Time Tracking | Meaning and Definition

What is Time Tracking? 

Time tracking is the process by which hourly track of employees’ working hours is kept by firms. This guarantees that they are paid correctly for their time. It is a subsection of time and attendance, which is a wide phrase that includes time monitoring as well as other features such as attendance, time off, billable hours, and scheduling.

Traditionally, all of these duties were completed totally by hand. They are now frequently handled by computer software created expressly for that purpose; nevertheless, some companies still do it manually, in part or in whole. The daily procedure by which an employer records an employee’s starting and finishing hours, as well as any breaks not specified in the employee’s contractual agreement, is known as time entry.

To track the timings of employees in and out, time tracking software uses a unique identification; time-tracking functionalities incorporated into a point-of-sale system generally use an employee’s first log in and end-of-day log out to complete time entry and provide system access. The times of day recorded by the time tracking software are termed timestamps in both electronic and manual systems, and the record of an employee’s timestamps is preserved in a timesheet. Approvals are necessary for an organization to verify compensation accuracy and compliance. In most cases, managers of the company will look at the spreadsheet of the companies for the pay period to ensure accuracy, after which HR or software will determine the total hours worked, including any extra hours.