Time recording and payroll accounting complement each other. After all, time recording is used to determine the payroll amount. But there are other aspects that link time recording and payroll accounting.
The content of a payslip
First of all: The recorded working time does not have to be stated on the pay slip. It is therefore not so clear at first glance why time recording and payroll accounting are so closely linked.
The following information must be provided on the payslip:
- Name and address of employer and employee
- Date to which the payslip refers
- Date on which the payroll was created
- Employee’s tax and social security number
- Employee’s personnel number or contract number
- Gross wage
- Contribution to the company pension scheme
- Tax allowances
- Wage tax
- Social security contributions
- Church tax deduction
- Non-cash benefits
- Capital-forming benefits
- Expense allowances
- Amount paid out
- Bank details of the employee
The time is not included in the list. Of course, time recording is used to determine the payroll amount. However, it does not have to be explicitly stated in the payslip.
After all, working hours are not always the basis for calculating wages.
But time recording has other advantages for payroll accounting.
The advantages of time recording
Not every benefit of time recording is directly related to payroll accounting. But it does at least have an indirect effect on it.
Sickness absences
Precise time recording gives you a concrete insight into your employees’ absences due to illness. Of course, if an employee calls in sick, they are simply absent for the whole day or for several days. But this is not always the case. Sometimes illness strikes very suddenly. Then we tend to go home. Time recording allows you to see who has left earlier than usual.
Start of working hours
Many modern companies have very flexible working hours. Nevertheless, these are usually arrangements that are linked to fixed attendance requirements. Or the shift system still prevails. Whichever way you look at it, you have to be there to do the work for which you are paid. Time recording allows you to see exactly who is there when, who is always on time and who is not so punctual.
Overtime
Of course, this also applies to the other side of the coin. If employees work a lot of overtime, it can become problematic if there is too much overtime. Of course, there are all kinds of representatives here: Those who come in early are allowed to leave early. But some come early and leave late and some come late and leave late. Time recording allows you to keep an eye on what your employees are doing and when you may need to intervene to prevent them from overworking.
Time theft
Time theft is the fraudulent use of working time by employees. In simple terms, this simply means that more time is recorded than was actually worked. For example, if a break is stated to be shorter or more overtime is recorded than was actually worked. With clear time recording, you can prevent time theft as far as possible by having a better insight into the exact working hours combined with the tasks and work performed.
Administration
It’s obvious, but an important advantage is the management of working time through accurate time recording. After all, you then have to transfer all the recorded data to payroll accounting or take it into account for this purpose. Modern DATEV time recording makes this very easy because all the data is already sorted and organized and can be transferred directly to payroll accounting. This saves a lot of time and effort. And that is probably the biggest advantage of time recording, because who doesn’t want to save time and effort?
