![Walltclock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Walltclock.jpg)
A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine or punch clock or time recorder, is a device that records start and end times for
hourly employees (or those on
flexi-time
Flextime (also spelled flexitime ( BE) or flex-time) is a flexible hours schedule that allows workers to alter their workday and decide/adjust their start and finish times. In contrast to traditional work arrangements that require employees to wor ...
) at a place of business.
In mechanical time clocks, this was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper
card Card or The Card may refer to:
* Various types of plastic cards:
**By type
***Magnetic stripe card
*** Chip card
*** Digital card
**By function
***Payment card
****Credit card
**** Debit card
****EC-card
****Identity card
****European Health Insur ...
, 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 (a
timestamp
A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolut ...
) on the card. One or more time cards could serve as a
timesheet
A timesheet (or time sheet) is a method for recording the amount of a worker's time spent on each job. Traditionally a sheet of paper with the data arranged in tabular format, a timesheet is now often a digital document or spreadsheet. The time ...
or provide the data to fill one. This allowed a
timekeeper
A timekeeper is an instrument or person that measures the passage of time.
Person
A timekeeper is a person who measures time with the assistance of a clock or a stopwatch. In addition, a timekeeper records time, time taken, or time remaining duri ...
to have an official record of the hours an employee worked to calculate the pay owed an employee.
The terms Bundy clock, bundy clock, or just bundy
[''Bundy.'' (n.d.). ''Collins English Dictionary'' – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bundy ] have been used in
Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
for time clocks. The term comes from
brothers Willard and Harlow Bundy.
History
Origins
![Bundy Clock, Birmingham City Transport](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Bundy_Clock%2C_Birmingham_City_Transport.jpg)
An early and influential time clock, sometimes described as the first, was invented on November 20, 1888, by Willard Le Grand Bundy, a jeweler in
Auburn, New York
Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States. Located at the north end of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in Central New York, the city had a population of 26,866 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city of Cayuga County, the ...
. His patent of 1890
speaks of mechanical time recorders for workers in terms that suggest that earlier recorders already existed, but Bundy's had various improvements; for example, each worker had his own
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
. A year later his brother, Harlow Bundy, organized the
Bundy Manufacturing Company
The Bundy Manufacturing Company was a 19th-century American manufacturer of timekeeping devices that went through a series of mergers, eventually becoming part of International Business Machines and Simplex Time Recorder Company. It was the fi ...
, and began mass-producing time clocks.
In 1900, the time recording business of Bundy Manufacturing, along with two other time equipment businesses, was consolidated into the
International Time Recording Company
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems subsequently known as IBM.
In 1911, financier and noted trust organizer, "Father of Trusts", Charles R. Flint ama ...
(ITR).
In 1911, ITR, Bundy Mfg., and two other companies were
amalgamated
Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form.
Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal
**Pan ama ...
(via stock acquisition), forming a fifth company,
Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems subsequently known as IBM.
In 1911, financier and noted trust organizer, "Father of Trusts", Charles R. Flint ama ...
(CTR), which would later change its name to
IBM.
The Bundy clock (see image left) was used by
Birmingham City Transport
Birmingham City Transport was the local authority-owned undertaking that provided road-based public transport in Birmingham, England, between 1899 and 1969. It was locally known as the Corporation Buses. Initially, it was called Birmingham Cor ...
to ensure that bus drivers did not depart from outlying termini before the due time; now preserved at
Walsall Arboretum
Walsall Arboretum is a Victorian public park located close to Walsall town centre in the West Midlands of England. Part of the park and surrounding housing are covered by the Arboretum conservation area. In the early 2010s, the park has undergo ...
.
In 1909,
Halbert P. Gillette explained about the state of the art around time clocks in those days:
An example of this other form of time clock, made by
IBM, is pictured. The face shows employee numbers which would be dialed up by employees entering and leaving the factory. The day and time of entry and exit was punched onto cards inside the box.
Mid 20th century
In 1958, IBM's Time Equipment Division was sold to the
Simplex Time Recorder Company
SimplexGrinnell, a subsidiary of Johnson Controls, is an American company specializing in active fire protection, active fire protection systems, communication systems and testing, inspection and maintenance services. The company headquarters is i ...
. However, in the United Kingdom ITR (a subsidiary of IBM United Kingdom Ltd.) was the subject of a
management buy-out
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...
in 1963 and reverted to International Time Recorders. In 1982, International Time Recorders was acquired by Blick Industries of Swindon, England, who were themselves later absorbed by Stanley Security Systems.
The first punched-card system to be linked to a
Z80
The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...
microprocessor was developed by
Kronos Incorporated
Kronos Incorporated was an American multinational workforce management and human capital management cloud provider headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, which employed more than 6,000 people worldwide.
In February 2020, the com ...
in the late 1970s and introduced as a product in 1979.
Late 20th century
In the late 20th century, time clocks started to move away from the mechanical machines to computer-based, electronic
time and attendance
Time and attendance systems (TNA) are used to track and monitor when employees start and stop work. A time and attendance system enables an employer to monitor their employees working hours and late arrivals, early departures, time taken on breaks ...
systems. The employee registers with the system by swiping a
magnetic stripe card
The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted
as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...
, scanning a
barcode
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...
, bringing an
RFID
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
(radio-frequency identification) tag close to a reader, entering a number or using a biometric reader. These systems are much more advanced than the mechanical time clock: various reports can be generated, including on compliance with the
European Working Time Directive
Working Time Directive''2003/88/ECis a European Union law Directive and a key part of European labour law. It gives EU workers the right to:
*at least 28 days (four weeks) in paid holidays each year,
*rest breaks of 20 minutes in a 6 hour peri ...
