Saving money by reducing labor expenses associated with keeping payroll is a popular incentive for implementing a Barcode Time and Attendance system. Barcode technology is a natural fit for automating Time and Attendance tracking. Barcodes and barcode scanners offer a quick and accurate way for each employee to complete time-tracking transactions within Time and Attendance software.

There are 3 components that make up a Barcode Time and Attendance system. First, barcode readers are used to allow employees to make quick and accurate time transactions. Second, data taken from these devices needs to be managed and stored by PC's.

Third, management of the time transactions, payroll generation and detailed reports is done by the Time and Attendance software. Software product provides the ability to collect, edit, store and file transfer update any and all data requirements. This software communicates with bar-code, magnetic, and optical scanning devices and provides standard collected data inquiries. 

The employees would be given a identifying badge and would scan this badge and other order information through a barcode reader at either the start of a job, end of the job or at start and end of a job, Lunch time can be automatically deducted from job hours without employee reporting lunch activity. This scanned data is made immediately available for labor reporting.

When the employee scans a barcode, the data has to be processed appropriately into the database. That means that to log detailed transaction data, the employee has to enter the transaction information on a PC running the time and attendance software. Normally, the individual PC's and the fixed scanner will be attached to a computer network. The data updates to a database stored on either a company server or a shared file area on a specific computer.