How Does Employee Attendance Software Work?

Managing employee attendance can become difficult when a business relies on paper registers, spreadsheets or separate tools. Employee attendance software provides a central place to record when employees work and to organize the information needed for everyday workforce management.

What is employee attendance software?

Employee attendance software is a digital system used to record and manage employee attendance and working time. Depending on the system, businesses may track clock-in and clock-out records, working hours, shifts, overtime, leave and attendance reports.

Instead of keeping attendance information in separate files, a workforce management platform can keep these records connected with employee profiles and other workforce processes.

How does an employee attendance system work?

A typical attendance workflow has several simple steps:

1. Create employee records. Add employees and their basic workforce information.
2. Set working schedules. Define working days, shifts and scheduled hours where needed.
3. Record attendance. Capture employee clock-in and clock-out information.
4. Calculate working time. Use attendance records to organize regular hours, breaks and overtime.
5. Review reports. Managers can review attendance and working-time information.
6. Use the records for other processes. Attendance and working-time information can support timesheets and payroll preparation.

What information can attendance software manage?

The exact features vary by product, but workforce attendance systems commonly organize information such as:

• Employee attendance records
• Clock-in and clock-out times
• Working hours
• Employee shifts and schedules
• Breaks and overtime
• Leave information
• Attendance and workforce reports

Attendance software and timesheets

Attendance and timesheets are related, but they are not always the same thing. Attendance focuses on when an employee is present or records working time. A timesheet can organize the hours worked during a period and may be used for payroll, project tracking or management reporting.

For a detailed comparison, read our guide: Attendance vs Timesheets: What's the Difference?

Connecting attendance with timesheets can reduce repeated data entry and make working-time records easier to review.

How attendance software can support payroll

Payroll often depends on accurate employee and working-time information. Attendance records can help businesses review regular hours, overtime and other time-related information before preparing payroll.

WorkForce Master brings attendance, timesheets, payroll, leave and workforce reports together so businesses can manage these processes from one platform.

WorkForce Master for modern businesses

WorkForce Master helps businesses manage employee attendance, schedules, timesheets, leave, payroll and workforce reporting from one platform.

What should you look for in attendance software?

Before choosing an attendance system, businesses can consider whether it supports their employee records, schedules, attendance workflow, timesheets, leave process, payroll workflow and reporting needs. It is also useful to consider how easily employees and managers can use the system in their daily work.

Frequently asked questions