Excel, one of the more popular members of the Microsoft Office family, has been used in some pretty creative ways. A common practice is to manipulate Excel functions for employee
time and expense tracking. With the potential risks for security breaches, data corruption, and inaccurate record keeping, using Excel for time and expense tracking could lead to a host of problems for organizations of any size.
As noted by PC World’s Neil McAllister, “The problem lies in how Excel applications are developed at most businesses. Programmers who build robust network-enabled software are trained to recognize potential security risks and minimize the chance of catastrophic errors. The business managers and other employees who code Excel macros, on the other hand, often have only enough knowledge to be dangerous.” The chances of the information becoming corrupted or opened up to hacking are significantly increased when these spreadsheets are connected to networked systems to be accessed by a number of people.
These risks can be avoided by using a hosted online time tracking software solution such as Replicon Hosted Web TimeSheet. With physical threats such as fire and flood, and informational threats, such as hacking and data corruption, the security of time and expense information is essential for all businesses. With application service providers (ASP) hosting the software on their servers and providing it to customers via the Internet, those customers can be confident that their in-house networks will remain secure. Additionally, Replicon, as an ASP, has controls put in place to ensure their servers are secure from physical & informational threats, further guaranteeing that their customers can trust their data is safe.
Investing in a time tracking software solution can help organizations avoid the headaches that can be caused by using Excel as a timesheet. Employee time and expense tracking in a custom software solution allows managers to effortlessly retrieve and approve the data and run reports in order to make informed decisions on increasing productivity. Web-based solutions enable employees and managers to access timesheets and reports from any location with an Internet connection.
Companies without an adequate time and expense tracking solution run the risk of inaccurate record-keeping and network security breaches. Replicon’s Web TimeSheet helps over 6700 companies in over 60 different countries around the world avoid payroll and expense reporting discrepancies. Companies such as HP, Nike, Amazon, and Ferrari trust this simple to implement and easy to use system to help track employee time and expenses while maintaining the security of their company networks.
