Looking for help tracking employee time and productivity?
An employee attendance sheet makes this a breeze. And with the right knowledge and tools, it’s easy to ensure that all employees adhere to their schedules and company policies.
Using attendance sheets accurately also helps reduce costly errors in payroll and keeps your entire team on track.
This guide will show you how to create employee attendance sheets to manage your team’s time better — and how modern technology can make time tracking more accurate and provide real-time insights into employee productivity.
How to create a free employee attendance sheet in Lark
Lark offers several tools for tracking employee attendance.
With Sheets, users can custom-design free employee attendance sheet templates. You can then store your files in Lark Drive, which supports over 200 file types.
Import your attendance data to Lark Base to create data visualizations and helpful analytics. Gain insights that reveal where there might be gaps in staffing or other problems that could impact your team’s performance, and spot opportunities for improving your employee schedules.
Create an employee attendance sheet file using Lark
Creating an employee attendance sheet in Lark is easy with the Sheets tool.
The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, which makes it simple to generate spreadsheets for attendance tracking and other purposes.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to using this free resource inside Lark Docs.
Follow these steps to start with Sheets:
Go to www.larksuite.com and set up or log in to your free account.
Once in your account, scroll down a little until you see the box labeled “Lark Sheets.” In that box, click on “Create a sheet.”
The next screen that pops up will give you several options to create your customized attendance records. You can choose between creating your own sheet from scratch or customizing an existing template.
You may also opt to upload or import your own existing templates to use inside the Lark Docs interface.
There’s a helpful “Getting Started” guide located here.
Easily link, share, and add collaborators to your employee attendance sheet
With the Lark Docs sharing feature, it’s easy to share your attendance record with your team. You can also add collaborators and generate access links for use in email and messaging.
Streamlining employee attendance tracking
Did you know that nearly $74 billion is lost annually due to insufficient tracking of work activities?
Investing in automated attendance tracking systems can dramatically reduce losses attributed to manually tracking employee attendance.
Here are some key tips for optimizing your attendance tracking with modern technology:
Offer remote employee time clock accessibility
With five in ten employees in the United States working from home at least part of the time, cloud-based attendance tracking software is a vital tool for accessibility.
You’ll see increased efficiency and reduced frustration if employees can easily log their time and attendance, whether in the office or off-site.
Clearly communicate attendance policies
Ensure that attendance policies with clear expectations are communicated upfront.
For instance, employees should know when they’re expected to be at work and for how long. Clarify your expectations around punctuality and how they should report absences or leave. You’ll also want to outline any consequences for attendance issues or noncompliance.
Invest in training
HR staff and employees will likely need some additional training when switching to an automated employee attendance system.
Consider how you can include your hybrid or remote workforce in training opportunities. While training takes additional time and investment, it will be worth it when employees can access the system easily and efficiently in the long run.
Some software has a learning curve, but most also come with a support team to assist you with employee training, software integrations, and other forms of troubleshooting.
Be open to feedback as you switch to automating the employee attendance process. It may need to be adjusted over time to accommodate your expanding workforce.
Research integrations with diligence
Make sure that your attendance tracking systems offer integrations that are compliant with the company’s accounting and payroll software.
Easy integrations save valuable time and reduce workload. You’ll also run into fewer errors.
Analyze and audit employee attendance processes regularly
Conduct regular analysis and audits of attendance processes and records. This data can provide your company with insightful employee attendance trends. You’ll also be better positioned to stay on top of any issues as they arise.
The limitations of relying on employee attendance sheets
Basic employee attendance tracker templates are only one way to track employee attendance — and they have certain limitations.
Here are some ways you might be giving your team more work (and more headaches) by continuing to manually keep track of attendance sheets.
Payroll errors
The consequences of inaccuracy can be serious.
Printed attendance records can get damaged or lost in transit to the HR office, leading to incorrect payroll calculations and other timely or costly mistakes.
Entry errors on a manual spreadsheet can result in miscalculations and inconsistencies that take time and effort to locate and fix. These avoidable errors can lead to dissatisfaction in the workforce, ultimately impacting the company’s turnover rate.
Not only that, but inaccuracies can also result in compliance issues, which can lead to legal trouble for the business. Since 2022, payroll errors have accounted for nearly $7 billion in penalties collected from companies by the IRS.
Lack of features or accessibility
In addition to payroll mistakes, basic employee attendance spreadsheets usually lack the necessary features to assess employees’ workplace productivity.
When built into attendance management systems, these helpful features provide organizations with meaningful metrics to measure and track productivity and other important information.
Tracking employee productivity allows your team to make cost-saving scheduling changes.
Whether you’re working with regular schedules, hybrid schedules, or more specific ones, like the 9/80 schedule, productivity tracking analyzes which employees are performing and at what capacity.
Also, a manually tracked spreadsheet will not allow you to review shift coverage needs. Miscalculating shift needs can result in staff shortages, overtime costs, decreased productivity, and overworked employees.
