Cases of Timesheet Fraud – How Employees Padding Their Work Hours Will Cost You

Do you have employees who pad their hours? This might be costing you more than you think. Many small and medium businesses have suffered losses due to padded timesheet fraud.

The padding burdens payroll, accumulates overtime costs, and has unnecessary consequences. The result is either loss of hard-earned money or poor productivity because the management always keeps an eye on the employees.

Timesheet management software tracks the rounding hours of your employees and prevents them from padding their work hours. You can easily use a reputable timesheet software system to enable your managers to track when your employees’ clock in, clock out, and take breaks. It also enables you to schedule work shifts giving you total visibility over when employees are working and when they’re not getting in early or leaving late.

The Problem – What Are Padding Hours?

Padding hours is when workers log in more hours than they worked. This can be done by logging in at the start of the shift, then immediately logging out. It can also include inflating the hours they worked based on tasks that were not completed or worked on by them. Some employees may also go through their shift without completing tasks or performing any work but still log in as if they did.

Inflated Hours

Employees may inflate their hours to make it appear like they’re working harder. For example, if an employee claims to have worked overtime for an entire week when only one day was necessary, this is known as over-reporting time. Sometimes, employees may exaggerate their workday by adding minutes or hours to their timesheets.

False Entries

Another common form of timesheet fraud occurs when employees intentionally enter false information into their timesheets. For example, an employee might enter a false start date or end date on their timesheet to get paid for a full week instead of just one day’s worth of work.

Punching In for Coworkers

It’s also possible that an employee will punch in for coworkers who aren’t even at work that day or week because they don’t want them to get in trouble with management over missed shifts or days off from work. This happens most often among retail and restaurant workers who are

Personal Time or Break Abuse

Employees who abuse personal time are taking advantage of their employer by taking advantage of breaks and lunches they’re not entitled to claim as paid time off. An employee taking two 15-minute breaks per day could falsely claim up to 30 minutes of unpaid leave each day. Some employees take advantage of this by claiming longer lunch breaks than usual and even taking personal days off without authorization from their managers or supervisors.

Working Unauthorized Hours

Employees not only pad their hours by adding in unauthorized breaks but also by claiming to work overtime when they do not. This can be a problem for employers that are required to pay overtime or whose employees are exempt from such requirements.

When an employee works unauthorized hours, it can be difficult to prove this tampering with timesheets without a comprehensive employee time tracking and monitoring system. In many cases, employers have no idea that this fraud is occurring until they receive an audit report from their payroll provider. At that point, the employer has little recourse but to investigate and potentially terminate the employee if they find evidence of time fraud.

Timesheet Management Solutions for SMBs

Time management software solutions can help your business be more productive and efficient. With the right time tracking software, you can easily track the productivity of your employees, see where time is wasted, and get a clear picture of who’s slacking off.

Smart Geofencing

If you want to ensure that your employees are working when they say they’re working, then smart geofencing technology is what you need. This allows you to set up boundaries around your office or warehouse and determine whether or not an employee is within those boundaries at any given moment. When they leave their designated area without permission, this will automatically trigger an alert on your smartphone or computer screen. You’ll know immediately if someone has been slacking off instead of working as scheduled.

Shifts and Rosters

Everything can be managed at your fingertips. Schedule, reschedule, and send notifications, updates, and reminders from a desktop or mobile device. Shift and roster management features will allow you to see which employees are working when so you can check whether their timesheets match up with what’s happening. If you know an employee has been on vacation for two weeks and their timesheet says they’ve been working all that time, it’s evident that something is wrong with their work hours.

Time-Off Management

If you don’t have a system for tracking employee vacation and sick days, then it’s easy for employees to pad their hours or even abuse their time off without anyone noticing until it’s too late. Time-off management software ensures all employees are allowed their allotted days off and that they’re not being abused by employees who want to pad their hours or take extra days off without approval.

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition technology allows organizations to identify people based on their facial features or characteristics for time management activities. You can use this technology to verify whether or not an employee is at work during claimed hours by comparing their face with photos taken throughout the day.

The Time Management Software Solution to Consider

Timesheet fraud is widespread, with many employees admitting to falsifying their hours. “Padding hours” is a term used to inflate the time recorded on a timesheet. False entries, punch-in for coworkers, and other “creative” methods for getting over forty hours per week in pay are also popular.

Whether it’s working an extra fifteen minutes to catch up on work without going overtime, punching in for coworkers because they didn’t have time to punch out, or just neglecting to log out at the end of the day, all these small (or large) infractions can ruin the tracking record if processed with rounding hours.

Don’t be one of the many thousands of businesses who’ve been hit by false time entry claims by bad actor employees. You can better prevent timesheet fraud by using a reputable timesheet management software system and the time tracking apps provided by Zuper – who offers a free 14-day trial and demo too. Check them out today.