The construction industry is challenging and multifaceted, involving a wide range of projects, shifting team dynamics, and strict timelines. Effectively managing labor costs, ensuring accurate time tracking, and streamlining payroll processes are crucial for success. To ensure these tasks are properly carried out, there’s a need for a robust timekeeping solution that’s tailored to the unique challenges of construction. This is where Fareclock becomes invaluable.
What are the challenges of construction timekeeping?
Construction projects often involve multiple work sites, dispersed teams, and varying pay rates for different skill sets. Traditional timekeeping methods, such as paper timesheets, are prone to errors, time theft, and administrative overhead. These inefficiencies can lead to inaccurate payroll, cost overruns, and project delays. Furthermore, managing a distributed workforce and ensuring compliance with labor regulations adds another layer of complexity.
How does Fareclock address the needs of the construction industry?
Fareclock offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to tackle the specific challenges faced by construction businesses:
Accurate time tracking
Construction sites are often spread out, making it difficult to accurately track employee hours across different locations. Buddy punching and manual errors are common issues. Fareclock addresses this with a mobile clock-in/clock-out feature, which, combined with geolocation and geofencing capabilities, ensures accurate time tracking regardless of employee location.
Preview: Successful facial recognition (Left), User Punch details (Middle), and Punch Location (Right)
Additionally, construction projects often involve managing a dispersed workforce across multiple sites and traditional timekeeping methods struggle to keep track of everyone’s hours and location.
Using Fareclock’s mobile app allows employees to log their hours from anywhere, offering real-time insights into workforce activities. This also enables managers to easily monitor employee hours and location, ensuring projects stay on schedule.
Labor cost control and budgeting
Manual timekeeping makes it difficult to monitor labor expenses in real time. The solution is to use Fareclock’s job costing feature, which allows construction businesses to track labor costs against specific projects, phases, and cost codes. This precise tracking provides valuable insights into labor capacity and resource allocation, enabling project managers to make more informed decisions.
Preview: Costing (Jobs) Settings on Fareclock Console
Preview: Costing (Job Phases) Settings on Fareclock Console
Preview: Costing (Cost Codes) Settings on Fareclock Console
Workers frequently split their hours between different tasks like framing, roofing, and concrete work, which is why a fixed and remainder job allocation is essential in effectively distributing hours done for multiple projects and jobs.
Preview: Bulk Costing Distribution on Fareclock Console
With Fareclock’s option to distribute job costing in bulk across workers, construction firms improve project budgeting, track productivity, and comply with labor regulations.
Simplified payroll processing
The problem with most manual payroll processes is that they’re time-consuming and prone to errors. The good news is that Fareclock integrates seamlessly with payroll systems, automating the transfer of time and attendance data. This removes error-prone data entry tasks and simplifies the payroll process.
Preview: Manage Payroll on Fareclock Console
Enhanced worker accountability
For dispersed teams, maintaining worker accountability and maximizing productivity can be challenging. Fareclock addresses this by accurately tracking work hours and job costs. Real-time visibility into employee activity also allows managers to identify any productivity issues and address them promptly.
Preview: Dashboard Roll Call Summary
Real-time reporting and alerts
Accessing timely and accurate reports on labor costs and project progress can be challenging with manual systems. Fareclock addresses this by providing managers with real-time reporting and alerts on labor costs, overtime hours, and project progress, enabling them to make data-driven decisions.
Fareclock in action: Construction use cases
Here are some specific scenarios showcasing how Fareclock benefits construction businesses:
Scenario 1: Managing a large-scale construction project
Challenge – A construction company is managing a large-scale project with multiple sites and hundreds of workers. Tracking employee hours, managing different pay rates for various trades, and staying within budget are significant challenges.
Fareclock solution – Fareclock’s job costing feature allows the company to track labor costs for each phase of the project, ensuring they stay within budget. The mobile app enables employees to clock in and out from different sites, and the system automatically calculates wages based on their specific trade and pay rate.
Scenario 2: Tracking labor costs for different trades
Challenge – A construction company employs various trades, each with different pay rates. Accurately tracking hours worked for each trade and calculating payroll can be complex.
Fareclock solution – Fareclock’s pay classes feature allows the company to set up different pay rates for each trade. The system automatically calculates payroll based on each employee’s assigned pay class and the hours they worked.
Preview: Pay Class Settings on the Fareclock Console
Preview: Pay Code Settings on the Fareclock Console
Scenario 3: Reducing time theft at work sites
Challenge – A construction company has multiple work sites, making it difficult to monitor employee time and prevent time theft.
Fareclock solution – Fareclock’s makes it so that employees can only clock in using facial recognition while geolocation features verify their presence at the designated job site, thereby preventing time theft.
Scenario 4: Streamlining payroll for a growing construction business
Challenge – A rapidly growing construction business is struggling to manage payroll manually. The process is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Fareclock solution – Fareclock integrates seamlessly with the company’s payroll system, automating the transfer of time and attendance data. This streamlines the payroll process, reduces errors, and frees up HR staff to focus on other important tasks.
Control labor costs, reduce time theft, and simplify payroll. See how Fareclock can benefit your construction business. Get a free quote now!
