Timecards Go Online
5,000 employees moving to electronic time reporting
By the end of October, more than 5,000 bi-weekly employees at the university and School of Medicine will move from recording their time on paper timecards to entering work hours online through a new Electronic Time Reporting initiative.
This initiative is another step in Duke's ongoing Paperless Payroll Initiative, which is creating more cost effective, eco-friendly pay practices. Since 2005, the Paperless Payroll Initiative has introduced online forms (Iforms), electronic distribution of direct deposit pay statements and the Duke@Work self-service site for faculty and staff.
With electronic time reporting, bi-weekly employees no longer track their hours using paper timecards; instead, they can log work hours at any time from any computer. Office assistants no longer need to make copies of each timecard since data is stored electronically. And on the payroll end, staff no longer have to distribute or collect time cards, or hand-key data in the system.
"The efficiency gains in each department are significant," said Robin Miller, assistant controller for disbursement services for Corporate Payroll and Accounts Payable.
Several departments at the University and School of Medicine have piloted the new system.
Alan Dunn, payroll representative for the Duke Clinical Research Institute, said the program eliminated the need for him to drive to four different buildings across Durham every other Thursday to collect time cards before starting to process the data.
"With the new system, I can process the bi-weekly payroll for 275 to 300 employees in 12 or 13 hours instead of 20," he said. "It gives me time to catch any errors while there is still time to fix them."
The new system has also been well received by student workers and the approximately 115 bi-weekly employees in Duke University Libraries, which also participated in the electronic time-reporting pilot.
"Paper timecards are incredibly labor intensive and clunky," said Kim Burhop-Service, director of human resources for Duke University Libraries. "There were a few employees who were initially nervous about moving to an online system for something as important as their paycheck. But the biggest issue turned out to be reminding employees to turn off their browser's pop-up blocker to allow the program to work properly."
For library staff who often work non-traditional hours, eliminating the necessity of finding a supervisor to sign the timecard or submitting cards on Friday before working weekend hours was particularly useful. "We've already seen a drop in the number of late and incorrect timecards," Burhop-Service said.
The Electronic Time Reporting initiative will be rolled out to School of Medicine and university departments still using paper timecards on Sept. 27 and Oct. 25. It will not be implemented in departments already using ReportXpress, the system that allows employees to swipe their DukeCard to record in and out times.
After Oct. 25, only a small number of staff at Duke, such as those in Duke Temporary Services or those turning in secondary time cards, will continue to use paper time cards.
"Everyone is going to love this new system," said Dunn, the DCRI payroll representative. "I know I won't miss the old paper timecards one little bit."