Rand Aid, the Gauteng-based rehabilitation and old age home group, has cut its 1 500-strong payroll preparation time by 75% since implementing modules of the Time Accounting suite, a time and attendance solution supplied by human resources solution provider Q Data Dynamique (QDD), a division of PQ Africa.
"Beforehand we were taking up to four hours to prepare the payroll run," says Ronelle van de Werken, computer manager at Rand Aid. "Now the entire process is completed in under 30 minutes."
The Time Accounting suite incorporates TimeKeeper-PC, a time and attendance application module, TimeCosting-PC, designed to collect, analyse and monitor labour distribution and job allocation information; and Department Allocation, which supports the monitoring and control of hours worked per department.
With three companies on its payroll system - two outside contractors, which provide nursing and domestic staff, and their own personnel, Rand Aid`s TimeKeeper-PC solution met the demands of multiple pay systems, being able to export payroll data across platforms to the outside companies. A further complication of nursing staff working differing shifts was accommodated by TimeKeeper-PC`s rules engine.
"TimeKeeper-PC`s analytical ability and insight into time and attendance data is the other reason why the solution has taken off since it was first introduced by QDD in September last year," says Linda Glieman, product manager, time accounting at QDD.
Since its launch, TimeKeeper has been installed at such sites as Metcash Trading, Tongaat Hullet Sugar, Richards Bay Coal Terminals, Toyota SA, Plascon Paints and Coca Cola SA.
Time and attendance is far more than just the "clocking in and clocking out" it was in the old days, Glieman says. "HR people need to be able to monitor trends to be proactive, and a simple report on clock-in times does not provide the deeper insight crucial to effective management."
TimeKeeper-PC provides realtime analytics of input data, creating graphical and spreadsheet-based reports on trends within the labour force, be it absenteeism, overtime, or any other number of trends which manifest themselves among any labour force.
"Trends can be evaluated down to an individual or departmental level," Glieman continues. "It might be found, for example, that a certain contract is causing absenteeism, or it could be related to personnel issues within a certain division - and then steps can be taken to ensure that those conditions desist."
The data can be sorted to any variation, according to pay period, group of employees, or level of employee. "It is a solution which delivers for all levels of an organisation, from basic table-driven pay rules, to middle management monitoring tools, and then to information for the informed policy-making level.
"Time Keeper-PC can also export any chosen or relevant fields into a company`s chosen ERP or back-end systems, allowing for an enterprise-wide integration of data," says Glieman. The automisation of the data transfer reduces the margin for error. Activity-based costing is possible through the TimeCosting-PC module, which tracks both time and costs associated with every aspect of a production process. The Time Accounting suite, developed by Israeli IT software developer Lavie TimeTech, is also fully integrated with an access control system. "It makes economic sense to integrated, time and attendance and access control systems," Glieman adds.
* In September QDD is to launch iBrowse, its latest offering from TimeTech. iBrowse, an Internet gateway, is a Web-enabled workforce management and activity-based costing tool, which allows remote management of off-site employees and the monitoring of costs involved in the production line.
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