Deputy

Deputy automates the process of tracking time and attendance and scheduling employees for businesses of all sizes. The cloud-based time and attendance software is designed to facilitate communication between business owners, managers, and employees, helping busy professionals stay in touch even while on the go. Because it’s completely cloud-based, workers can access their timesheets and leave requests from home or while traveling, as well as in the office.

Instead of punching a timeclock or filling out paper-based timesheets and leave requests, businesses can centralize everything through Deputy. Businesses report significant savings on payroll costs using Deputy, apart from the additional savings they enjoy by reducing time and administrative costs.

What is Deputy?

Deputy promises to be an easy and powerful time reporting and scheduling app, allowing businesses to request time off and business owners to approve it. The social media-like interface encourages communication among all team members, avoiding the many issues that stem from miscommunication.

Many businesses find they can simply set up Deputy on a shared iPad, where employees can clock in and out to signal the beginning and end of shifts and breaks. Employees need only choose their name from a list and enter a pin to log their time. When an employee logs in at the kiosk, any pending communications can be read. The employees can also leave messages for supervisors.

Deputy Main Features

Managing Schedules

Using Deputy’s Rostering feature, business owners can schedule shifts in advance, ensuring all work will be covered even if someone is on vacation. To create a shift, managers just double click on the designated date and choose a start and end time for the shift, as well as the break length. The system will then prompt the manager to choose from a list of available team members, who can be added with just one click.

Once a roster is finished, the manager can publish it on the app or print it out and hang it on the wall. The next week, last week’s roster can be copied and rearranged to meet that week’s changes. Rosters can also be emailed or text-messaged to employees to keep them from having to come into the office to check them.

Manage Payroll

To make payroll easier, Deputy integrates with some of the most popular payroll processing systems. Employee schedules will be connected directly to these applications to ensure pay is processed in a timely and efficient manner. This helps reduce errors while also removing paperwork from the process.

This payroll integration will also make things easier at tax time. Businesses can use the information gathered by Deputy to process payroll taxes, whether they handle them independently or utilize a tax preparation service. Deputy also integrates with several popular project billing apps to make client billing easier.

Timeclock Replacement

Wall-mounted timeclocks have become outdated, but they served an important purpose. For shift workers, an on-site device that allows for easy punching in and out is crucial. Instead of relying on each employee to use a personal smartphone or tablet, Deputy Kiosk for iPad resides on a dedicated device that can be set up in a shared area, accessible to all workers.

Deputy also solves the problem of employees clocking in for each other by allowing the use of photo capture to verify an employee is actually on site when the start time is logged. For employees who have their own smartphone, an app can be used to not only clock in, but also use geo location to log the exact location of the employee clocking in.

Communication Facilitation

Deputy ensures business owners can easily communicate with all team members, with the ability to send updates to everyone at once. When tasks need to be assigned, they can be sent to team members directly within the app, which lets business owners communicate assignments as soon as they think of them. No more leaving Post-It notes on POS terminals or making last-minute phone calls. Once a task is complete, managers will receive a notification.

Through Deputy, managers can keep performance journals that consistently update staff of their performance. This consistent communication can help a business keep morale high, while also ensuring business owners are always aware of how a team is performing.

Reporting

Thanks to Deputy’s reporting features, business owners can access information on what team members are doing, including the number of rostered employees and the number of employees on leave. Deputy also provides information on which employees are celebrating birthdays.

Using the Roster vs Timesheet vs Sales report, owners can see how scheduling is impacting sales, whether positively or negatively. This can show how unscheduled overtime or unworked but scheduled hours are impacting a business’s bottom line.

Deputy Integrations

From payroll to point of sale, Deputy integrates with a variety of applications, allowing businesses to streamline operations to further save money. These integrations include payroll software like Xero, ZenPayroll, QuickBooks, project billing software like WorkflowMax, Wennsoft and POS software like Vend, Kounta and Shopify.

Deputy is also available in the Google Apps marketplace, which lets administrators install the software in a business’s apps domain. Once there, users can install Deputy with one click.

Deputy Pricing

A starter plan is available for free, but most businesses will prefer to upgrade to a paid plan for full benefits. The premium plan is only $1 per employee per week and includes unlimited employees and locations and the ability to send rosters via SMS and email.

Deputy Bottom Line

• Easy scheduling and managing of hourly employees
• Deputy Kiosk allows employees to clock in and out using an iPad app
• Ability to track employee behaviors and use photo authentication
• Cloud-based interface allows access from anywhere
• Reporting helps business owners determine effectiveness of scheduling