# Tracking employee start and end time



## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

I own a remodeling company and have 4 crews of 2-3 guys per crew working for me. We do all kinds of remodeling. I personally can't keep track of when guys show up and leave the jobsite. How do you check your guys actual jobsite time vs. Time sheet?

I actually trust my guys but it is always good to audit and keep people in check. I am thinking about getting a wild game camera and locating it near the drive way (hidden), it will snap photos when the motion sensor is triggered. It also will put a date and time stamp on the pics. I figure i can pop the card into my laptop at the end of the week and take a look.

I would only use this on the vacant homes that we remodel. When the customer doesn't live there we sometimes work late days to help push volume. any ways any thoughts???


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

Job Clock


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

I agree it is important to accurately track employee man hours but your hidden camera method will do nothing but breed ill will. What are you going to do if you catch an employee with a discrepancy? Hey I saw you get to work late on my hidden camera. There are job clocks out there to help with this task. When you get them just tell the guys that due to current economic conditions you have to monitor labor costs more closely. I knew a guy who used the job clocks and immediately tightened up his payroll.


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## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

*understood*

griz I agree with you on that I really hate thinking about it. But the problem that I see with job clock is that they could clock in and then "forget" to clock out, come back 2 hours later and then really clock out. 

I understand that it comes down to trust and hiring great people and paying them what they are worth which I feel I do. My leads make 18-$20 and my helpers make 8-$12 per hour (San Antonio texas rates). Just need a little help.

If they found the camera i would tell them it is for jobsite security, if there was a descrepancy with thier time i would just say "are you sure you are right I thought you left at xxxx time"?:whistling


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

lshomesolutions said:


> griz I agree with you on that I really hate thinking about it. But the problem that I see with job clock is that they could clock in and then "forget" to clock out, come back 2 hours later and then really clock out.


If you have to worry about something like that you already have a bigger problem to address first before even worrying about this issue.

You said at first you actually trust your guys and now you say you don't. 

Which one is it?

If you don't trust your guys you should work on that as a separate issue. There is no clock system that is going to police a bunch of criminals, thieves will find a way to steal no matter what you do, if that is what you are employing, then like a prison you need a warden and some guards.

Job Clocks and other systems like this are not going to stop thieves from stealing from you. They are there to make things easier and keep track of hours. If you actually do trust your guys then it's exactly what you want. The job clock system will eliminate a lot of the rounding up and down and eliminate any 'fudging' that takes place, but it's not going to turn one of your criminal employees into a trustworthy citizen.


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## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

Mike,

do you use job clock? I have received a quote and information from them. If you use it, what are some issues that you wish could be improved?


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## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

I trust my guys. I understand that there is no time system that will police every jobsite minute. Your point is very well made mike. My comment was stictly for loopholes in the system. Nothing is perfect. But the rounding down of hours should help. If eveyone of my workers gained 1 hr a day due to rounding I could save 450$ a week. That's 23,400 a year. Was quoted 2700$ for the system. Sounds like a no brained


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

lshomesolutions said:


> Mike,
> 
> do you use job clock? I have received a quote and information from them. If you use it, what are some issues that you wish could be improved?


 
Do a quick search of the site for job clock related posts, you should find some good info posted by myself and others to the pros and cons.


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## Silver02TDI (Mar 29, 2010)

Unfortunately it is human nature for most people to round up. Or, if the slightest thing happens, to feel a sense of entitlement that lets them round up without a bad conscience (I didn't get x from my boss, so I'll get it through my hours since he owes me).

It is very, very hard to find totally honest crew that you can completely believe and that will say "Hey, I was kind of slacking today, so I'll only put down four hours instead of eight since the afternoon I was just goofing off." Especially in this industry that is full of crooks and hacks giving everyone else a bad name.

You could make your lead hand responsible for keeping track of hours? Person gets paid more for a reason. Then you could introduce some incentive (bonus?) for him to help you control costs (labour and supplies) monitoring everything more closely. Just a thought.


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## Lubs (May 14, 2006)

Look in to Abouttimetech.com I have their system and really like it. It payed for itself manytimes over. Their system can use fingerprints to clock in and out and also gps to track the employees. I looked at the job clock but liked this system better.


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## bwalley (Jan 7, 2009)

lshomesolutions said:


> I own a remodeling company and have 4 crews of 2-3 guys per crew working for me. We do all kinds of remodeling. I personally can't keep track of when guys show up and leave the jobsite. How do you check your guys actual jobsite time vs. Time sheet?
> 
> I actually trust my guys but it is always good to audit and keep people in check. I am thinking about getting a wild game camera and locating it near the drive way (hidden), it will snap photos when the motion sensor is triggered. It also will put a date and time stamp on the pics. I figure i can pop the card into my laptop at the end of the week and take a look.
> 
> I would only use this on the vacant homes that we remodel. When the customer doesn't live there we sometimes work late days to help push volume. any ways any thoughts???


Get a biometric time clock, they have to clock in and out using their fingerprint, they cost about $200.

If they 'forget' to clock out for lunch or at the beginning or end of the day, give them some unpaid days off, if they keep it up, get a new crew.

Jobs are hard to come by right now, they should be more than happy to be working and not jerking you around, if not, get someone else to replace them.


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## flashheatingand (May 3, 2008)

Bottom line is that you have to trust the guys with my new "system". 

But, the guys text your cell phone when clocking in. Page when lunch lunch begins, Page when off. Granted everybody has to have a cell phone, and one can find faults with this if they want. But it's a simple way to keep track of things.


