The concept of a Time and Attendance software system can be daunting, to say the least. Most business owners know that it exists, but do not realize the true power of a properly implemented system, and what it could potentially mean to their organizations’ growth and security prospects – especially in our country’s unique economic context. A large majority of companies prefer to calculate the hours of their employees manually and spend days completing and preparing their payroll processes, praying that their workforce does not exploit the gaps within their companies for overtime etc. Which begs the question: Why are we so reluctant to change and to welcome that dreaded term; automation? The answer is simple: uncertainty.
Say you do decide to make the shift from manual to automation – where do you begin to search for a quality product that won’t leave you more frustrated and pulling at your hair for making that important leap towards control and true independence in the first place? You start by asking yourself if you are willing to pay a little bit more initially, and to do research on the hardware, follow-up and support processes of the company in question. Ask yourself how the system in question will integrate with your industry-specific business needs.
But what if you could cut down on your time spent calculating and shepherding employees to accurately log their time spent on your premises, on your dime? What if an automated system could do the bulk of the work for you, increasing productivity and savings? That would leave you with more time on hand to focus on the core of your business, and simultaneously grow it in the right direction, in every possible aspect.
Working with and selling NAKO has made it abundantly clear that not every company that claims to offer Time and Attendance solutions, has taken the responsibility of developing and selling systems that are uniquely tailored to individual businesses within the South African context as serious as BTX. It is rather the opposite, systems are sold by competitor brands and hardware is installed with little thought about the quality thereof, as well as the future needs, growth and concerns of their clients in mind, and you can forget about support other than guiding you to complete their payment process.
BTX offers the solution: NAKO Time and Attendance software and support contracts. The software is uniquely developed to adapt and be tailored to any organization, no matter the size or niche it occupies within their industry. The uniqueness of this system is echoed within the pricing and packages available for small to large scale operations on a month-to-month basis.
NAKO is constantly updated and reconsidered by BTX directorate, to not only be a cut above the rest, but also to perform better for our current clients, so that they receive the peace of mind their money pays for. Your Time and Attendance system is the foundation of your payroll calculations. If your Time and Attendance system is not functioning correctly, your payroll will not either. While it is wise to consider more than one company when you realize the need for implementing a Time and Attendance system on your premises, remember that paying less does not always equate to a permanent solution to your unique business frustrations and needs.
Let’s talk NAKO
Developed in 2009 the initial concept, NAKO Desktop, grew into NAKO in 2017, always keeping our client’s feedback in mind. BTX has managed to build and continuously grow the system into what we are so proud to offer today. With global expansion in mind, we aim to be and provide the best industry-specific Time and Attendance solutions in the world.
NAKO has exceptional power when it comes to Time and Attendance. Some of the highlights include:
Easy-to-use editing tools
The Time Entry Management screen is your first tool to use to manage your time entries. Enjoy a colour-rich screen to identify problems or items easily. Some of the features of the screen include:
- Per item or per day actions (add, edit, delete)
- Multi-select items and perform bulk actions
- Add or remove leave directly from this screen
- In-screen help features to guide you through all the actions
- ‘FiF’ – ‘Find it fast’ with numerous shortcuts to quickly view relevant information or how and why shifts were allocated to individual employees.
- Easily navigate through multiple employees
- View a complete audit trail of any modifications made by users of the system
The Warnings Management screen allows you to quickly “fix” single entries or other problems within the system.
- Load a specific period (usually pay-run based)
- Ignore warnings with a reason, ignoring them will pull through to your export batch and employees will not be paid for those missing hours.
- Provide an alternative entry to either a missing IN or missing OUT option
- View warnings relating to entries, without shifts allocated (if necessary)
- Displays clock codes with missing employees
The Global Entry Insert screen allows you to add clock entries for multiple employees on multiple dates. This makes adding bulk entries exceptionally easy. Simply select 1 or more employees, the dates and times, and continue! The system will automatically warn you if there are potential clashes.
Excellent reports and reports builder
Reports are exceptionally powerful in NAKO. You can customize report templates and share them with selective users. Display individual reports or summary reports. Some of our report features include;
- Customize templates per user or as necessary
- Summary vs detailed setting
- Print, PDF, e-mail or export any report template built in the system
- Reports are compressed up to 90% ensuring a fast and data-efficient speed at which to build them.
- Setup automated reports for any of the templates created to be emailed to you at your preferred time.
- Customize reports with our reports builder
The report builder is a powerful tool that allows you to customize reports to any depth for any user across any department. Change column orders, colours, content, format, etc. Allow managers to display their Time and Attendance data differently than the report you want your employees to sign off on. Set up multiple reports and easily switch between them to compare data and values.
