Streamline Time Tracking for Your Decorative Concrete Business Using Timestation.com

Properly tracking employees' time doesn't have to be complicated, but it does have to be accurate. Ditch the paper and embrace technology to fulfill this critical business practice for your decorative concrete company.

Today I’m going to discuss how to simplify time tracking for your decorative concrete crew using Timestation.com.

Be sure to read to the end because I'll give you the Federal Labor Standards Act in simple terms.

What is Timestation.com?

Timestation.com is a cloud-based time-tracking software that makes it easy for you to manage your crew's attendance, breaks, and overtime.

And yes, you need to track all of these things to run your decorative concrete business properly.

We recommend this tool because it's what we use in our own business.

Benefits of Using Time Tracking Apps

The benefits of using Timestation or a similar application include the following:

Benefit #1: Saves time and money

Anytime you automate a process in your business, you will save time and money.

Properly tracking employee time is required in running a small business, so let's automate it.

Benefit #2: Prevents time theft and reduces payroll errors

Timestation includes features like facial recognition to clock in (so employees can't clock in for each other) and GPS verification so your employees can't clock in off-site.

But it also does all of the calculations within the system, reducing the chance of error common in manual calculations.

Benefit #3: Improves compliance with labor laws and regulations

As a small business, you must comply with labor laws and regulations. Ignorance will not protect you from fines and legal problems.

This can include requirements to retain records of employee work hours, overtime, and other data, which an application like Timestation will assist with.

Stick around to the end because I will share the time requirements as laid out in the Federal Labor Standards Act.

Pro Tip: With all this talk about employees, you may be wondering if members of your crew are employees or contractors. We detail the difference between the two in the post "Are My Workers Independent Contractors, and How Do I Pay Them?"

How does Timestation.com work?

The application allows you to track your employees' time and attendance using their mobile devices or desktop computers.

Your employees can clock in and out, request time off, and view their schedules through the Timestation.com app or website.

As an employer, you can monitor your employees' attendance, manage their schedules, and generate detailed reports that you can use for payroll and compliance purposes.

To get started with Timestation.com, all you need to do is sign up for an account, download the app, or access the website and start tracking your employees' time and attendance.

Timestation offers a free trial period, so you can test it out and see if it's the right solution for your business. And as of this writing, there's no charge for a company under 10 employees.

We have the app set up on our crew leader's phone. It's his responsibility to have all the crew members clock in and out.

If they work a full day, we have it set up to give them a 30-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks automatically.

We utilize the GPS to log where they clock in and out.

I run a report from Timestation to tell me how many hours to plug into my payroll service.

I do this manually because I only have one three-man crew, but if I scaled to a larger company with multiple crews, I could download a CSV file and import it into my payroll service.

It's that easy.

BONUS: Overview of the Fair Labor Standards Act

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law in the United States that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, and recordkeeping requirements for covered employees.

The FLSA requires employers to keep accurate records of employees' hours worked, wages earned, and other information.

According to this act, you have to keep the following information for each employee: 

1. Personal Information: Employee's full name, home address, Social Security number, gender, and birthdate.
2. Hours Worked: For each workday and workweek, employers must record the actual hours worked by the employee.
3. Wage Information: For each workweek, employers must record the employee's regular rate of pay, total hours worked, and total wages earned.
4. Overtime Information: For each workweek in which the employee worked overtime, employers must record the overtime hours worked, the rate of pay for overtime, and the total overtime wages earned.

Employers must keep these records for at least three years and make them available for inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division — which will be a breeze if you use a solution like Timestation.

So There You Have It

So there you have it. The benefits of properly tracking your employees' time using a solution like Timestation.com, how to get started using it, and why it's not just a good idea— it's required for every decorative concrete small business owner.