Holiday Inn Express Location Takes Time and Attendance to the Next Level

By  Josh Hines, General Manager, Holiday Inn Express Wapakoneta
The Holiday Inn Express Wapakoneta is an affordable oasis for business and leisure travelers visiting the Greater Grand Lake St. Mary's Region in Western Ohio. The hotel's quaint setting and 53 guest rooms serve as an ideal launching point for outdoor enthusiasts visiting Indian Lake State Park or the Ohio Caverns. The property also offers racing fans a place to relax after a day of racing action at Eldora Speedway or Waynesfield Motorsports Park.

The number of people visiting these destinations has increased sharply in recent years, leading the property to grow in staff to accommodate the influx of new visitors. With the increase in employees, it didn't take long for executive staff to realize that the hotel had outgrown its paper-based payroll system. When working with a large staff, paper punch cards are time-consuming to process and often inaccurate.

The decision was made to automate the process. After a discovery phase, management selected Lathem Time's PayClock Express (www.lathem.com) for its ease of use and affordability. The system features an electronic time clock and uses Windows XP or Vista. It connects to a user's PC with a standard USB port. No additional connections or wires are required.

Instead of punching a timecard, employees now clock in and out with proximity badges that use radio frequencies. These badges last longer than those using magnetic strips. The system reduces errors by keeping an accurate record of employee attendance and factors in wages, vacation, sick time, and lunch and break deductions.
 
One of the most important features of PayClock Express is its integration with QuickBooks. This allows staff to import employee hours from the PayClock system directly into the property's payroll software, eliminating manual data entry errors. The PayClock system also tracks employee hours in real time, letting managers track when employees clock in and out, and check overtime against the property's current budget.

In addition, employees appreciate the voice-activated feature of the clock, which greets them with "hello" and "good-bye."  The audio messaging feature can also be programmed to give greetings in Spanish and French.

As the hotel's workforce grows, the property may make use of other dynamic features, including a biometric finger sensor, which eliminates "buddy punching," when employees clock in and out for each other. In the future, PayClock Express will also feature a camera to capture images of employees as they clock in, and key pads to enter job numbers and department changes.

The PayClock Express system has reduced the time it takes to perform payroll duties from two hours to about 15 minutes and saves 3 percent in payroll processing costs. Equally important, management has more time to focus on other business tasks, including guest services, event planning and financials.