What came first: The time clock technology or sliced bread?
If you answered time clock technology, you’d be right! Surprisingly, sliced bread has only been around since 1928, while the time clock was invented in 1880s.
Time clock software is still just as integral to the functioning of a business as it was over 100 years ago. Although the technology has changed drastically, it still completes the function it was first created to do: record time. Now time clock technology saves small business owners many hours by integrating with payroll so there is no more manually managing time cards.
We will explore the fascinating history of the time clock and how current technology can help improve your small business by giving you time back in your day.
History of Time Clock Software
Late 1800s
In Auburn, NY in 1888, Willard L. Bundy invented the first time clock. His first time recorder was devised in the 1880s and was granted a U.S. patent in 1888. This worked by each employee inserting his or her own key recorder into the clock. The next year, he partnered with his brother, Harlow, and founded the Bundy Manufacturing Recording Company of Binghamton, NY to manufacture the Workman’s Time Recorder.
In just 10 years after the patent was issued, Bundy had produced nearly 9,000 time recorder machines and established accounts with the United States Postal Service and several major railroad companies at that time.
During the height of his success, Bundy merged with several other time recording companies and became the International Time Recorder Company(ITR)in 1900. In 1911, ITR became part of the newly formed Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., which would later be renamed IBM 13 years later.
Who knew that IBM started from a time recording company?
Mid to Late 1900s
In 1979, Mark S. Ain created the first patented microprocessor-based time clock at the company he founded, Kronos Incorporated. His time clock automatically recorded, totaled, and reported employee hours. Just 6 years later in 1985, he introduced his first PC-based product.
Present
With current powerful technology, there are many different ways employers keep track of their employees’ time. From the basic pin pad time clock system to biometric time clocks, employers have plenty of options to choose what works best for them. And the best part is that it keeps their business compliant and gives them back the time they wasted manually adding time card and inputting it into payroll.
How to spend your newly available time.
When your small business decides to implement time clock technology, the time that will be gained back to focus on your company’s needs will reward your bottom line and give both you and your employees peace of mind.
If your business is trying to become more prevalent online, gaining a good understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important to helping you rank higher in Google search pages. A good place to start is by reading The Beginners Guide to SEO and begin to implement some tips and tricks into the company’s website.
It is also key to take a step back and talk to your target market. It is important to make sure that you’re still targeting the correct demographic and that you are supplying what the target market is searching for. This can be done by creating surveys and interviewing top customers to discover what they love and what the biggest pain point is for your company.
If you are a small business owner, think about your current process for handling your employees’ time. How much time are your spending on managing time sheets, tracking down employees to confirm their hours worked, and cross-referencing federal and state regulations to ensure your reporting your taxes properly?
When removing those duties from your work schedule, the time gained can be spent doing things you have wanted to implement or try out for years, improving your business and well-bring overall.
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