Attendance management, like any bureaucratic task, often leads employers to commit the mistake of playing it safe. This tendency fosters beliefs and myths about attendance systems that can complicate the work of both HR departments and employees. For businesses, especially those in the financial sector, public sector, and other similar areas where there are strict attendance requirements, it is crucial to avoid these myths. Simplifying processes will help avoid unnecessary complications.

Biometric attendance system is the most reliable

If your workplace requires you to clock in using a card or fingerprint, your employer might be overly cautious. Fingerprint data falls under the category of biometric data, and its processing, when linked to your identity or other personal information, is subject to stringent regulations outlined in personal data legislation. Processing such data is generally prohibited*, and employers can only access it under specific exceptions, with a clear justification for its necessity. Thus, the idea that biometric data scanning as the attendance system is the most reliable method of preventing manipulation of employee attendance is a myth and could potentially lead to significant legal complications for the company.

Card terminals provide efficiency

Opting out of biometrics, you might resort to using cards for attendance tracking. However, is it truly effective? Why would a bank or consulting firm require employees to clock in? Surely, in such environments, the absence of an accountant would be quickly noticed without the need for formal clocking.

Today, technology-driven companies often offer employees the flexibility to work remotely, enabled by various mobile or cloud applications for attendance logging. As long as employees have unique login credentials and fulfil their duties, employers comply with legal requirements. So, physical clocking at the premises isn’t mandatory. Yet, for companies that require a physical presence in the office, there may be logistical problems, such as managing physical terminals or losing cards.

To clarify, an attendance system differs from a monitoring or access control system. While you can integrate both options, make sure your access system supports absence reporting, overtime tracking, and other attendance-related requests. Otherwise, relying on Excel to keep records is ineffective, which means that the attendance system is not implemented properly.

Attendance systems are expensive and complex

It is a common misconception that small companies with limited budgets can properly manage their attendance needs with Excel or a traditional attendance book, while only large, wealthy companies can afford sophisticated attendance systems. However, even public, and non-profit sector organizations have no problem working with modern cloud-based platforms where, for a nominal monthly fee, they track attendance, absences, and projects, easily exporting data for payroll. The days of manual monthly data entry and verification are over; everything is automated in the system as employees submit their data themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, time and attendance management doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Modern attendance systems are user-friendly programs with prompt support and minimal costs. In addition, there is virtually no risk of damage to cables, cards, or readers.

Attendance systems require separate installation

If you are in need of an attendance management system, you should first check with your IT service providers. You may be surprised to find out that they offer such a tool. You may already be using a platform for tasks such as payroll distribution, travel accounting or company benefits management, or even a project or CRM system, without realising that attendance tracking can be integrated into the same software. Software companies often offer a range of solutions, with multiple areas or modules that can be linked together, allowing employees to manage different tasks in a single online interface.

Consolidating services not only simplifies work, but also benefits your IT department, vendors, and employees by reducing the need for separate services for each task.

Our time and attendance system is designed to meet the needs of various industries. While manufacturing companies typically lean towards hardware solutions due to their operational nature, our tool offers flexibility for optimizing attendance management in their administrative departments. In addition, we serve a wide range of clients including IT companies, traditional offices, government agencies, non-profits, and retailers. Specifically for the latter, we customise our system to handle complex schedules and seasonal staffing, ensuring a tailored solution for their unique requirements.

(*The legislation varies depending on the jurisdiction.)

When your business succeeds on the local market, getting further can be very tempting. In today’s global economy, companies of all sizes are looking to expand on foreign markets. On one hand, serving a wider base of customers can significantly increase the income. On the other, ensuring a smooth transition may be tricky, for it’s crucial to be aware of the difficulties and challenges of globalization.

You can always get stuck on points that may seem trivial when you have a great product or service, such as differences in culture and mentality, not to mention different social norms and legal regulations. Despite the challenges your business may face, the increased potential for market growth and diversity are only a couple of the advantages expansion can offer. So, if international expansion has been on the to-do list for your business, here are some convincing reasons to start embarking on it in 2024.

New markets and customer base

It comes as no surprise that global business expansion allows access to new markets as well as greater demand for your product or service from new potential customers. This not only gives you the opportunity to sell to a new client base, but also the chance to develop new products and services, i.e., suitable for a specific chosen market that may increase your company’s relevancy.

