Q.Distinguish between Time Keeping and Time Booking, and state one method commonly used for each.

Time Keeping records HOW LONG a worker was present at work, while Time Booking records HOW that time was actually spent, job by job.

Time Keeping answers 'was the worker present, and for how long?', recorded via methods such as the Attendance Register. Time Booking answers 'what job did the worker's time go towards?', recorded via methods such as the Job Card. Comparing the two produces Idle Time.

Time Keeping is the function of recording, for every worker, the time of arrival and departure at the factory — it establishes only the TOTAL TIME the worker was present, not what was done with that time. A common method is the Attendance Register, a bound register in which a timekeeper manually notes each worker's arrival and departure time.

Time Booking, by contrast, records how a worker's present time was actually spent — against which specific job, product, or process. A common method is the Job Card (Job Ticket), one card per job, on which the start and stop time of work on that particular job is recorded directly as the work happens.

The two records serve different purposes: Time Keeping data feeds directly into wage computation (for time-rate workers) and overhead absorption on a labour-hour basis, while Time Booking data feeds into charging labour cost to the correct job/product and measuring job-wise efficiency. The difference between the two totals — time kept but not booked to any job — is what defines Idle Time.

Students often use the two terms interchangeably. Remember: Time KEEPING is about PRESENCE (how long); Time BOOKING is about ALLOCATION (to which job). A worker's time-keeping total for a day is always greater than or equal to their time-booking total for the same day — never the other way round.