3 Dissatisfactions With Traditional Retail Punch Clock Systems

Aulia Soegiantoro SingaporeGetting Ridiculously Client Focused!

As part of getting to know PayrollHero and our clients we decided that it was time for me get out of the office and do some “hallway testing” with Singapore retailers. At PayrollHero the team is constantly talking about “getting out of the office”, “hallway testing” and “being ridiculously client focused”. Today, it was my turn.

Getting to know our customer segment in Singapore is important as we continue to get our product out there. We want to know what these retail businesses do for time, attendance, scheduling and payroll. And we really want to get to the bottom of the pains store managers have with their current system.

I set out to speak to outlet or store managers of F&B businesses around the Ocean Financial Center @ Raffles Place.

A lot of Pain!

Indeed! My conversations revealed that out of 6 outlet managers I spoke with today, all of them mentioned dissatisfaction with their current time clock systems for time and attendance.

Here’s why:

  1. The Biometric System (Thumbprint Scanners)

    Using this system to clock in and out at the workplace seem to be the most common with majority (4 of 6) of the outlet managers I spoke with today. They revealed that they have been using the biometric systems for employees clocking in and out at work, and are not happy about it. A manager at a salad outlet says that it is an ‘imperfect system’ because the system itself is inaccurate. This comment is also shared with a manager of a bakery chain; who complained that the system sometimes don’t read the thumbprint accurately and records the time down for the wrong employee.Frustrating? Yes! The same outlet manager adds on saying that at times system reads as ‘absent’ as the employee clocks in.
  2. The Punch Card Machine 

    The major problem one manager at a sushi outlet has with the attendance system is that the punch machine always broken down. In the days it takes for the machine to get fixed, he has to make time to manually clocking in and out his workers on an excel spreadsheet.Security is another concern with punch card machines. The time sheets are collected, then sent to the HR department for payroll processing via post or using a delivery person. What happens if the mail goes missing? All the data on the time sheets is not backed up on a system.

  3. Point-of-Sale (POS) System 

    This POS system gives employees a 4-digit code to use over the register to clock in and out of work. So what’s the issue? Well, for an outlet manager of a smoothie chain store here at Raffles Place, she is unhappy that she has to do double work – where she will manually keys in the clock in and out data of each employee again on a different system at the end of each week for payroll.She hopes she has a system that connects the time and attendance with payroll to save time!

The Take- Away

This test has revealed to me that plenty of time can be saved if redundancies and “double-work” for the purpose of verification are eliminated. Managers are delighted to work more productively if they had a system that could shorten the process for time and attendance at the outlet and worry less about payroll.


Want to learn more about PayrollHero? 

Check out our Singapore Payroll Software website or attend our next event on May 14th 2015.

Singapore Payroll Software | PayrollHero

If you have ever worked in human resources and admin, you would know what a pain payroll management can be!

Inflated time sheets, overtime and time-off.

How do you calculate the 43 odd minutes an employee has been showing up for work late for the past 2 weeks? Or the minutes they left work too early? How do you add up the tax on commissions earned for the past week?  These are just the beginning of your troubles.

What about tracking down which employees have had their teammate clock in for them? And the hassle of going after those who do not submit their time sheets at all! 

No More Timesheets!

The days where you would spend hours racking your brain computing payroll into an outdated software or excel spreadsheets are gone. This is where PayrollHero saves the day!

PayrollHero is a cloud-based HR and payroll management software that tracks time, attendance and scheduling for businesses of any size. #payrollhero_sg

And you would be so grateful: employees are happy to clock in and out of work in seconds. The Selfie TeamClock uses the employee’s face as the biometric for clocking in and out. Say goodbye to misaligned timestamps and impossible-to-read handwriting.

The system ensures that employees are really at their workstation or desks on time as the software computes, tracks and reports to optimise payroll management. Just enter all the information you need, like: employee records, roster schedule, hourly rate, per diems, benefits, CPF and other tax calculations. PayrollHero will assist you with set up from start to finish.

Eliminate Fraud!

PayrollHero takes care of annoying time-in problems with a nifty innovation: facial TimeClockrecognition technology.

To clock in and out at work, employees just need to take a picture of themselves at their workstation. They can use this on their laptop or desktop, iOS and Android devices.

PayrollHero system will match the photo to the employee records and track their time against the correct schedule and GPS location, to make sure that the person is at the right place and the right time.

Sure, you’re thinking that any thumbprint and other biometric systems can achieve the same results. But that requires additional employee information and thumb/ palm scanners. Here, all you need is a camera.

Share the Load!

Each employee is responsible for their own hours, and the app is designed to inform them if they are late, early, undertime or over. They can view their schedule and record using the WebApp or #MyClock app on iOS.

All the information is stored in the cloud and updated in real time, anywhere. So, the manager getting to an offsite meeting can still check-in to see what’s happening at the office at any time on the phone.

When it’s time to run the payroll, the system computes everything down to the last minute. All the payroll administrator needs to do is review and approve the payroll.

Runs On Any Device

PayrollHero does not require you to purchase any new hardware or expensive licenses. The system works great on your existing hardware: desktop, laptop, iOS and Android devices.

PayrollHero for Singapore Businesses

The PayrollHero Team has made the app awesome for Singapore businesses. The app is now localised and updated to fit Singapore payroll requirements including: Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) taxes on employee remuneration, CPF employer contributions and deductions, bonuses, contributions to community funds (MDMF, SINDA, CDAC), Foreign Worker Levy and others.

We Are Doing It Right!

We are excited to launch our amazing product in Singapore. Having enjoyed success in the Philippines, the market here poses as a friendly challenge.

“ We are much more than just payroll. We are what we like to call ‘ridiculously client focused,’ and that means working to ensure HR and payroll professionals have the tools they need to do their jobs better […] Our focus is on the much bigger picture of helping clients utilize our platform to run their businesses better.” -Steve Jagger, Co-Founder PayrollHero.com

Happy clients in Singapore!

We are off to a great start with a few big brand names already using PayrollHero.

singapore payroll clients

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Did you know PayrollHero can qualify for Singapore’s Spring Innovation & Capability Voucher (ICV) – Integrated Solutions (IS). (Read More)

Restaurant News Recap

A quick recap of restaurant news from around the world. See anything interesting that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.

Wendy’s fast food chain believed to have shut down all outlets in Singapore (source)

Chipotle is going to stop using GMOs in its food (Source)

The American chain Applebee’s is coming to the Philippines (Source)

McDonald’s is apparently planning to close hundreds of stores (Source)

And of course, if you are looking for restaurant recommendations from the PayrollHero team within walking distance of our offices… Here is where we suggest for Fort Bonifacio, Philippines, Singapore and Whistler, Canada.

Philippine Labor Day | PayrollHero

Philippine Labor day

“May 1 is known as Labor Day and is a public holiday in the Philippines. On this day, labor organizations and unions hold protests in major cities. On May 1, 1903, during theAmerican colonial period the Union Obrera Democratica Filipina (Filipino Democratic Labor Union) held a 100,000-person[52] rally in front of the Malacañan Palace demanding workers’ economic rights and Philippine independence.[citation needed] Ten years later, the first official[by whom?] celebration was held on May 1, 1913 when 36 labor unions convened for a congress in Manila.[52] On May 1, 2001, a mass demonstration occurred near Malacañang Palace known as EDSA 3 or May 1 Riots.” *wikipedia