But let’s face the truth, expanding into a new country or market can be an exciting journey – unless you face unexpected surprises. An increased amount of paperwork (especially if your home country had everything digitalised), dealing with local authorities for a long time, the complicated registration process or any restrictions may leave you baffled at the start. With many years of experience with supporting our clients in growing their business internationally, our experts can provide you with a full range of market entry support to make the transition to a new market as seamless as possible. Having a reliable partner by your side when starting with expansion can take off the pressure and allows you to switch your focus from administrative tasks (and running from one local authority to another) to product-market fit, marketing and recruitment processes.

Increase profit potential

As mentioned earlier, expanding business internationally allows to sell your products or services to a new customer base. When done in a smart way, this can bring thousands or even millions of new potential clients to your company, leading to an increase in sales. And such increase in sales volume could increase your revenues.

Another benefit of the global expansion is that when the economic or political situation in your local market is unstable, choosing to do business in other countries, where the scenario is different, allows you to stabilise revenues and reduce risks for your company.

Access to market diversity

Regarding unstable local market, as mentioned above, exposure to market changes is one of the disadvantages businesses face while operating in only one region. Depending on one location and being unprepared for disruptions may bring devastating risks. Not to mention that not all business models survive with a limited location reach. By expanding your company internationally, you have the chance to diversify your markets and services and increase the stability of your revenue.

Another benefit of the global expansion is that when the economic or political situation in your local market is unstable, choosing to do business in other countries, where the scenario is different, allows you to stabilise revenues and reduce risks for your company.

However, it is important to remember that the diversity of markets lies not only in the demand for different products, but also in the different legal regulations. Having a partner by your side who is ready to handle all the business processes on your behalf and provide the necessary consultancy when navigating in a foreign country makes it all a piece of cake. For instance, our market entry consultancy combined with our free introduction calls with a selected expert allows you to discuss relevant aspects of expanding your business to the country of your choice and clarifies all the uncertainties you may have.

Bigger talent pool

Access to a far broader talent pool is another benefit of expansion. You may come across individuals with education, experience and expertise you may not find in your home country, and who can increase the value of your company. Moreover, hiring foreign employees contribute to more benefits, such as a better understanding of the market as well as knowledge of the foreign language. Thus, doing business becomes many times easier.

In Accace, we have vast experience with customers who decided for expansion and grow their company internationally with us by their side. Our team is ready to advise you on the best choice for your business and discuss all aspects of new markets based on your needs.

As the new year unfolds, companies are focusing on finalizing their goals for the year ahead. We are all used to leap into the new year with a fresh start and your business should be no exception.

Nowadays, it is very important to be prepared for and adapt to global changes in the world, as they directly affect your business. However, these changes are not only related to the economy in general, but also to the development of technology and people’s needs. This brings an opportunity to make your business more successful, expand it and increase the profits. Hybrid work has become an inevitable part of our lives, and consequently most of the processes have moved to online. This includes also processes that previously could not have been done without face-to-face work and paperwork, such as accounting and payroll. Thus, in today’s realities, the core functions in business should be built in such a way that they are streamlined and convenient to use. And this is precisely the approach that will help you grow your business. So, let’s take a look at what innovations you can implement in 2024. Here are our 5 tips to make your business more successful.

Digitalise and automate core business functions

Many businesses are now aiming to go paperless or streamline and automate all the main processes in the company. Accounting, payroll, HR agenda, taxes and beyond – these will always be part of companies, regardless of whether it is a new or well-established entity. Their digitalisation can help to set priorities and remove voluminous tasks from the daily agenda.

Accounting automation will help you manage your accounting documents and workflows with ease, reduce paperwork and check the actual financial status of your company anytime. It also increases the financial department’s current productivity levels by removing time- and resource-consuming tasks from daily work routines. Thus, accounting teams will have more time to focus on higher priority projects.

The automation of payroll and HR administration allows you to keep your employees engaged and provide them more freedom. They can manage numerous tasks on their own, such as access their pay slips, send a ticket to their payroll accountant, fill in data for their yearly tax clearance, request time-off, manage business travels or settle travel expenses. The advantages of automation are limitless, which is why you should start changing your business processes now.

Reduce expenses and save costs

It is no surprise that outsourcing is more cost-effective than running everything in-house. As a powerful business practice, it can help you not only delegate a certain amount of work to another organisation and reduce the work of the in-house team, but also allocate your employees’ capacity for more strategic tasks and hence, save costs by using their time more effectively.

