Time Keeping: Manual and Mechanical Methods

Before any wage can be computed, or any hour of labour charged to a job, cost accounting must first answer a simple but essential question: how long was each worker present at work? Time Keeping is the function of recording, for every worker, the time of arrival, the time of departure, and hence the total attendance time for each day/pay period. It is the very first stage of labour cost accounting — without an accurate attendance record, neither a time-rate worker's wage nor a piece-rate worker's attendance-linked entitlements can be computed reliably, and no employer can defend its labour cost figures to an auditor.

WBCHSE's Costing and Taxation syllabus draws on the same labour-cost-control principles taught in CBSE/NCERT Accountancy's cost-accounting units — every commerce-stream board treats time keeping as the foundation of labour costing.

Objectives of Time Keeping

• To provide the basic attendance data needed to compute the wages of time-rate workers (wages = hours present × rate).
• To provide labour-hour data needed to absorb overheads on a labour-hour basis in the Cost Sheet.
• To maintain a statutory record of attendance, as required under labour welfare legislation.
• To enforce discipline and punctuality, since a reliable attendance record discourages late-coming and unauthorised absence.
• To provide the raw data from which Idle Time (next section) is eventually computed, by comparing time kept against time booked to actual jobs.

Manual Methods of Time Keeping

• Attendance Register: the simplest method — a bound register, maintained at the factory gate or in each department, in which a timekeeper manually notes the worker's number/name and the exact time of arrival and departure, each day.
• Metal Disc (Token) Method: each worker is issued a numbered metal disc/token, hung on a board at the factory gate. On arrival, the worker removes their disc from the board and drops it into a box; any disc still hanging on the board after the start-of-shift time identifies an absent worker instantly, without needing to check every name individually.

Mechanical Methods of Time Keeping

• Time Recording Clock (Punch-Card Machine): each worker is issued a printed time card; on arrival and departure, the worker inserts the card into a mechanical/electronic clock that automatically stamps the exact time — removing manual recording error and any possibility of a timekeeper's personal bias.
• Dial Time Recorder: a single rotating dial machine mounted at the gate, with one numbered hole per worker; the worker presses a key against their own number as they pass, and the machine punches/prints the time against that worker's number on a master roll inside.

Mechanical methods are generally preferred over manual ones wherever the workforce is large, because they are faster, leave a tamper-resistant record, and free the timekeeper to focus on other duties — though a small workshop, with just a handful of workers, may still find a simple attendance register perfectly adequate.