Following on from our blog exploring time and attendance in the Sri Lankan context, covering everything from the cost of poor time and attendance to applicable local laws, here we move onto a comparison of some of the island’s most popularly used time and attendance software.
Both in Sri Lanka and globally, many growing small businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to manage time and attendance using manual systems such as Excel spreadsheets and paper timesheets. As such, payroll costs, absenteeism and late arrivals are on the rise together with issues such as low productivity.
Costly Manual Errors Top Challenge in Managing Time and Attendance Effectively
In their 2020 Workforce Management Trends report, leaders in scheduling and time & attendance software Workforce.com revealed that ‘Manual Errors’ were cited by 48% of survey respondents as being the top challenge to managing time and attendance effectively. Such manual errors can lead to issues including incorrect employee salary payments and higher payroll costs.
But by using software to track employees’ attendance through a system recording their time in, time out, etc., many small businesses have been able to solve the numerous issues linked to manually tracking attendance and working hours.
Time & Attendance Software Helps Small Businesses Reduce Payroll Costs Significantly
According to QuickBooks — global pioneers in accounting and payroll software plus services — businesses using their employee time tracking product Quickbooks Time are able to save up to 6% on gross payroll costs and reduce time taken to run payroll by 3 hours. The same is evident within small business setups in the Sri Lankan context as well.
An Industry-First: a Thorough Sri Lankan Time & Attendance Software Comparison
With the impact of using software to manage time and attendance clearly understood, here we look to provide a helpful guide on selecting the ideal Sri Lankan time and attendance software for your small business. We start with a brief introduction on the five different time and attendance products that we’ll be comparing in this article along with a look at standard aspects such as availability of fingerprint devices, pricing, and mobile app availability. Finally, the main features and benefits of each time and attendance system will be compared.
1. SignHR Time Attendance Software
SignHR Time Attendance Software is a proud creation of Eyedia Business Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, who have been in the software industry for more than 18 years. This time and attendance software combines various time tracking options with a user-friendly interface to cater to the requirements of different clients.
- Availability of fingerprint devices – Yes
- Brand of the fingerprint device – ZKTeco
- Is aftercare provided – Yes
- Pricing -The software costs LKR 375,000. A 50% advanced payment should be made for the software and the rest of the payment can be made in two installments. However, pricing differs for different fingerprint devices.
- Desktop or cloud based – Both
- Preferred payroll system with the software – SignHR
- Payroll Software
Training provided – Onsite and online user training offered. Training fee is covered with installation and configuration charges. - How many fingerprint devices are needed – a single fingerprint device has to be placed in one specific place in case of numerous entrances and exits.
- Data captured with the device – Time in and time out, overtime, late attendance, day shift, early attendance, pre-approved leave, multiple overtime, half day and full day leave.
- Availability of mobile app – Yes. Employees can mark their attendance via the mobile app and the GPS tracker will confirm attendance. Employees can request leave and check leave status as well.
- Can get software and device separately – Yes
- Can get service maintenance – Yes, can get maintenance assistance online or over the phone during office hours.
Other information:
- If the software is installed in the server version, there is no monthly subscription. Only an annual maintenance fee is covered under the server based software. If the cloud based software is installed, monthly subscriptions will be added based on the user license.
- Under the analysis data tab, employee attendance information can be found branch wise, designation wise and department wise.
- OT employees, off day employees, employees who apply for leaves but come to work anyway, employees who have recorded their time in but not timed out, employees who run for personal errands during office hours are recorded in the time and attendance system.
- Can resign employees from the system.
- Branch managers can view the summary of absence, present, leaves, off days, total OT and no pay leaves of employees.
2. I-Matrix Time and Attendance System
Established in 2006, I-Matrix Solution is one of Sri Lanka’s most reputed time and attendance software providers. Their focus has been on ensuring their clients can achieve cost competitiveness with the I-Matrix Time and Attendance System.
- Availability of fingerprint devices – Yes. however, it is on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Brand of the fingerprint device – FA210/ T8
- Is aftercare provided – Yes
- Pricing – Rs. 18,750 for the time and attendance software.However, price differs for different fingerprint devices.
