It was mid summer and I had 6 painters working on an exterior paint project.
As I was not working along side them I was not always on the job site all day. They are great painters and their work speaks for itself.
I was on the job site the last few days at lunch time for various reasons and happen to notice something that had my mind stirring…
All six workers took lunch at the same time, three brought lunches and the other three would “run” out to grab something. Some days the guys would bring back their lunch and eat it and other days they would eat at a sub shop or a fast food place. And when returning they would always sit around until one of them motioned it was time to get back to work.
The next week came and on Mondays I usually collect the previous weeks time card. Some were ready when I arrived and a few guys would fill them out then even though they all have blank empty stacks of them.
The AMAZING thing was that they all worked exactly 8 hour days with 30 minute lunches. No one was ever late or started work early and no one ever worked overtime or left early. This crew is AMAZING.
But lets get to the numbers just for lunch:
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I bill out at $50 per man hour for my company, so it breaks down as this:
- $ 50.00 hour billed per hour per man
- Each minute is .83 cents per man
- Every ten minutes is $ 8.33 per man
- They took a 40 minute lunch every day and wrote in 1/2 hour (not intentional) just habit.
- Six men for an extra 10 minutes a day cost $ 49.98 (I didn’t round off)
- $ 49.98 a day for 5 days a week equals $ 249.75 per week
- $ 249.75 per week multiplied time 50 weeks per year costs $ 12,487.50
- $ 12,487.50 per year for a 10 minute extra lunch break.
YIKES… I could really use $12,500 for my company or better yet to improve my business, Can you?
I had searched for a solution that would not only be simple to use but also easy for me as I am technologically challenged.
The answer: TSheets…
TSheets allows the workers to log in and out at appropriate times on their cell phones. Smart phones with a tap of the screen and flip phones with a text message.
We can not keep track of not only actual working hours but also:
- Which project they are on
- What part of the job they are on. such as prep, interior, second floor, finish painting which is all customizable to each individual business.
- We keep track of were they log in and log out via GPS.
- Employees are able to write notes on their electronic time sheets
- Vacation time earned
- Specific project reports hours worked for job costing.
- A fast glance to see who is working at any moment and where.
- And many other features.
How I sold my employees on this new tool:
- They will now get paid for every single minute they work
- We can track each specific aspect of the job which will make me better able to estimate in the future.
- They will not forget the extra hours worked if they forget to fill out punch card daily
- They can see to the minute how many hours they worked at a quick glance
- communicate and write notes directly on their time cards for only me to see (request time off, forgot to clock in, ect).
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