks, misconduct or labor law violations that may hamper your operations.
  
• Cloud-based timesheets and time cards- Cloud-based apps maintain timesheets and time cards online, allowing employees and managers to access them from any location.
  
• Project management- Use time tracking software to manage projects, assign tasks to team members and view the progress of each project, individually.
  
• Reports and analytics- Time tracking software will also provide you with reports and analytics of employee attendance, workforce management and project management. You can use this data to assist you in future decision-making and optimizing your business.
  

What Time Tracking App Should You Go For

The time tracking software you invest in will depend on the nature of your business, the scale of your operations, the number of employees you manage, and the tasks they are assigned.
Here are some basic guidelines on choosing the best time and attendance software for your restaurant-

• Evaluate your business type and scale of operations.
  
• Get an estimate of the number of employees you are handling on a daily basis.
  
• Bear in mind the type of projects and tasks you need to keep track of.
  
• Have an estimate of the budget you want to spend on your tracking software.
  
• Make sure you opt for tracking software that comes with a mobile app that works on your devices.
  
• Check how many users can use the tracking app simultaneously and if the number suits your business needs.
  

3 Top Time Tracking Apps for Restaurant Employees

1. Zip Clock-
Zip Clock is an employee time management system that makes the job of handling staff effortless and efficient, while helping restaurant owners reduce labor costs. Solutions offered by Zip Clock include time tracking, labor law compliance, time theft and buddy punch checks, break reminders, payroll management, and audit trails of employee punches. Zip Clock offers a biometric time tracking system that makes sure there are no unauthorized time card punches. Employees can easily find shift replacements using the time tracking app, while managers can review and edit employee timesheets and directly communicate with team members. Zip Clock can be purchased from Hubworks, an online app store dedicated to the restaurant industry.

2. 7Shifts-
The 7Shifts tracking software is another cloud-based employee scheduling and time tracking app that helps restaurants reduce labor costs and stay compliant with local labor laws. 7Shifts simplifies a restaurant's employee scheduling and time tracking functions, while also providing efficient tools that help managers communicate directly and immediately with team members. This easy-to-use software allow users to create shift schedules for all team members within minutes and reduces the time it takes to design conflict-free worksheets.

3. Homebase-
This cloud-based time tracking and employee scheduling solution helps businesses to manage employee schedules, tasks and payroll via its app. The time tracking feature helps businesses reduce their labor costs by keeping check on labor mismanagement and misuse of work hours. The time tracking app can also be integrated with other third-party restaurant management solutions for optimized business operations.

Final Word

Businesses that serve hundreds of customers with a small team depend on efficient and easy to use workforce management systems to run their operations smoothly. That is exactly what time tracking apps will do. No matter the size, type, or budget of your restaurant, there's a time tracking software out there that will help you get the most out of your team and make the best of your business.