What is a timecard?

A timecard is a clock-in card, or a clock-out card that employees use to keep track of their daily working hours. Also called a punch card, it has the time punched in each day by an employee so that his/her employer can keep track of the hours worked. In many ways, timecards resemble timesheets.

It is usually issued on a weekly basis and is filled out with the employee’s work schedule, showing when they arrived for work and when they departed from work. Timecard is generally collected at the end of the week by the employer’s payroll department or accounting department and are used to prepare the employees time sheets.

Types of Timecards

There are two types of timecards: manual, automated, and software (application).

Manual Timecards

The time is punched into the manual card by a punch clock, which typically has rows of keys that correspond to numbers 1-12 and columns for each hour from 6 am to 5 pm. The employee puts in his/her assigned number and presses “enter” when he/she starts work and again when he/she stops working so that the employer will have an accurate record of all hours worked.

Automated Timecards

The automated timecards are automatically read by machines after scanning the card with a reader. These cards have preset times for starting and ending work, so there is no need to punch in or out on these types of cards.

Time attendance system renders information that is used by a  company to pay the employee correctly because the employee’s pay depends on their working hours. The company uses the information to keep track of how many hours each employee has worked for them, which they need especially at the end of the year when it is time to figure out taxes and insurance.

Companies also may use hand-written time cards or punch cards if they are using some other way besides a computer to track times.

Software Timecards

These timecards are automatically calculated by computerized timekeeping systems. Time attendance systems require timekeepers to enter in the timecard information into the timekeeping system in order for it to be processed at a later date.

The usage of software timecards allows managers and payroll specialists to analyze their employees’ timecard data without having to handle or manually input timecard data. Timekeepers can also use systems to more easily manage their time cards and workloads, as all of the required information for timecards is readily available on a single system.