- Desktop or cloud based – Both. Can make it cloud based provided there is a separate server for it.
- Preferred payroll system with the software – They have different payroll system versions where one of them can be selected with the software based on the customer’s exact requirements.
- Training provided – Software training is given to the head office and training on the device in terms of how to record employee details and registration will be given to branch managers.
- How many fingerprint devices are needed – a single fingerprint device has to be placed in one specific place in case of numerous entrances and exits.
- Data captured with the device – time in / time out and number of hours worked. However, the data captured if software and device are combined include leave entitlements, designation-based attendance, attendance summary report, late attendance, overtime and no pay leave.
- Availability of mobile app – Not available.
- Can get software and device separately – Yes. However, if you purchase the software and fingerprint device, only initial payments are to be done. Usually, if you opt for the software only, license and maintenance fee are to be paid as well.
- Can get service maintenance – First year after installing the software, maintenance is free. Thereafter, for the license and maintenance, 15% of the net total needs to be paid. Maintenance fee should also be paid if the system has to be reinstalled after a year or locations are being changed.
Other information:
- Can integrate the time and attendance software to any number of fingerprint devices among branches. For this purpose, a static IP is necessary for a direct connection from the branches to the head office to collect the daily time and attendance data. If not, can do it remotely/ offline. There is no cost involved for collecting time and attendance data remotely but if you integrate the software among branches through a static IP, you need to pay for the static IP for each branch which is the main issue of this software system.
- Alternatively, a master file can be created which includes customer records and employees can be segregated based on their department, designation as well as different time schedules for each employee. Their shift time determines their time of work, late attendance and overtime.
3. AccSoft Time Attendance
AccSoft Time Attendance was created by AccSoft Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, which was founded in 1998 for the purpose of providing accounting solutions exclusively for small and medium sized businesses. The AccSoft Time Attendance system enables you to customize your company’s OT hours, among other customizable features.
- Availability of fingerprint devices – Yes
- Brand of the fingerprint device – Time Track (own brand)
- Is aftercare provided – Yes
- Pricing – Software is free of charge. However, payments differ for different fingerprint devices.
- Desktop or cloud based – Both
- Preferred payroll system with the software – AccSoft Payroll, which is their own system.
- Training provided – Software training will be provided to the relevant user. However, the user will have to do the data entry part on their own.
- How many fingerprint devices are needed for multiple exits and entrances – One is sufficient. Staff can mark multiple IN and OUT; however, it takes the first record as IN and last record as OUT.
- Data captured with the device – overtime, number of late hours, time in, time out and leave balance can be captured as data.
- Availability of mobile app – Yes, in case an employee has to make a client visit out of the office, employees can mark their attendance through the mobile app by using face recognition and a GPS tracker comes with the app to confirm the attendance.
- Can get software and device separately – Yes
- Can get service maintenance – Maintenance includes labour fee. A maintenance agreement will be put in place which includes troubleshooting, additional training staff and remote support. Free email, fax and call support and free instant support via remote assistant will be provided. If required, free maintenance will be provided as well.
Other information:
- If there are any missing time-outs, it will be updated onto the system as no pay leave for an employee.
- Can get daily, monthly and yearly timesheet summaries of employee attendance.
- Can download the time and attendance report by connecting the fingerprint device to a USB.
4. Gallery HR Time Attendance Solutions
Gallery ERP is a software company specializing in managing time and attendance software along with other areas of the human resource discipline. The Gallery HR Time Attendance Solutions software was developed specifically to help SMEs modernize their time and attendance process and workflow to ensure efficiency in companies.
- Availability of fingerprint devices – Yes
- Brand of the fingerprint device – Hikvision
- Is aftercare provided – Yes
- Pricing – Monthly subscription for the software is Rs. 35,000 for upto 200 employees. However, prices differ for different fingerprint devices. The device will be provided by IT Gallery and Soft Gallery will propose the software pricing separately.
