Accurate tracking of working hours plays a vital role in the efficiency and compliance of a company. In EU countries, it is even a mandatory requirement according to the European Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC), which sets out primary safety and health norms for the administration of working time. Additionally, a ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2019 mandated that ”in order to ensure the effectiveness of the rights provided for in the Working Time Directive and the Charter, the Member States must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured”.

Nonetheless, EU legislation doesn’t specify a particular method for recording working time. Companies have the flexibility to choose between printed timesheets, Excel attendance sheets, or digital timekeeping systems. This allows employers to select the system that best suits their needs and the nature of their business, as long as it’s accurate, trustworthy, and easy to use. No matter how you monitor employee attendance, be sure that everything is transparent: start and end of the working time, daily breaks, and special occurrences such as travel. Daily clocking is required also for remote employees and hybrid work schedules.

Having this brief overview of the legal framework, let's take a look at the common problems which appear when attendance is registered manually, on printed timesheets. It’s beyond doubt that attendance registers, timesheets and presence forms are a simple and accessible way of recording daily work activities. It doesn't require any technical setup and is easy to comply with. But (there is always a but)… manual timekeeping is far from flexible and accurate, generating various errors.

These errors happen too often and are hard to control:

  • Employees often forget to log their daily working hours, and delaying this task results in inaccuracies, missing important details, and in the end incorrect calculations at the end of the month.
     
  • Manually data entry makes timekeeping complicated for no reason. When vital activities are unnecessarily convoluted, constant errors will occur. Eventually, managers will deal with back-and-forth actions trying to solve these problems, which adds more stress and  creates even more pressure.
     
  • In the rush of everyday work, employees can easily overlook noting their lunch pause or other random breaks. As a result, overtime hours will be recorded that weren't truly worked.
     
  • In companies with project based time tracking, incorrect use of project codes when logging time can lead to wrong budget allocations.
     
  • Without a proper way to verify attendance, employees might get mismatched PTO, vacation, and special day records.
     
  • If timesheets are filled out on paper, sending them to HR becomes a hassle in big companies and for remote workers.
     
  • On the other hand, if time is recorded in an editable digital file, there is a high risk of fraud.


In the fast-paced digital world we live in, tracking employee attendance doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming, or confusing. The most efficient solution to avoid exhausting manual work is digitalization. Physical activities should have meaning, that’s why automating routine tasks with digital tools improves work satisfaction. Say hello to electronic time tracking, a more flexible and efficient method for managing attendance! Compared to printed timesheets and local stored Excel files, digital time tracking guarantees 100% accuracy.

Think of digital timekeeping with RFID cards. Employees clock in in seconds and everything is calculated automatically,  so there's no need for end-of-month calculations. Forget also about gathering filled attendance sheets and distributing new ones for each employee at the beginning of the month. Modern electronic time tracking solutions offer more than just online attendance: they include document digitization, quick leave requests and approvals, work schedule planning with customizable templates, special features for remote work, project-based work, and much more.

And this is just one of the many time tracking methods available. Papervee, for example, can help you with online time tracking via QR code, electronic timekeeping with RFID cards, digital attendance management via web platform and mobile app, and even geofencing time tracking. Find out which system fits your business best: learn more here.

Paper timesheets might seem like a safe and simple solution, but it can sabotage your productivity, transparency, and flexibility. In today's fast-paced work environment, strategic time management is crucial to achieving business goals in time, without and getting your HR overwhelmed.

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