Payroll-Ready Timekeeping Readiness Assessment

The Assessment

For each question, pick the answer that best describes your organization today and note its points. Add up your points as you go. Your total maps to a result band below.

1. 1

   How do most of your hourly employees record their start and end times?

   Diagnoses the reliability and verifiability of the primary time-collection method

   • Paper timesheets or handwritten logs that a manager transcribes into payroll0 pts
   • A basic punch clock or spreadsheet that requires manual data export or re-entry1 pt
   • A digital time clock or mobile app that syncs to a central system but still needs manual spot-checks2 pts
   • Biometric, mobile or web-based clocks that capture identity-verified punches and sync automatically to your time-tracking platform3 pts
2. 2

   How does your system handle overtime calculations across different pay rules (federal, state, union or company policy)?

   Diagnoses rules-engine depth and whether overtime flows correctly without manual intervention

   • Payroll staff calculate overtime manually each cycle using spreadsheets or memory0 pts
   • The system applies a single overtime rule, but multi-state or union rules require manual overrides1 pt

Score Yourself

Add up the points from every answer. Your total falls between 0 and 30. Find your band below.

• 0 to 8 points

  Foundational

  Your time-capture environment has significant gaps across most dimensions. Time data requires heavy manual correction before it can be trusted for payroll, and audit defensibility is weak. Payroll staff are likely spending many hours per cycle on cleanup that a better-configured system would eliminate. Compliance risk from incomplete break tracking, missing edit trails or manual overtime calculations is elevated.

  Next step: Prioritize upgrading your time-collection method and rules-engine configuration before addressing integration or scheduling alignment, because accurate capture and correct calculation are prerequisites for every downstream improvement.

• 9 to 15 points

  Developing

  Your organization has digital time capture in place, but configuration gaps in rules, exceptions or integration mean payroll staff still perform meaningful manual correction each cycle. Some dimensions may score well while others lag. The result is a system that captures data but does not deliver payroll-ready data consistently, leaving room for errors to reach paychecks before they are caught.

  Next step: Identify the one or two lowest-scoring dimensions and focus remediation there; closing a single dimension gap (especially payroll integration or exception management) often produces the largest drop in correction hours per cycle.

• 16 to 23 points

  Partially Payroll-Ready

  Most of your time data flows into payroll with limited manual intervention, and you have reasonable audit-trail coverage. Correction hours per cycle are low but not negligible, typically concentrated in edge cases like multi-state overtime, job transfers or break-rule variances. Your platform supports growth, though adding complexity (new states, union rules or cost codes) may expose configuration limits.

What to Do Next

Your score highlights where your time-capture environment is strong and where gaps are likely creating payroll cleanup work, compliance exposure or both. EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software publishes this assessment to give HR, payroll and operations leaders a structured way to evaluate their current state before investing in a platform change. If your score landed in the Foundational or Developing band, the next step is a focused gap review with your payroll team to confirm which dimension is driving the most correction hours. EasyClocking by WorkEasy Software offers implementation guidance and platform-fit consultations for organizations ready to close those gaps.

• Timekeeping Platform-Fit Diagnostic
• Payroll-Ready Maturity Model
• Manual Payroll Cleanup ROI Calculator