The Company
Coolcare are a care home management software provider. Part of
the award-winning care home development group, LNT, the business
provides care home management tools that are not only used within
the group’s own business activities, but through the entire industry.
The business has over 30 years’ experience within the care home
industry, their success based upon their people, specialist expertise
and deep understanding of the market. Coolcare4, the latest iteration
of their care home management software provides great value,
specialist, and user-friendly management tool to hundreds of care
homes across the UK.
Requirement
Time and Attendance (T&A) is a core feature of the Coolcare4 care
home management tool. Punctuality can be a big issue within the
care home market and is typically one of the main drivers for the
automation of time and attendance processes.
Maintaining efficient processes is also of upmost importance to
the industry. Vincent Kinderis, Financial Controller at Coolcare
comments, “Paying your staff correctly is the quickest way to protect
your cash flow. CoolCare4’s time tracking software for care homes
allows businesses to compare hours worked to budgets set; amend
clocking-in data; add extra hours and view any changes to your care
home payroll. One of the key data inputs is our clocking hardware, so
it is vital that we can provide our clients with access to reliable, realtime
clocking information”
Coolcare were looking for a portfolio of robust and reliable time
clocks that could link reliably to their care home management
software. Enabling real time communication, the clocks needed to
record the start and finish time of each worker and capture the data
that would enable Coolcare to provide accurate time reporting for
the streamlining and support of efficient time tracking and payroll
processes. Coolcare required a future-proof and scalable hardware
solution, turning to employee time clock specialists TouchStar ATC.
As a designer and manufacturer of time and attendance hardware,
TouchStar were able to recommend a number of clocking devices
from their in-house hardware portfolio. The robust Nohmad and
TS2020 clocks were selected as providing the best fit for Coolcare’s
requirements. Utilising proximity and iButton reader technology,
the devices provided Coolcare with access to a secure and efficient
method of capturing employee clocking activity.
Solution
Direct integration with Coolcare4’s T&A module was successfully
achieved with TouchStar’s employee time clocks. The successful
outcome gives Coolcare’s customers real time visibility and logging
of staff hours.
The devices were a perfect fit for the care home industry. Contactless
clocking meant that care home staff could safely clock in without
having to touch any surface. This was of particular importance
when it came to infection control, ensuring compliance with the
Government’s health and safety guidance on COVID-19.
The SIM based Nohmad device also offered Coolcare the ability to
capture time clock information offline. The availability of a mobile
phone connection meant that data could still be captured even when
hard-wired or wifi networks were not available.
Results and Benefits
Since the integration of TouchStar’s time clocks, Coolcare have
access to the realtime data that not only facilitates accurate
reporting but together with Coolcare4, highlights any areas for
process and efficiency improvements.
Vincent continues, “Through CoolCare4 you can monitor and manage
the hours worked by staff members in the home, thanks in part to the
live information from TouchStar’s clocking-in machines. That equated
to a reduction of 335,000 hours of potentially overpaid hours and a
lot less time spent by users having to manually check all entries!”.