While most companies are able to do the work internally, bringing in another organization reduces the administrative burden and risks, as well as the cost of labour, technology or licenses.

Focus on your employees’ well-being

Nowadays, the importance of employee well-being is one of the most important topics in the corporate sector. In the past years, not only our physical, but also mental health has been challenged with rapid and unexpected changes worldwide, and this experience has a direct impact on our ability to perform our work tasks. It also means that it can affect your business and bring losses.

Harvard conducted a study which proved that an increase in well-being, on average, increases the productivity by about 10% too. Therefore, the work will be done more efficiently. And in the end, this increases the results and profitability of the company.

One of Accace’s outsourcing services is measuring company vitality and social environment. It allows to get a detailed analysis of what affects employee engagement, performance, innovations, and sustainability. From this you can also learn how satisfied your employees are and how they evaluate your leadership style. By analysing this you can build a healthy company culture and employer branding strategy, which will increase the level of employee engagement and satisfaction.

At this time, it can be also difficult to find talents that are perfect for your company. The reason is that the job market has changed, and companies are fighting over specific talents. One of the easiest ways to attract and keep an employee is to take care of their well-being. This will also bring you:

Manage employees more effectively

As we mentioned before, most companies have already switched to a hybrid work model. Therefore, managing employees has become extremely challenging, difficult and resource consuming. This is where process automation comes in handy, too.

Employees are the foundation of your business, so their level of engagement is important for the performance of your company. The automation of processes that affect them allows your workers to make their own environment instead of adapting to one someone else created.

Your employees’ work lives can be made as easy as possible with an effective time & attendance online portal. These solutions allow employees to manage their T&A online – on their own – through a user-friendly self-service interface: keep track of their worked time, overtime, vacation taken or remaining, request for time off, sick leave and then quickly approve it with their managers.

Modernize your workplace

Effective employee management is primarily about internal processes, but nowadays, it is also about how comfortable your employees feel at the workplace. To nurture such an environment, you should not only aim for a great company culture and pleasant atmosphere in the office, but also to automate certain moments, especially if you have a flexible workspace or apply a hybrid work model. At Accace, we have created a solution that makes possible not only for us, but also for our clients to efficiently manage shared desks in the office and parking spaces. Our reservation system allows your employees to book a desk and parking space before coming to the office, which decreases the administrative burden on your HR department by getting rid of additional admin work or communication, and gives your teams the freedom and flexibility to handle these matters on their own.

In Accace, we have vast experience in outsourcing and our team is ready to advice you the best choice for your business and discuss with you how we can improve your accounting, payroll and HR administration based on your needs.

Small companies play a major role in national economy and their constant growth should be a top priority for governments. Furthermore, it is important for them to receive support from both the state and entrepreneurs providing services and products from various industries.

However, small businesses typically have limited capital they can allocate to business solutions. This area often receives the least financial support, so internal operations tend to be carried out through the dedication and versatility of their employees, as the majority of capital goes to products and their manufacturing, followed by sales and marketing, leaving little to none for modernising the company’s internal processes.

Even though this is understandable, the impact that internal processes have on employees is tremendous. If the business puts the people first, it must also put effort to improve and digitalise the operations as soon as possible. So, what can be done to accomplish this?

Using modern solutions to digitalize internal processes for small businesses

In addition to salary, job satisfaction and a pleasant work environment, it is essential to include up-to-date internal processes and equipment for employee care. Just like supplying employees with antique phones and computers would be inappropriate, it would be impractical to make them to work with (and in) outdated systems.

Using modern software to provide e.g., payslips in a paperless way, as well as WhatsApp group chats or Trello for communication, can help make teamwork easier. At least, this should involve digitalisation of the HR agenda using time and attendance software. All of these forms of technology are practically free to use.

Easy time and attendance management

Do you have a small number of employees that require you to track their attendance according to regulations, but your HR manager is too busy with other responsibilities to do it manually? Is there a need for a fast and affordable time and attendance software to make this process easier?

Using regular Excel will not guarantee compliance with any relevant legislation and regulations, nor will it provide email notifications, copying of vacations and absences into work calendars, GDPR conditions for personal absences, error elimination within records, or language and legislative modifications for foreign employees. Furthermore, Excel does not contribute to the prevention of fines from the Labour Inspectorate for incorrect attendance. In addition, if an employee opts for bonuses, a time and attendance software would be necessary. It can provide additional features such as issuing payslips, internal directives and documents, exchanging salary documents with payroll providers, meal allowance calculations, and more.

