Examples

Flexible business process automation

Companies from different lines of business have different needs. All businesses, however, need some kind of time tracking and payroll handling, be it for billing purposes, for profitability analysis or to fulfill legal obligations. HourSmart is a flexible software that can adapt to business needs of various kinds of enterprises. Following are some examples about advantages HourSmart offers for businesses.

Consulting business

Consulting businesses often charge according to hours worked for a client. For example a design company benefits from HourSmart, as it removes the need for manually collecting hours from employees and assigning them to right cost pools. Project work often involves overtime, which sometimes can and sometimes cannot be charged from the client. When overtime is charged, the rate at which overtime is charged may be different from the rate that is used to compensate overtime to the employees.

All this is handled automatically by HourSmart. No need for different bookkeeping for charging and payroll purposes. Employees enter their hours once, and the information is available for all needs. Hoursmart also makes it easy to record the hours, as there are several options for feed the information into the system: NFC tags, mobile phones and web interface.

Staffing company

For a staffing company collecting precise information about working hours is crucial, as revenues depend directly on the hours charged from the clients. Prices and overtime compensations usually vary from client to client. HourSmart automatically charges customers according to correct price list. Software also takes into account features specific to temp service field such as the fact that sometimes worked overtime can be charged from the client and sometimes not. Additionally, it is possible to get working time lists approved by the client and/or employees own manager before billing.

Punching in hours is easy for employees. They do not need classify their work according to customer contracts, as does the classification automatically. Employee enters the hours once, and the same information is used for billing and payroll calculations automatically.

HourSmart has versatile staffing and roster planning features that help staffing company to find the right consultants for every assignment - effectively and on time.

Building contractor

Building contractor may have several construction sites where his employees work. This poses a challenge for roster planning and time tracking. HourSmart has full capabilities for work shift planning. In addition, employees can view their shifts and workings sites immediately after the shifts have been published from Hoursmart's web-interface, so that they will always know where they need to start working in the morning.

With HourSmart it is easy to track working time spent on each site, as there are several options for users to punch in and out. The contractor can have one NFC reading device at each site, and employees use NFC stickers or RFID enabled time cards to punch in. As even mobile phones can serve as a reading device, it is easy to move readers between sites. Small sites where it is not useful to have reading device available can have NFC sticker that identifies the site, and workers can use their NFC enabled smartphones to punch in and out. GPS information from smartphones can be added to the entries. It is also possible to integrate HourSmart with access control systems in construction sites.

It is easy to generate versatile reports for billing and payroll purposes. Working hours are easily categorized by working sites, projects, customers etc. Keeping track of workload and ensuring profitability of projects is easy. It is possible to use HourSmart also to tracking time sub-contractors spend on the site.

Contractors often get headaches from reporting requirements set by authorities, but not contractors that are using HourSmart. It tracks employees and sub-contractors that have been working on construction sites, overtime hours and other information needed to fulfill the reporting obligations and generates needed reports automatically.

Industrial business

Manufacturing industry usually applies shift work. A company running a factory benefits from HourSmart’s roster planning features. Creating work shift schedules is easy with HourSmart. It also calculates all work shift compensations as well as holiday and vacation pays automatically.

It may be difficult to keep production going on vacation times. HourSmart has features to simplify planning of vacation schedules, making it easier to ensure that everything runs smoothly also on vacation times. If temporary work force is needed, HourSmart can help in finding quilified temporary work force.

Usually access control and time tracking are needed in factory environment. HourSmart can be integrated with existing access control or time card systems, if needed, or it can be implemented with RFID technology using NFC readers and NFC stickers.

Restaurant

Scheduling work shifts in a restaurant is a challenge due to nature of the business; need for staffing varies between days and seasons, workforce consists of regular staff and temporary workers and certain duties need workers to have specific skills and qualifications.

HourSmart has powerful tools for work shift planning and staffing. If an employee with a specific skill, for example qualification to serve alcoholic beverages, is needed, HourSmart can search employees by needed skills. Work shifts are easily planned with an intuitive calendar view, and reports and planning tools help to avoid unnecessary overtime hours as well as to make sure legislative requirements about resting periods are met. It is also easier to take into account needs and wishes of the employees, which increases happiness in the workplace.

HourSmart also helps when things do not go as planned and stand-in workers are needed to substitute employees that have gotten ill or cannot work for other reasons. HourSmart makes it easy to reach potentials substitutes fast and makes it easy for them to accept extra work shifts.

When temporary staff is used together with regular staff different collective labour agreements may apply to different workers, and this needs to be taken into account in work shift scheduling and payroll calculations. HourSmart takes care also of this otherwise challenging task automatically.