Before
This was a medium sized national company with around 250 employees throughout the US. Each week the majority of these employees would fill out varying types of time cards (varying because of the location, the type of job assignment and the type of employee) in an excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was then forwarded in an email to their job manager for approval. The job manager (which could be from another organization) would approve and forward on to the employee’s corporate office or give it back to the employee to make some changes. Once the time card makes it to the corporate office it is then hand entered into their accounting system.
After
A time card site was set up to allow employees to fill out, correct, and submit their time cards as well as view their time card history and pay stubs. Information flows from the corporate accounting system to the site and among other things it sets up the employee type, location, and the jobs assigned to that employee. So the employee can sign-in to their company site and create the appropriate time card type for the specified jobs and supervisors assigned to them.
Supervisors are notified by email that time cards are waiting for their approval. They are given a link to visit their supervisor site and can either approve or send back the time card for modifications to the employee.
Once the time card is approved and the corporate office has deemed it ready it is processed which generates transactions that are pulled from the time card system into their accounting system for payroll and for detailed invoicing back to their clients.
Now that time card data is captured and cost is linked to projects, reports are generated for internal use to help guide decision making.