The attendance software will easily cover your needs, moreover, it can also export data to payroll software. It is a solution that will serve as an excellent basis for the expansion of your company, and there is no need to replace it once the company grows bigger.

Is there a free time & attendance software?

Of course, for example Excel is free. However, an attendance software that is tailored exactly to the needs of attendance records, and which is able to take account of legislative constraints, send notifications, provides a user-friendly interface and is available even for mobile devices, is not free. Since someone needs to administer and regularly update it, the costs are reflected in the price for the customer. The prices for this service start on a base of euros per employee and per month. This way, the amount saved from having to hire an additional HR person to take care of these tasks manually is incomparable.

Are you interested in an easily accessible time and attendance system? Get in touch with us and ask for a demo of our own time and attendance portal solution, to see what it can do for your business.

In today’s ever-changing economic environment, it is even more important to choose solutions that go beyond the fee-for-service delivery model. When the meaning of stability and cost-effective options changes like the English weather, businesses should look for support with a proactive, strategic potential. That’s where the managed service provider ticks all the checkboxes.

The MSP, in short, focuses on deeply understanding what the client needs and how their processes work. Then they proactively propose, implement and maintain the most effective solutions, with responsibility, accountability and a personal attitude. It differs from outsourcing exactly because of this proactive approach – but in our previous article, we have already covered the differences between a managed service vs outsourcing. This time let’s focus on the key advantages of MSP.

1. Centralised account management

Managed service providers offer a single point of contact (or SPOC, in short) to handle the communication between the client and the service providers, regardless of the number of involved countries or projects. The SPOC can be either a person or a department that simplifies the process of handling requests, helps sorting out priorities, provides consolidated answers to complex issues with unified outputs, ensures communication consistency, the proper flow of information and, most importantly, removes the uncertainty of whom to contact with certain requests.

The SPOC is also responsible for maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and knows the client’s business inside out to propose the most effective solutions, so that the client can fully shift their focus on core business and growing operations.

2. Unified processes

Imagine having offices in 10 locations. All of them have individual outsourcing vendors with 10 different approaches to problem solving, reporting and back-office solutions. The difference in outputs and processes causes a lot of headaches, resources and slowdowns, not to mention the risks and issues that may emerge. Now, imagine that someone consolidates all those aspects for you. A good MSP makes sure that the services provided are unified and all processes are streamlined under one account management and shared communication platform – across multiple jurisdictions.

With unified processes, administration becomes a lot easier. For instance, when it comes to contractual or billing documentation, a proper coordination from the managed service provider allows businesses to easily track their international outsourced operations. This unity plays a crucial role also in internal reporting, where data needs to be aligned for effective decision-making.

3. Simplified global expansion with full compliance

The best MSPs have global coverage that ensures a seamless expansion of client businesses to any location in the world. These international connections with local vendors ensure the best local knowledge and expertise available while maintaining the unified processes, allowing for a seamless scalability of projects.

Managed service providers also take full accountability for being compliant not only with high-quality requirements and stringent business standards no matter the location, but also for being compliant with the ever-changing local legislation. This compliance includes active monitoring of the latest statutory obligations and amendments, their implementation and alignment of solutions for the most effective outcome. All while fully matching the client’s requirements and needs.

4. Business continuity, no matter what

Every company needs a business continuity plan with a proper strategy to rapidly respond to any major disruption. The managed service provider can build a resilient internal infrastructure that maintains or quickly restores the business functions, and ensures proper back-up of staff under all circumstances, with support provided across multiple time zones – if required.

In addition, the MSP regularly measures and analyses various risk factors and develops solutions for different situations, out of precaution. These measures ensure business continuity in case of unpredictable or never-before seen scenarios. The related processes are often audited and certified by internationally recognised institutions for quality and security management, such as ISO and ISAE.

5. Access to cutting-edge technology

In today’s world, where new technological solutions emerge in a blink of an eye, keeping up with the trends and improvements is inevitable to stay competitive. But continuous innovations, developments and implementations done in-house are unaffordable to most businesses. Hence, this is another area the managed service provider can elegantly cover. Proper MSPs have access to the latest, cutting-edge technology or have their own solution developed, with 100% reliability and flexibility in terms of client-specific customizations. With a singular interface, strict security requirements, fast implementation and necessary automations, managed services can elevate the overall processes of clients at a brink of the costs.