- Desktop or cloud based – Both, but most companies prefer their cloud-based software.
- Preferred payroll system with the software – Not verified
- Training provided – Yes, once the data is onboarded to the system, the customer will be given training on everything until they are familiar with the system. Since a monthly subscription needs to be paid, training is provided free of charge.
- How many fingerprint devices are needed – a single fingerprint device has to be placed in one specific place in case of numerous entrances and exits, in case the employer wants to reduce the cost.
- Data captured with the device – if you only purchase fingerprint devices, you can only generate employee IN / OUT details. If you purchase fingerprint devices and the Gallery ERP software, you will be able to keep your employees’ data/ time attendance data/ overtime / late/ employee leave management/ payroll data.
- Availability of mobile app – Yes, through the mobile app, employees can update their attendance plus time in and time out. Employee attendance will be captured through the GPS along with their photo which will automatically update the attendance in the system.
- Can get software and device separately – Yes
- Can get service maintenance – Yes. However, no maintenance fee will be charged for the software.
Other information:
- The system has a feature called Geofence where employees cannot check in their attendance at home or anywhere else. Employees will have to come to the exact location within a certain radius at the correct timing. The radius can however differ from company to company.
- They have a kiosk and fingerprint device connection and thus data can be automatically synced to the cloud server.
- Rs.15,000 will be taken as a one-time payment to import data initially to the system and the rest of the payment should be paid on a monthly basis.
5. MiHCM Time & Attendance
MiHCM Time & Attendance software is a creation of MiHCM, which is widely recognized as one of Sri Lanka’s leading software firms in areas such as HR including time & attendance. They offer their services to both large enterprises and small businesses.
- Availability of fingerprint devices – Yes
- Brand of the fingerprint device – ZKTeco
- Is aftercare provided – Yes
- Pricing – A fixed monthly subscription of $250 should be paid for up to 200 employees.
- Cloud based or desktop based – Only cloud based software is available.
- Preferred payroll system with the software – Not verified
- Training provided – Yes, once the data is onboarded to the system, the customer will be given training on all aspects until they are familiar with the system. 3 training sessions will be provided, with 2 hours of training for each session.
- How many fingerprint devices are needed – One is sufficient in case of many entrances and exits or else 2 fingerprint devices are sufficient as well.
- Data captured with the device – late report, attendance report, daily absent report, absent report for a period, absent without leave, employee timesheet, Daily OT report, OT claimed Vs Approved, summarized attendance, attendance log information, attendance backlog information, invalid attendance, attendance summary, mobile attendance, consecutive absenteeism, attendance register, no pay report, monthly attendance summary and staff shift schedule.
- Availability of mobile app – Yes, through the mobile app, employees can time in and time out their attendance. Employee attendance will be captured through the GPS along with their photo which will automatically update the attendance in the system.
- Can get software and device separately – yes
- Can get service maintenance – Yes. However, there is no maintenance fee involved.
Other information:
- Organizational structural change, policy changes and other company related activities can be directly put up in the company activity feed.
- They have letter templates readily available for termination, promotion, letter of appointment, resignation etc and once you can customize the letter according to your company designs which will be automatically saved into the system for future reference.
- The leave policy configuration in the system will automatically allocate leaves for employees.
- In case if an employee misses their time in and time out, they can send a time change request to update the time sheet.
Considering how each company has their own set of requirements and policies involving HR and time and attendance, to help you compare some of the best local time and attendance software options in terms of features and benefits, we have compiled our discoveries within a snapshot table.
With our brief overview of 5 different time & attendance software solutions along with a feature comparison, we are certain there is ample information presented for your company to select a solution from one of these providers, to fit your specific time & attendance requirement.
Also, we’d like to emphasize that this comparison is based solely on Google research, aggregator sites, the official product websites of each software or provider, and general user experience. Should there be any questions or improvements to make involving this article, we’d love to receive your suggestion so we can integrate them into our comparison piece. We’d love to hear from you as we are passionate about producing valuable content on time & attendance and related areas in Sri Lanka!
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