Employee time clocks are used by many organizations to help keep track of employee hours for payroll purposes. The clock systems include standard mechanical time clocks, electronic time card style systems, freestanding polling, and memory-based clocks. Employee computer time clocks comprise systems replacing the punch-card time clocks in industries. Also known as time and attendance systems, they provide numerous benefits to both large and small companies.

It is easy to record employee arrival and departure times using a computer time clock. To log in/log out, employees use unique identifiers, such as cards with magnetic stripes or barcodes, biometric input devices that check fingerprints or handprints, and iris scanners that are not widely distributed because of privacy concerns.

The main advantage of a computer time clock is that it tracks employee time data in a database that helps managers to get easy entre to employee information, plus tools to audit the information for precision. The time clock packages are also a great way to offer scheduled management. This permits supervisors to establish and keep a timetable for every employee, including break times, holidays and whether overtime is applicable.

A simple computer time clock system features basic reporting and connections to payroll systems. For larger companies, it provides more functionality and reporting, and can be more widely customized for their business. At the end of the pay time, each employee's hours are automatically reported to the human resources department, reducing paperwork and eliminating errors.

The packages used for employee computer time clock systems vary in cost from less than a thousand dollars to several thousand dollars. The price difference will depend on the number of employees to supervise, the number of locations to track, and the data reporting requirements.