Time Tracking Archives - THE TIMESHEETS.COM JOURNAL

Federal and State Meal Break Law Compliance

Breaks have always been a bit tricky for business owners to tackle. With so many rules in place, it’s hard to decipher what to do to stay compliant with federal and state law. As of May 2020, twenty-one states and two U.S. territories have meal break requirements in place. Generally, employees must take their breaks by a certain time within their workdays and the breaks are paid. Whether you’re curious as to what your state’s rules are, or if you’re thinking about implementing a break policy at your workplace, this article will help you understand federal and state meal break requirements.

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Tracking Employee Time Effectively Doesn’t Require Magic

Published by timesheets_blog

Webinar: Best Practices in Time Tracking for Payroll: Tricks of the Time Tracking Gurus

Learn about ways to improve time tracking at your company by understanding the methods behind the magic. This course is a compilation of advice accumulated after more than 15 years of experience in helping customers integrate electronic time tracking into their company processes. Learn about how to address the human factors of implementing time tracking, the do’s and don’ts of good time tracking policies, and how to best implement a time off policy that satisfies both compliance and employee satisfaction.

Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time, March 12, 2020

Missed the webinar?

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Is it Legal to Work Through Lunch In California?

Published by Lindsay Sommers

California meal period laws can be confusing to many, especially when they are changing every year. Employees used to take meal breaks after 6 hours, but that has since changed to 5 hours after Labor Code Section 512 passed. In addition to Labor Code Section 512, California cities also have their own regulations. With multiple laws in place, it’s incredibly important that employers speak with their local labor boards. This will help ensure that employees are following meal break laws correctly. If employers don’t comply with laws, they may receive penalties and might have to pay employees back in the future.

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Is it Legal to Automatically Deduct Employee Lunch Time?

Published by Lindsay Sommers

Lunchtime can be a tricky thing to track. Some employees forget to clock out, adding minutes to their paychecks daily, while others forget to clock back into work once they return. This leads to inaccurate timestamps and, even worse, inaccurate payroll. You will end up either overpaying employees or underpaying employees, which can lead to issues down the line. In order to keep timestamps more accurate, some employers choose to implement automatic lunch deductions for hourly employees. This ensures that employees get lunch breaks deducted, no matter the circumstance. This is great for employers who want to avoid overpaying employees, but many people still have questions about the legality of lunch deductions.

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Your Guide to Employee Holiday Leave

Published by Lindsay Sommers

We have written about time off and holiday leave a lot on this blog. With the 4th of July upon us, we thought it would be beneficial to create a holiday guide just for you. When holidays come around, employers may wonder how to handle various situations that may come up between their company and their employees. Are you following the law? Are you doing what other businesses are doing? Since the Fair Labor standards Act doesn’t require an employer to pay for any vacation or holidays, you may be left wondering not just what to do, but what you should do.

Employees and employers typically establish holiday benefits in an agreement. This is usually in the form of an employee handbook. This means that employers have flexibility to design a PTO policy that works best for the company, but it also leaves many questions unanswered. We hope you find the articles below helpful and informative.

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Why Rounding Payroll Hours is a Bad Idea

Published by Lindsay Sommers

A lot of employees ask “Is rounding payroll hours even legal?”, and the answer is yes. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) states that you must pay your employees for all hours worked. According to DOL, however, employers are allowed to round hours. Under the FLSA, you are allowed to round employee’s time in 15 minute increments or to the nearest quarter hour. When rounding time you just have to ensure that you are not violating FLSA regulations for minimum wage and overtime pay.

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IRS Receipts and Records That You Should Keep & How to Store Them

Published by Lindsay Sommers

The IRS allows you to choose any record keeping system for your business’ income and expenses. This means that you can keep records in a file cabinet or you can choose an electronic program. Either way, the choice is yours.

Depending on what business you are in, you may have to keep certain records for federal tax purposes. The IRS wants businesses to retain specific business documents including purchases, payroll, and other transactions. These records will support the entries in your books and on your tax return.

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Buddy Punching: Problems With Employee Time Theft

Published by Lindsay Sommers

Time theft is common among employees in the workplace and comes in many forms, most of which can be difficult to catch. One of the most common types of time theft, called “buddy punching,” occurs when one worker punches the clock on behalf of a late or missing co-worker. Most managers agree that dealing with attendance problems is hard enough but can be even harder with dishonest employees. With 3 out of 4 companies experiencing time theft from buddy punching, the practice is a serious problem facing most businesses at one time or another leading to poor productivity and lost profits.

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Mileage Rate for 2019

Published by Peggy Emch

Each year, the IRS issues a new standard mileage rate. While paying mileage is not mandatory in most cases, the IRS publishes a fair rate which employers can use to reimburse their employees.

For 2019, the rate is up 3.5 cents. At first thought, this might seem a little odd since gas prices are down, but the mileage rate is based on much more than gas prices.

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Entrepreneurs Need to Track Time Too – Here’s Why

Published by Peggy Emch

Everyone knows employees need to track time so they can be paid accurately, but freelancers and entrepreneurs may not realize that they should be tracking their time too. Time is an entrepreneur’s most valuable resource and so it’s important to allocate it wisely. Time tracking can help entrepreneurs and freelancers do just that.

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Career Development – 8 Tips for Accelerating Your Career

Published by Guest Author

Contributed by Dawn Castell

Career development doesn’t always happen at our desired speed. Any number of roadblocks can get in the way – from working for a company that doesn’t promote in-house, to dealing with personal or family circumstances, to lacking the required education. Regardless of the reason for the plateau in your career, it’s never too late to jumpstart it. These eight tips will help get you on the path towards better pay, excitement, or whatever change it is you’re seeking.

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What Online Timesheets Are Good For, and What They’re Not

Published by Peggy Emch

Online time tracking is a great way to glean information about employee work habits, to learn about the progress of projects, to help make certain types of business decisions, and to easily run payroll and billing. Not tracking time online is almost as crazy as not using a smartphone in today’s world, but let’s not get carried away. Online time tracking isn’t magic fairy dust either.

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Category: Time Tracking