, and a
Bradford factor report. Employees can also use the system to request holidays, enter absence requests and view their worked hours. User interfaces can be personalized and offer robust self-service capabilities.
Electronic time clock machines are manufactured in many designs by companies in China and sold under various brand names in places around the world, with accompanying software to extract the data from a single time clock machine, or several machines, and process the data into reports. In most cases local suppliers offer technical support and in some cases installation services.
More recently, time clocks have started to adopt technology commonly seen in phones and tablets – called 'Smartclocks'. The "state of the art" smartclocks come with multi-touch screens, full color displays, real time monitoring for problems, wireless networking and over the air updates. Some of the smartclocks use front-facing cameras to capture employee clock-ins to deter "buddy clocking" or "buddy punching", whereby one employee fraudulently records the time of another. This problem usually requires expensive
biometric devices. With the increasing popularity of cloud-based software, some of the newer time clocks are built to work seamlessly with the cloud.
Types
Basic time clock
A basic time clock will just stamp the date and time on a time card, similar to a parking validation machine. These will usually be activated by a button that a worker must press to stamp their card, or stamp upon full insertion. Some machines use
punch hole cards instead of stamping, which can facilitate automated processing on machinery not capable of
optical character recognition
Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a scen ...
.
There are also variations based on manufacture and machine used, and whether the user wants to record weekly or monthly recordings. The time cards usually have the workdays, "time in", and "time out" areas marked on them so that employees can "punch in" or "punch out" in the correct place. The employee may be responsible for lining up the correct area of the card to be punched or stamped. Some time clocks feature a bell or signal relay to alert employees as to a certain time or break.
Fraudulent operation of time clocks can include overstamping, where one time is stamped over another, and buddy-punching, where one employee records time for another. In extreme cases, employees can use buddy-punching to skip entire days of work or accumulate additional overtime.
Self-calculating machines
Self-calculating machines are similar to basic time clocks. Nevertheless, at the end of each period the total time recorded is added up allowing for quicker processing by
human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...
or
payroll
A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...
. These machines sometimes have other functions such as automatic stamping, dual-colour printing, and automated column shift.
Software based time and attendance systems are similar to paper-based systems, but they rely on computers and check-in terminals. They are backed up with software that can be integrated with the human resources department and in some cases payroll software. These types of systems are becoming more popular but due to high initial costs they are usually only adopted by large business of over 30 employees. Despite this they can save a business a lot of money every year by cutting down errors and reducing administration time.
Mobile time tracking
With the mass market proliferation of mobile devices (smart phones, handheld devices), new types of self-calculating time tracking systems have been invented which allow a mobile workforce – such as painting companies or construction companies - to track employees 'on' and 'off' hours. This is generally accomplished through either a mobile application, or an IVR based phone call in system. Using a mobile device allows enterprises to better validate that their employees or suppliers are physically 'clocking in' at a specific location using the GPS functionality of a mobile phone for extra validation.
![Biometric time clock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Biometric_time_clock.jpg)
Biometrics
Biometric time clocks are a feature of more advanced
time and attendance
Time and attendance systems (TNA) are used to track and monitor when employees start and stop work. A time and attendance system enables an employer to monitor their employees working hours and late arrivals, early departures, time taken on breaks ...
systems. Rather than using a key, code or chip to identify the user, they rely on a unique attribute of the user, such as a hand print, finger print, finger vein, palm vein, facial recognition, iris or retina. The user will have their attribute scanned into the system. Biometric readers are often used in conjunction with an access control system, granting the user access to a building, and at the same time clocking them in recording the time and date. These systems also attempt to cut down on fraud such as "buddy clocking." When combined with an access control system they can help prevent other types of fraud such as 'ghost employees', where additional identities are added to payroll but don't exist.
See also
*
Time and attendance
Time and attendance systems (TNA) are used to track and monitor when employees start and stop work. A time and attendance system enables an employer to monitor their employees working hours and late arrivals, early departures, time taken on breaks ...
*
Time discipline
In sociology and anthropology, time discipline is the general name given to social and economic rules, conventions, customs, and expectations governing the measurement of time, the social currency and awareness of time measurements, and people's ...
*
Timekeeper
A timekeeper is an instrument or person that measures the passage of time.
Person
A timekeeper is a person who measures time with the assistance of a clock or a stopwatch. In addition, a timekeeper records time, time taken, or time remaining duri ...
*
Timesheet
A timesheet (or time sheet) is a method for recording the amount of a worker's time spent on each job. Traditionally a sheet of paper with the data arranged in tabular format, a timesheet is now often a digital document or spreadsheet. The time c ...
*
Game clock
A chess clock consists of two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. Chess clocks are used in chess and other two-player games where the players move in turn, and ...
*
Stopwatch
A stopwatch is a timepiece designed to measure the amount of time that elapses between its activation and deactivation.
A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stop clock. ...
*
Workforce management Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human ...
References
External links
IBM Time Clocks(PDF files)
National Museum of American History: International Dial Time Recorder Clockwww.timerecorder.de/ (mostly in German, but partly translated into English) is one of the most comprehensive online documentations of the history of time recorders and time clocks
Harlow Bundy's home in Binghamton, it was restored and now houses a museum dedicated to the Bundys.*https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2017/06/01/washington-becomes-third-state-enact-biometric-privacy-law/
*https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/business-and-commerce-code/bus-com-sect-503-001.html
{{Authority control
Products introduced in 1888
Clocks
Working time