Exaktime Inc. was founded by Steve Simmonds, a general contractor who always had numerous jobs running at the same time. Like most bosses, he occasionally showed up unannounced on a jobsite on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and found it deserted. But when his workers turned in their time sheets, they would all show a Friday that ended at 4 p.m. “Time and attendance were out of control,” says Exaktime vice president Scott Prewett.
Because the accuracy of time sheets is highly dependent on both integrity and memory, Simmonds looked around for some other method of keeping track of his workers. Everything he found was either too hard to use or too expensive, so he invented the Jobclock.
Exaktime’s Jobclock Attendance System lets you track your workers’ arrival and departure times without having an on-site supervisor. The system tracks employee hours, monitors punctuality and computes payroll easily. You can also calculate how much time is spent on specific activities on the site as well as travel time.
Workers carry two “iButtons” (usually green and red) that contain a unique serial number that allows Jobclock to identify each individual and activity. When the iButton is touched to a Jobclock, the serial number is written to the Jobclock along with the time of the touch. If you want to track more than just starting and stopping times, you can add different colored buttons so that you can keep track of how much time is spent on different aspects of the job. The worker simply touches the proper iButton before beginning each task.
As workers touch in and out, the attendance is stored on the Jobclock. Records are removed with a Palm Pilot and then transferred to a PC. From there you can produce easy-to-read reports.
The stainless steel Jobclock is tamperproof, weatherproof and dustproof. The interior circuit board is silicone-sealed against water. Batteries last four-to-six months. The iButtons are also waterproof and don’t require a battery.
Prewett says that for painting contractors, the average return on investment is less than a month. If you’d like to see the Jobclock for yourself, visit Exaktime at the national PDCA show in Florida at the end of March. Or for more information, call 888-788-8463 or visit their Web site
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