Wouldn’t it be great to take home our purchases and try them out before deciding to keep them? That’s exactly what many time clock software vendors provide with free software trials. It’s kind of like a dating relationship. You get to find out if you’re compatible, what character traits you like ,which ones are likely to drive you crazy, and whether any red flags would prevent a long-term relationship. This provides an environment for testing the relationship before moving forward with a large commitment of resources, time, and money. When taking advantage of free employee time clock software trials, there are several questions you’ll want to ask upfront. Is the free time clock software trial limited in any way, or is it the fully-functioning software? How long will the free trial last? Can I get help and technical support during the free trial period? Do I have to start again after the free time clock software trial has finished? These are important questions before starting the free time clock software trial.
Make Sure It Has the Features You Want
The free time clock software trial is the perfect time to ensure the time clock program has all the features you’ll need. That’s why ensuring the free trial is fully functional is so important. A limited feature set, or even worse, a remote demonstration, is not adequate to make sure the employee time clock software will meet your business’s needs. You should be testing the exact software you’ll be asked to buy. You’ll also want to ensure you won’t have to re-key all the information you’ve entered during the free trial after purchasing a permanent license. That’s why this dating period is so important. You want to see how your future partner responds in as many situations as possible before committing to a permanent relationship.
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Make Sure It Supports Your Business Payroll Rules
The free time clock software trial should allow you to use the program with your payroll rules fully. In other words, use the free trial through a complete payroll period. This will enable you to confirm that the software can handle your same payroll cycle, overtime settings, and rounding rules. A great scenario is to run the free time clock software trial right along with your current time and attendance system. This should bring any obvious deficiencies to the surface. A 30-day trial may sound like enough time to test the software thoroughly, but if you don’t start using it for several weeks after downloading, you may run out of time before you’re ready. The last thing you need is to have the free trial expire before you meet with management to demonstrate the new time and attendance system. Free trials based on several time clock punches used before expiration may be a better option.
Make Sure It Works In Your Office Configuration
Another crucial test during the free time clock software trial is ensuring the software will work with your current office configuration. For example, if you’re looking for a punch clock replacement, putting an unsupervised computer in the break room may not be the best solution. Now is the time to think through other deployment strategies, like putting personal networked time clocks on all employee computers. This also allows you to verify the software will work with your existing infrastructure. This will cut down on unexpected expenses later since you’ll already know what computers meet the system requirements and which ones will need to be upgraded.
Make Sure Employees Find It Easy to Use
Is the new time clock software more or less efficient than the time and attendance system it is replacing? There may be a learning curve for your employees, but the mistakes and inefficiencies should subside within a few days of using the free time clock software trial. If your employees are still struggling at the end of the trial period, they’ll likely continue to work after purchasing a licensed version of the software. If the software is difficult or confusing to set up, don’t ignore that as a warning sign that the software may be hard or not intuitive to use. This is the time to test the time clock software vendor’s support. The kind of help and support you receive during the trial period is a good indicator of the support you’ll receive later. For example, are there multiple ways to contact a member of the technical support team? Beware of time clock software companies that provide email-only support, as this likely indicates they’re not equipped to handle a large volume of support requests or aren’t involved in time and attendance projects full-time.
Time Clock Software Review Strategies
Here are some quick strategies to help you with the review process. A good rule of thumb is to use your current time and attendance system as a baseline and then expand from there. In other words, start by seeing if you can automate your current time and attendance system with the new software. That should immediately eliminate previous inefficiencies. Then, explore the other features available with the employee time clock software you’re testing. Finally, develop a list of deal-breakers (must-have features) and a wish list (nice-to-have features). This will allow you to compare different time clock programs and decide the best time and attendance solution for your business or organization.
