What Managing by Exception Means for Your Timecards
Managing by exception means letting every employee clock in and out, even when something is off, and flagging the unusual punches for a supervisor to review. Supervisors spend their time on the few timecards that need a look, instead of checking every one or entering time by hand. It's faster for workers and more accurate for payroll.
Two Ways to Run Time
In an episode of Findd's Finding Solutions channel, Tom, Parker, and Ben compared two ways of handling time.
With a gatekeeper approach, the clock stops a punch that doesn't fit: the wrong location, an early arrival, a face it can't read. The worker can't clock in, so a supervisor enters or edits the time by hand later. Every hand entry is extra work, and harder to check afterward.
With management by exception, the punch goes through and is marked for review. The worker starts on time, the record shows exactly what happened, and the supervisor decides what to do with it.
What Counts as an Exception
Exceptions are the punches and timecards that don't match the plan, such as:
- a punch from outside the building's geofence
- a missing clock-out
- a late or early start compared with the schedule
- a missed or short meal break
- hours over your overtime threshold
- a face match that needs a second look
Everything that matches the schedule and your rules can be approved without anyone touching it.
Why It Helps
- Workers clock in and get to work, even when something is off.
- Supervisors review a short list instead of every timecard.
- Payroll gets fewer hand-entered changes and fewer surprises on payroll day.
- There's a clear record of every change: who made it, and why.
Where AI Fits
A short list of exceptions is also what makes AI useful. AI can spot patterns in that list, like a building where clock-outs are often missing, and suggest who should look at it. A person still decides what to change.
How to Start
- Write down the exceptions you care about, and the threshold for each.
- Decide who reviews each kind, and how quickly.
- Let punches through and flag them, instead of blocking them.
- Review exceptions every day, not once at the end of the pay period.
- After a month, look at which exceptions come up most, and fix the cause.
Make Exceptions Easy to Handle
Findd Time and Labor checks every timecard against the schedule and the thresholds you set, approves the ones that match, and sends only the exceptions to a supervisor. Employees get alerts about missing time and can add it themselves for their supervisor to approve, and managers can approve exceptions by replying to an email from DiDi.
Questions About Managing by Exception
Won't flagged punches let mistakes through?
No. Every flagged punch is reviewed before payroll, and the record shows what happened. Blocking a punch usually leads to time entered by hand, which is harder to check.
How many exceptions should a supervisor expect?
It depends on your rules and your sites. If the list is long, look for the most common cause, like a geofence that's too small, and fix it.
Who should review exceptions?
The supervisor closest to the work, every day. Payroll then reviews only what's still open before the deadline.