Use advanced reports to display more in-depth data and statistics of employees and departments. Some of the reports include:
- Attendance registers
- Latecomers reports and summaries
- Employment history reports
- Export audits
- Leave reports
- Wellness maps and reports
Export management module
Register fingerprints using USB devices directly on employees. Fingerprints are automatically added or removed from devices based on their employment history. Link an employee to multiple departments and export batches. Import/export leave as necessary and monitor employee behaviour using our employee wellness module. Use the shortcut wheel to quickly switch between employee time entries, data, leave and reports.
Complete audit trails
Audit trails are kept on two levels. The first is on an informative level, displaying basic activities performed in the system, by whom and when. The second level records all changes made in the system, by whom, date and the values before and after changes are made. These changes are compressed and stored on the server and can be browsed (viewed) directly from the system. Changes can be reverted if necessary. This ensures that no data will ever be lost.
Departmental access
Access can be granted to users based on departmental levels. You can also build any depth hierarchy of departments as you like, ensuring you can pull comparisons across any level of departments. Employees can be moved between departments and fingerprints are automatically moved to-and-from devices for you. Export management and approval are also performed and approved based on departmental access.
Comprehensive Time and Attendance Statistics
Does your current Time and Attendance solution give you a proper drill-down into the data and statistics of your Time and Attendance data? Time and Attendance represents a major part of the production capabilities of your company. Any shortcomings in your Time and Attendance could be costing your company thousands in income per month.
Advanced shift rules and setup capabilities
A wide range of rules are available for shifts to cater for as many variations as possible. NAKO includes the capability to cater for splits during the day, past midnight, 24, 48 or 72 hours shifts (even more than that), shift weights, automated shift selected, etc. Use the bulk shift editor to easily create and update shifts and link them to one or more departments. Create open shifts, seasonal or standard shifts. NAKO is capable of whatever is required.
Advanced statistics are constructed over time, to identify the areas where you are losing time or productivity. You can draw comparisons between departments and employees, showcasing and building lists in your company for your worst and best performing departments, compare averages, etc. How many of your employees are not at work every month? You might be losing 3, 5 or 10 minutes a day per employee coming late or leaving early. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
Let’s take the following example: You have 50 employees, working 180 hours a month at an average monthly salary of R 8000. If they take up a bit of time every now and then, 5 minutes here, 2 minutes there and 10 minutes here can easily amount to 15% of their total time. This means that with 50 employees, working 180 hours a month, at an average salary of R 8 000, you are currently paying a total of R 400 000 for a total of 9 000 hours. By implementing our Time and Attendance system, with a potential 15% saving, you can save up to R 60 000 a month or increase your most valuable resource – time – with up to 1350 hours. Amazingly, that is an additional 7.5 employees in your company.
Time and Attendance export to Payroll
The essence and ultimate goal of any Time and Attendance solution is exporting. The process toward the final export should be as smooth as is possible. Not only does NAKO help you achieve your final goal, it makes it so easy to plan, track and manage. Initial export approval accountability can be centralized to HR or decentralized to Department Heads. HR can then easily track the progress of approved departments and perform the final export, once the time for all departments have been approved.
Export follows a strict process to ensure that once changes have been made, data is locked within the system. Changes can only be done once an export has been unlocked. This is crucial for CCMA or other court cases. A full audit trail is kept of approval, warning modifications and edited entries as well as values within each export batch. FiF – Find it Fast – furthermore allows you to quickly see the path taken by the system, on how it calculated each value.
Our unique Export Audit Report allows you to quickly and easily compare report and export values. This helps you to identify any inconsistencies between your final export (payroll) values and your initial report values. Any inconsistencies can easily be resolved or corrected, after which the audit report will confirm the success of these changes.
The Export Escalation process ensure full accountability along the approval lines. Users with given rights can lock exports at any time to prevent any further changes. An export must also be reverted after it has been exported before any changes can be made. A full audit trail is always available of approvals/changes made to departments and/or their data.
So think and rethink your Time and Attendance and access control strategies, and if you find yourself still considering the idea of a proper solution overwhelming or too costly, BTX would like to invite you to test our knowledge and help find your tailored, industry-specific solution. We love a challenge and thrive on finding the answers that dig deep into the core expectations of your business. Why not make the smart choice and the process of running your business a prosperous and rewarding journey, through; ‘Ideas by Innovation’. Ke Nako, it’s about time.
