Roughly 50% of businesses fail with the first 5 years of existence. Why do so many businesses go out of business? Millions of words have been written on the subject, but the simple reality is most businesses that fail, fail because their expenses exceed revenue. There are two ways to prevent this from happening: increase revenues or decrease expenses. Almost 50% of a business’ expenses come from payroll, making it the largest expense on the books. Because of this, managing payroll expenses becomes a critical part of running a successful business.
Managing Employee Time
The American Payroll Association reports that human error from time inaccuracies can cost up to 8% of your gross payroll. Cutting 8% from your payroll cost would save a significant chunk of change for any business. Accurately tracking time is an easy way to save your business from costly expenses that could cost you your business. If you want to see an estimate for how much you could potentially save by automating your time keeping check out this free online time theft calculator.
Small Business Software Needs
Investing in a timesheet program is an effective way for small businesses to manage their employees’ time while saving money on payroll. Small businesses have unique challenges and should take careful consideration of the following items to ensure they are getting the right solution.
- Cost – The benefit of purchasing a time clock program is lowering your expenses. If the software eats up all the savings from cutting your payroll costs, then what was the point? On-premise programs tend to be significantly less expensive than web based programs and tend to work very well for small business. See our comparison of on premise vs. web based time clock programs for more information.
- Simplicity – Small businesses generally don’t need advanced job costing, GPS location tracking, and facial recognition scanners. When it comes to time tracking keep it simple.
- IT Support – Having a dedicated IT specialist is a luxury for larger companies. You are the one handling technical issues when it comes to software so make sure the software you choose has a robust support center with phone, email, and live chat availability.
Taking the time to set up a time tracking system can be a huge cost cutting benefit when done properly and is something every small business should try to do. Investing the time and money upfront to find the right solution will provide major savings down the road.