Time Clock Software

[EWek1]

Does anyone know of any good free software that can be used for tracking employee hours?  It seems like it would be a fairly simple software program but I can't for the life of me find something (at least close to) free.

[mouser]

very good question.. i don't know anything but i'm looking forward to seeing what members suggest.
one thing you might clarify -- are you looking for local pc application, or web-based application, or you don't care?

[40hz]

Are you talking about tracking employee payroll hours or employee billable time - or both?

[EWek1]

To clarify, I did make it sound a little easier than what would be ideal.  I am looking for something that employees would use to punch in and out (using a user name and pwd combination).  It would only need to track their payroll hours.  The program would obviously need to report on the statistics, ideally with a user selectable from/to range (but totaling hours per each week).  Changes to punch ins/outs would need to be pwd protected so only a supervisor could change them.  Web based would be best, I guess, so that we could use it in multiple locations (though I guess we should log the ip address to make sure they're not punching in from home!).  PC app would work too, but then you could only have people log in from one location....
What do you think?

[Shades]

Don't know if it handles punch cards, but ActiTime looks like a very nice time tracker. The link points to the features of the free version, there is also a pay version.

[EWek1]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will check it out.  Just to be clear, it does not have to actually "punch a card" so to speak, just do the time tracking.  Sounds like we may be onto something.  I'll report back if this will work.
Thanks Shades!

[dave12n]

I'm not sure if it will do all that you want, but I've used Traxtime for years and found it to be very robust.

http://www.traxtime.com/

Unfortunately, it's not freeware.

[kyrathaba]

PC app would work too, but then you could only have people log in from one location....

Not necessarily.  If the PC app sends data to an online database via PHP, for instance, you could still use the program in multiple locations, but have a centralized database online.

EDIT: I'm assuming employees could use various computers around your business site(s) to "punch-in"?

[dyack]

PC app would work too, but then you could only have people log in from one location....

Not necessarily.  If the PC app sends data to an online database via PHP, for instance, you could still use the program in multiple locations, but have a centralized database online.

EDIT: I'm assuming employees could use various computers around your business site(s) to "punch-in"?

This is exactly the reason why we settled to using Time Doctor as our time tracking software. It has a centralized web server where all our work hours are uploaded. This means we can work anywhere and on different computers too. It's ideal for freelancers and also for those who work at home.

It's very efficient plus it encourages productivity.

[IainB]

My response deleted. I had not noticed this was probably spam.

[vin.churchil]

Try time clock software...

I am sure this would fulfill all your time tracking requirements as it did to us...

[Joe Hone]

Funny you should ask . . . I joined here looking for the same thing. The best one I could find that's simple, free and actively supported is Kapow Punch Clock http://gottcode.org/kapow/. I posted a review of it somewhere, but it doesn't have a pause/resume function which is something I need. I tried so many, and most are complex, have way too many functions, or just don't work well. One other that is good but more complex to operate is TimeSlotTracker http://sourceforge.net/projects/timeslottracker/. I've run them both at various times, but I prefer Kapow. Good luck and be sure to post anything promising that you find.

Edit: corrected the link to TimeSlotTracker

[xssoft]

Please try our software. PayPunch Time and Attendance system allows you to track employees and eliminate buddy punching.
PayPunch is a Biometric Time Clock & Attendance tracking system that replaces the typical time clock used to track employees attendance. Instead of employees punching a time-card, they simply insert their hand into the reader and enter their employee number. PayPunch does the rest! We offer a large variety of biometric devices and software solutions for any-size companies.

www.paypunch.com