A
time clock, sometimes known as a
clock card machine or
punch clock or
time recorder, is a mechanical (or electronic) timepiece used to assist in tracking the
hoursAn hourly worker or hourly employee is an employee paid an hourly wage for their services, as opposed to a fixed salary. Hourly workers may often be found in service and manufacturing occupations, but are common across a variety of fields....
an employee of a company worked. In regards to mechanical time clocks this was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper card, called a time card, into a slot on the time clock. When the time card hit a contact at the rear of the slot, the machine would print day and time information on the card.
A
time clock, sometimes known as a
clock card machine or
punch clock or
time recorder, is a mechanical (or electronic) timepiece used to assist in tracking the
hoursAn hourly worker or hourly employee is an employee paid an hourly wage for their services, as opposed to a fixed salary. Hourly workers may often be found in service and manufacturing occupations, but are common across a variety of fields....
an employee of a company worked. In regards to mechanical time clocks this was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper card, called a time card, into a slot on the time clock. When the time card hit a contact at the rear of the slot, the machine would print day and time information on the card. This allowed a
timekeeperA timekeeper is an instrument or person that measures the passage of time; in the case of the latter, often with the assistance of a clock or stopwatch...
to have an official record of the hours an employee worked to calculate and pay an employee.
History
The first time clock was invented in November 20, 1888, by Willard Bundy, a jeweler in
AuburnAuburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 28,574...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. A year later his brother, Harlow Bundy, organized the
Bundy Manufacturing CompanyThe Bundy Manufacturing Company was a 19th Century American manufacturer of time keeping devices that went through a series of mergers, eventually becoming part of International Business Machines. The company was founded by the Bundy brothers....
, and began mass producing time clocks. Bundy Manufacturing, along with two other time equipment businesses, was consolidated into the International Time Recording Company (ITR). In 1911 ITR and two other companies were merged, forming
Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR)The Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation was incorporated on June 15 1911 in Endicott, New York a few miles west of Binghamton. CTR was formed through a merger of four separate corporations: Tabulating Machine Company , the Computing Scale Corporation , the International Time Recording...
, which would later change its name to
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
. In 1958 IBM's Time Equipment Division was sold to the Simplex Time Recorder Company.
The time cards usually had the workdays and time in and time out areas marked on them so that employees could "punch in" or "punch out" in the correct place. The employee was responsible to line up the correct area of the card to be punched with an indicator on the time card. Software applications offer such a system.
The first punch-card system to be linked to a Z80 microprocessor was developed by
Kronos IncorporatedKronos Incorporated, is a U.S.-based multi-national human capital management software and services company. Headquartered in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, USA, Kronos provides an array of workforce management, talent management, and human resources management solutions, including time and attendance,...
in the late 1970s and introduced as a product in 1979. In the 1990s, time clocks started to move away from the mechanical version to computer based, electronic time tracking systems. On these systems, the employee either enters an employee number, swipes a
magnetic stripe cardA magnetic stripe card is a type of card capable of storing data by modifying the magnetism of tiny iron-based magnetic particles on a band of magnetic material on the card. The magnetic stripe, sometimes called a magstripe, is read by physical contact and swiping past a reading head...
, or brings an RFID tag into proximity with a reader, or uses some other device to identify the employee to the system. Based on the system being used, the employee then enters what should be recorded. This could be "punching in", "punching out", lunch breaks, reason for leaving early, or any other type of information the employer requires.
Many of the more modern time clocks, such as biometric and card swipe clocks, are capable of exporting data to a computer for use with payroll software.
Biometrics
Biometric time clocks are a class of employee time clock that uses a persons biological attributes to identify them, rather than using a card or some other external device. Examples of this are the hand print clock, which detects the overall attributes of a person's hand, fingerprint clock, and retina scanning clock. Biometric time clocks help cut down on fraud, such as buddy punching, in which an individual clocks in on behalf of another person.
Software
Software-based time clocks allow an individual, or employee, to clock in and out of work by means of a computer. No external time recording devices are required. Software time clocks vary in functionality. Some systems can only be used on one centralized computer, where other "network" packages can be used on an entire computer network.
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