Lack of reliability
A standard Excel spreadsheet isn’t the most reliable source for tracking attendance, leave, and vacation days, either.
There are formulas you can set up in Excel to assist you with some basic calculations. However, Excel spreadsheets lack some of the customizable features that are often available through automated attendance tracking systems.
Using Excel spreadsheets to track employee attendance status also limits how accessible this system is to some of your workforce.
What happens if a worker in a remote location can’t access the spreadsheet? This can lead to lost productivity as the worker, manager, HR department, and IT staff exchange emails to ensure the spreadsheet is updated correctly.
An automated employee attendance management system offers accuracy, accessibility, and reliability. At the end of the day, this means less wasted time on attendance tracking and more peace of mind.
Take your employee attendance tracking to the next level with Lark
More than just a spreadsheet shared between managers, team members, and HR departments, Lark provides several tools for tracking and maintaining employee attendance and productivity.
For example, Lark offers chats, forms, and project management tools to assist with keeping your team on time and on track. These tools can significantly increase productivity through automation, collaboration, accessibility, and analytics tracking.
Let’s look more closely at what’s built into the Lark Suite and how to use these features to optimize your workforce management.
Use unified chats on Lark
Lark’s unified chats offer so much more than a standard messenger tool. With the chat feature, you can easily manage teams within your organization.
The integrated Lark Messenger allows all users to join or start meetings and organize team meeting rooms at any time.
If someone from HR or management has a question on attendance, they can quickly reach out to the employee. Remote team members can respond right away in the chat, so there’s no need to spend time sifting through emails looking for a response.
Collaborating on scheduling is also a breeze. Employees can share requests for time off or scheduling changes, and managers can discuss productivity and workflow needs with everyone in one centralized space.
Employees can also set status updates so that you’ll immediately know if they’re in do-not-disturb mode, away from their desks, or in a meeting.
In chat conversations, you’ll find it easy to delegate tasks, share documents, and approve attendance and leave requests. Lark’s easy-to-use platform also allows you to seamlessly request information, clarification, or specific action on any task.
Record attendance and process employee requests with Lark Forms
Lark Forms brings data collection, automation, and attendance recording to a new level.
With the Forms feature, you can custom-design and organize various forms from one of the ready-made templates to suit your business needs.
Optimal uses for Lark Forms include:
Tracking employee attendance
Processing time-off requests
Gaining feedback through employee questionnaires and surveys
With everything conveniently located in Lark Base, you’ll have just what you need to gain actionable insights and make informed decisions.
Offer accessibility options with the Lark mobile app
Compatible with virtually any smartphone, the Lark mobile app is a powerful tool for tracking employee attendance in your business.
Available for download on MacOS, the Apple Store, Google Play, and Linux, the app puts many of the following features into the palm of your hand:
Task delegation: Easily assign tasks and set meetings using the calendar feature.
Chat organization: This in-app chat feature offers access to quick questions and answers.
Document and email sharing: The Lark mobile app allows easy access to any necessary documents. You can store essential attendance-related documents here, as well.
Project tracking: With the reporting feature built into the app, you can analyze data and make the necessary changes to your projects right away.
Customization: Customize Lark’s attendance features to fit your team’s needs and preferences.
Track productivity with Lark Base
Lark Base offers all-inclusive solutions for tracking employee attendance, productivity, and workflows. These make process optimization a breeze.
Plus, Lark Base gives teams the ability to stay on track with its built-in, easy-to-use project management tools.
Here are some of Lark Base’s main features:
Effortless content automation
Using Base x OpenAI, your teams can completely automate tasks like social media calendar planning and updating blogs and websites.
Simple Excel importing
Got important data on your existing Excel spreadsheets? Easily import those to Lark Base to convert them into informative statistics and actionable items.
Improved field operations
Track inventory and field requests. Efficiently submit the necessary reports and resolve frontline issues.
Useful data and analytics
Transform daily sales figures, production totals, and supply fluctuations into insightful charts and graphs. Your team can create solutions and adjust their practices accordingly.
Process automations
Keep your team on track with workflow automations. With Lark Base, tracking your teams, timelines, and tasks is easy.
Given these robust features, Lark Base reduces the stress of manually tracking employee tasks, timelines, and other productivity processes. Your workforce can achieve an optimal workflow through these tools.
Track employee attendance effortlessly with Lark
Accuracy is necessary for time management, work productivity, and maintaining an accurate labor budget. And automating your attendance tracking can help you achieve these objectives with ease. So, why not tap into the power of technology to give your company an edge?
Lark Base can help you build and maintain an effective and accurate employee attendance management system. You’ll also enjoy a boost in collaboration through the unified chat spaces. Plus, the convenience of the mobile app ensures everyone can stay engaged, productive, and on track.
Don’t wait to streamline productivity and boost accuracy with employee attendance. Find out more about this advanced technology by booking a live demo today.
