Print Blogs > 7 Benefits of Paper-Based Carbonless Timesheets

7 Reasons why paper-based Carbonless Timesheets aren't a relic

There are a few different types of free Timesheet templates available.

The first is a data table that companies use to keep meticulous records of the time spent on business tasks and projects. The second is for Employees to enter the time they begin and end work on a project, or their working hours during each day over the working week. This information is then used for Accounts depts to invoice clients and for HR to manage payroll.

Over the years, companies have maintained timecards in various ways, including paper-based books, spreadsheet software, and online tracking software. Today, many business owners wonder if digital solutions have replaced paper-based timesheets for good.

Are written time record books really obsolete? The answers may surprise you. Read on to find out.

Why paper-based Timesheets are great for companies

Properly managing time translates to meeting deadlines, staying on budget, and achieving greater success for companies. They can help you do all that and more. However, business owners must decide which kind is best for their businesses. Here are some reasons why you may want to hold the digital switch and stick to paper-based options.

1. Effective Wages Administration

For decades, UK and Irish employers have used NCR time card books to keep track of work hours, holidays and expenses for effective payroll processing. For maximum performance and efficiency, it is best to have them specifically designed for your business. You can easily add custom fields to tailor the timesheet’s custom template for your company’s operations and create a traceable workflow for payroll approval.

They are also a powerful tool when it comes to management. They assist managers in keeping track of tasks’ start and finish times. This is useful for senior managers who need to know which jobs take up the most time and which areas cause work and services to be delayed.

Bottom line: customised NCR sheets get the job done as well as any digital solution, ensuring that your wages and management processes run smoothly.

2. Simpler processing with Zero Training

Business efficacy is all about effective time management. The less time you waste on secondary tasks, such as training your employees to use complex time-tracking software, the more you can focus on your core business operations.

The truth is that switching to a digital solution can be a hassle, especially when you consider the time and effort spent on training your employees to use multifaceted, time-tracking software, or updating their systems. Digitisation does not always mean convenience!

Daily Timesheet books or Weekly Timesheet pads are a much more efficient solution as they are much easier and quicker to use for the majority of people. Featuring custom fields and columns, printed, carbonless NCR Timesheets are adequately self-explanatory to use. You won't have to spend time, extra money, or effort on training employees in a new system where they could be focusing their time elsewhere.

3. High portability and no Downtime

Unlike time tracking software that can experience a host of bugs and technical issues, your paper-based timesheet books will never present problems. Opting for paper-based timesheets can help you eliminate the risk of downtime and related nuisance. Plus, there is minimal risk of losing data, especially if you use carbon copy for duplicating actual written records of employees' clock-in and clock-out times.

Another great advantage of using them is that your staff can carry the NCR books or pads with them when working at locations outside your company’s premises.

Such portability is rarely an option when using digital solutions that require digital hardware, software, and the all-important good 5G / 4G or event decent 3G data signal to their smartphones to function. Even online or cloud-based systems may be rendered useless in scenarios where employees are unable to access any data signal in remote locations with poor data coverage.

Paper-based chronology can minimise reliance on digital devices and technology, allowing you to keep a record of business activities whenever you want, regardless of where you or your team is deployed.

4. Cost-effective solution for High Performance

Written Time sheets show you exactly what your employees are working on at any given time. Many employers use them to measure workers' efficiency by comparing the amount of actual hours they spend working against the amount of product they create, or service value they can bring to the business.

In other words, these paper-based pads allow business managers to organise smartly, delegating the right tasks in-house to the correct personnel for the job. They are also an excellent way to identify the best capabilities of employees to help optimise an organisation in the long run.

Some may argue that digital solutions can provide the same capabilities, however, it is important to note that ready-made SaaS or customised software can be quite pricey compared to NCR paper-based records. Plus, with paper-based versions, you can start right away by customising a free template online — with TradePrintingUK's website — within minutes instead of spending weeks or months working with software companies to develop a tailored system and likely paying a small fortune for it in the process.

The costs of deploying software, its regular, never-ending upgrades, PC, Mac, or iPad maintenance are also eliminated using Carbonless NCR paper-based versions instead. Finally, let's not forget about the money or manpower spent on training the employees and managers to use those more complex software solutions, for what is a basic but essential task.

5. No Compatibility Issues, Technology breakdowns or Outages

Opting for paper-based, carbonless NCR-recorded chronicles does not mean your company is behind the curve or lagging in the technology department. Many tech-forward and innovative companies deliberately choose to work with paper-based, written records simply to avoid system compatibility issues, or downtime. Look at the mayhem caused to Facebook’s business during its highly-embarrassing “outage” in October 2021, when Facebook, Whatsapp, Pinterest and other services were off-line worldwide for 7 hours. Employees couldn’t even get access to rooms within buildings as they were locked out of important areas by key-fob door locks — all were taken offline in the cascading effect of the heavy reliance on technology for even the most basic tasks. The outage cost Facebook as the company’s share price plummeted by 5% due to the fiasco. It showed the world that the reliance on technology isn’t the be all and end all. Thus, a mix of digital and paper-based systems is the prudent thing to do.

Within a single company, co-workers may utilise multiple operating systems, including iOS, Mac OS, iPad OS, Windows 10 or 11, and Linux. As a result, if you solely choose time monitoring software, it is imperative to make sure it works with a variety of operating systems and devices.

Plus, it should be compatible with any other solutions that you may be using at the workplace to provide maximum benefits. You can avoid spending thousands of pounds on resolving any system compatibility issues that may arise by using paper-based documents such as these.

6. Enhance Team Work

They require employees to use the same sheets, unlike a software solution that enable them to access the time monitoring system through dedicated portals. While it may seem like a hassle on the surface, the ability to view all entries can actually assist team members in working more closely. It is a good way to improve performance on an individual level as well as a team.

Moreover, it can help build better work relationships and understanding between managers and employees within various departments. Employees may be able to update them or seek time off in person with their manager or Personnel instead of sending remote requests through the digital system.

In the end, it all boils down to team building! Teams that use paper-based NCR pads are more likely to perform at a higher level plus experience higher job satisfaction compared to teams that rely on independent technology solutions.

7. No Resources Required for Technical Assistance

Timesheet software solutions generally require round-the-clock support and IT help. In the vast majority of cases, companies have the option to receive IT assistance by phone, livechat, or e-mail to resolve the majority of problems, or have remote access to computer systems. In any case, it means having to rely on a third-party service provider to troubleshoot technical issues that are almost inevitable with 100% digital solutions. It’s therefore prudent to spread that risk!

Using a carbonless paper-based timesheet removes the need for any IT technical assistance as well as reliance on a third party to maintain them.

TradePrintingUK print paper-based custom Timesheets

In summary, time and people are the two most valuable resources of any business, which is why time tracking is critical for every single company, no matter what the industry sector. Invoicing your clients, better project management, and payroll processing are all helped by great time management. They also help managers assess employees' skills in a certain area and use them in portions of a project where they're better suited by monitoring time utilisation. Facebook’s outage is a prime example of a company that has forgotten to not put all its eggs in the one basket and their reliance on everything being run from a digital perspective was short-sighted.

Thus, don’t put all your eggs in the one basket and spread the risk. TradePrintingUK’s paper-based timesheet books provide an easy, effective, and affordable custom solution that won’t let you down. They offer a variety of Carbonless NCR Timesheet products in loose sets, glued pads, or perforated and bound Books.