No matter whether advisory, payroll, accounting or other back-office services are in question, managed service providers can accelerate the adoption of IT solutions or applications even when the client does not have properly trained staff to use or implement them. In those cases, the MSP can bridge the talent gap and take responsibility for the missing resources or provide trainings as needed.

6. Cost-effective solutions

Considering all the benefits mentioned above, it comes as no surprise that managed services are a lot more cost-effective than running everything in-house. By taking off so much of the burden, businesses that hire managed service providers can save financial resources in multiple areas, such as:

7. Strategic vision far ahead

Last but not least, managed service providers are able to take a broader, more predictive vision of client operations and look further ahead with a strategic mindset. This allows MSPs’ to map out the business development of clients with the best and most effective solutions, advise on decision-making and achieve important milestones on the journey to success.

Wish to learn more about the benefits of managed services or got a specific question? Get in touch with us to discuss anything you need. Our team has rich experience with delivering services through a managed service model, covering almost 40 jurisdictions with over 2,000 professionals globally.

Running a business is demanding but scaling it to a global level or simply just increasing its dimension brings a completely new set of challenges. On one side, company owners must ensure that the business activity runs smoothly, clients are satisfied, and the revenues grow. On the other hand, being fully compliant with the legislation – even throughout multiple jurisdictions – and maintaining a cost-effective, flawless back office is another issue to tackle. But how does one secure the perfect balance without getting overwhelmed and spending too many resources?

Outsourcing: the best match to keep your business on track

The first solution most companies are familiar with is outsourcing. To put it simply, it allows to delegate the planned or ongoing business activities to another organisation. Think payroll outsourcing: you hire a company to process, calculate and distribute your employee payslips based on the local legislation, with all the reporting, tracking and additional work included. Although most companies can perform it in-house, hiring a third party significantly lowers the costs for labour, technology, licences and reduces the administrative burden, risk of non-compliance or privacy breach.

In general, outsourcing is based on a fee-for-service model where the service provider performs specifically defined processes and activities based on assignments rather than a wide range of strategies with a big portion of proactivity. It still brings unreplaceable benefits to any business, and in fact, in most cases it is just what a company needs. But when you run a global organisation or need more foresight, you may need a little something extra. That’s when the managed service model steps in.

Managed service provider: a proactive partner with strategic potential

The managed service model is a proactive approach to service delivery that focuses on deeply understanding the needs and processes of the client. The managed service provider (or MSP in short) works towards uncovering the gaps of effectiveness, suggests improvements on specific processes or replaces them with innovative solutions and finds ways to reduce costs, while maintaining the same level of quality. All the while customer satisfaction is set as top priority.

The MSP is more like a partner to the company rather than a third-party vendor solving just strictly specified areas. The main advantage of a managed service, whether it’s payroll, accounting, advisory or else, is that it approaches the issues of clients with a very personal attitude, in combination with other benefits. To name a few, the most common are centralised account management, access to the latest technology and a strategic approach to the client’s needs. The best managed service providers have global reach that ensures a seamless expansion of client businesses to any locations across the globe, while maintaining a single point of contact (or SPOC, in short) yet ensuring the best local expertise available. To find out more about the benefits of managed services, visit our dedicated article.

Choosing between outsourcing and managed services

You may ask, what is better for your business: outsourcing the core functions of your back office and other areas or hiring a managed service provider. After all, both options are cost-effective, offer the best expertise, technology, innovation and reduce a great number of risks. But to make a choice, it is important to revisit the key difference: outsourcing is reactive, while MSP is proactive. For every establishment, a different approach is suitable.

If you wish to unburden your company from administrative work and shift the responsibility so that you can focus on the core business, then outsourcing is the right match for you. This can work for both small and medium-sized enterprises or big, international corporations.

However, if you have complex needs, ambitions for global expansion or wish for a strategic steering wheel, a managed service provider is what you are looking for. The foresight and accountability for your success and effective operation is what makes managed services unique. The fact that a SPOC can cover and manage multiple vendors for you, no matter the location, makes running an international business or complex projects a piece of cake.

In Accace, we have vast experience with the two approaches on both local and global level. Our team is ready to discuss with you what could be the best choice for your business based on your needs, and how we can help with getting your payroll, HR administration and accounting to the next level, or find the best solutions for you with our team of tax, legal and corporate advisors.