Australian Fair Work Commission – Timesheet Records
Ad-Hoc Time Tracking? Beware!
The Australian Fair Work Commission (FWC) has updated the annualised wage arrangements as of this year to create more accuracy and transparency with companies timesheet tracking policies. The Australian Fair Work Commission’s Best Practice Tip is as follows:
“Employers should keep records of hours worked for all employees, including pieceworkers. Adopting best practice record-keeping makes it easier to keep track of employee details, identify payroll mistakes and keeps a business running efficiently. It also helps avoid fines for doing the wrong thing.”
Well, what would be the wrong thing? The wrong thing is to be found negligent in keeping accurate and up to date timesheet records of all employees and pieceworkers. Why? This is to accurately document that you are paying all the recorded and actual time worked by your staff.
Accurate timesheet records can be used as evidence to protect your business in a legal situation.
Remember the classic saying that says “it is not official unless it is in writing”, well this is the case. No Company wants to be in this position and as of the last few months, we have heard of massive Corporations facing hefty fines due to the negligence of them not keeping up-to-date timesheet records.
It is not just a fine either, it is YOUR brand and YOUR Company on the line. This does tarnish your image and communicates your irresponsibility to your staff and the rest of society. It suggests that you don’t care for your team. You don’t care to pay them the right amount that measures up to their hours worked.
Manual Time Tracking
Best-practice timesheet record-keeping would be to follow the FWC recommendations. There are templates for such timesheets found on the FWC website. The only thing is that you are required to keep these timesheet records for a total of seven years! So at this point, you’re either printing out paper timesheets or frantically emailing each employee an excel template just to track their hours. Time is money, and there you have it –
Your team is expending TIME, risking human ERROR and potential time CREEP by preparing manual timesheets.
Add in a few Supervisors or Operations Managers to approve these timesheets and now the process becomes even longer and more complex. More time is wasted before the timesheets even make it to accounts. This outdated process is CLUNKY, tedious and takes unnecessarily long for your teams to process.
Timesheet Software
Don’t be discouraged, there is a better way! In today’s world, many software solutions exist to automate your timesheet tracking but not all are alike.
A quality digital timesheet system should:
- have a smart user interface to document hours and overtime
- support contactless employee sign-in/ sign-out
- enable employees to apply for leave
- enable team leaders to approve time easily
- facilitate information sharing across your executive Office Staff across multiple locations
- pull all the accurate timesheet data straight to your chosen payroll for easy processing
- integrate with a range of time-clock systems, including fingerprint scanners and facial recognition
- be cloud-based
Selecting the best solution is a critical decision. Accurate time recording not only saves you time but also helps reveal discrepancies between time worked and payments received. With the right information in hand, you can move swiftly to adjust pay accordingly. The painful process of filling out paper timesheets and relaying the right information is no more!!!
Timecloud Time and Attendance
We at Timecloud have helped Companies, just like you, who have come straight to us to help them meet the FWC regulations. Our #timesheet tracker design is useful for employees and employers. It can be used for the sake of both parties to mitigate the risk of inaccurate time recording and enhance the transparency of total hours worked.
Our cloud-based timesheet system can be used to ensure that you keep in line with the Australian Fair Work Commission regulations.
Many companies have been making the right move to be FWC compliant with their time recording measures. If you have yet to make the move to be FWC compliant with your timesheets, then you will be in ‘catch up mode’, and this will inevitably see your task rising to the top of your to-do list before it is too late.
Make a decision today that benefits your business and leads to you carrying less risk! Find out how Timecloud can help you !!! Stay FWC compliant and save hours of unnecessary manual time tracking with a trusted solution.
BOOK A DEMO TODAY with one of our trusted advisors.
References:
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/pay-slips-and-record-keeping/record-keeping