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## RandomTask (Mar 24, 2010)

Sprint/Nextel and other smart phones offer services for tracking employees through GPS. It's actually pretty common. Of course there is the issue of buying cell phones for all of your employees (or at least one each for crew foremans). But the amount of features you get usually offsets the price. Many of these phones and software offer travel optimization and tracking, which helps to cut down on employees wasting time and money driving in circles looking for jobsites.

Don't use hidden cameras, you'll lose their respect if they find out.


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## ESSaustin (Mar 27, 2010)

I wouldn't do a 'hidden' game type camera. By a remote security system and install it for all to see. It's used to watch the jobsite, document it (maybe for a youtube video for your website), oh, and the added benefit of watching who comes and goes. I looked into these and found several wireless systems with multiple cameras for under $1000. You can review it from your computer at any time.
I understand your frustration. A couple years ago, when I was running my remodeling company I got suspicious of my crew. I had five guys clocking in 50-60 hrs a week and nothing was getting done. I ended up parking a block away from the projects at 6 in the morn to actually see when they showed up. Yes, I know it was time to change guys!


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## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

*job clock*

Anybody else use jobclock or abouttime?


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## modterry (Nov 14, 2008)

We share our budgets / costs with the foreman. I explain I have $ x dollars budgeted and that's what we will pay. It can even be broken by category. I use a sharing system with the crew where every $ dollar saved below budget they get 50% of the savings. The crew can mostly control their hours but, can also be more efficient with the materials ( less waste ). I give 25% to the foreman and spread the rest equally with the crew.

I generally like crews of 2 - has been very efficient. Crews of 3 seem to always have a guy standing around or only partially working.

The crew has to trust that you did not low ball the hours in the budget but, in today's market , you have to be accurate. 

I find it interesting when we share that info with them. When you break down the hours with them and then compare their hours you learn alot. May improve your bidding and also show them they are not being efficient.

Terry


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## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

I like that Terry. I actually started paying one of my crews by the job to see how it works out. We agree on a strictly labor amount then they get it done. When I do that they start putting 10-11 hrs a day trying to knock it out. 

I am still thinking of a job clock system though that will help me track hours spent on a job. We have been at a vacant house for 10 weeks. One guy has logged 6.5 weeks and the other 5 weeks. I don't know if the time that I am missing was because I had them jump jobs or I actually let them off. All of the paper side of the business is killing me including time sheets that I think are inaccurate because I can't be everywhere at once


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## rselectric1 (Sep 20, 2009)

Bump for lshomesolutions


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## meggy (Apr 21, 2010)

Oh wow...i thought i was the only one having problems with this...lol in our business we do roads, bridges and road signs....since i'm new to managing this kind of business it has been my problem on how to control "ghost workers" (the project supervisor gets the men who will work on a particular project as most of the workers are project based) and tracking the hours spent on their job as i cant be in different sites at the same time...specially projects far from our place....though i've gotten people whose sole job is to check attendance and check if everyone is working, they still manage to do things like these....

guess i dont have that much trust for the people in charge?


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## Trim-man (Mar 13, 2010)

What seems to work for me is showing up on the job-site. I hit my job-sites often (the GC's like that too) and with no notice unless there is an issue to be resolved and they know I will be comming to deal with it. It's not uncommon for me to be there before anyone shows up, or at the very end of the day..........sometimes both. I might be kidding myself, but as I said it seems to work. It also doesn't hurt that two of my site supts. are my sons...........course could start another thread on the working with family thing, bet it would be a long, long thread.............


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## fast fred (Sep 26, 2008)

reminds me of when I was a boy.

we used to stand and sit around goofing off as much as we could wasting someones time and money

then we'd point fingers at each other to figure out who was going to make the phone call (does anyone remember land lines at a job site?)

well we'd come up with a bs question to ask, call the super contractor boss whatever ask the bs question and say we needed help
the bs question was asked in a way so we could gauge the time and distance that it would take for the boss to show up
being top dollar guys we could do the math and figure out how much longer we had to stand around and screw off vs the amount of time we needed to look like we had been productive all morning once the math was done we either got to work right away or continued goofing off

its kind of like a game a sport of sorts all to pull the wool over somebodies eyes isn't that what its about?

I don't even want to start talking about contractors hiding in the woods cameras etc...... you probably never seen a contractor get flushed out of the woods like wild turkey by a bunch of bent out of shape carpenters


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## lshomesolutions (Jul 19, 2008)

*ordered the job clock*

i went ahead and ordered the jobclock system. I think this is a no brainer. if you have any questions, let me know


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

I think you're the one who is going to be posting questions.:whistling


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

fast fred said:


> we used to stand and sit around goofing off as much as we could wasting someones time and money


wow-sounds really disappointing-no honest days wages there, huh? :sad:


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## BDiamond (Nov 2, 2009)

I've been using Telenav. Everyone logs in when they get to the site and logs off when they're done. I can also track their movement through the gps. Had a guy tell me he was getting material and I found he'd been zipping home for 20 minutes every day. May not seem like alot but that's an extra $1500 a year I was paying for his "nooners".


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## solarguy (Feb 14, 2010)

Mike Finley said:


> If you have to worry about something like that you already have a bigger problem to address first before even worrying about this issue.
> 
> You said at first you actually trust your guys and now you say you don't.
> 
> ...


Come late, leave early, if the work gets done, I'm happy. If it doesn't, you're gone.
If I don't trust you, you're gone. I wouldn't send you to a customer's house.


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