Boston Albany Dunkin' Donuts

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14-Store Dunkin' Donuts Franchise Puts End to Paid "Donut & Coffee Breaks" with Biometric Time-Tracking Software

SUMMARY

For 15 years, Ivo Garcia has been a part of the Dunkin Donuts family. To date, he owns 14 franchises: five in Boston in partnership with his brother, and nine Albany stores owned independently. Garcia found the conventional electronic timeclock method used at every location ineffectual and wanted to move to a system that integrated time-tracking and payroll administration functions. After researching various technologies, he believed Timecard Monitor, which incorporated fingerprint biometrics with a timecard application, offered him the most reliable and affordable approach. The system was installed at two stores for a 60-day evaluation period and after exceeding expectations was implemented on a store-wide basis.

BUSINESS NEED

To implement a system that offered a secure way to track, monitor and convert employee hours into wages and that:

  • Streamlined payroll administration;
  • Reduced the amount of time spent adding and auditing employee hours;
  • Captured accurate, reliable time and attendance data;
  • Prevented errors, fraud and inaccurate information from being rolled into payroll;
  • Could not be compromised;
  • Provided a mechanism to prevent pre-shift clock-ins; and
  • Managed wage and hour compliance issues for minors.

CHALLENGES

For Ivo Garcia, his greatest challenge was the issue of payroll preprocessing. "The amount of time spent adding up timecards coupled with the amount of mistakes was a big motivator to find a better way," explains Garcia. And while there were certainly plenty of products to choose from, finding one with the right features, price and capabilities was the issue. "We didn't want to complicate things with a complex, over-extensive system. The objective was to simplify with a system that met our particular needs and budget."

The stores, which employed a significant number of minors, needed a scheduling component to ensure that minors weren't able to exceed permissible hours. In addition, ensuring shift assignments were adhered to would eliminate concerns about employees "clocking-in" before their scheduled hours.

SOLUTION

Timecard Monitor, a Windows-based software application, incorporates fingerprint biometrics that authenticates employee identities. The data-collection device features an exclusive LightningID fingerprint identification engine that in addition to authenticating identity, ensures protection of privacy by storing only encrypted numeric representations of the print, which cannot be recreated, duplicated or shared. All employees enrolled on the system use it daily upon reporting for or departing from work. With two finger-taps on a digital sensor, employees' identities are verified and their "in/out" times recorded, all with uncompromised accuracy and without the use of cards or PINs.

The software, which features the ability to incorporate work schedules, pay policies and other rules pertinent to hours and wages, also seamlessly interfaces with leading payroll and accounting packages, enabling exceptionally fast, accurate payroll preprocessing.

Results

Timecard Monitor provided Garcia's management team with the ability to monitor and cost-effectively manage their staff. Scheduling was simplified and more efficient and employees became more accountable for their time. Incidents of time-theft, such as early-arrivals and buddy-punching, were prevented. Payroll was based on a real-time accounting of employee hours. And, the time-consuming, error prone tasks of payroll preprocessing were eliminated.

ABOUT COUNT ME IN, LLC

Count Me In, LLC, ( www.countmeinllc.com ) is a privately-held, family-owned company based in Mt. Prospect, Ill., that creates innovative, small business software solutions designed to meet the needs and budgets of any size or type of organization seeking to maximize personnel, process or operational efficiencies. Its user-friendly systems are robust, Windows-based applications that offer seamless integration. And, all incorporate a biometric interface, featuring Count Me In's exclusive LightningID fingerprint identification engine, which enables companies to achieve the industry's fastest, most accurate and most cost-effective control of time and attendance, facility-access and job-costing/job-switching. Count Me In is committed to making state-of the art technology accessible to Main Street business. For more information about Count Me In or its products, contact Neal Katz at (847) 981-8779 or 1-800-958-8779 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .